60's Drag Racing

[73ss454]

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!

 

[73ss454]

As a kid the first model I ever did was of this Stone, Woods and Cook Willys.

I just got my grand son a tin sign of it for his room. Cool!

 

[steve88]

what is powershifting?

 

[73ss454]

Listen to the sounds!

 

[73ss454]

what is powershifting?

Back in the day most of the drag cars were 4 speeds, unlike the automatics of today. You need to get into the next gear as quickly as possible which didn't leave a whole lot of time to use the clutch.

 

[73ss454]

 

[Zero]

OK, a test. Who was the 60's driver who had a little white Chevy II Nova and called it his Toy? Later he drove a Camaro by the same name.

Hint: At 0:52-0:55 of the first video, a car is staging and it says TUNED BY ________. That would be the answer.

 

[73ss454]

The Grump, and I didn't have to look.

 

[steve88]

Back in the day most of the drag cars were 4 speeds, unlike the automatics of today. You need to get into the next gear as quickly as possible which didn't leave a whole lot of time to use the clutch.

73 454 ss is a very rare car with hurst 4 speed. My best friend has a 72 ss 350 4 speed. The car was very fast.

I asked about power shifting , i just wondered if we are on the same page. Power shifting with cluth depressed while shifting? If so, that is skilled.

 

[73ss454]

73 454 ss is a very rare car with hurst 4 speed. My best friend has a 72 ss 350 4 speed. The car was very fast.

I asked about power shifting , i just wondered if we are on the same page. Power shifting with cluth depressed while shifting? If so, that is skilled.

The Hurst shifter did not come from the factory on the Muncie 4 speeds. Most guys put the Hurst shifter in afterwards.

Yes the 73 SS 454 is one of the rarest big block chevelles ever built. Only about 600 4 speeds were built that year. Other years from 66 to 72 there were about 60K+ big block 4 speeds made. By 1973 the muscle car era was over. 73 was also the last year for the SS.

When power shifting you have to touch the clutch to get into the next gear, but it's done very quickly, you don't fully depress the clutch pedal.

 

[Koolau]

The Hurst shifter did not come from the factory on the Muncie 4 speeds. Most guys put the Hurst shifter in afterwards.

Yes the 73 SS 454 is one of the rarest big block chevelles ever built. Only about 600 4 speeds were built that year. Other years from 66 to 72 there were about 60K+ big block 4 speeds made. By 1973 the muscle car era was over. 73 was also the last year for the SS.

When power shifting you have to touch the clutch to get into the next gear, but it's done very quickly, you don't fully depress the clutch pedal.

Nor do you take your foot off the gas (thus, the term "power"). So you hear the engine rev between each shift - especially dangerous (to the engine) if you have solid valve lifters - which won't "float" if you over rev durning the process. Important to have good shifter (e.g. Hurst), good clutch (with scatter shield) and accurate shifting. Missed shift - "bad".

When I saw the title of the video, my first impression was that it was about the US 30 drag strip near Merrillville, IN (Chicagoland). WLS and other Chicago stations used to run hundreds of radio spot ads for US30 Drag Strip every week during the "season". Went a few times and still enjoy hearing the old ads on WLS website's nostalgia area.

 

[steve88]

The Hurst shifter did not come from the factory on the Muncie 4 speeds. Most guys put the Hurst shifter in afterwards.

Yes the 73 SS 454 is one of the rarest big block chevelles ever built. Only about 600 4 speeds were built that year. Other years from 66 to 72 there were about 60K+ big block 4 speeds made. By 1973 the muscle car era was over. 73 was also the last year for the SS.

When power shifting you have to touch the clutch to get into the next gear, but it's done very quickly, you don't fully depress the clutch pedal.

AAHHH sorry! you are absolutely right about power shifting not depress on the clutch. It is the quickness of pressing the clutch and shifting hard. Where was my head tonight? If the clutch is depress the car would not go anywhere. Yes koolau was right you leave your foot on the gas and thats what I meant. I had those two mixed up.



I also meant the hurst is added on. Do you have cams on your 454?

 

[donheff]

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Edit: forgot the quote related to Sunday, Sunday, Sunday --

When I saw the title of the video, my first impression was that it was about the US 30 drag strip near Merrillville, IN (Chicagoland). WLS and other Chicago stations used to run hundreds of radio spot ads for US30 Drag Strip every week during the "season". Went a few times and still enjoy hearing the old ads on WLS website's nostalgia area.

 

[Koolau]

Where the great ones run!

 

[73ss454]

Back in the day I ran my 66 396 Chevelle with a Crane 310 cam with solid lifters and a Hurst shifter. I still have pictuers of the left front wheel off the ground during the hole shots. Ah to be young again!

 

[73ss454]

We had 2 Drag Strips on Long Island and they are both closed now. One was NY National and the other was West Hampton. Here is a clip of both and where I spent most of my weekends.

Linda Vaughn who was Miss Hurst, Dandy Dick Landy, Ronnie Sox and many others.

 

[HFWR]

Could never afford a muscle car. Heck, my current pickup is probably the fastest (quarter-mile fast) vehicle I ever owned. Lots of buddies had Roadrunners, Chevelles, etc, including a high school bud with a hemi-Challenger with two fours. Insanely powerful...

Do remember Big Daddy Garlits, Snake Prudhomme, Sox and Martin, Grumpy Jenkins...

 

[Ronstar]

Drag racing just isn't the same as it was back then. But Test & Tune nights (amateur nights) are a scream at Rte 66 Raceway

Test

Dragsters against station wagons (with the family inside), etc

 

[JOHNNIE36]

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!

 

[73ss454]

I remember Johnnie, how about Lil Red Wagon and Hemi Under Glass. I often thought the 1/4 mile wheelstand drivers were nuts.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

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".

 

[73ss454]

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.

 

[jayc]

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.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

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.

 

[jayc]

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?