the difference between running a hemi on gas, and NITRO

1st time I've ever seen a Gurney Weslake in a slingshot dragster!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10220747459716623&set=gm.2450304588496110&idorvanity=527146584145263

Once there was a time when drag racers could build anything that wasn't mentioned in the rules... then Vance Hunt pissed off the rule makers, and they made a new rule: "If it does not say you CAN do it, you CAN'T"

This is really a twin engine dragster... that is some fuel go-cart engine that spun the blower. I shit you not. The belt came off and that's when the dragster was put on the trailer.

Why? To win in the "twin engine" class they once had. 

At the AHRA Labor Day Weekend Nationals in 1961, they had a field of over 32 cars qualifying for the 32 car "A" fuel class. They had three or four cars for the "AA" twin engine class. In eliminations, the twin cars made two runs and then waited for us to make five runs and use up our engines. The two classes met in the final. That didn't seem fair to me.

I decided in 1962 to run the AA class. I got a fuel go-cart engine from a friend, adapted it to the front of my 392 Hemi, and sat down with a rulebook to make it legal. I covered it up with a blanket so as not to cause a problem until qualifying started.

We made the first round of qualifying and my driver JL Payne ran a very good pass with both engines. We pulled back into the pits and in about six or eight minutes, Tice showed up and he was so mad. He said, "Take it OFF." I told him that his own tech people said it met every rule in the book. He said, "If you run "IT," your car will RED LIGHT!"

I took the engine off and won the race that year. This is one of my deals that worked out OK. I won the race and got my point across. After that, we didn't have to race a bunch of also-ran cars after the real race to get the money.

Early the next season, Tice brought me the new rulebook and told me that it was written for me -- on each page it said, "If it does not say you can do it, you can't."

https://www.draglist.com/stories/SOD%20Feb%202002/SOD-022102.htm

thank you George!

a T Bucket obsession facebook page is loaded with cool hot rods

https://www.facebook.com/modeltobsession

imagine if any adult only sport was this focused on trying to get young people with no money to emulate it... lol, what a goofy time the 60s were

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/traditional-images-that-need-no-explanation.1143737/page-38#post-13336724

cool photo

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/traditional-images-that-need-no-explanation.1143737/page-27#post-13221439

wouldn't it be cool to have one for the swap meet!!

loving the big Dodge push truck too

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=801127778690247&set=a.717965483673144

gotta love a matched set

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=776414504494908&set=a.717965483673144

the dragster and trailer were located in 2020

https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/dean-moons-aa-fuel-dragster-found-43-years/

the 1961 NHRA US nats

Wes Allison photographed the Nitro Revival at Irwindale

see the whole gallery at https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/nitro-revival-photos-epic-shots-from-the-most-bad-ass-nitro-celebration-ever/

built by Don Long

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2022/10/what-family.html

Bristol Dragway in June of 1965

 

Look at the rims... that's unusual!

John Holman and Honest Charlie

http://blog.virginiaclassicmustang.com/2020/05/bristol-spring-nationals-june-1965-drag.html

Spokane 1959

 http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=5202.2145

Mickey Thompson only needed 2 cylinders and moxie, to set speed records. He didn't even have a damn CNC to mill parts. He didn't have computers to work out fuel maps, etc.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/808547945893612?multi_permalinks=5090489987699365&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

I wish this fit the banner shape better

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1248#post-3397627

such crisp focus!

 http://www.backroads.ie/forum/car-related/r-roads/81-random-picture-thread?p=787934#post787934

the dragster pop art of Gerald Laing, late 1960s

From Dragsters, a 1968 portfolio of five prints, an original screenprint in colours on smooth wove paper, signed Gerald Laing in pencil lower right and numbered from the limited edition of 150

At the beginning of the 1960s, Laing was introduced to artists in New York City. He met Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Rosenquist and Robert Indiana. After art school he moved to the US. Laing's career took him from the avant-garde world of 1960s pop art, through minimalist sculpture, followed by representational sculpture and then back full circle to his pop art roots.

Deacceleration 1 and 3

see about 60 of his art pieces at https://www.moma.org/artists/3344?=undefined&page=6&direction=fwd

https://www.twentiethcenturyprints.com/product/gerald-laing-20-017

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gerald-laing-b-1936-108-c-ode4zcijig

https://www.modernprints.co.uk/products/gerald-laing-deceleration-i-from-dragsters

https://wikioo.org/paintings.php?refarticle=AE3MP4&titlepainting=Deacceleration%20

Laing, after graduating from art school,  moved to New York permanently. It was then that the love affair with the ‘Coffee Grinder’ – a Ford Roadster-based hot rod – begun. “He’d just travelled round the States on a Vincent Black Shadow with my mother in the mid-1960s,” explains Sam. “Upon his return to New Jersey, he pulled up at some traffic lights, and beside him was this hot rod. My father said ‘nice car’, and the chap replied ‘nice bike’, and they swapped there and then.

Later, Laing became disillusioned with the US – namely following JFK’s assassination and the Vietnam War ­– and returned to England, ‘Coffee Grinder’ in tow. Nicknamed after its creator Adam Coffee, it became one of the first hot-rods to be imported into the UK. It no doubt caused quite a stir in London, where Laing could be frequently seen crossing Tower Bridge or parked outside the Horse Guards Parade. “He had it for a good couple of years,” recalls Sam, “then there was a bit of a déjà vu moment: he was driving around Hyde Park, pulled up at some lights, and ended up swapping it with a chap in a souped-up Ford Cortina.”

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/art/gerald-laing-hot-rod-driving-pop-artist

Gerald Laing, The Loner, 1969. Whereabouts unknown.

 

Lotus in the Sunset was commissioned by David Lockton, together with its identically-sized sister painting The Loner, to adorn the walls of the Victory Circle Club at the Ontario Motor Speedway. Hung on opposite walls, the paintings pitted the legendary British Lotus driven by Jackie Stewart against the American dragster driven by Tony Nancy – nicknamed ‘The Loner’ due to his ability to practically field a car by himself. The speedway’s proposed site had been subdivided into parcels of land owned by 150 individuals, many of them Hollywood celebrities. It is through this environment and his close friendship with the likes of Tony Curtis that Laing is thought to have received the commission. The Victory Circle Club was a pioneering private members’ club, hosting the likes of Kirk Douglas, James Garner and Steve McQueen.

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6340162

the crew of the Yellow Fang!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by-part-2.1154030/page-936#post-13876677