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Old 09-04-2010, 05:50 AM   #21
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I remember Johnnie, how about Lil Red Wagon and Hemi Under Glass. I often thought the 1/4 mile wheelstand drivers were nuts.
I think they were nuts also. A lot of the featured drags were a night at the US 131 Dragway and one night I saw the LA Dart total out during one of his wheel stands. My favorite have always been the "funny cars".
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Old 09-04-2010, 07:37 AM   #22
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In parts of the clips I posted you can see some of the altered wheel base cars which are my favorite. These were the 1st funny cars. They were named funny cars because of the altered wheel bases where all the wheels were moved forward. The rear wheels were moved the furthest forward.
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Old 09-04-2010, 08:03 AM   #23
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Boy does this thread bring back a lot of memories. I was doing my own thing back as early as the late 50's at an old drag strip in Kentucky called Thorn Hill, just over the river from Cincinnate. Running a stock 51 Ford flat head. Doing it just for fun. Then got out of it until the late 60's up in Michigan. Spent a lot of time going to the drags at US 131 Martin Dragway. Big names where always there. Anybody remember the showtime cars doing wheel stands like the LA Dart? And then doing them backwards like the "Backup Pickup"?
Just tricked up cars but neat. I still check them out now and then on the tube. Big
money!
My uncle used to run 59 Chevy at Tri-State in Hamilton. Ohio. Tri-state is still there and still runnin this weekend.
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Old 09-04-2010, 06:13 PM   #24
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My uncle used to run 59 Chevy at Tri-State in Hamilton. Ohio. Tri-state is still there and still runnin this weekend.
Hamilton, Ohio is where I really got interested in hot rods, drag racing and customizing cars. I was a student in college and worked at the old Fisher Body Division in that town. Lot of guys I hung around with were into rods and customizing and one of them worked at a body shop. That's where all the work was done, sometimes late into the night. This was middle fifties. Rodding was just getting a good start. I didn't have the money to put into engines so I devoted me efforts to customizing the body. If I knew how to post photos, I'd put some up from the fifties. I don't remember the Tri-State dragstrip unless it was the one out by the airport. Never ran there. All my friends used to travel to Thorn Hill in KY.
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Old 09-04-2010, 06:25 PM   #25
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Hamilton, Ohio is where I really got interested in hot rods, drag racing and customizing cars. I was a student in college and worked at the old Fisher Body Division in that town. Lot of guys I hung around with were into rods and customizing and one of them worked at a body shop. That's where all the work was done, sometimes late into the night. This was middle fifties. Rodding was just getting a good start. I didn't have the money to put into engines so I devoted me efforts to customizing the body. If I knew how to post photos, I'd put some up from the fifties. I don't remember the Tri-State dragstrip unless it was the one out by the airport. Never ran there. All my friends used to travel to Thorn Hill in KY.
Small world. His name was George and he won lots of trophys at Tri-state. Most of my family worked at Fisher and Champion. Did you go to Miami or UC?
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Old 09-04-2010, 06:35 PM   #26
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Small world. His name was George and he won lots of trophys at Tri-state. Most of my family worked at Fisher and Champion. Did you go to Miami or UC?
I was an engineering student at General Motors Institute and sponsored by the Fisher Body Division in Hamilton, Ohio. The school is no longer owned and operated by GM, but still maintains ties. It is now called Kettering University, located in Flint, MI. Graduated in 1959. I spent 34 years with the company and retired in 1988. Coming up on 23 years of retirement.
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Old 12-21-2010, 06:51 PM   #27
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Just in the mood to bring back some memories.

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Old 12-21-2010, 07:30 PM   #28
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Jungle Pam. Many many memories here. Watched Shirley Muldowney do licensing runs at Cayuga Ontario in the 70's Many other big names there at that time also including Tommy Ivo, Connie Kalitta, and Don Garlits
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Old 12-21-2010, 07:52 PM   #29
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Good news 'Bruce, you can still get Jungle Jim and Jungle Pam T-Shirts. Although I think Jungle Pam will look better in it than you.
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Old 12-22-2010, 06:23 AM   #30
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Good news 'Bruce, you can still get Jungle Jim and Jungle Pam T-Shirts. Although I think Jungle Pam will look better in it than you.
Have to agree with you there. You can probably still get a lot of the old souvenir stuff if you dig around a little. I just remembered the first time I saw a top fuel that did not require a push start. I was amazed. I don't remember who it was though.
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Old 12-22-2010, 09:08 AM   #31
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It was actually pretty cool when they push started them. In NY at NY National Speedway on LI they used to push them down the return road and they'd fire up right in front of the crowd. You could almost reach out and touch the cars.
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Old 12-22-2010, 10:42 PM   #32
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I don't know how many motor heads are on the forum but this is cool.
Reminds me of drag racing my 66 396 chevelle back in the day. There is not too many things more exciting that power shifting your 4speed down the 1/4 mile.

About a minute in on the clip there's a camera in the car with the driver power shifting. Really cool!
Your posts brought a smile to my face. I still have one car that I built for the strip back in that era. In 1962 I bought '36 Ford 5 window coupe. Built an early big block Olds bored and stroked to 447in, 10 percent setback (gasser), 6-71, B&M hydro. It has been dormant for many decades. Thinking seriously of refurbishing it for street duty.
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Old 12-22-2010, 11:37 PM   #33
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I like this guy's story. What a way to ER, umm err LR. I think I saw something saying he's still going strong in his 80's.
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Old 12-23-2010, 07:07 AM   #34
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I like this guy's story. What a way to ER, umm err LR. I think I saw something saying he's still going strong in his 80's.

I saw him run at Grand Bend and Cayuga (now Toronto Motorsports Park) the year before last. Looks like he is in his fifties.

A little bit of information I found a few years ago on top fuel cars will help explain why those of us who have seen these monsters run will never forget it. You have to see it live.

* One NHRA Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than all the cars in the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½ gallons of nitro methane per second; a fullyloaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.

* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

* In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.
* The Bottom Line; assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta)


These records have edged up a little but NHRA is currently running a 1000 foot race instead of1320 due to some unfortunate accidents.

Bruce
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Old 12-23-2010, 07:09 AM   #35
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Put another way.

Imagine this: You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree'goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.

Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.


Ouch
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Old 12-23-2010, 09:09 AM   #36
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Packrat, on your last post take a look about 1:56 seconds in and watch the guy power shifting. This is Dave Strickler and he's running a Grumpy Jenkins prepared car here. There is nothing that is cooler than that. I can remember running my big block chevelles back in the day and that was me!

Today everyone is running automatics. Watching Pinks, it looks like these guys are getting on the highway. No power shifting, no fun.
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