If Junior Brogdon’s “Phony Pony” Funny Car looks odd in this shot from the NHRA Winternationals in 1968, you should see it from the side. There was a time in the go-go days of Funny Cars when everyone wanted into the act. When you had a dragster, but thought you might like to try a Funny Car, you could always throw a rather long body onto your dragster and call it Phony Pony, which is what Brogdon did. Similar conversions were done to Fuel Altereds and also Gassers. Even more unique about this particular mash up was that Junior ran a myriad of engine combos including sometimes two injected Ford 289ci engines, and sometimes one 289 that could be carbureted, injected, or blown. Neither fish nor fowl, Brogdon had a hard time finding match races, instead running single pass “bye” runs, open events, or the occasional match race. Besides the snub from racers, tracks and fans, the Pony had a habit of breaking more often than not. Running a blown small block Ford engine, his best time was 8.36 at 165mph.
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