Streamlining any race car is a seductive exercise you’ll find in everything from drag racing to Formula 1, and it seduces its fair share of luminaries as well as backyard racers. For years in the 1960s and early 1970s there were rumors “Big Daddy” Don Garlits was putting together a streamlined dragster based off of a fiberglass body made by Jocko Johnson, with a chassis by Connie Swingle. While this shot was taken in May 1972, it wasn’t until a year later that the “Wynns-Liner” made its debut at the 1973 AHRA Grand American meet at Orange County International Raceway. Interestingly, there was another streamlined dragster at the 1973 Grand American, this one from “Big” Jim Dunn that ran both as a rear-engine Funny Car, and then with its body switched over to the streamlined aluminum dragster body, it ran in Top Fuel.
Garlits was more than apprehensive about running his streamliner, saying he was “spooked” by its handling. He claimed it wanted to fly at half-track. During practice sessions with the black beauty, he said the slicks were spinning at more than 9,000 rpm the length of the strip, supporting his sense the car was lifting. Jocko said the opposite, claiming the body produced extreme downforce and couldn’t be lifting. Either way, Garlits wouldn’t pilot the dragster, choosing instead to plant Butch Maas in the seat, where he killed the car at half-track for his maiden-voyage, one-run ride.
Back in Florida, Garlits talked “Mad Dog” Don Cook into entering it at the IHRA World Finals at Lakeland. The darting dragster couldn’t get pointed straight and made it to half-track before shutting down.
Though Garlits would continue to experiment with aerodynamics through the years, trying wings, wheel pants, and cockpit covers, the spooky Wynns-Liner was soon parted out, never to run again.
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