The World’s Fastest Hippie – Go ahead and Inhale

At the Grand National Roadster Show, one exhibition hall, #9 I think, always has a theme.  Last year, it was former America’s Most Beautiful Roadster winners. The hall was filled with with AMBR winning roadsters from back when the show was still in Oakland, CA. This year, the theme hall was the “History of the Race Car”. I just published another story about the Drag Race cars in this hall, but this one’s just about this 1969 Corvette named, “Revolution” and owned by the late Mike Mitchell.

In a hall filled with wild race cars, this one, as you can see stands out. The paint is fantastic!  The “Fastest Hippie” theme is carried out throughout the car with the psychedelic rainbow patterns on the side then the jumbo hookah on the hood and the zig-zag man near the cockpit. I bet Mike was alot of fun! (click on these pics to see them full size)

Researching for this story, I found a bit more info about Mike Mitchell, and about his passing in 2000. The story’s written by Phil Elliot at our friend Draglist.com.  The story’s called, “Farewell to the Hippie” and tells about Phil’s experience helping out at a drag race in Boise. Phil writes:

Anyway, I started the day in my wildest of hippyesque red, white and blue bell-bottoms, which had no back pockets. My wallet went on the dashboard of the truck — soon the wallet was gone with every cent I had. Not a good feeling 12 hours from home.

It’s a cool story, check it out.

Still looking, I found a video.  It’s a pretty serious look at Mike getting ready to race his equally wild painted Cuda funny car with, “Impeach Nixon” lettered on the back.  With pull-top Oly sipping spectators looking on, you’re treated to a smoky burnout at the end.

Is that exactly how you don’t really remember it? Any stories you can share about Mike and his rides? We’d love to hear them!

Nostalgia Drag Race History from 2010 GNRS

You can almost smell the tires burning cruising through the “History of the Race Car” hall at the 2010 Grand National Roadster Show.  The exhibit, of course featured drag racer from the way-back-machine, especially my favorite: Nose in the air gassers!

Getting up-close and personal with the “Outer Limits” Mopar, I’m reminded of a buddy who saw his first altered wheelbase A/FX’r and asked, “Who’d do that?!”  That’s exactly why I love them! Make noise, look near ridiculous and have more fun than anyone! I want one, and some day I’ll get it.  I might have to build my 61 Rambler American wagon as a gasser. Low-buck, fast and loud = funner-mostess.

Continuing my stroll, I found the, “Fastest un-blown Ford V-8 powered dragster running in National Nostalgia Drag Racing.” …and it’s driven by a woman named Kathy Lloyd out of Castro Valley, CA. According to their show card, the car was built in 1969, then restored in ’85, then back-halfed in 1996, no doubt to return to racing. Safety rules have changed, juuuuussst a little since 1969. Running on a cocktail of 85% Nitro and 15% methanol, this 286 cubic inch flattie’s best speed is 158.337 mph at 8.94 seconds. Go Kathy!

Next up? Another sky-scraping injector stacked hemi in a 1941 Willys. The lettering on this old racer belonging to long time Willys racers, the Reinero Bros. out of Merced, CA is terrific! Did this car race at the same time as the flamboyant “Hippie” Corvette we covered? here’s a closeup of the lettering on the back…

Sticking with the Willyseze’ (plural of Willys if you’re wondering) this is the legendary Stone, Woods and Cook racer. I won’t say much about the “Gasser War” dominating car right now, but watch for a story about this with the help of the current co-owner Joe Troilo. Joe held onto the original race gear, undisturbed in his garage for over 20 years until it was all put back into this, the original race car.

Talking drag racing from the way back, it shouldn’t surprise you to find yet another Willys, this time the sedan variety, set next to something I don’t see enough of: A gasser styled model A roadster.  This is a race I would love to have seen.

You probably noticed the trophies next to the Reinero Bros car. Here’s a few more. Remember when the trophies were made of metal, marble and real wood? What looks like a spider web is a metal wire securing all the trophies. I’m sure they’re priceless to the owner.

Although not the gasser style, no talk of drag racing history would be complete without mentioning the earliest “rail jobs” that were nothing more than an engine, frame and wheels. With nothing left to strip out of it, they started cutting holes in said frame to lose more weight. Safe no, fast yes. There’s a special place in the driver’s compartment to store and protect the over-sized rollers the driver needed.

Finally, in all it’s beauty, “The Bug”.  This stripped down lakes race car built by Dick Kraft is as simple as it gets.  The Encyclopedia Britannica (yea, you read that right!) says, “Kraft’s obsession with weight extended to peeling of his T-shirt!” Good for 109.09 mph and top speed at Santa Ana in 1950, you’re looking at the birth of the dragster and the shock of moms across all of California!

Our friends at Speedhunters.com also got some great pictures from the “History of the Race Car” hall. Check out their GNRS coverage here.

Anything you like? Let us know in a comment below.

Project 1320 – Capturing Drag Racing’s Storied Past

Keep your eyes and ears open for Project 1320 described in the press release below, you’ll be glad you did.  The project’s goal is simple. Get the facts about the how, why and where drag racing started and how it developed over the years from a first hand perspective of the people who were there. Traci Hrudka is the chairman for this project and comes from a long line of drag racing herself. Traci’s uncle Joe and father Tom Hrudka started the great Mr. Gasket empire. (Click on the picture to see them full size)

Look closely at these pictures taken from Traci’s page at the community she’s making for Project 1320. Notice the “Hrudka Bro’s” and “Mr. Gasket” proudly displayed on the side? Traci worked at the family business for 20 years and in her words, “Boy do I have some stories!” That’s what this project is about. An “oral history” of everyone from the legends like Don Garlits to the no name grassroots fellas (and ladies!) that made drag racing what it is. I can’t wait to hear more about this project and keep you posted along the way.

Project 1320 to chronicle drag racing’s pioneers

Documentaries to provide an oral history of the sport

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Contact: Traci Hrudka
Quarter Mile Entertainment, LLC
Phone: 440.888.0088/Hrudka@sbcglobal.net

Parma Heights, Ohio – Drag racing fans have long had a desire to learn about the birth of the sport from the legends and heroes of the formative years.
To this point, there has been a patchwork of efforts but without an integrated approach to tell the story of how men and women with mechanical talent, fearless determination and skill built the cars and events to capture the glory of being the quickest and the fastest down 1320 feet of asphalt.

The focus of Quarter Mile Entertainment LLC (QME) and its Project 1320 is to capture first person narratives about the life and times of these early heroes…from the period immediately after World War II through to the beginning of the “modern era”. The narratives of the sport’s pioneers will be supported with still images and home movies of the period to deliver the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” of the times.

At the heart of the project is the goal to produce a series of high quality documentary films centering on the individuals, manufacturers, sanctioning bodies and the behind the scenes people…what it took to bring this great sport to its current level. The individuals and manufacturers who will be a part of this series will include many household names but will also include many of the “lesser-knowns” whose contributions have faded in our minds, but who helped launch the sport, nurtured it through its early growth and finally saw it become a major motorsport. The goal is to place the series on a cable network to expose the greatest number of viewers to why and how this sport has grown in popularity.

“Our greatest concern is to capture the stories and personal perspectives of the legends of the sport that are still living,” says Traci Hrudka, chairman of Quarter Mile Entertainment. “We have lost a tremendous number of these people over the years, and time is running out to capture those oral histories in a digital format. If we ever want to do this, now is the time!”

The initial effort will be to provide an overview of the historical perspective of the sport – the key people and moments…the passion and the blood, sweat and tears it took to evolve the sport from a grassroots, never quit, “run whatcha brung” level to the point where corporate America and thousands of racers are involved on a weekly basis. It will also touch on how successful racers became successful business owners, supporting the racers with the products needed to get the finish line quicker and faster.

The blueprint for Project 1320 calls for a breaking down of the sport’s dramatic growth…by decades, the evolution of today’s major classes of competition, plus a look at the growth of the racing parts aftermarket, the influence of automaker participation and the support of corporate America, the historic race tracks and their owners and how the ideas of a small handful of men and women created the sanctioning bodies that have guided the sport.

The early grassroots support of Project 1320 has been amazing, fed by a word of mouth, internet-based network of old racers. A significant number of fans and racers have volunteered their home movies and pictures to this project. These images and movies will be digitized and archived for future use, as well as the first person interviews. The archives will provide much of the resource material for the subsequent project episodes.

Project 1320 will be seeking both corporate and grassroots support to document drag racing’s historic moments and personalities. The “Friends of Project 1320” program will soon be launched to allow individuals to help produce this undertaking, and to build additional support.

The Board of Directors of QME hope the project will generate even more support by fans and racers who uncover their personal archives of yesterday and share it with future generations of fans and racers.

The Board of Directors of Quarter Mile Entertainment LLC consists of: Traci Hrudka (Chairman), Harry Hibler, Don Garlits, Steve Cole and Wayne Wolfe. The Board of Directors is assisted by an Advisory Board of Wally Booth, Darwin Doll, Don Ewald, Carl Olson, Stephen Krystek and Bill Pratt.

NOTE: The Project 1320 website at www.project1320.com. Check it out, sign-up and if it moves you, donate to the cause!

All photos courtesy of Traci Hrudka

Vintage Front Engine Dragster with a Six!

Leaving hard at Speedworld’s Nostalgia Drags, this inline 6 powered Nostalgia Dragster’s different but so right!

I bumped into Wayne and this cool front engine dragster at the Nostalgia Drags here in AZ at Speedworld. Always on the lookout for something different, I couldn’t help but notice the the six cylinder, a not-so-obvious choice for an engine, let alone in a vintage dragster.

Travelling into Arizona from Alamogordo, NM for the drags, here’s some info about Wayne’s digger:

I decided to build an inline car because I raced my Flathead car with the Denver Flathead Inline guys and saw there weren’t many “Late inline” dragsters and when there were, they all ran Chevys… so I thought about the best engineered inline and came up with the Ford. (12 port head and very Strong bottom end).

• Chassis: 1968 Race Car Engineering (Woody Gilmore) 182″ wheelbase.
• Engine: 1975 Ford 300 cu in, bored .030 with Weisco flat top forged pistons with zero deck clearance.
• Crankshaft: is out of an F-650 which is steel.
• Rods: Crower H- beam.
• Cam and lifters: Crower (flat tappet)
• Head: From a 240 cu in Ford (much smaller chamber than a 300) that I ported and put in Chev. 1.94 and 1.60 stainless valves and added some BBChev. Crower roller rockers.
• Injection: Hilborn which came off a 351 Winsdor. Modified, by me to work on the six.
• Exhust: zoomies I made and are 1 3/4 X 18″ long.
• Ignition: Vertex Magneto with rare earth magnets
• Transmission: Powerglide with 1.82 ratio gears and 3000 stall converter and trans brake.
• Rear: Chrysler 8 3/4 with 3.91 gears with 11 1/2 X 31″ tires.
• Weight: 1190 lb. without fuel and driver.

Cars best time was 9.34 @ 134.

I couldn’t run under 10 sec. this weekend at Speedworld because the Chassis certification had expired in Nov. 08.

Unfortunately, I did a dumb thing… when I built the car, I never took any pics, not until it was done. Looking back, I bought the chassis out of New Brunswick Canada in 2004 and had to replace the right top rail as they had bashed it out to fit a Big Block Chevy. After that, I ended up rebuilding everything on the chassis.

I don’t have any history on the car but through other Std. 1320 members we have pinned it down to a 1968 or 69. I found evidence of old Chrysler mounts and I’m sure it was high gear only with a double disc clutch. That Chrysler rear axle appears to be original.

I’m strictly into nostalgia cars and don’t like the looks of a RED.

Thanks for the info Wayne! The six looks great and a 9.34 ain’t slow! Good luck with future races…

Got a front engine dragster? Whether you know the history or not, let us know!

80 Icons of Speed and Style All For Sale

As much as we love our home-built cars that we’ve poured blood, sweat, and sometimes tears into – most of us recognize we don’t have the skill or talent to produce cars along the caliber that greats such as Boyd Coddington, Ed Roth, Harry Bradley, and the Alexander Brothers do. Which is why its such good news that coming this September we all have a chance to own one of these “Icons of Speed and Style”. Yep, that’s right. Nearly 80 cars, all from a single-owner collection, will be up for grabs in a no-reserve auction billed “Icons of Speed and Style” held September 26, 2009 at The Peterson Museum in Los Angeles, California by RM Auctions. Whether its speed, style, or history you’re into, this well-rounded collection offers it all.

Legendary cars such as the famous Dodge “Little Red Wagon” wheel-standing drag truck, the dominating Ray Allen LS6 Chevelle Convertible, legendary “Big John” Mazmanian’s Corvette gasser, the original “Road Agent” show car by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth as well as famous customs from the Ayala Brothers, Sonny Mazza, the Alexander Brothers, George Barris, Daryl Starbird and Boyd Coddington will be on the block going to the highest bidder.

“Each of these cars on offer are cultural icons of the roads and race tracks of America because they encompass every aspect of American engineering, racing ingenuity and cutting edge customization”, said Ian Kelleher, President and COO of RM Auctions.

So start saving your pennies now!

I invite you to join me in LA at the auction – catch all the bidding and event details by visiting RM Auctions at www.rmauctions.com. And check back often at MyRideIsMe.com because we’ll be featuring a number of cars that’ll be up for auction. If you’re lucky one of these could be in your garage, but until September… feast your eyes on these beautiful rides!
(All photos courtesy of RM Auctions and Darin Schnabel)

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