The Indy Offy Land-Speed Mash-Up

There are no rules in hot rodding, so you can build anything you want—even an exact replica of the 1959 Indy 500–winning AJ Watson Indy roadster so you can race it at Bonneville. What? Hey, that’s what Bill Wendt wanted, so who are we to question him going to the effort and expense to replicate a 1959 Indy car so closely that even the decals are the same—then try and set a record at the Salt Flats.

Wendt wanted something different for Bonneville and got geeked about the Indy class. The record is 176 mph, but Wendt wanted to get into the 200 MPH Club. The rules say you must start with a race car configured from the era it represents, so no later engines or swoopy bodywork are allowed. In fact, anything out of the norm must be proved to the SCTA rules committee to have existed back in the day.

AJ Watson jokingly told me this is not a Watson car because ‘the quality is too good’” — Bill Wendt

Wendt wanted his race car to be as close to being a replica to the original winner sitting in the Indianapolis 500 Museum as SCTA rules would allow. He weaved construction between toeing the authenticity line and bending when it came to safety, reliability, or class rules. Aerodynamically, things like external oil tanks, steering linkage, and bulky suspension components—all pretty much standard fare for these Indy roadsters—will kill your speed at Bonneville. The hurdle for Wendt at every turn (no pun intended) was to find examples Watson built with wind-cheating features, then present photographic proof to the rules committee. What better way to sift through the 10 or so years of Indy roadsters and Champ cars than to enlist the maestro; Watson himself was still residing in Indianapolis and, once approached, became an enthusiastic participant.

Tom McGriff in Indianapolis has built a number of roadster replicas and was commissioned for this unique recreation. The wheelbase, tubing diameter (1-1/2-inch for the main chassis as original, and 1-3/4-inch for the driver area, per SCTA rules), powerplant, and bodywork—which, except for the aluminum belly pan, is fiberglass from AJ Watson’s original molds—all adhere to the 1959 winner’s specs. Visually, the tipoffs this is not Ward’s winner are the Goodyear Bonneville 15-inch tires, rollcage, ’chute, and windscreen.

Per the rules, the engine must be from the era, so it was Wendt’s job to find the largest Indy engine he could find, which was a 270ci Offenhauser. These four-cylinder, racing-only beasts were the de facto choice for all Indy cars throughout most of the 1950s and into the 1970s, and were available as both a 255ci and taller-deck 270ci versions. The cast-iron block integrated the head like a Harley engine. Today, finding a complete engine not already in a museum piece is rare, and even individual parts are impossible to find; when found, they are usually damaged take-outs from back in the day. Wendt was fortunate to piece together a complete engine through Offy expert Jim Himmelsbach in Cincinnati. Other than the pistons and rings, every engine component needed massaging or a rebuild to be serviceable in Wendt’s roadster. Don Enriquez rebuilt the mechanical Hilborn fuel injection, while Himmelsbach handled the rest of the build.

The engine is offset 7 inches to the left, as it was in the original car. This was done to offset the driver’s weight. Wendt wanted a completely inboard suspension, which the SCTA immediately nixed. With no images or info to back up his inboard idea, he sought pictures of a limited amount of coil-spring roadsters Watson built. With documentation, the committee approving this, but because they were partially visible, Himmelsbach integrated the coilovers into the chassis partially exposed. Besides suspension components, the Vega steering box is inboard, as is the oil tank for the dry-sump system. Getting these pieces out of the wind stream was an important aspect for blazing down the 5-mile course as slippery as possible.

An offset engine meant an offset rear end was needed. Winters Performance in York, Pennsylvania, created a one-off rear end with a quick-change centersection loaded with a 2.50 gear. Connecting the engine and rear end is a compact Winters Phoenix two-speed racing transmission that Modified racers use in circle-track racing. They incorporate a small, 10-inch ring gear spun by a starter integrated into the bellhousing. As the original transmissions were basically an early Ford V8 transmission gearset in a unique housing for Offy applications, the Winters unit makes for a much-improved unit with the combined benefit that the clunky two-man starting operation (in addition to the driver) required for original Indy roadsters was now eliminated.

The gauge panel, instruments, steering wheel, seat, and interior are all correct to 1959. The exhaust is actually off of a vintage Indy roadster, so authenticity is assured. The paint scheme and every decal is correct and in its proper location to the winning car. The unmistakable Watson Indycar nose further confuses onlookers.

Wheel discs on the insides of the 15-inch wheels at all four corners are stationary to aid aerodynamics. The outer wheel discs feature vinyl decals of original Indy Halibrand magnesium wheels from back in the day, making it a bit harder to focus the blur between originality versus recreation.

The entire project took six months to pull together, with three months of that time under actual construction and assembly. Once McGriff was finished with the chassis, Wendt finished the remainder of the roadster. Funding the project was David Johnson, who also shares driving duties with Wendt and Jerry Carbone. If Wendt’s name is familiar to you, it might be from campaigning the Smokey Bear alcohol Funny Car from a few years ago.

Finished for the 2012 Speed Week at Bonneville, Wendt’s 175-mph licensing run was its fastest, with an accidental 181-mph run. The SCTA frowns on drivers exceeding their licensing speed caps, and Wendt was summarily reprimanded. But it would get worse when Wendt spun it at 171 mph on a subsequent run. Front-end lift was the culprit, something AJ Watson himself warned of. With more weight added, another run resulted in loss of oil pressure and essentially killed the engine.

For 2013 the team was back to Bonneville with their fresh engine. A number of runs could not overcome generally poor performance, so once back at America’s Generators in Miami, where preparation and any repairs are performed, the engine was sent to Himmelsbach for yet another rebuild. With a rainout in 2014 and canceled event for 2015, the 2016 event was to be the car’s shining moment. It was not to be, as the roadster was down on power and never got beyond 155 mph.

On paper, the roadster should have 215- to 220-mph potential, but this is what Bonneville is all about: overcoming adverse conditions and mechanical gremlins. The one certainty is that Wendt, Johnson, and Carbone will be back this year to challenge the salt with a car worthy of its 1959 Indy 500–winning namesake.

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One of the original freaks was Bill Everett’s “Half-Breed” 1962 Plymouth. Well, at least the back half is ’62 Plymouth. It ran in B/Gas with an injected 413 wedge. In the mid-1960s Bill got drafted, and friend Leroy “Doc” Hales started racing it. After more power and less weight, a Keith Black Hemi replaced the wedge, and a factory aluminum front end from a 1965 Dodge replaced the heavier stock 1962 Plymouth front. With the two dissimilar halves jointed, it was christened the appropriate “Half-Breed.” Hales says it was a heap, and he soon traded the Hemi for a fiberglass Firebird for his “New Breed” Funny Car. That gave way to his Cougar Funny Car called “Wild Breed.” Hales eventually went on to receive a medical degree, and became one member of NHRA’s Safety Safari in the 1970s and early 1980s.

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Carroll Shelby needed a facility in 1962 to construct his Cobras, just as the feds were closing in on Lance Reventlow and his racecar operation at 1042 Princeton Drive, in Venice, California. Reventlow exited and Shelby entered, without so much as an employee change with Reventlow mastermind, Phil Remington, sticking around to help Shelby ramp up production of his Cobras, develop the Shelby Mustang, and give Ford a hand in developing Ferrari-beating GT-40s. Even Reventlow’s Fiat car hauler was part of the deal. These shots from a week after New Years 1965, show plenty of Shelby Mustang action as stock fastbacks were being converted and then tested as 306hp GT 350s and 350Rs.

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We are sorry to report that Dodge is out of NHRA Pro Stock racing. Mopar chief, Pietro Gorlier, said Mopar will continue sponsoring Don Schumacher Racing and will be expanding their Sportsman presence, but will not continue with Pro Stock. For a season filled with drama both on the track, in the pits, and behind shop doors, the 2016 Pro Stock season seemed a rebirth of sorts for the professional class of NHRA racing. With the mandate to use electronic fuel injection and other changes meant to increase fan interest and decrease team costs for 2016, a lot of focus was back on Pro Stock (PS). Elite Motorsports, with drivers Erica Enders and Jeg Coughlin Jr., was Mopar’s main source for PS backing, with Allen Johnson being dropped from Mopar after the 2015 season, having been Mopar’s main Pro Stock sponsorship for 20 years. Deric Kramer, and later in the season Alan Prusiensky also ran Dodge Darts separately sponsored. V. Gaines started the season with Dodge, before retiring early in the season. Interestingly Johnson would end up with the most points and a win at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, while Enders and Coughlin struggled the entire season, never getting into a final round. Johnson ended in the 8^th spot, with Enders 9^th and Coughlin in 10^th place, in a season dominated by Jason Line and Greg Anderson in their Chevy Camaros.

Though Johnson, Kramer and Prusiensky are said to be in for 2017, without Mopar sponsorship it would appear the new season of PS would be a category of one car: Camaro.

Pro Stock is supposed to be the factory hot rod class, but the only factory involved will be Chevy, which is a real shame. Let’s see; Chevy, Ford and Chrysler all field fantastic V8 muscle cars, yet only Chevy will use PS as a platform to help market their Camaros. What do you think? Should PS make an even more-radical change to back-halved production bodies with factory blocks and limited rules, and then see what and who shows up, or will Pro Stock survive with a couple of Mopar privateers and a full field of mainly Camaros?

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Shirley Shahan is the first woman to win an NHRA event in a pro class. While that’s a drag racing milestone and represents a legendary accomplishment, especially in 1965 when drag racing was completely dominated by men, if that’s all you know about her life then you only know the easy part. Known as the “Drag-On-Lady” with then-husband HL Shahan, who tuned her cars, she was also working full time raising three children, as well as participating in another sport she loved; fast pitch softball. Softball developed her upper body, which helped slamming a 4-speed in the quarter-mile. Racing every weekend in the 1950s with her kids in tow, she won the first Bakersfield March Meet in 1959 with her 4-speed 1958 Chevy in a Super Stock field of 40 men. By the mid-1960s she was racing for Plymouth full-time. A woman winning races in those pre-women’s lib days did not always go over well with the competition, and she was winning a lot of races. Switching to AMC products in 1968, she represented the company both on and off of the track, as her novelty status and winning ways brought attention to the company. With AMC funding diverted away from drag racing in 1972, and with a chance for HL to build racing engines full-time, Shirley’s drag racing career ended. Also in 1972 another Shirley came on the national drag racing scene. Shahan’s racing career included both AFX altered-wheelbase nitro cars, and also Super Stock, becoming Pro Stock in 1970. She’s now retired from her over 30 years with the So Cal Gas Company, travelling and enjoying life with her second husband of almost 40 years, Ken. In 1997 she was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame, and in 2005 she received the NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award.

HR] There’s a rumor you were racing while you were eight months pregnant?

SS] I don’t know that I was eight months pregnant but I was pretty pregnant.

HR] Do you still follow Pro Stock today?

SS] Yes. Some of the cars that were on top of Pro Stock this year were not last year since the change to fuel injection. I watch the races on TV and still have a few favorites like Erica, who was on top last year, and now she’s on the bottom. But yeah, I still watch it.

HR] Do you miss participating in drag racing?

SS] I don’t miss it until I can smell the fumes and tires and clutches—then I miss it because those smells bring back a lot of good memories. For so many years after I remarried I didn’t have anything to do with racing. Then when the nostalgia stuff started happening people got interested in me again and then I got interested again, especially going back to the American Motors national events I was invited to speak at. I had no idea people were interested in stuff that happened in the 1960s. It was fun back then—I don’t know how it is today but back then it was a lot of fun. I know they talk about being one happy family today, but it just can’t be like it was back then, there’s just too much money involved now.

HR] How did you get involved with Chrysler as one of their factory Super Stock drivers?

SS] We raced a 1956 Chevy, then a 1958 and a 1963 that we raced. Then (then husband) HL (Shahan) was working for Ronnie Broadhead (Junior Stock) and then Butch Leal. Then HL went to work for Hank Taylor in Texas that gave HL more national exposure. Hank first got a 1964 Max Wedge Plymouth, and then Chrysler gave him a Hemi Plymouth in the spring. They came to me at the end of 1964 and asked if I would drive for them. I think it was a combination of hearing that I could drive, and they wanted someone on the west coast for exposure in this territory. We didn’t pursue them. When we got our car Butch got his too, so we were a team. We were both out of Visalia, California. Butch drove the stick shift car and me the automatic. Butch ran his Chevy out of our shop in Tulare; in fact we had 5-6 cars running out of our shop. So we continued for one year as a team.

HR] You always drove 4-speeds but then Chrysler wants you to go with an automatic. Did you transition well to racing with an automatic?

SS] It was OK. What I had to adapt to was driving by a tach, because I had never driven that way with the 4-speeds. Instead I always drove by ear—we didn’t have tachs. Dick Maxwell at Chrysler said I’d have to drive with the tach and I told him, “But I’ve never driven with a tach before.” For me it was looking at something rather than hearing something that was so different, but it didn’t take long to adjust to it. Maxwell thought I couldn’t handle a stick shift car so I had to live with that.

HR] When you started racing for Chrysler you had a full time job at So Cal Gas Company, and three kids in tow. How did you manage all of that?

SS] When we got the 1965 Plymouth I was running NHRA Division 7, so a lot of times when races were in Oregon, Washington or Utah, I would get off work early on Friday and we’d drive all night long. Sometimes we would fly, and then when the races were over on Sunday drive all night long so I could get to work on Monday. Sometimes we’d bring the kids with us, or my Mother-in-law would babysit and watch them. If it was more local then we would bring them. They grew up at the races—they loved the races. I’ve got pictures of Janet when she was two posing with the trophies. Steven, our youngest, was helping at the shop when he was 10.

HR] Did any of your kids get the racing bug?

SS] My youngest Steven crewed with Ed McCulloch for a few years when he was a teenager, and then he crewed with another Funny Car team I don’t remember the name of. He also did off-road racing competitively until two years ago when the cars were sold. Today he has a T-shirt silkscreening and embroidery business doing a lot of local racecar, boat, and flat track stuff. My son Robert has a replica of my 1968 Dart he races. My daughter Janet and her husband have a four-engine Hemi Unlimited Tractor Pull called Git-R-Done, sponsored by Lucas Oil. She hasn’t been home in two months, which reminds me of myself back in the racing days. So all of my kids got into racing in one form or another.

HR] And what is the Great-Grandchild count these days?

SS] You don’t want to know. (Counting) I think 27 great grandchildren between my husband Kenny and myself.

HR] Could you foresee so many women getting into drag racing as have in the last few years?

SS] It’s interesting how they arrived. Of course you have John Force, and his girls were raised on it. Then you have others that got in through Junior Dragsters. But it’s good because it’s something they can do just as well as the men can, if they’ve got the right equipment and the money to go along with that. Back when I first raced we had all of these buckled drag strips that we don’t have today, so they come into it from different avenues.

HR] How did your racing exploits go from private to corporate?

SS] When I won the Winternationals in 1966 I was getting phone calls asking me to come back east to match race. I got so many calls we had to make a decision, and that’s when I decided to quit my job at the Gas Company, about two months after winning the Winternationals

HR] Why did you go from Chrysler to American Motors?

SS] When we switched to American Motors in 1969 the LA Dealers Association sponsored us, and they wanted us to mainly run in LA and California, other than national meets. Since we were local I was able to go back to the Gas Company part time. We got a salary from American whereas we got the car and parts from Chrysler but that was all. From American I got a personal car to drive, along with the racecar and all the parts we needed, and a salary, plus I got to stay home which was good because the kids were getting bigger and had school related functions they needed to be around home for. And I got to race a 4-speed again.

HR] How did you first get started in drag racing?

SS] When I was in high school my dad raced jalopies and I was the oldest child, so I was the one to hand him the wrenches and so forth. I was his crew chief (laughs). I was always mechanically inclined—I took an aptitude test in the 9^th grade and it said I should be a mechanic. I would use my dad’s Studebaker pickup to drag Main. I learned how to shift with that truck. Then when HL and I got married we had the 1956 Chevy we raced, and I would occasionally drive it. I guess I was a natural—maybe because I’m ambidextrous. In softball I’d pitch left handed but bat right handed; and I golf right handed, too.

HR] These were still the early days of the sport, and this was in and around the sparsely populated San Joaquin Valley of Central California. What was drag racing like back then?

SS] We had a lot of races here in the San Joaquin Valley. We raced in Madera and Visalia, and of course Bakersfield, Porterville, Dinuba Rosa had a track, too. Up north we had Fremont, Half Moon Bay, and Santa Maria. We had a race to go to every weekend, there were so many.

HR] Once you became popular you started doing a lot of match racing across the country. Were you setting those up or how did you work into the barnstorming?

SS] We knew Rick Lynch, who went to work for Gay Pontiac booking cars for Donny Gay in Texas. So the first year we hired him to book races for us. After that first year I got the phone numbers for the drag strips we raced at, and we had met a lot of people on the road, so then I started doing the bookings myself. I didn’t ever work with bringing other drivers to the races I just worked with the promoters at the different drag strips. Some strips would put us against a Ford, then a Chevy, and then a Chrysler. Other strips might put us against Dick Landy, or just some of the better local racers. Then in places like Wisconsin they would have a huge 4^th of July race and everyone would be paid to come into that race because it was so big. We’d work the match racing around the national meets, but there weren’t that many back then. I tried to plot it out but when Lynch was booking for us we might have a race in Chicago on Saturday night, and then a race in Detroit the next day, so we would have to drive all night to get there. But we raced every weekend. I liked both the match racing and national events, but the thing about running Division 7 Super Stock, it was starting to get into the ET brackets and I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that if you went too fast you broke out of your bracket.

HR] You also drove AFX altered wheelbase cars with nitro, too?

SS] On the 1965 car we would swap out the intake for injectors, and move the rear wheels forward four inches and run it like that for match races. Then, when we’d go to a national meet we would put the carburetors back on and move the wheels back to be Super Stock legal. The fastest I went was around 9.80 at 148 with the Pro Stock Hornet.

HR] With the kids mostly grown and you being out of racing what did you do?

SS] In 1975 when I went back to the Gas Company I got into management. When I retired I had seven supervisors working for me and over 100 employees, and a six million dollar budget. It was as high as I could go in the division without having to transfer to LA. They started downsizing in 1990 so I retired. Kenny and I both retired about the same time and we travelled in our RV and started work camping. We worked in the stores at places like Yellowstone Park as clerks after the college kids would quit to go back to college. Then we worked at Ponderosa Ranch in Lake Tahoe for nine seasons, helping at the stagecoach lines and with the horses. Closer to home we help put on the car show at our local church to help underprivileged children. We also volunteer for the Agriculture show in Tulare for three months, and we sing for the Turkey Transit Trolley, which uses donations for Visalia emergency aid.  I’m also putting together everything from my racing days for the local Tulare Historical Museum archives, which will do an exhibit some time in the future.

HR] Was drag racing the only racing you did?

SS] I drove in the Mobil Economy Runs for Chrysler in 1966, 1967 and 1968. We’d drive from LA to Boston, or LA to Detroit. In 1968 we were supposed to drive to New York but there were riots after Martin Luther King had been killed so we ended up in Indy and called it there. The first year I got a second in my division, the second year my car malfunctioned and I only got a fourth, but the last year I won my class. I got a letter from the VP of Chrysler thanking me. I had beaten another professional driver, Scott Harvey, who was driving a car similar to mine that was a Plymouth—I was driving a Dodge. They would get over 50 cars and drivers, and lay out a detailed route you were expected to finish based on their estimated times. The navigator would compute the time and route. There were three people in the car, a driver, navigator, and official that monitored you so you didn’t run stop signs or go over the double yellow lines—stuff like that. They had a gas tank that measured your gas mileage within a thousandth of a gallon. It was hard, and I think I’m as proud of that win as my drag racing because I had to do it on my own.

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The Stones said, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you’ll get what you need.” This guy obviously had something—a Ford Explorer. What he wanted was a 1956 Ford truck of some sort. He tried to put them together. This is what he got. We don’t know what to call it so we have included it in this week’s Freak Show Friday for your perusal.

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The Insane Turbonique Tale of Magic Bullet Madness

There once was a magic bullet for extra speed. It was a bolt-on device. Bolt it onto your rear axle and you instantly had 1,300 hp at the press of a button. Magic, right? The 130-pound device was called the Turbonique Drag Axle, and the Florida company that manufactured this and essentially a variety of other small rocket engines for racing conveniently sold them mail order. Hassle-free horsepower! We aren’t making this up.

When you’re a rocket scientist in the 1950s, the dreams of rockets for all humankind must have been overwhelming, especially for C.E. “Gene” Middlebrooks Jr. He was working for a Florida-based defense contractor developing Pershing ballistic missiles using solid-propellant rockets. This is all good, except when you add Middlebrooks’ interest in racing. Then a slew of both horrifying and phantasmagorical combinations come to mind mashing the need for speed and rockets.

Middlebrooks had the knowledge and means to test his rocket racing ideas for the masses—and to sell them, too. Sometimes just because you can doesn’t mean you should. In the 1950s Middlebrooks patented and then marketed an electrically powered supercharger for racing. The added weight from extra batteries needed to power the device, lackluster results, and indictment but ultimately acquittal for mail fraud kept him searching for another, better nonparasitic form of instant power. By 1962 he was satisfied enough with his experiments in self-powered superchargers to start a company called Turbonique to provide instant, excessive, and frightening speed for racers wanting a sharp whack in the back.

Three different types of devices were manufactured to “establish a market for rocket technology,” according to Middlebrooks. In no particular insanity order, they were AP (Auxiliary Power) superchargers, “Microturbo” Thrust engines, and Rocket Drag Axles. Ignited by Turbonique’s own “Thermolene” fuel, some of these docile-looking Inconel 713C alloy contraptions were able to spin more than 100,000 rpm.

For instance, Turbonique’s “Huffer” model, available in both vertical and horizontal applications, was a carbureted centrifugal supercharger the catalog waxed on about generating “enough compressed air to start a jet or turboprop airliner.” Yikes!

With the press of a button, the supercharger received a blast of liquid oxygen and a shot of Thermolene, mainlining the engine into a Godzilla two-stroke. It seemed that in spite of the obvious death wish aspects of Turbonique applications, snowmobiles, hovercraft, and boats also joined in on the flashpoint of Huffer histrionics.

Thermolene fuel was in reality N-propyl nitrate. It’s a monopropellant, meaning its chemical composition releases energy through exothermic chemical decomposition. In other words, it creates its own oxygen. So you’ve got the fuel and oxygen—what’s the third component needed? A catalyst to kick off the desired thrust; in this case, a button triggering a spark. Voilà!

Stable under certain conditions, Thermolene could quickly decompose, producing an exponentially uncontrollable hurricane of hot gases surely launching an unimaginable catastrophe from what looked like a can of mouthwash. Oh, and even in stable form it’s extremely toxic. Able to melt both plastic and rubber, it would react to mild steel in the presence of water. Yeow! Now, an extremely stable monopropellant you might be familiar with is nitrous oxide.

For the wilder Microturbo Thrust unit, advertising claimed for the model T-16-A Formula J Thrust Engine an additional 1,980 hp was at your fingertips. In reality a small rocket-thrust engine, once ignited, hot gases were instantaneously unleashed, spinning small turbine blades in the housing, with an optional turbine wheel available to create “spectacular flaming night runs,” according to Turbonique hype. This option was for those needing more sensorial input than the shockwave of 600-psi ignited rocket fuel slammed into a 100,000-rpm Inconel orb—all taking place right behind your head, as you glide an inch or two off the ground.

The snail-looking device, with what looked like a child’s bicycle horn protruding from one end, came with “easy to follow installation and operating instructions.” We assume the operating instructions were basically, “Don’t do it!” As for the bicycle horns, those were aluminum nozzles used by NASA in space. They were just for publicity, and in actual use would have melted in seconds.

Finding their way onto go-karts, which were quite popular at the time, a number of deaths were reported by this innocent mixture of instant 1,980 hp to just a steering wheel and four tires. Some of these incidents involved explosions caused by the Thermolene pooling in the combustion chamber as drivers decelerated quickly. Or should we say, too quickly. But why use only one Model T-16-A? It was suggested using two would propel your kart to more than 150 mph. Speeds were estimated to reach 160 mph within 4 seconds.

Advertising announced alluring features that included:

Guaranteed minimum thrust levels.

• Eight standard models available.
• Cost as low as 11 cents per jet horsepower.
• Designed by a propulsion specialist (as opposed to, what, a tinkerer?).
• Only one liquid required to make run.
• Requires a simple fuel-supply system.
• Moderate 2,000-degree Fahrenheit exhaust temperature (we don’t know whether this was a feature or warning).

In the midst of this speed haze of monopropellants and decomposition of unimaginable consequences, one surely used extreme caution before creating anything beyond this small, basic rocket engine, but that’s not how hot rodders think. If small is great, then bigger is orgasmic. Middlebrooks increased the size and composition of his little rocket motor to create the larger and more powerful “Drag Axle.” The assembled model DS-28-A Drag Axle would set you back $4,695, almost twice the price of a new Mustang. At 1,300 hp, the “rocket drag axle” could also set you back into and through your seat. This latest creation from the ever-escalating delusions of a speed-crazed inventor was bolted to the back of a Halibrand or larger Frankland Champ quick-change rear end housing. Sometimes speed lust overtakes reason. Rather than creating thrust power like a typical jet engine, the power was transferred instead through the quick-change gears to reduce the turbine’s 60,000 rpm directly to the axles.

The fuel delivery and consumption was both simple and fairly lightweight. Besides the bottle of Thermolene fuel, a bottle of nitrogen gas kept the Thermolene under pressure, feeding the combustion chamber at 1/4 gallon per second. A third bottle with oxygen was used for the initial hit as ambient air temperature does not promote Thermolene’s ignition. Once ignited, pressure from the activation causes the Oxygen valve to automatically close, as the Thermolene lights up like a grass fire from a blowtorch. Otherwise, feeding oxygen to the volatile cocktail would result in a bomb, as the Inconel chamber would be unable to contain the force from the blast. Buyers, but more astonishingly drivers, were actually found for this experiment in explosives.

Few cars were hosts to the Drag Axle, and virtually none survived the ordeal, including the Z16 Chevelle seen here, and the company’s own “Black Widow” Volkswagen, both destroyed in uncontrollable tire-smoking performances of your worst nightmares. Driving the Chevelle, “Captain” Jack McClure would start the car in Third gear. In spite of this, he said it would smoke the tires at least to half-track and still do more than 150 mph in the quarter-mile. The Achilles’ heel was the rear end not staying together. In fact, on its final run the Chevelle’s rear end locked up, causing a violent barrel roll through the traps 12 to 13 times. Captain Jack survived, only to shift over to a twin-Microturbo Thrust–equipped go-kart. Talk about a death wish!

On a blitz down Tampa’s quarter-mile, the Volkswagen went airborne at over 180 mph, tumbling through the top end. Driver Roy Drew survived, even posing with the crumpled remains of the Widow for Turbonique advertising. Maybe this was to show that as crazy as your dreams may be, you can come out alive with Turbonique.

All good things must end, and it seems that in 1970 what liability lawsuits couldn’t take down, a 21-count federal indictment for mail-order fraud did. It was not pretty. Middlebrooks waived council and defended himself. From a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion by one of the presiding judges, “Middlebrooks argued with witnesses, interjected scandalous and inflammatory remarks, and violated miscellaneous procedural rules during his conduct of the trial.” One can only imagine. He continued, “The district court judge showed commendable moderation in keeping the trial on the tracks, and not prejudicing the jury against the defendant (Middlebrooks), in spite of provocatory conduct on the part of the defendant.”

There were other problems for Middlebrooks besides conduct. For the amount of claims against Turbonique, Middlebrooks did not counter with a single customer witness having received a refund. A ledger he presented to the court indicating refunds paid out was deemed “a hodgepodge of unauthenticated records with no basis in fact.” Also, prosecutors revealed Middlebrooks had been indicted and acquitted of mail fraud in 1965, making this the third trial for fraud in less than 10 years. This third time would not be the charm, either.

The jury concluded that while Turbonique kits were simple to execute for a rocket scientist like Middlebrooks, they were much more involved for teenage kids, and thus advertising claims became their undoing. Also, distributorships were offered with moneymaking claims to those inquiring about kits, which is one form of a Ponzi scheme. Middlebrooks was found guilty on 16 counts, sentenced to two years in prison, and fined $4,000.

Rumors had him running a Florida resort after his release, suggesting he picked something completely removed from his past enterprise and expertise to live out his final years. In some ways, Middlebrooks saved us from ourselves.

Gene Middlebrooks died at Lake Mary, Florida, on August 4, 2005.

Let’s Fire This Sucker Up!

The procedure for starting a Turbonique Microturbo Thrust–equipped go-kart.

Flip the toggle switch for the spark plug or plugs.

Press down on the pedal attached to an electric switch to open the pressurized tanks.

The electrically actuated valves are now opened, releasing oxygen into the rocket chambers. Nitrogen liquid fuel pressurized at 600 psi is also forced from the fuel tank to the rocket chambers.

The Thermolene ethylene oxide now mixes with the oxygen-rich atmosphere inside of the chambers. Hit the ignition button and the spark ignites the mixture, causing the oxygen flow to stop from the pressure. Remember, ethylene oxide creates its own oxygen.

Hold on for dear life.

Do not try to reignite at any time, as the mixture will pool with the spark off, causing a massive explosion upon re-ignition.

The post In 1960 You Could Buy a Mail-Order, 1,300HP Rocket Engine! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

FCA Chief Sergio Marchionne Discussed with Jim France and Lesa France Kennedy

More than just a rumor, Fiat Chrysler Chief Sergio Marchionne is reported to have had dinner with both NASCAR Vice-Chairman Jim France and International Speedway Inc. CEO Lesa France Kennedy to discuss Chrysler’s return to NASCAR, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The dinner took place Saturday night December 3, 2016 while Marchionne was in town for the Ferrari World Finals and Formula One exhibition. Says Marchionne about a possible return, “Yes, I talked to Jim France about this Saturday night. I was the one who made the decision to pull out of NASCAR—I’m the guilty party at the table.” He went on to say that the decision was due to Chrysler coming out of bankruptcy in 2009 and needing to remain able to pay their bills and payroll. Continued Marchionne, “We are in a different place now. I think it is possible we can come back to NASCAR. I think we need to find the right way to come back in, but I agreed with both Jim and Lesa we would come back to the issue.” France confirmed the meeting, saying, “He’s a very intelligent man—we had a good discussion.” Wow!

Keeping our fingers crossed for a NASCAR Chrysler Christmas comeback in the very near future.

The post Not Just a Rumor: Chrysler Looking to Return to NASCAR! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

1967

“Fast Eddie” Schartman getting a little out of shape at the newly opened Orange County International Raceway in 1967. The Air Lift Rattler Funny Car was one of four built that year with a Logghe chassis and Mercury Cyclone body, running a 427ci fuel injected SOHC Ford engine. Schartman ran Mercury Funny Cars throughout the 1960s before switching to Pro Stock with a Boss 429ci Comet in 1970.

The post Throwback Tuesday: “Fast Eddie” Schartman appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Duel of the Duals

Hail to twin-engine tremendousness! You know the hot rod credo is that bigger is better and two is better than one. To celebrate one of the hot rodder’s Ten Commandments, here’s the Bob Muravez–piloted, twin-Hemi version of John Peters’ black Freight Train and driver Ray Motes in the red Motes & Williams Top Gas dragster from Russell, Kansas, at the Ontario Speedway for the 1971 Supernationals. Owner RC Williams’ Motes & Williams dragster was one of the most successful Top Gas dragsters ever and also one of the last.

Snagging the 1970 Springnationals and World Finals on the way to becoming Top Gas champions, and taking the 1971 Springnationals toward another Top Gas championship, Motes hit speeds at more than 210 mph. Cooking with those twin-392 Hemis, this was also a looker with its abundant use of chrome. As with so many other classes in the early 1970s, Top Gas was killed in 1972. Motes & Williams would go on to run in Top Fuel through 1974. For the last year of Top Gas, Peters teamed with Walt Rhodes to run the almost 800ci twin-Hemi Train, with their best win at the 1971 Gatornationals. Here’s a salute to them all, including such faves as Gordon Collett, Schultz & Jones, Ohio’s Jim Bucher, Texan Eddie Hill, Ron Braun’s GSTA, Cope Brothers, Frakes and Funk, Jack Moss, and so many others.

The post Twin-Engine Tremendousness With the Freight Train and Motes & Williams Dragsters appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Arlen Kurtis, son of fabled Indycar builder Frank Kurtis has died. Besides Kurtis’ prolific string of hundreds of Indy 500 roadsters, Champ dirt cars, quarter midgets, three-quarter midgets, Bonneville cars, dragsters, and other open wheel racing endeavors in the 1950 and 1960s, he also built a series of roadsters in the early 1950s for the street, and more importantly, for road racing. Arlen followed in his father’s footsteps, a bit more literally than some, as he continued that series of Kurtis 500S roadsters with many of the same molds and jigs his father used starting in the early 1990s, out of his shop in Bakersfield.  They were every bit a tribute to Kurtis Sr., in both workmanship and style. Arlen worked with his famous father for years, eventually taking over the Frank Kurtis Company when Frank retired in 1968. His Kurtis-Kraft boats held many records including Fastest Carbureted Drag Boat and more, built from his shop in Glendale, and later after moving the shop to Bakersfield.

The post Arlen Kurtis Has Died appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

We at HOT ROD tend to shy away from the import side of modified cars, but when something as dramatic as this early 1970s Datsun 240 Z comes along, we gotta give it some love. Or not. This build features a little bit of old with the Model T front fenders and Z body, and a whole lot of we-can’t-quite-tell-what for most of the rest of it. Is this a hot rod? Yes! How can we tell? It’s got bigs and littles, a mean rake, swoopy body, a little bit of rust, and a huge engine! Right? That is what all hot rods must have? Yes/No?

The post Freak Show Friday: What To Do With An Import appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

1960

What could be considered one of the most exotic early dragsters was the sideways/rear-engine “Magwinder” built by Kent Fuller, owned by Chuck Jones, and driven by Jack Chrisman. Besides the engine orientation and location, what made the Magwinder exotic was that both its chassis and much of its body were made from magnesium, hence the name. Debuting in 1960, it ran a blown Hemi punched out to 454ci. Not long after its debut Chrisman was involved in a freak accident being pushed back to the pits when the pushbar broke, launching the push truck over the car and Jack’s head. He received injuries that kept him out of racing for a few months, which sidelined the sidewinder. Jones went road racing, never getting back to the Magwinder again. It resides in Garlits’ museum in Ocala, Florida.

The post Throwback Tuesday: The Magwinder Dragster appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

A 60-Year History of Drag Racing’s Attempt to Harness the Wind

You’re traveling through another dimension—a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of atmosphere. It is an invisible dimension strong enough to make a vehicle fly or instantly turn left. Or right. When you launch a dragster through it, the atmosphere can push down, increasing traction, or spin you backward. Since drag racing is as much about punching through the atmosphere as generating power to increase the punch, racers have devised all kinds of ways to help fling a dragster through it more effortlessly. Many of their efforts are things of beauty.
Streamlining a dragster has been a pursuit forever, from using a flat, wooden board to artful bodies for air to flow over their surfaces like stroking a cat’s back. The downside has mostly been twofold: the beautiful bodies and structure necessary to support them add weight, and the seat-of-the-pants guessing game as to how the atmosphere will react has caused some scary moments—and sometimes much worse.

The streamline trend has died and come back more than a couple times as ideas, materials, and the need for speed have compelled builders to risk finding the magic. The trend really took hold in 1964, and by 1970 a new twist was the “wedge” dragster. Disappointing times—and, in most cases, spooky handling—gave builders and drivers second thoughts, killing the wedge idea.
We’ve assembled 40 examples—a thorough, though not complete—assemblage of many of the streamline dragsters that have come and gone to prove how imaginative, desperate, and resourceful drag racers have been trying to find the other side of the Twilight Zone.

Glass Slipper: 1957
Built by Ed and Roy Cortopassi from northern California, with workmanship on a par with the era’s nicest show cars, winning the title “America’s Most Beautiful Competition Car” at the 1957 Oakland Roadster Show. With an unblown small-block Chevy, it ran 168.85 mph in the standing kilometer at the FIA International Acceleration Records held at Riverside’s March Air Force Base in 1958. Later that year, it caught fire and was not seen until 1960, featuring a GMC blower with Hilborn injection. In this guise, it ran a best of 8.93 at 172 mph at Lodi and Vacaville in California. Retired a year later, it was restored in the 1990s.

Mickey Thompson Panorama City Special: 1955
Appearing at the first NHRA Nationals in 1955 at Great Bend, Kansas, Mickey Thompson’s dragster is thought to be the archetype for the slingshot chassis configuration. At a 97-inch wheelbase, it featured a complete body with enclosed cockpit and rear tires. In this image, the front bodywork is removed. At Great Bend it ran 142 mph when competition was just shy of the 150-mph mark. Later that year it went 151.26 mph, becoming the first single-engine dragster to top 150 mph.

Tognotti Goldfinger/Bushwacker: 1964
A NorCal effort to promote Tognotti’s Speed Shop in Sacramento, the 156-inch chassis was built by Pete Ogden with an aluminum body by Arnie Roberts. Christened originally as “Goldfinger,” it made its first appearance at the 1964 March Meet. With a Hemi built by Ron Welty and shoed by Lyle Kelly, low-8s at 196-plus mph were its early numbers. In 1965 Don Honstein repainted the body, then known as the “Bushwacker.” It ran at three March Meets and local tracks campaigned by Welty before being sold. It resurfaced in Oklahoma in the 2000s and was restored in 2006.

Mickey Thompson, Fritz Voigt Dragster: 1958
Originally intended for the quarter-mile, an impromptu stop at Bonneville during Speed Week resulted in Thompson and Voigt temporarily abandoning their drag-racing intentions to instead capitalize on the dragster’s off-the-trailer first run of 242 mph on the salt. Later that week Thompson hit a one-way best of 294.117, breaking a connecting rod during his backup attempt. The front 392 Hemi was placed backward powering the front axle, while the rear 392 was in a traditional configuration, powering the rear axle. Lessons learned on this car resulted in the four-engine “Challenger I” Bonneville car. Thompson did extensive tests with this dragster at Lions Drag Strip, which he built and operated. Hitting 149.50 mph in the high-9s sans body, the twin was slower than contemporary slingshots hitting mid-9s.

T.V. Tommy Ivo Videoliner: 1965
Another beautiful Steve Swaja design, Frank Huzar built the chassis and Bob Sorrell pounded out the aluminum body. This was the car Ivo planned on barnstorming around the country for 1965. Testing at Fremont, Ivo said the Videoliner wanted to swap ends in the lights, calling it a “reverse teardrop.” Besides handling woes, exhaust and burnt rubber channeled into the cockpit caused vision and breathing problems. Initially Ivo cut holes in the body above the slicks and vented the exhaust into the wheelwells, but pressure blew holes in the body panels. Yikes! Some of the body’s rear was sawed off, scalloping the fenders in an attempt to lessen the spooky handling. A best of 7.82 e.t. at 199 mph was achieved, but Ivo never sorted out the car’s evil handing, pulling the engine to use for the more conventional “Red Wing” dragster he soon built to replace the doomed ’liner.

El Tigre/Shadoff Special: 1966
A repurposed Bonneville streamliner owned by Mal Hooper with a chassis by Carl Fleishmann and fiberglass body designed by Dean Batchelor, “El Tigre” was originally built in 1953 and raced as the “Shadoff Special,” setting 15 FIA International records between 1953 and 1960 with a best speed of 273.68 in 1960. By 1966 it was reconfigured as a mid-engine dragster by Ted Worobieff with Don Rackemann at the wheel.

Herm Petersen-Sam Fitz Can-Am Dragster: 1974
After a horrific 1973 crash at Orange County, Herm Petersen came back with his Can-Am Top Fuel dragster for 1974. A Woody chassis hid beneath the innovative blue-anodized body, running a Donovan 392ci Hemi when most had switched to the 426ci elephant. Mid-6-second times were far off of the low-6-second qualifying times needed. It only ran 19 times, the last run being at the 1974 Northwest National Open shoed by Harlan Thompson. Petersen claimed the body’s 200 extra pounds caused the disappointing times, as he otherwise praised handling and general car feel. He sold it and went back to a conventional Top Fuel dragster, winning Division 6 for 1974. In the 1980s he found the Can-Am car and restored it. The dragster can be seen at Garlits’ museum in Ocala, Florida.

Scrima, Bacilek, Milodon Scrimaliner: 1964
Designed by Ronnie Scrima, he built the “Scrimaliner” with George Bacilek, while Bob Sorrell made the aluminum body. Don Alderson of Milodon built the blown 392 Chrysler. The idea for the exposed engine was in case of an engine fire or blower explosion the shrapnel wouldn’t be trapped inside of the metalflake red body, possibly injuring the driver. Built stout for running rougher eastern tracks, the car weighted 1,600 pounds, making it one of the heavier dragsters at that time. It debuted at Lions in August 1964 with Roy “Goober” Tuller driving. With a best of 8.14 e.t. at 202 mph, Scrima attributed its good numbers compared to other ’liners to the long tail and stiffer frame. Later Pat Foster got some seat time.

Lisa and Rossi Flying Doorstop: 1972
Built by Roy Fjastad at his Speed Products Engineering (SPE) shop with a Tom Hanna aluminum body, Fjastad hoped the inverted bellypan would create downforce for better traction while the body would push the dragster effortlessly through the wind. An in-house experiment, when Fred Farndon saw the car under construction, he purchased it. Just as quickly it was sold to Vince Rossi and money buddy Tommy Lisa. It set a series of records both by Billy Tidwell at Lions and Danny Ongais at the 1972 Supernationals with a 243.24-mph run and the first 5-second pass at Lions, which some dispute. When Rossi got out of racing in 1974, the car was sold and has not been seen, though rumors indicate it’s alive in Texas.

Gary Ormsby’s Castrol GTX Streamliner: 1986
Penske Racing’s lead engineer in the 1980s was Nigel Bennett, who drew some bar-napkin sketches for Ormsby crew chief Lee Beard. Beard took these crude “plans” to Pete Swingler to enter into a computer and simulate wind-tunnel tests. Eloisa Garza used vacuum forming to create the carbon-fiber and Kevlar composite body, resulting in a 130-pound body, much more lightweight than aluminum or fiberglass. In some respects the body resembled an elongated Indycar body. Early testing revealed chassis torque caused body contact to chassis and engine components, with the potential for damage. Debuting at the 1987 Winternationals, enough body problems existed that, in a last ditch effort to qualify, the body was removed and a disappointing 6.47 e.t. at 152.54 mph result was too slow to make the show. Continual problems, including headers burning the body and other technical gremlins, plagued the Top Fuel effort. Wanting to run sans body as the season progressed, part of Ormsby’s Castrol sponsorship required the full body emblazoned with the Castrol GTX billboard, so the body remained. The dragster’s best run was 263 mph when Garlits was hitting 275 mph.

Jocko Streamliner: 1958
Jocko Johnson’s rear-engine dragster debuted in July 1958 to mixed results. Then in May 1959 the Chrysler Hemi-powered streamliner started setting records, though this could also be attributed to his courage to tip the nitro can more—first at 60 percent, then 75 percent—running 8.80 e.t.’s when the fastest fuelers were in the mid-8s. Downforce shattered the fiberglass body soon after hitting 175 mph. Reproducing the body in aluminum (and with Allison V12 power this time), it was never faster than 175 mph, which Jocko attributed to the 3,200-pound weight. In the early 1970s the body returned for a short period campaigned by Garlits on one of his dragster chassis. He got spooked by its handling and handed the wheel to other drivers before soon abandoning it.

Breedlove Spirit II: 1964
Built by Craig Breedlove and Nye Frank, with aluminum bodywork by Indycar builder Quin Epperly, “Spirit II” debuted at the 1964 HOT ROD Magazine Championships. This was a busy time for Breedlove to be putting efforts into a dragster when he was also embarking on a land-speed-record car. Notable for its covered front wheel “pants,” the theory espoused that besides streamlining for an additional 10 mph by cutting drag generated behind conventional open front wheels, this would aid in steering at high speeds. Why you would need that in straight-line racing escapes us now. The beautifully built ’liner ran 8.50 at 185 mph. Landing on the show circuit for a time, it now resides at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida.

Tony Nancy Gas Dragster: 1963
Tony Nancy’s AA/Gas “Wedge I” and similar “Wedge II” were penned by Steve Swaja, with Wayne Ewing and Emil Deidt pounding out the aluminum body over the RCS chassis. Powered by a wedge-head, 428ci Plymouth, Wedge I was said to “twitch” during runs. It flipped in the eyes in July 1964 at Sandusky, Ohio, doing an endo at more than 200 mph. Nancy was unhurt and concluded along with Swaja that pressure created by the slicks trapped air, lifting the rear of the dragster and flipping it. For Wedge II, elongated slots were added to the body above the slicks to aid air escaping—and the wheelbase was lengthened. Power came first from another stroked Plymouth wedge, then a blown Chrysler Hemi, and finally a blown Olds. At Monza in Italy Nancy set a record of 195 mph in 400-meter acceleration runs. He brought it back to the U.S., stored it, and built a conventional Top Fuel slingshot. Years later, he restored Wedge II.

Logghe-Steffey-Rupp/Logghe-Marsh-Rupp Dragster: 1964
The Logghe brothers’ unblown Chevy ’liner made its maiden run at the NHRA Nationals in September 1964. Though it ran a respectable 8.10 e.t., driver Maynard Rupp fought spooky handling through the quarter-mile from the 1,000-pound, 136-inch wheelbase slingshot. Replacing the fuel Chevy with a Chrysler Hemi, times decreased to 7.93 at 191 mph, but handling remained scary. Determining low-pressure areas existed alongside of the fiberglass body, this explained the dragster’s habit of sudden lane changes without warning. Yeow! Soon it was retired and survives today at the Gartlis museum.

George Schreiber’s Yellow Fang: 1966
Schreiber had Jim Davis build a 153-inch dragster chassis in 1963, but Schreiber was down on bucks. At nights he worked at Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s, helping with fabrication that included Roth’s show cars. Over the years Roth workers threw loose change on the roof of a storage room, and it eventually collapsed from the weight. Knowing he needed money, Roth gave Schreiber all of the change and directed him to hit up Mickey Thompson for parts in exchange for the money he owed Roth for printing Thompson promotional T-shirts. This must have been enough because Schreiber contacted designer Steve Swaja, who came up with the basic design. Schreiber and Roth then tweaked it in a clay model they gave to Tom Hanna, who built the body—estimated to have cost $5,000. Roth painted it Diamond T Truck Yellow, christening it “Yellow Fang.” Bill Demerest built the 0.030-over 392 Chrysler, but soon Schreiber took over wrenching chores. Problems with the enclosed canopy in Connie Swingle’s shakedown runs resulted in removing the windshield, after which Schreiber piloted the Fang. Seeing an overseas campaign in Australia and a U.S. barnstorming tour in 1967 and 1968, Fang survives restored to its 1966 glory at the Garlits museum.

Pulsator Twin Engine Dragster: 1965
Built by Nye Frank, who had a hand in a number of streamline dragster and race-car builds, “Pulsator” was a copy of his Freight Train Top Gas dragster, but with a fiberglass body. Both were driven by Bob Muravez, aka Floyd Lippencott Jr. Two 900hp, 327ci Chevy engines stroked to 364 ci on nitro powered Pulsator, tied by a sprocket at the back of the front engine and another at the front of the rear, wrapped with a chain. Inexplicable problems arose. Swapping engines front to back and to the front again, the rear engine would always exhibit extremely poor performance. On the dyno, each engine ran 900 hp, but tied together, they put out a combined 950 hp. Single-engine Top Fuel dragsters were hitting 1,500 hp, so no aerodynamic advantage could overcome the mysterious 600hp deficit. Interference between the two magnetos and other theories were put forth and solutions tried, with no effect on the performance dilemma. Finally, Nye threw in the towel. The chassis hangs from Muravez’s garage rafters today, while the body found a second life as the “Ice Kutter” snowmobile dragster show car by George Barris.

Hank Vincent Top Banana Fueler: 1958
Over a period of five years, the team of Santos-Vincent-Govia campaigned Frank Vincent’s “Top Banana” B/ and C/Fuel dragster to national records in both classes. Hailing from Hayward, California, the red beauty was a staple at NorCal dragstrips running an Algon-injected small-block. It was considered so beautiful that it graced the October 1958 cover of Rod & Custom magazine. In May 1960 at Baylands in Fremont, California, Vincent was running through the eyes when the dragster veered off the track, launching into a 170-mph barrel roll. Vincent was impaled by the pushbar, killing him instantly, with witnesses saying he never lifted.

Hatfiled Brothers A/F Modified Roadster: 1964
Streamlining caught up with Modifieds, too. The Hatfiled brothers were building this 180-inch wheelbase Modified Roadster while helping on Manuel Gonzales’ “Californian” small-block dragster. Inspired by Holly Hedrich’s Speed Sport roadster, it was finished in November 1964. Unfortunately, it crashed in early 1965 at Lions, making images of it kind of rare. According to Doyle Hatfiled, the brothers decided not to rebuild.

Super Mustang: 1967
This “off-the-books” Ford effort was shoehorned into its drag-racing plans while taking a break in 1967 to pursue the Cobra Jet program debuting the next year. With a Logghe chassis running an injected Ford SOHC built by Tom Marsh and Connie Kalitta, an automatic transmission, independent rear end (that driver Tom McEwen said was merely a Jaguar unit), and a Ford-designed, wind-tunnel-tested body, it debuted at the 1967 NHRA Winternationals. With an incredibly tight cockpit and canopy that squashed driver Tom McEwen’s head, it was an uncomfortable ride at best. Times were never good, running mid-8s at 180 mph when dragsters ran in the low-7s in the 220-mph range. Running only a few events, the dragster was never sorted out and was unceremoniously parked after six months of runs. It was restored in the 2000s and sold at auction a few years ago for more than $150,000.

Prudhomme Flying Wedge: 1971
A body built by Quin Epperly and Nye Frank covered a 220-inch John Buttera chassis for Don Prudhomme’s 1971 Top Fueler. Its first win was Best Engineered Car in its maiden appearance at the Springnationals in Dallas, but it qualified only 17th. Initially the exhaust ran through the top of the body, so an early fix was Funny Car weed burners as it was thought the exhaust disrupted airflow over the body. With a best of 6.41 e.t., by the Summernationals Prudhomme and crew chief Bob Brandt decided to run without the body. This was futile as the chassis was still heavier than conventional dragsters. Soon after Prudhomme replaced the “Flying Wedge” with a superlight 1,200-pound Kent Fuller dragster, which hit 6.17 at the 1972 Grand American at Lions, permanently ending any chance Prudhomme would continue with the Wedge. The dragster’s enduring legacy may be its rendition as a Hot Wheels toy.

Leland Kolb “Polish Lotus” Wedge: 1971
Yet another wedge attempt was Leland Kolb’s Top Fuel dragster. The theory behind wedge dragsters was that by covering the slicks, dirty air disturbed around the slicks would be cleaned up, with a bonus that the body acts as a huge spoiler for added downforce and translating into better traction. Kolb was all-in with a Woody chassis and aluminum body by Nye Frank. Kolb had some success with his wedge, including getting into the quarterfinals at the Indy Nationals in 1971.

Masters Auto Supply Dragliner: 1956
Sponsored by Masters Auto Supply, this was the first joint effort by Jim Nelson and Dode Martin, later to join forces to be known as Dragmaster—with Jim’s brother Tom building engines. The Dragmaster name originated from this C/Gas dragster. The successful Fallbrook, California, shop built hundreds of dragster chassis over the years. Built in 1956 with a Ford flathead, that engine soon gave way to a Chevy small-block the next year. The gold body and nose are fiberglass, from plaster molds made by Dode. At the 1957 NHRA Nationals, it won Best Engineered. Returning in 1958, it won C Dragster Top Eliminator. Sold to fund other Dragmaster efforts, it eventually disappeared, but Dode built a recreation in 2010.

Roger Lindwall Re-Entry: 1966
Roger Lindwall’s Illinois-based “Re-Entry” was based on his experiences racing hydroplanes. With a mid-engine, 392ci Hemi enclosed within the swoopy aluminum body, it appeared to be a well-sorted dragster. Making its debut at the 1966 World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova Dragway in Illinois, Re-Entry hit 200 mph, which is considered the first 200-mph run for a mid/rear-engine dragster. The next week at Indy, driver Wayne Hill won a single round of eliminations before crashing. A 201.34-mph time was recorded as it tumbled through the lights with a 9.52. It was not rebuilt, and Lindwall did not return to drag racing.

Harry Lehman’s American Way: 1971
The 220-inch “American Way” streamliner was the brainchild of Harry Lehman from Fairfax, Virginia, back in 1971, with a chassis by Byron Blair and Tom Hanna aluminum body that included a full bellypan, at a purported cost of $25,000. A 392 Hemi with a 6-71 blower and Enderle injection combined with a direct-drive Lenco transmission to power American Way. After testing, Lehman switched to an aluminum 417 Donovan with a two-speed Lenco and lengthened the chassis to 235 inches. In the early days of corporate sponsorship, Lehman snagged some U.S. Navy Recruiting Command dough, becoming the “Go Navy” car, while Don Garlit’s dragster was the “Fly Navy” car under a similar arrangement. It ran a best of 232 mph at the 1973 Englishtown Summernationals. At Maple Grove in 1974, driver Chuck Turner hit a dip in the traps, lost control, and collided with Jim and Allison Lee’s Fueler, causing major damage to both. Neither Turner nor Tom Raley in the Lee car was hurt. The Lees rebuilt, but it was the end for both Lehman’s and American Way’s racing exploits.

Gary MacArthur Dragster: 1958
No, this is not the Top Banana dragster. This is Gary MacArthur’s 1958 rail from Oakland, California. Gary was a brave soul to buckle up inside that enclosed pill bottle of a dragster. Running an Algon-injected Olds, the aluminum body was the work of the Bay Area’s Jack Hagemann. It won the Oakland Roadster Show’s “Most Beautiful Competition Car” in 1960. MacArthur ran the dragster in the Bay area, and later converted it to a 4-71 blown small-block Chevy with zoomies. According to longtime NorCal drag racer Denny Forsberg, MacArthur is still around.

Quicksilver Dragster-1972
Shoed by both Dwight Salisbury and Roger Gates, the “Quicksilver” dragster was built by John Glaspey and Jim Moser in their Van Nuys, California, shop in 1972. Its Top Fuel dragster guise was fleeting due to a series of mechanical issues. It resurfaced in 1973 as the Boraxo Top Alcohol dragster, with a best of 7.19 at just shy of 200 mph.

Slam’n Sammy Miller Wedge: 1974
Slam’n Sammy was known primarily for his series of Funny Cars in the 1970s, his Vega Funny “Vanishing Point” rocket car in the 1980s, and the hydrogen-peroxide-fueled “Oxygen” ice dragster with a best of 247.78 mph in 500 feet in 1.6 seconds. Yeow! Supposedly fed up with Funny Car fires, he decided to try a wedge dragster in 1974. S&W Race Cars in Spring City, Pennsylvania, built the chassis with the unusual forward-mounted, mid-engine location. Sammy ran the car for the entire 1974 season with mixed results.

Kenney Goodell “Wynns Stormer” Wedge: 1972
“Action Man” Kenney Goodell ran his purple wedge dragster and his Funny Car at the same time in 1972. The “Wynns Stormer” featured a Woody chassis, contrary to some who say it was built by John Buttera. It is believed both the Prudhomme wedge and Goodell’s were built at Gilmore’s shop, but Buttera was working there, possibly causing the confusion. The wedge ran mostly in the 6.67 range for the quarter, which was about what Goodell ran with his Funny. It is believed at some point Goodell moved the exhaust to weed burners in an attempt to help manage airflow, with mixed results.

Chuck Tanko’s National Speed Products Researcher: 1971
The National Speed Products Researcher 1971 dragster was the product of Chuck Tanko, shoed by veteran driver Kenny Ellis, who also built the aluminum body. Seen here in March 1971, it was running at the same time that Garlits’ rear-engine car debuted. At a 254-inch wheelbase, the Race Car Specialties chassis was considered quite long for the time. In shakedown runs, it went 7.20 at 210 mph. With injected 465ci Hemis on gas, it qualified at the last NHRA Top Gas race ever held: the 1971 Supernationals in Ontario, California.

Dan Olson’s Wedge: 1972
A seldom-seen wedge also from Woody Gilmore was the Dan Olson Racing Products dragster out of NorCal. Driven by Rance McDaniel, after running a few events in 1972, the body came off and it picked up more than a tenth in the quarter. That was the end of the body.

Larry Shinoda “American Dragster” Concept: 1969
It seems that making the slingshot more aerodynamic tickled more than just hard-core drag racers. Larry Shinoda, credited with bringing the Chevy Stingray to production and conceiving the Boss Mustangs in his short time at Ford, started Rectrans with Simon Bunkie Knudsen after both were fired from Ford in 1968. Rectrans is known for the swoopy RV they manufactured—designed by Shinoda. Little is known about this dragster concept, but it was created during Shinoda’s time at Rectrans. Rectrans was experimenting with composites and plastics, and the RV’s body was a fiberglass composite. Of course, Shinoda raced cut-down roadsters in Los Angeles before and after WWII, so drag racing was always near and dear. We can only wonder what might have been had this become reality.

Tony Nancy T/F Dragster: 1971
At first glance, this looks like a typical full-body Top Fuel dragster, but note the cool rear winglet that, along with canards added later, were desperate attempts to help the front-engine dragster stay competitive against the rear-engine onslaught. This dragster was restored by Nancy years ago, so the next time it makes an appearance, check out the neat rear winglet.

Al Bergler’s More Aggravation III: 1966
With sponsorship from Gratiot Auto in Detroit, Al Bergler’s “More Aggravation III” was the product of Al and the Logghe Bros. dragster and Funny Car factory (also in Detroit). Bergler was the tin man for the operation, forming the inner tin for Funny Cars and shaping assorted dragster bodies over the years. This was his own car, featuring a 1923 Model T body and a 484ci Hemi on gas and direct drive, running in the AA/Comp Dragster class, with a best of 7.80 e.t. at 190 mph. At the 1967 NHRA Winternationals, Bergler won both his class and also Best Appearing Car honors. If you know where it is, Al is currently looking for it.

Barry Setzer Monocoque Streamliner: 1972
When chassis builder John Buttera hired Louie Teckenoff for aluminum fabrication in 1972, the two brainstormed on a monocoque dragster. Teckenoff had monocoque-building experience, so together they constructed this dragster from 0.050-inch magnesium sheets assembled with adhesives and more than 5,000 rivets. Build time was six months, as this was a shop project with no customer money behind it. With three internal bulkheads and high-density foam between the inner and outer body skins, the blown Hemi-powered machine was rigid. Nye Frank created both the front and rear wings, and the car was then sold to Barry Setzer for $15,000. What happened next is debated. During a test run at Orange County International Raceway with Pat Foster driving, the dragster did a scary wheelstand and munched itself landing. It was repaired, with some saying Buttera repositioned the engine forward to help launching manners, with eyewitnesses reporting that at three-quarter track things got real scary. After more adjustments, it was then reported the car wanted to fly. Others say it was repaired but never saw another track. Either way it sounds like a spook show. It now resides in the Garlits museum.

Jimmy Ige’s Sons of the Rising Sun Dragster: 1971
Culver City, California’s Jimmy Ige is more commonly known as a Jr. Fuel racer, but in late-1971 and into 1972, he drove this SPE dragster in Top Fuel called “Sons of the Rising Sun.” Looking similar to Chuck Tanko’s dragster, Ige switched it over to run in Pro Comp within a year

Kent Fuller Sidewinder III: 1969
There have been a number of “sidewinder” dragsters built over the years, including Jack Chrisman’s “Magwinder” and this Kent Fuller–built Sidewinder III of Hopkins, Thornhill, and Finicle, which is a lengthened version of the Magwinder. Seen here in 1971, the dragster featured a magnesium tube chassis at 123 inches and ran a blown 350ci Chevy in BB/GD. Chrisman also tried his hand at sidewinding a Mustang Funny Car in 1971, selling it to become the “Night Stalker,” which is the first Funny Car John Force drove.

Stan Johnson’s C Gas/Modified Silver Bullet: 1964
Johnson built this Modified in his Wisconsin garage, starting with a Lakewood chassis, opting for the then-new 273ci Dodge for power. He wanted mechanical injection, but with none available for the small block Mopar, he made his own. The handmade body is a combination of fiberglass and aluminum, and features wheel fairings covering the slicks and a canopy built into the tonneau cover. The “Silver Bullet” held the Drag News record for C/Modified at 142 mph, but Johnson would occasionally add nitro, upping the speeds to 162 mph. The car was sold and separated decades ago, but Johnson was able to get everything back and restored the Bullet to its 1965 glory in 2013.

Mooneyham-Ferguson-Jackson-Faust Dragster: 1965
This fiberglass body designed and built by Jocko Johnson actually ran on two completely different dragsters with the same results. Debuting at the 1965 March Meet as the Chrisman and Cannon “Hustler VI” on a Woody chassis, the team removed the body after weak passes. The next day on a checkout pass, the body-less dragster was destroyed. Johnson then talked the “Jungle Four” team of Gene Mooneyham, Wayne Ferguson, Jerry Jackson, and driver “Jungle Larry” Faust into giving the body a shot on their 354ci Chrysler-powered Woody chassis that just came off of a 7.53-e.t., 200-mph record run in A/FD. At Lions for test sessions Faust experienced extreme steering problems, smashing into the eyes and causing damage to the nose. Johnson made repairs overnight and the Jungle Four team was back at San Fernando, where the same thing happened on the first pass, causing the dragster to veer off the track. The team supposedly hired a NASA aerodynamicist, who concluded there was so much downforce on the covered front tires that steering could not overcome the pressure, rendering the car unsteerable. Its best time was 8.20 at 197.80 mph. The dragster survives today at the Garlits Museum.

Jack Williams-Ron Lowe Syndicate Scuderia Dragster: 1963
Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, the team of Williams-Devine-McDougall took Williams’ old dragster and reconstructed it into the “Scuderia” Gas dragster. With a blue Lexan canopy matching the metalflake blue aluminum body, it ran a 404ci Chrysler Hemi with a Potvin front-drive blower and in-and-out box. With Devine and McDougall out and Ron Lowe in, the two hauled the dragster to the 1963 Winternationals in Pomona, where an early record run of 8.83 at 169.17 could not be bested after mechanical gremlins killed the dragster’s chances. Still, it won a “Best Appearing” trophy. Later at Arlington it set a Top Gas record of 162.22. Retired in 1967, Williams dusted it off and participated in 1980s West Coast nostalgia meets; he crashed at Fremont, sustaining serious injuries. Undaunted, Williams repaired and restored the dragster in the early 1990s and celebrated his 70th birthday with a hammer-down pass at Sechelt, British Columbia, in Canada.

Bob Ellic Dragster: 1955
Even in drag racing’s earliest days, racers knew streamlining would help lower elapsed times. This 1955 shot of Bob Ellic’s dragster from Omaha, Nebraska, records his attempt at streamlining with a nose and bodywork, such as it was, covering the flathead Merc engine for better airflow. Weight for this dragster came in at 1,475 pounds.

Joe Amato Aero Experiments: 1991
Veteran Top Fuel champ Joe Amato experimented with a number of wings and things throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He introduced the tall, laid-back wing that almost immediately became the standard Top Fuel wing in 1984. In 1991 he tried this short wing/pod/tunnel experiment. A tunnel was fashioned between the slicks, while the canard-like appendage combined with the pods directed airflow over the slicks, sucking the car down at the same time. Amato tried this at a couple tracks, including here at Pomona in 1991, with the dragster running in the 5-0s. He used this setup with a wider wing—and no wing on one pass. Kenny Bernstein had a similar side-pod setup around this time, too. Amato’s ground effects Fueler ended up in Australia, where it was run both with and without the aero. It was eventually involved in a bad crash in Sydney, with Wayne Missingham luckily walking away from the carnage.

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Within the last couple of years we have lost both of these magazine alums. Tex Smith with the screwdriver, was a HOT ROD staffer for years before venturing out on his own, to help start both Street Rodder Magazine, and Rod Action Magazine back in the 1970s. On the right is Bill Neumann, who was editor of Rod & Custom when this shot was taken in 1964, and went on to found Neuspeed in Camarillo, California, in the 1970s. The former Smith 1934 Ford Phaeton they are admiring survives, currently in the stable of Mel Taormino, who has owned the tub for almost 50 years. The Olds was yanked in the late-1960s for small block Ford power, and the car has been completely rebuilt in the last few years to its current black and bad persona.

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A Hot Rod for the Coming Apocalypse

The coming apocalypse is no reason to abandon your hot rodding passions; just alter your concept of “modification” to be more like you see here. This started as a 1966 Chevy Caprice—the first year for the Caprice, and also the first year for the more formal-roof on the popular B-body. Though you may have not considered this type of approach, we applaud the owner for the clever placement of the machine gun right next to the driver, but are concerned he might get a ticket for operating a gun while driving—sort of like our current laws regarding texting. Never thought we’d ever suggest texting is like operating a machine gun, but if the shoe fits….

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1972

Unpredictable and dramatic burnouts were all in a day’s work for the Doheny and Fullerton Trojan Horse. Becoming NHRA World Champion in 1972, other noteworthy Larry Fullerton Horses included a rear-engine Mustang in 1973, a Trojan Horse 2 shoed by Dale Pulde, and a 1979 Mustang to close out the 1970s. Kevin Doheny was heir to the Doheny fortune, hooking up with Fullerton in 1969. Said Fullerton at the time, “He wanted to go racing but didn’t have the experience. I had plenty of that but was missing the one thing he had plenty of.” Fullerton was tragically killed as a passenger in a 1981 traffic accident.

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A Thousand Fathers

You know that saying, “A winner has a thousand fathers but a loser is an orphan?” Well, this winner we assume has quite a few involved in its build based on how many have signed their names in chalk. It was once a 1939 Plymouth sedan. We can’t say what it’s supposed to be now. We like the extra-added protection of a chain link fence shielding the exposed radiator, and the buckhorns protecting the roof vent. The Florida license plate figures prominently, but we won’t start with the Florida jokes. Well, except to say we sort of figured it might be from there, right all of you Florida HOT ROD enthusiasts?

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A key figure from HOT ROD Magazine’s past has died. Former HOT ROD Tech Editor Eric Dahlquist, who held that position in the mid-1960s before becoming editor of Motor Trend, died December 29, 2016. Covering a vast swath of new car and also racing coverage for HOT ROD, his drag racing background growing up in New York, his engineering training, and Tech Ed position put him in a unique advantage to help the car companies sell product through a car enthusiast’s eyes. This led to ever more tightened ties to the car companies, which made his move to Motor Trend so seamless, and ultimately his editorship a fait accompli. Joining the HOT ROD staff in June 1964, Dahlquist was told by Publisher Ray Brock that the engineers he met at the Big 4 that were his age would bring him up with them as their careers ascended, which is how it happened. So Dahlquist was at the bleeding edge of automotive technology and racing efforts.

Among the many stories he covered for HOT ROD were the first street Hemi in 1966, street racing on Woodward in Detroit, and then the barrage of muscle cars launched during the golden era of muscle cars, which continued at his time as Motor Trend’s editor. He stayed with MT through 1975, leaving to do a small custom publishing project for Chevrolet, along with former HOT ROD editor AB Shuman. After buying out Shuman’s half, this transformed to become the Vista Group, which became the West Coast reps for Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC and the GM Design Staff. The Vista Group also was responsible for vehicle placement for movies, TV and commercials.

HOT ROD was in a state of flux in the period following Wally Parks’ leaving to become NHRA head, and so Dahlquist was there at a time when someone with a strong background in what we hot rodders crave could write to us and for us to expand the HOT ROD gospel. God speed Eric Dahlquist.

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One of the titans of hot rodding, Nick Arias Jr., has died. Arias is synonymous with racing—especially drag racing. His 498ci Arias Hemi, based on the Chevy big block design with his own Hemi head, was and still is a staple of drag racing. First appearing as a 10-liter, it was the dominant engine used in boat racing and also tractor pulling. His Hemi head conversion business covered many engine families including the Chevy LS, while he also helped develop the New Century Aluminum racing engine.

Growing up in California, just blocks from downtown Los Angeles, his was the prototypical California hot rodder life, racing in the mid-1940s at the dry lakes and even being a witness to the first drag race in Goleta, California, in 1949. After getting drafted for the Korean conflict in the early 1950s, he worked first for Wayne Manufacturing, known for their Chevy and GMC 12-port straight-six racing heads. His time at Wayne taught him about piston and combustion chamber design, and also nitromethane, which he’d apply many times over the next 50 years.

Then came a stint at Al Sharp’s Sharp Speed and Power, known for their flathead Ford speed equipment. In 1953 he and Bob Toros started Venolia Piston Company, using Frank Venolia’s name because as Arias said, “Everyone knew Frank Venolia,” who had been making pistons for years right next door to Wayne. Throughout this time he also raced successfully at the dry lakes.

Conflicts with Soros and third partner Joe Pisano led to a split, with Arias selling his third to them. This opened the door for him to start Arias Pistons in 1969. Said Arias, “I ran some ads in HOT ROD and National Dragster, and all of my old customers I’d dealt with at Venolia started coming to me.”

In 1972 his “Hemi-Chevy” was ready, followed by the 10-liter in 1975 and 8.3 498ci Top Fuel and alcohol engines shortly thereafter. Since that time Arias developed new engines including the Arias 4-cylinder for USAC and Midgets, the Arias V6 Hemi, Arias Racing Boss 429, Howard 12-Port GMC head, New Century block, and his current LS and small block Ford Hemi heads.

Arias received the NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2005, and the SEMA Hall of Fame in 2012.

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