The Power Line

The Power Line, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Staging lanes at the drag races.

A/FX

A/FX, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Factory Experimental was an offshoot of the Showroom Stock class. These were usually cars with prototype engines and other equipment combinations that weren't available from the factory. A/FX cars were even wilder, featuring altered wheelbases that pushed the center of gravity around for better traction. Wild cars.

Little Mouse

Little Mouse, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Launched in 1937, Fiat's original 500, the "Topolino" (Italian for "Little Mouse") was just about the smallest car you could build and still call a car. Powered by a sub-600cc four pot motor, the Topo put Italy on wheels, and remained in production in one form or another until the 50's. This is the classic earlier "Type A" style, which despite it's diminutive size was still an elegantly styled car. Well, until you chopped the body off and put it on an altered wheelbase drag chassis with a big V-8 sticking out the top.

That's one thing they don't talk about in the Fiat history books-the Topolino's racing history here in the States. Along with old American Bantam roadsters and English Ford Anglias, the Topo was a popular Altered and Gas class drag racer, due entirely to it's tiny size, which combined a low weight with a small frontal area to make a nice racing platform. Though plenty of genuine cars were chopped up, many of the Toplino Altereds were made with fiberglass replica bodies, like this mid sixties example.

Fun fact-you can still buy 'glass Topolino bodies today.

Instant Vintage

Instant Vintage, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A picture perfect T-bucket hot rod, imperfectly pictured.

Swindler II

Swindler II, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've talked about gassers once before, I think, so this week I'm just going to share a couple of shots of one of the most famous gassers of all time. The Stone-Woods-Cook team, along with "Ohio George" Montgomery and "Big John" Mazmanian, eventually came to both rule and define what made the perfect Willys gasser.

Owned by Fred Stone and Leonard Woods, Jr., and driven by Doug "Cookie" Cook, this car set numerous records in period, and won hundreds races during it's career. The team also was a rarity in the mid sixties, being one of the few racially integrated teams in racing. Owner Tim Woods (it was his son Leonard's name on the door, added to help keep young Lenny interested in the sport and out of trouble) was a succesful African-American businessman in the Los Angeles area, and formed a drag racing team with Fred Stone, a manager at his construction firm. Plenty of competitors had no idea that Woods was black, and in the end it really didn't matter as the team's results so often spoke for themselves.

Spirit of '65

Spirit of '65, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Spent the weekend channeling my inner Bob McClurg*. This '55 Chevy gasser was shot at Byron Dragway in rural Byron, Illinois, during a nostalgia drag race weekend. All old cars, nothing newer than 1965, no modern engines or billet wheels, no modern graphics, just classics and raw horsepower.

*famous drag racing photographer of the sixties and seventies.

Grumpy's Toy

Grumpy's Toy, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

With a no-nonsense attitude, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins was well known as a Mopar engine builder before starting his own Chevrolet team in the sixties. Running in the popular Super Stock classes, his "Grumpy's Toy" racers were always well presented and quick.

This is a well-done replica of "Grumpy's Toy IV", a Chevrolet Camaro.

D-Gas

D-Gas, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Stickers and writing in the quarter window of a beautifully presented '55 Chevy 150 gasser. Gas class racing started off to allow guys with hot street rods a place to race, but eventually it morphed into more modified, stock bodied racers. High straight axles, wide slicks, and colored plexiglass side windows were all hallmarks of a gasser. It's probably my favorite style of hot rod, even more than the classic roadster.

Factory Experimental

Factory Experimental, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Growing out of the Super Stock class (drag racing the family car!), Factory Experimental cars were heavily modified from stock. Big engines, blowers, straight axles, and altered wheelbases all featured to make these doorslammers real quarter mile weapons.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday

Super Stock, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Super Stock drag racing got it's start in the early sixties, and was a very popular class for about a decade, mainly because the cars were the same as the ones you could buy at your local dealer. Sort of.

Factory SS cars were in fact available from the dealership, but they were usually special order only and frequently were stripped out base models. The Plymouth Belvedere pictured here had thin van seats (they were lighter than a bench), no back seat (it's heavy), no heater or air conditioning (it's heavy), no radio (it's not heavy but you can't hear it over the engine anyway), no sound deadening (it's heavy), and no hubcaps (because you're likely to get rid of the wheels anyway). In short, they weren't nice places to be for more than a quarter mile at a time. Modifications were few, and limited mostly to safety equipment.

I have no idea if this Plymouth was a genuine Super Stock car back in the day, but it was very convincing if it's a clone. Everything was correct, and it looked and sounded great.

Slingshot

Drag racing has it's beginnings with the earliest speed contests-once someone went fast, someone else decided they could go faster, and pretty soon things evolved into head to head duels to see who could get to the finish line first. In America, the earliest races happened-like so many American car culture touchstones-in California, on the dry lakes that would soon become famous for speed trials and airbases. Four or five guys, in whatever they brought, would set off across the desert floor, and first across the line got bragging rights.

It was only the beginning, and after the Second World War the sport evolved into the two lane, quarter mile contests we know today. The hot rod clubs that sanctioned events set up classes, but for many years things were still very much "run what ya brung", and it was very common for a slick roadster to take it's driver to work during the week, only to be driven to the strip for weekend duty. Gradually, cars got more and more highly strung, interiors more stripped out, in the search for an elusive few tenths of a second, and they slowly evolved into specialized racers.

Some classes still had a pretense of using stock vehicles. Super Stock, funny cars, gassers, all still carried recognizable bodywork, but the top dogs all ran slingshots. These were cars distilled down to the basics-tubes welded together into a chassis, axles and wheels at each end, a seat, and a whacking great motor. Initially, these bare bones bombs had the engines in front of the drivers, where they always were, but by the early 70's, they started migrating to a spot just behind the pilot-much like Grand Prix and Indy racers were doing. The reasons were many, but mostly for safety-these beasts were highly strung, and having one blow up was much safer if it was behind you.



This is a vintage front engined rail, from Chassis Research, one of the famous designers of dragster chassis. It's beautifully presented, and period perfect.