Pomona Fairgrounds Dragstrip, May 1958
This is an impressive assemblage of Top Gas dragster competitors at the almost unrecognizable Pomona dragstrip at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. We can’t identify many, but we can see what they’re running, so we’ll give it a try.
At the far end, barely visible, is Mickey Thompson’s four-wheel-drive, twin-Chrysler-Hemi rail, then a Ford flathead, a multi-carbed Chevy straight-six, a blown flathead, a front-blown Pontiac OHV, an injected-Ardun overhead-converted Ford flathead, then a blown flathead, the Cyr and Hopper carbed Chrysler Hemi 146-mph dragster, and finally another flathead.
From our 2017 perspective, it would seem that by mid-1958, flathead Fords were obsolete and gone, but 25 years of abundant and cheap engines don’t evaporate in spite of the overhead onslaught. Flatheads were proven, and there was much tribal knowledge as well as abundant speed equipment available, so while the learning curve was ramping up for Chrysler Hemis and the new crop of GM overhead engines, the flatheads just kept humming—and winning races. But overheads were poised to take over and would soon deem this stout assemblage of drag-race slingshots as quaint.
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