Download or read book Drag Racing Funny Cars of the 1970s written by Wallace A Wyss and published by Enthusiast Books. This book was released on 2002-06-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: See the cars raced by many of the legendary names in drag racing, including Don Prudhomme, Tom McEuen and Jim Dunn. The authors include action shots, as well as clear, detailed "in the pits under-the-shell" shots. Photographs show various makes and models of cars that have been reconstructed as funny cars, plus everything from stock to modified Camaros, Mustangs, Javelins, Dodge Chargers, and Firebirds, to oddball exhibition cars like the "backwards pickup."
Download or read book Drag Racing Funny Cars written by Lou Hart and published by Enthusiast Books. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1960s, dealer-sponsored Super Stockers battled for supremacy on the quarter-mile and in the dealer showrooms. Evolving into the Factory Experimental class, these wild steel bodied, altered–wheelbase monsters were stuffed with massive fuel injected and supercharged engines that attracted crowds to the dragstrip! Legendary pioneers “Dyno” Don Nicholson, Jack Chrisman, Bill Shrewsberry, Butch Leal, Dick Landy, Arnie Beswick, Phil Bonner, Gas Ronda, Don Gay, Sox & Martin, Richard Petty, and many other A/FX stars were instrumental in the development of the funny car as it morphed from a heavy production car into seven-second 250mph aerodynamic fiberglass, tubular chassis missile. The popularity of funny cars led “Jungle Jim” Lieberman, Bill Lawton, Lew Arrington, Bill Flynn, Norm Kraus, and “Big” John Mazmanian to become household names. Tom ”Mongoose” McEwen, Don “Snake” Prudhomme, Tom Hoover, Kenny Safford, Terry Capp, John Force, Kenny Bernstein, Jake Johnston, Larry Reyes, Richard Tharp, Roland Leong, Randy Walls, Jess Tyree, Rich Siroonian and others who achieved success racing funny cars are all featured in over 300 incredible color and black and white photos.
Download or read book Burnout written by Jay Denan and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes those supercharged dragsters known as "funny cars" that have become a popular addition to drag racing.
Download or read book Drag Racing Gassers Photo Archive written by Lou Hart and published by Enthusiast Books. This book was released on 2007-05-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of drag racings very popular classes formed was the Gassers. During the `50s, Model A and 1932-`34 Fords were considered the hot set-up for these gas classes. Using Ford V-8 "flatheads" and later overhead valve engines, Gas Coupe and Sedan classes had to maintain stock wheelbases and the engine relocation was limited. By the mid-60s, it was rare to find an upper classed gasser with any other body make than Willys, Studebaker, Austin or Anglia. They were the stoutest full-bodied cars on strips nationwide. Touring teams ran four to six times every week, often traveling several hundred miles day and night to make their next dates. This was old school racing! However, interest waned as fliptop funny cars took over in popularity. The battles in A/GS (later AA/GS) ranks created many heroes and villains who etched their marks into drag racing history. Gassers shared with fans of the quarter mile one the most thrilling overall racecar types, and for an era that was all too short, they were literally the Kings of the Sport. Enjoy this photo book that takes you back to that time.
Download or read book Don The Snake Prudhomme My Life Beyond the 1320 written by Elana Scherr and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2020-10-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don "The Snake" Prudhomme reveals for the first time ever his incredible life and career on and off of the drag strip.
Imagine spending a year with Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, having coffee together and talking about his life, his racing, his friends, and his family. He’d tell you about how he rose from being a high school drop-out who was painting cars to a respected Top Fuel dragster driver and successful businessman. You’d hear how he toured the country with Tommy Ivo and "The Hawaiian" Roland Leong, racing all the legends from "Big Daddy" Don Garlits to "The Golden Greek" [Chris] Karamesines. He'd say how he met Tom McEwen and recall how they became the Snake and the Mongoose, leading to a career in Funny Cars that netted him four championships in a row. He'd talk about the thrill of first wins and owning his own teams but also the struggles of bad seasons, crashes and fires, broken parts, and broken contracts. Along the way, he’d speak about the people in his life, such as engine-builder Keith Black and NHRA president Wally Parks, and those who were killed in the wild and unpredictable sport of nitro racing. It wouldn’t be only racing, though. Prudhomme would share lessons he learned about business and life from such varied sources as a neighbor in Granada Hills to Ford GT40 driver Dan Gurney. He also would talk about the importance of family: how his wife, Lynn, and daughter, Donna, changed his world and how finding out about his African-American roots opened his eyes to a culture and inheritance he’d always wanted. This is the experience you’ll get in Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320.
Download or read book Early Funny Cars written by Lou Hart and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2022-04-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blast through the evolving early years of Funny Car drag racing when doorslammers morphed into flip-top rail monsters. The era features historic mounts from Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick, Al “the Flying Dutchman” Vanderwoude, "Jungle" Jim Liberman, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, and many more! The metamorphosis from doorslammers to fiberglass flip-top dragsters wasn’t ever a cut and dry plan. As drag racers pushed the envelope for more speed, a series of innovations quickly evolved and refined the genre. Funny Cars cut their teeth in the A/Factory Experimental (A/FX) and Experimental Stock (X/S) classes in 1964 with the 2-percent Mopars that looked funny with their axles moved forward. However, it was Jack Chrisman’s supercharged, nitro-fueled 427 Supercharged Factory Experimental (S/FX) Comet Caliente that trailblazed the class on which the NHRA turned its back and the AHRA fully accepted. Showmanship became the draw in the dawn of Funny Car with half-track burnouts and flame-throwing headers that packed fans five deep at the fence. By 1969, the NHRA had no choice but to create a class for these nitro-breathing, flip-top-sporting rail bruisers, indoctrinating the Funny Car (F/C) class at the Winternationals with 40 cars vying for 16 places in the field. The rest, as they say, is history!
Download or read book Pro Stock Drag Racing of the 1970s Photo Archive written by Howard V. Koby and published by Iconografix. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Howard V. Koby. Popular drivers like "Dandy Dick" Landy, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins, Ronnie Sox, Bob Glidden, Wally Booth, Wayne Gapp, Warren Johnson, "Dyno" Don Nicholson, Lee Hunter, Scott Shafiroff, Brad Yuill, Richie Zul, and many more are all showcased in drag race action in this door-slammer pictorial. A must for hardcore Pro Stock fans!
Download or read book Funny Car Fever written by Steve Reyes and published by Cartech. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There wasn't always a class for these "funny-looking" cars. In the mid 1960s, many of drag racing's fastest drivers were outgrowing the Super Stock and Factory Experimental classes, building cars that stretched and eventually broke the rules. Promoters discovered they could pair up these altered-wheelbase, injected, blown machines in exhibition match races--and the spectators came running. Rivalries were born, the Funny Car class was created, and the cars kept getting faster and faster. Funny Car Fever is a humorous, heart-felt, first-hand account of the most exciting and memorable years of the Funny Car class. Steve Reyes followed these fiberglass-bodied, nitro burning machines and their drivers from the years leading up to the creation of the Funny Car class through its halcyon days. He's included over 350 of his favorite images and more than a few never-before-heard stories to bring the feeling of the class and the era home to you.
Download or read book Drag Racing Fuel Altereds Photo Archive written by Lou Hart and published by Enthusiast Books. This book was released on 2007-04-27 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fuel Altered, one of the most brutal and exciting cars that ever covered the quarter mile, consisted of a wheelbase average less than 100 inches that was fitted with a blown-supercharged 1500-horsepower engine running on Nitro! With a low center of gravity, the Altered was often compared to a 4,000-pound raging bull, as the driver had all he could handle keeping these beasts on the track! From flatheads to Nitro-burning monsters, see daredevils Mooneyham & Sharp, Gabby Bleeker, John Forska, Willie Borsch, Dale Emery, Leon Fitzgerald, "Big" Glenn Way, Don Green, Sush Matsubara, Leroy Chadderton, and many more blaze the quarter mile to standing-room-only crowds!
Download or read book Diggers Funnies Gassers and Altereds written by Bob McClurg and published by Cartech, Incorporated. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains four hundred illustrated full-color as well as black and white photographs depicting the sport of drag racing through the 1960s and 1970s and includes information on the history and nostalgia of the sport.
Download or read book Drag Racing in the 1960s written by Doug Boyce and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2021-03-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1960s were a fascinating decade on the race scene. Relive the memories today through this wonderful new book. Drag racing has a long and storied history. Many have said that the first drag race happened shortly after the second car was made. While that may or may not be true, racing prior to World War II was mostly centered around dry-lake activities and top-speed runs. After the war, drag racing became organized with the formation of the NHRA, and during the 1950s, many tracks were built across America to accommodate the racers. Technology in the 1950s centered on the manufacturers updating old flathead designs into newer overhead-valve designs, and the horsepower race really started to heat up. In many forms of racing, the 1960s brought technological evolution. The decade began with big engines in even bigger stock chassis and ended with purpose-built race-only chassis, fiberglass bodies, fuel injection, nitro methane, and blowers. Quarter-mile times that were in the 13-second range in the beginning of the decade were in the 7-second range by the end. New classes were formed, dedicated cars were built for them, and many racers themselves became recognized names in the sports landscape. In Drag Racing in the 60s: The Evolution in Race Car Technology, veteran author Doug Boyce takes you on a ride through the entire decade from a technological point of view rather than a results-based one. Covered are all the classes, including Super Stocks, Altered Wheelbase cars (which led to Funny Cars), Top Fuelers, Gassers, and more.
Download or read book Hubert Platt written by Allen Platt and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Webster's Dictionary lists the term showman as "a notably spectacular, dramatic, or effective performer." In the art of drag racing, Hubert Platt checked all boxes. Known as the "Georgia Shaker," Platt cut his motoring teeth on the long straightaways and twisty back roads of South Carolina while bootlegging moonshine. After a run-in with the law in 1958, Platt transferred his driving skills from illegal activity to sanctioned drag racing and began one of the most dominant runs in drag racing history until his retirement in 1977. After stints in 1957, 1938, and 1962 Chevrolets, Platt's next ride was a Z11 Impala, which carried his first "Georgia Shaker" moniker. Once Chevrolet pulled out of sanctioned racing, Platt found a new home with Ford for 1964 and remained there until he hung up his helmet. Some of the cars he campaigned became icons in their own right. His factory-backed and personal machines included a 1963 Z11 Impala, 1964 Thunderbolt, 1965 Falcon, 1966 Mustang Funny Car, 1967 Fairlane 427, 1968-1/2 Cobra Jet, 1969 CJ Mustang, 1970 427 SOHC Mustang, and 1970 Boss 429 Maverick. A 1986 NHRA Hall of Fame member, Platt's lasting legacy on the sport can’t be denied. Whether he was launching his Falcon with the door open, conducting a Ford Drag Team seminar, or posting low E.T. at the 1967 US Nationals in his Fairlane, Platt's imprint on drag racing was all-encompassing. His son and biggest fan, Allen Platt, shares his dad's iconic career in, Hubert Platt: Fast Fords of the "Georgia Shaker"!
Download or read book Snake Vs Mongoose How a Rivalry Changed Drag Racing Forever written by Tom Madigan and published by . This book was released on with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Southern California Funny Cars written by Steve Reyes and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southern California was the birthplace of organized drag racing, with the first organized race held at the Santa Ana airport in 1949 and the subsequent founding of the National Hot Rod Association in 1950. Over the next decade and a half, the dragster became the king of the quarter mile on Southern California drag strips. In 1964, veteran dragster owner/driver Jack Chrisman had an idea for something different to grace Southern California's drag strips. It was not a dragster but a stock-bodied race car using nitromethane for fuel in a supercharged engine. With the help of Gene Mooneyham, Mercury's Fran Hernandez, and sponsor Helen Sachs, Chrisman put together the world's first nitro-burning "funny car." It was a steel stock-bodied Mercury Cyclone with a supercharged 427 Ford engine running on pure nitromethane. Chrisman started the evolution that soon turned stock steel-bodied cars into fiberglass-bodied tube chassis funny cars. Southern California drag racers began to lead the way for racers all over the United States in the new funny car class.
Download or read book Quarter mile Chaos written by Steve Reyes and published by Cartech. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Quarter-Mile Chaos" looks at the treacherous side of drag racing's golden age. Almost 200 rare and stunning photographs from the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s capture terrifying fires, explosions, and crashes, all by-products of the quest to go faster. "Quarter-Mile Chaos" is full of up close and personal documentation of the perilous task of reaching the 1,320-foot mark first. Armed with just a couple cameras and some film, veteran drag racing photographer Steve Reyes shot some of the most dramatic and eye-catching pictures of these quarter-mile warriors. Reyes roamed the nation's hazardous strips in search of the perfect action photo. The result is some of the most breathtaking drag racing imagery ever recorded depicting out-of-control demolition and devastation during drag racing's most entertaining era.
Download or read book The Cars of Trans Am Racing 1966 1972 written by David Tom and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2020-04-23 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legendary history of the pony car wars comes to life in this softcover edition of The Cars of Trans-Am Racing. The SCCA Trans-Am Racing Series launched in 1966 and was designed to showcase a new class of sporty domestic cars racing on road courses. Each major automotive manufacturer participated heavily in the Trans-Am Series, and in a few short years, it became the ultimate American automobile showdown. When the modified muscle cars of the series were seen performing well on the country’s finest tracks, fans wanted a model of their own in the driveway. These "pony cars" boasted a new look and style not seen before, and their all-around performance eclipsed anything accomplished by production-based American GT cars up to that point. This softcover edition of The Cars of Trans-Am Racing is unique in that it focuses on the cars used in this legendary series. These vintage Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, Barracudas, Firebirds, Cougars, and Javelins all are extremely popular with collectors and enthusiasts today. Seeing them in their “full-competition” versions when they were new will bring back many fond memories for those who were fans of this series. In addition, enthusiasts who enjoy these cars today look to the Trans-Am Series cars for styling inspiration and performance hints as part of the growing Pro Touring trend. Many of these historic cars have been restored to race-ready condition. Additional insight and interviews from the original builders and the teams that maintained the cars provide an insider’s viewpoint never before seen in print.
Download or read book Quarter Mile Corvettes 1953 1975 written by Steve Holmes and published by CarTech Inc. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Re-live Corvette’s early years at the drag strip! Famously known as “America’s sports car,” the Chevrolet Corvette came to market in 1953. That same year, the newly established National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) hosted its first event. The Corvette was never intended for quarter-mile drag racing, and it appeared to be completely at odds with the sport. Early equipment included an underpowered Blue Flame 6-cylinder motor and automatic transmission. But somehow, the two have become forever entwined. The Corvette brought an element of class and style to drag racing. On the showroom and on the street, it has always been unique. It is truly American. Likewise, the uniqueness that sets it apart from everything else also meant that it had no natural competition on the drag strip. However, that fact didn’t dampen enthusiasm. Indeed, the NHRA and other governing bodies introduced Sports Car divisions in the late 1950s, catering to both stock and modified vehicles. Naturally, these classes were packed with Corvettes. Racing historian Steve Holmes breaks new ground by unearthing the complete early history of the Corvette in drag racing. Quarter-Mile Corvettes focuses on the period from 1955 to 1975, which spans the first 20 years of Corvette V-8 production. Fittingly, this was also the era considered by many to be the greatest in drag racing’s history, and Corvettes encapsulated the vibrancy of the period in a way that will never be repeated. Certainly, Chevrolet never intended for the Corvette to become a quarter-mile terror, but today, its nameplate has become one of the longest running in all of drag racing.
