Don Garlits Crash Video – The Modern Dragster Born

Famous Don Garlits Swamp Rat Crash Caught in Video

Swamp Rat 13 – Photo Courtesty of the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing (See a copy of the crash photo behind, middle)

If you’re a fan of drag racing then you know “Big Daddy” Don Garlits. You’ll also know his varied “Swap Rat” dragsters creations that carried Big Daddy to just about every racing “Hall of Fame” in existence.

Don Garlits was certainly a winner and an innovator. Along the way, he was the first to hit 170, 180, 200, 240, 250, 260, and 270 miles per hour in the quarter mile. As an innovator, he’s best know for driving the first REAR engine dragster ever raced.

How’d he come up with the idea that changed dragster design and drag racing forever?  It happened in Long Beach, California at the 1970 AHRA Grand American. In the finals against Richard Tharpe, this crash happened in Swamp Rat 13.

I’ve only ever seen pictures of this crash before! I never know video existed… I’ll show the picture here when I get permission from the owner. The two speed transmission Big Daddy was experimenting with exploded right off the line.

Swamp Rat 14 – Photo Courtesty of the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing

So… following the accident that took off a piece of Big’s right foot, Swap Rat 14 made it’s debut in Pomona in 1971. Funny thing is, the steering was too quick in Swamp Rat 14, so the project was nearly scrapped save for not-so-gentle nudging from Big’s wife Pat. Maybe she was the smartest of the bunch cause the fine-tuned digger, sporting a new Dodge Hemi behind the driver, making it much safer, went on to set the all time quickest ET at Indianapolis at 6.21 at over 240mph. Safer and faster!

Now you know about the birth of the modern dragster.

Gotta thank Lionsvideo.com for posting this on Youtube. Get your copy on DVD!

Also, if you get a chance, go to the Don Garlits Museum in Ocala, Florida. I was in Florida on business once and got to go. It’s worth the trip!!

1969 Nostalgia Drag Videos from the US Nationals

Every once in a while when cruising Youtube, you find gold. I found it five times with these 5 videos from the “Big Go” the US Nationals from Indianapolis, Indiana from way back in 1969 when they just called it, “The Nationals”. Called the “Tournament of Champions” and presented by Hurst Performance Center you’ll hear the late great voice of drag racing Steve Evans narrating.  The videography’s cool too. You’ll have no doubt, this is the late 60′s!

Even cooler for me is that these are from 1969! The year I was born and like me, they’re about to have their 20th birthday, again.

I haven’t heard a single drag racer, especially the current pros, mention any other race ahead of the US Nationals. This is THE race of the year and it looks like it has been for 40 years.

Enjoy these 5 nostalgia drag racing videos from before corporate sponsors and big dollar teams. The 4-speed bang’n, the tire smoking, the love of drag racing shows clear.

Here’s part 1:
Featuring the intro and credits. Don’t want watch the first minute of this one, then skip on to your next internet destination! This part also includes some great wheels up action clips and an explanation of the “Hurst-aid Center” supplied by Hurst at the race. This is the start of what Steve Evans calls, “The psychedelic kaleidoscope of action!” in part 2.

Part2 -
Featuring the fashion and people of 1969 drag racing including one of the most wicked comb-overs I’ve ever seen. The camera takes a double take on this dude! Then there’s non-stop wheelstanding front engine dragsters and blower explosions making me wonder how’d they see with a face full of fuel and oil? Then, it’s an intro to the “stockers”.

Part3-
Featuring “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and the parade of trophy queens and the top fuel qualifiers then racing starts. It’s Danny Ongais at the wheel of Micky Thompson’s  Mach 1 Mustang  then Bruce Larson driving the “USA-1″ Camaro funny car racing current drag race team owner Don Schumacher driving his “Stardust” Barracuda. Next it’s Connie Kallita’s “Bounty Hunter” cammer powered Mustag funny car racing “Big John” Mazmanian’s Cuda funny car.  The top fuel racing starts with Garlits accidentally turning off his car during staging and losing the race then Don Prudhomme‘s engine blowing win.

Part4-
Featuring Ronnie Sox and Dick Landy, the Candies and Hughes funny car, a “ride-a-long” with legendary Altered “Pure Hell” then “Ohio” George Montgomery’s blown 1969 Mustang funny car (recently sold at RM’s Icons of Speed and Style auction for $132k) Not sure if this one or Part 3′s my favorite.

Part5-
This one’s all about the finals. The first is Ohio George’s nasty Mustang racing a Hemi powered altered. What was Super Eliminator anyway? There’s also a pair of wagons racing for the $6000 purse in Stock. You know I love the wagons! Then you get the bizarre story or Top Gas winner Santucci who set low ET while unconscious from choking on his gum in the car. They thought he was having a heart attack and took him to the hospital! Finally, the video ends with a ride-along camera split screen as Don Prudhomme wins his 2nd Nationals title.

In case you’re wondering who won, here are the winners by category (heard of any of these folks? WOW!):

• Top Fuel Winner Don Prudhomme, Runner-up Kelly Brown
• Top Gas Winner Domenic Santucci, Runner-up Phil Hobbs;
  
• Funny Car Winner Danny Ongais, Runner-up Rich Siroonian
• Super Eliminator Winner George Montgomery, Runner-up Ron Ellis
• Competition Eliminator Winner Terry Fritsch, Runner-up Neil Ellis
• Street Winner Glen Self; Runner-up Carroll Caudle
• Super Stock Winner Ronnie Sox, Runner-up Ron Mancini
• Stock Winner Bill Morgan; Runner-up Tom Neja

Gotta thank Youtube member DragStripRiot who also represents Drag Strip Girl clothing for loading these GREAT videos.

Horton Hot Rod History #2

“Who the heck are the Hortons?” you might well ask?  The Horton family has been in the street rodding hobby/industry for over 30 years, first with a company in Canada called Horton Street Rod Parts, which he started in 1978.  Since Paul Horton sold the retail end of that business in 2005 (to his very first customer!), he has been working full time with his wife Dorothy and son DW at his new business, Welder Series Inc.  If you’re interested in high quality hot rod chassis parts, check out www.welderseries.com.

Captioned by Dorothy Horton:

All our honeymoon pictures are like this!

If there was only a quality street rod shop in Canada… shouldn’t have to grind these welds. (That’s Dorothy with the grinder)

Finally! Our track ’23 T built in Montreal – 1975

Driven to Louisville KY & many runs in S. Ontario from Montreal, 1975/76

Montreal to Louisville… camping, no top, Dorothy pregnant, Paul got pneumonia.

Check back for more updates to the Horton’s Hot Rod History.

Rocket Axle Galaxie? (Yea, rocket)

Here’s another video of this car – It’s not very good, but at least you can hear it run.

Also known as the “Tobacco King Rocket Car” this thing is pure indulgence.

The rest of the story is found at Hoopty Rides. He wrote about this car almost 1 year ago to the day. I’m right on top of things!

1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Rocket Car

Anyone ever heard of the “Black Widow” Volkswagen Beetle? The Mecum auctions story says that this rocket powered bug beat TV Tommy Ivo’s four engine dragster called “Showboat”. WOW!

Photos courtesy of Mecum Auctions

John’s Drag Blog – Old Fuelers Never Die!

Story Submitted by John C. Hill or MoparMagic

Old Fuelers Never Die!! (They just become “killer” bracket cars)

Many of you that were spectators at drag races during the late 60′s, the 70′s and early 80′s probably remember a lot of the fantastic Top Fuel and Funny Cars that used to compete. Some of these cars may have been favorites of yours, but have you ever wondered what became of these ultimate drag race machines? It’s not like you could take the pink slip and sell it to your neighbor after the racing season was over. These were special built cars with only one purpose in mind: go fast and do it quickly!

A lot of these cars ended up out behind the garage as scrap, or perhaps pushed over in the corner of the garage and covered with a tarp, never to be raced again. Some of them ended up in museums such as Don Garlit’s Drag Race Museum in Ocala, Florida. If you have ever been to his museum you would be amazed at the number and quality of Top Fuelers and Funny Cars on display there. This includes every one of Don’s Top Fuel cars from his career, including the rebuilt car that sawed part of his foot off in a clutch explosion in 1969. If you are a true drag race fan, a visit to his museum is an absolute must see.

There are a few cars that have lived to race again! Because of the recent popularity of Nostalgia Racing, many associations have been started with the purpose of racing the old cars once again. NHRA holds several Nostalgia Racing meets throughout the year which are becoming more and more popular with the fans. The “Kackle Fest” is most impressive with all the front engine dragsters firing up at once to make some incredible noise! The “Nitro Funny Car Association” is running strong with some of the most famous cars of the era including the “Blue Max”, “Plueger and Gyger”, “Pisano and Matsubara” and many others. I recently saw these guys run at Firebird Raceway this fall, and they hold nothing back. It’s just like the good old days when cubic dollars wasn’t necessary to build and race a competitive car.

Then there are guys like me, who find and purchase old cars to turn them into bracket racers. I have been racing a 440 powered 1970 Cuda at Firebird Raceway since 1994. But like every other drag racer, I wanted to go quicker and faster, without spending huge amounts of money. To me, the plan was simple, find an old rear engine dragster and update it to a killer bracket car. I was unaware of just how lucky I would be when I answered an advertisement for a rear engine “roller” for sale in my area. The car was a 225 inch rear engine dragster that was run briefly in the 90s as a NHRA Super Comp class car. The owner was selling it as is, frame, wheels and tires, Ford 9 inch rear end, and body panels with fuel tank. That’s it. For $5,500, it was mine, and it was up to me to build all the rest. As I started to tow it home, the owner gave me a copy of the history of the car. I was very surprised as I read the contents…

The dragster was originally built by Eddie Delarno of Eddies Engineering of Tucson in the mid 70′s. It was built for Red Greth and Lyle Fisher of Speed Sport Automotive fame. It was originally built for a Hemi engine and was to see Top Fuel action. They never fielded the car and it sat in their garage for several years. It was brought back to Eddie for an updating after it was sold in the early 80′s. In the early 90′s the car was updated by Tom Yancer with a new roll cage and back half. The wheelbase was also shortened from 250 inches to 225 inches and a modern tripod front suspension was installed. The entire car was updated to “advanced ET” status and was run as a Super Comp car with Bruce Kenyon at the controls. The Mark Williams prepped Ford 9 inch rear end sported 4.56 gears and is a Top Fuel setup with 35 spline axles. A Strange Engineering pinion support and aluminum third member completed the rear end.

A car like this is built to run in the 6′s at over 200mph. Since I didn’t have a lot of money, I purchased a 360 cubic inch magnum, 380 horsepower “crate motor” directly from Mopar Performance for $3,500. The space for the transmission was tiny, so I went with a “shorty” 727 Torqueflite out of a motorhome, prepped by Hughes Performance for another $550. I did all the rest of the work myself including plumbing all the lines, the electrical system, the cooling system, the brakes, the safety requirements, and even a few dollars for “rattle can” black, yellow and fluorescent orange paint! Hey, if it doesn’t make it go faster, I don’t spend a lot of money on it! Grand total for an awesome bracket car: less than $10,000!! Since I do not run any “electronics” of any sort, I could run in the “Pro” class at Firebird Raceway.

As it turns out the choice of the motor for this 1,650 pound car was perfect. The car runs consistently at 10.00 seconds at 134 mph. NHRA rules state that cars that run quicker than 9.99 seconds or faster than 135 mph must comply with much stricter (and expensive) safety rules. I didn’t have to have all this extra safety equipment, and that saved me huge amounts of extra money. I’d like to say it was planned, but how lucky was that? And running 10 flat at 134 mph is still a maximum rush as you can imagine! And, it also makes me one of the quickest cars in the “Pro” class which means my opponents almost always have to leave first, and potentially red light!

As I’m writing this I have plans to bring the car home so that I can start prepping it for the 2009 “Team Firebird” bracket racing season. Our first race should be in February, and we race at least once a month all year after that. Stayed tuned to my blogs as I fill you in on all of our results, race by race this year. I’ll tell you who we run, what our dial in and tune up strategy is, how we won or lost races, and all the maintenance and costs we encounter to run the whole season. Essentially, you will become a member of our crew you’ll be with us race by race as we plan to win the “Pro” class in NHRA “Team Firebird” bracket race action this year. Shoot, we’ll even run an Episode of “Pinks All Out” if they come to a track in the southwest this year! As a fringe benefit, the NHRA Division 7 Championship Finals will be held at Firebird Raceway this year. We plan on finishing in the top 10 (if not winning our class) in Pro this year, which will qualify us for that race against the West Coast’s best bracket racers for Divison 7 honors. So stay tuned, the thrill is about to begin!!

John

Next Page »