I love the history of drag racing just as much as actually going down the track! You guys should do a video on how the full time racers, no matter which sanctioning body they "officially" ran with, really made ends meet by match racing before the big time sponsorships took over. Also, maybe one about the cool nicknames of both the cars and the drivers. Big Daddy and his Swamp Rats, The Snake, The Mongoose, TV Tommy, Jungle Jim (who died too soon!) and Jungle Pam (who's still a hottie!), Roland Leong(?) and his Hawaiian Punch...
Man you guys are doing an awesome job with this channel because i grew with all this, had all the model cars, my dad had a 70 Duster 340 tunnel ram drag car so I'm definitely Mopar or no car but this channel is Awesome, just got through watching the Animal Jim episode....it's really great 👍 👍👍👍👍👍✅✅✅✅✅✅
That first shot is a Chassis Research frame by Scotty Fenn. It was the first frame to go 200mph according to their catalogs. There is one in the Garlets museum. I have one here in West Texas that was run by Vance Hunt. That was called a "skid bar"roll cage. They were made with 1060 tubing and I have an engineering report that conforms the "safety" of the material choice and ect. Tony, I would send You a copy if you would like.
Glad to hear those old stories of the 60's and 70's! I started racing in 1970. I went to my first track day in 1968 and was hooked! Won a trophy the first 2 times I raced! I thought this was going to be easy!😂😂😂
David Phillips here have you ever talked about Bob"Tree"Smith he raced a AMC Javelin & a AMX in the 60s and 70s for Bill Rodekopf he raced in the AHRA he lives in the kansas city mo area he started in the 50s
I thought the dudes sitting on top of the diff were nuts but I NEVER seen this position below with the diff in his lap! Camber angle is the one you meant... caster is different.
They are talking about Caster. When looking at the side of the wheel, draw a line through the steering pivots ( king pin / ball joints ) to the ground. This angle is called Caster, the function is to use the weight of the car to center the wheels.
@@bobroberts2371 Yes, I was wrong. We don't usually think about caster much because the angle is only a few degrees off center on a passenger car but I think dragsters have those long triangulated tubing setup that must put the pivot way back... exactly like how a long fork stretch Harley wants to lay down the tire in an exaggerated way.
Knew a guy who moved to the branson area with his family that was in to all kinds of American racing vehicles . he owned a 1940s willys couple with i think a hemi . and would brag about taking it to the strip to see what he could break on it . he also owned a small time top fuel dragster that was yellow he named scatterpiller . his name was Danny Fisk .
I've been trying to find the AHRA website and with no luck what is the website address for the organization please and btw I drove front engine 392 powered top gas cars and injected A/FD front engine cars from 1967 through 1971 and my final goal in life is to build and race another front engine car in the nostalgia classes and brackets
Believe it's thru F-book.. For sure you'll see it posted on Wednesday night's Tech Live stream.. on UTG.. Fellow moderator FUBAR well post it no worries.. 👍😉
I totally agree with your analysis on the period correct era 67/71 style of AA/FD....enter the early nostalgia movement from the late 90's the cars were essentially the same except for maybe 5/6 point roll cage and blower straps and, no "BIG" ugly canard wings. The guys were all still wearing open face helmets and breather masks. That era was so authentic only thing missing were the push starts. Also the beautiful whine of the super charger as the cars went through the traps. Unfortunately the guys with the deep pockets came in and lobbied for rule changes which included "BIG" ugly canard wings and, totally fucked up what nostalgia was suppose to be and, represent and, turned it into a modern form of professional racing where all period correctness has been thrown out the window in favor of speed and performance😡🤬😡🤬. I remember being a 13 yr. old kid and idolizing Don Garlits. After spending the previous 5 yrs of my youth on Saturdays and Sundays at the drag strip with my dad and, experiencing this magical era of slingshots, I was in for a rude suprise. When Garlits debuted swamp rat1R at Lions Dragstrip a year later after his incident at Lions, I was furious at him for, even as a young kid I knew then the writing was on the wall for the (my) beloved slingshot. I remember seeing pictures of the Pawnbroker rear engine dragster and how ugly I thought it was and had the same thought of Garlits' car. Also with evolution of the rear engine dragster went away the the symbol of nitro, the breather mask in favor of bell star full face helmets. The breather mask stayed in the AA/FC up until the mid 80's. I would also like to note that the biggest reason that the slingshot gets such a bad rap as being dangerous wasn't fire although, there is a valid argument for that, was by 67/68 slipping of the clutches had become an accepted risk to stay competitive and when you add the fact that these were just heavy duty truck clutches and pressure plates never designed for the type of abuse they were subjected to and the fact and some were also using lightened flywheels it was a recipe for disaster and many drivers were hurt and killed during violent high speed top end clutch explosions. The three incidents that stick out in my memory was, Mike Sorokin. After his ride in the " Surfers" car he got a new ride and suffered a catostraphic clutch explosion at night making a pass at Orange County I think, where his explosion caused the chassis to break but not separate, causing the rear end housing to rotate under him thus pushing him up in the roll cage and exposing his head outside the cage as the car rolled several times. Its also noted in recent interviews with the late Tom Jobe, it is one of the reasons they decided enough was enough because of the practice of slipping clutches and how all three of them expressed concern for Mike with his intention to carry on being a shoe. Unfortunately as you would expect, Mike was killed in this incident and it set shockwaves throughout the sport and industry. In 1969 at the U.S. Nationals John Mulligan suffered a clutch explosion that sent a flywheel bolt through the oil pan thus creating an oil fed blow torch that that severely burned Mulligan. The beloved driver ended up succumbing to his burns a few weeks later. You can listen to Ed Pink describe the incident in the film "American Nitro". The most famous example of a high speed clutch explosion was coincidentally at the same race in 1970 in the top fuel final when facing, Prudhomme, Jim Nicolls clutch exploded like a bomb cutting his car in half and sending the rear section with him still strapped in the seat and cage bouncing down the track over the guard rail. A deja Vu was that Prudhomme won both 69/70 events. An ironic twist to Nicolls accident was the fact that sling shot design saved his life as still being securely strapped in between the two rear slicks acted as a cushioning device to protect him as he bounced over the guard rail. He got right back in the driver's seat about a month later continuing with a slingshot until he ultimately went to a rear engine car then to funny car which is where he finished his career. As a note I would like to add that when Garlits had his transmission explosion at Lions, violent top end clutch exposions had become so frequent that he thought momentarily he was having top end high speed incident. Its chilling to think what must have been in the back of every top fuel drivers mind during this period whenever they strapped themselves in to make a pass....The last real hurrah for the slingshot was the 1971 Winternationals when Steve Carbone gave the slingshot its last victory at a major meet by beating(snookering) the quickest and fastest car at the event noneother than Don Garlits in the final by refusing to stage first until Buster Couch put his foot down and made both him and Garlits stage. By this time both cars engines had built up so much heat thus power that Garlits went up in smoke thus giving the win to Carbone. There were s few other slingshot moments before the final curtain dropped on them such as "Kansas" John Wiebe. While testing the new Donavan aluminum blocks he I believe, set the fastest quickest time for a FED and by this time in a last ditch effort to keep up with pace the last few remaing holdouts adopted the use of small canard wings but, the reality was it was the end of the road for the slingshot and the end of an era😥. I sorely miss that otherwise magical golden era of, breather masks and push starts and turn arounds in the staging lanes, that I spent with my dad at various dragstrips in Ohio then in California at Fremont until him in I got into dirt bikes and the golden era of early motocross which is a whole magical era story in itself.......I love this channel and big thumbs up to Tony....you know your digger history👍.
Great vid just want to say I don't agree with the later 60s cars being better looking the Greer Black Prudhomme car was built in 62 & is classed as one of the nicest rails built
Personally I see your point and would never say GBP car era isn't beautiful works of art...but I do think the 67-71 era cars represent the state of the art at the time FED and the best looking but a I love all front engine diggers except the modern ones.....no disrespect intended
The only modern FED that comes to mind for me that still has a respectable period correct look is Bendan Murrays car. He is also the last one to wear a breather mask until the NHRA Nazis got involved.....I'll look at the Great Expectations car again but to be honest so called nostalgia top fuel and funny car to me isn't what it use to be or should be....no disrespect intended
I don't think that would be a good idea. CF seems to do more modern stuff and is way too much of a goofball ( Like Jim Carry / Jerry Lewis ) to be taken seriously.
Really love what you guys got going with this channel the stories are great on their own but get in the habit of editing in as much footage or pictures of whatever your talking about into the video for the people who dont have that mental picture already im their head
Lol. It never, ever crossed my mind that it was feministic. Until you guys pointed it out. If that was truly the case, ill take the four engine, awd version nailheads!!!!
MANY cars of the '60s used "feminine" styling, known as the "Coke bottle" shape, because Coca-Cola knew what they were doing when they designed their bottles. ;) The most obvious are the Corvettes from '68 to '82. From the top, they look like a woman laying on her back, from the side they look like a woman laying on her side. The long nose, short deck and upswept rear fenders that nearly all midsize and sport compacts had, all came from designers making their cars look like women. Look at any C3 Corvette, from the top, with the front end down. The rear deck is the shoulders, the rear fenders are the parts all men notice first, the narrow waist of the doors, the front fenders flare back out to make the hips and the nose is even shaped like a V. Make it look like a woman, every man will want one and they won't even know why!
My mom worked at Virginia Tech before she retired and remembers this international student telling a group of them "My girlfriend shaped like Coke bottle. My wife shaped like Coke can."
Two fallacies in this for me. 1.) I never saw an FED/Slingshot that I thought was beautiful. Or, really, any type of dragster. A dragster looks like a mashup of tinker toys when compared to the '53/"54 Studebaker coupe, XKE, GT40, '63 split window Vette, '69 Boss 429 and others. 2.) I never, NEVER saw any kind of correlation between the design/looks of a dragster and the design/looks/appeal of the most beatiful shape ever created for the appreciation of man...a woman. That smacks of the kind of #&!% non car guys spout about a powerful car or speed equating to sex. Both are magnificient, wonderful, etcetera, if things go well, but they are nothing like one another. I appreciate you fellows going over the stuff I grew up absorbed in. No 'dis" about keeping history alive in this current revisionist era. But when Tony says there is no one that didn't think dragsters were beautiful, and dragsters resemble the nonpareil beauty of a well-proportioned woman, I seriously worry about his mental and even emotional state. When you make these sweeping generalizations that include "everybody" or "nobody", could you make a little addendum? Something like "Everybody loves...with one exception..." or, "Nobody...with one exception..." I don't care who or what you are, you can't lump me in with everyone or nobody. Especially about the one type of thing that gave me reasons to live and dream, that is, besides human females.
Great vid. Thanks Dallas and Tony. Really looking forward to future episodes! Hello from New Zealand 🇳🇿
I love the history of drag racing just as much as actually going down the track!
You guys should do a video on how the full time racers, no matter which sanctioning body they "officially" ran with, really made ends meet by match racing before the big time sponsorships took over.
Also, maybe one about the cool nicknames of both the cars and the drivers. Big Daddy and his Swamp Rats, The Snake, The Mongoose, TV Tommy, Jungle Jim (who died too soon!) and Jungle Pam (who's still a hottie!), Roland Leong(?) and his Hawaiian Punch...
Man you guys are doing an awesome job with this channel because i grew with all this, had all the model cars, my dad had a 70 Duster 340 tunnel ram drag car so I'm definitely Mopar or no car but this channel is Awesome, just got through watching the Animal Jim episode....it's really great 👍 👍👍👍👍👍✅✅✅✅✅✅
Trippin' on acid in a nitro burning slingshot dragster...lol. Talk about experimenting. Great video!!!
That first shot is a Chassis Research frame by Scotty Fenn. It was the first frame to go 200mph according to their catalogs. There is one in the Garlets museum. I have one here in West Texas that was run by Vance Hunt. That was called a "skid bar"roll cage. They were made with 1060 tubing and I have an engineering report that conforms the "safety" of the material choice and ect. Tony, I would send You a copy if you would like.
There you go Tony, these are the stories we want to hear! take acid and drive a fueler...down the west side freeway?
I have the 1967 AHRA World Champion Car. From Greenvalley. An 1969 1st Drag Race at Rockingham. Hundley & Boggs
Glad to hear those old stories of the 60's and 70's! I started racing in 1970. I went to my first track day in 1968 and was hooked! Won a trophy the first 2 times I raced! I thought this was going to be easy!😂😂😂
David Phillips here have you ever talked about Bob"Tree"Smith he raced a AMC Javelin & a AMX in the 60s and 70s for Bill Rodekopf he raced in the AHRA he lives in the kansas city mo area he started in the 50s
You can use different motor plates to change the angle of the engine to change pinion angle. This helps for getting cars down different tracks
You guys gotta get Big Daddy!! His stories are fantastic.
Slingshots and Nitro Forever !!
I thought the dudes sitting on top of the diff were nuts but I NEVER seen this position below with the diff in his lap!
Camber angle is the one you meant... caster is different.
@@RLRSwanson Holy crap wow, EXACTLY! Sounds like you been around and seen some cool stuff! Thanks /w\/w\
They are talking about Caster. When looking at the side of the wheel, draw a line through the steering pivots ( king pin / ball joints ) to the ground. This angle is called Caster, the function is to use the weight of the car to center the wheels.
@@bobroberts2371 Yes, I was wrong. We don't usually think about caster much because the angle is only a few degrees off center on a passenger car but I think dragsters have those long triangulated tubing setup that must put the pivot way back... exactly like how a long fork stretch Harley wants to lay down the tire in an exaggerated way.
Enjoyed this episode , thanks.
Actually it was Connie Swingle that suggested altering the steering ratio.
Nicely done!
Keep up the good work
We had one of the flexie flyer that was made into a econo dragster worked surprisingly good.
Tom Jobe and the SURFERS need to be talked about more
They figured out all sorts of stuff will running the "CAN"
Knew a guy who moved to the branson area with his family that was in to all kinds of American racing vehicles . he owned a 1940s willys couple with i think a hemi . and would brag about taking it to the strip to see what he could break on it . he also owned a small time top fuel dragster that was yellow he named scatterpiller . his name was Danny Fisk .
Great stuff, guys!
Great video guys. 👍
love this new channel. The old green valley race way in Dallas
That guy sitting under the axle is wild
Excellent video!
uncle tony-why dont you two guys put together{dallas}a slant 6 rail job for fun?
"Have Nitro Will Travel"...couldUncle Crystal please put up a link...thank you.
Who is running the show Dallas or Tony
I've been trying to find the AHRA website and with no luck what is the website address for the organization please and btw I drove front engine 392 powered top gas cars and injected A/FD front engine cars from 1967 through 1971 and my final goal in life is to build and race another front engine car in the nostalgia classes and brackets
Believe it's thru F-book..
For sure you'll see it posted on Wednesday night's Tech Live stream.. on UTG.. Fellow moderator FUBAR well post it no worries.. 👍😉
I totally agree with your analysis on the period correct era 67/71 style of AA/FD....enter the early nostalgia movement from the late 90's the cars were essentially the same except for maybe 5/6 point roll cage and blower straps and, no "BIG" ugly canard wings. The guys were all still wearing open face helmets and breather masks. That era was so authentic only thing missing were the push starts. Also the beautiful whine of the super charger as the cars went through the traps. Unfortunately the guys with the deep pockets came in and lobbied for rule changes which included "BIG" ugly canard wings and, totally fucked up what nostalgia was suppose to be and, represent and, turned it into a modern form of professional racing where all period correctness has been thrown out the window in favor of speed and performance😡🤬😡🤬. I remember being a 13 yr. old kid and idolizing Don Garlits. After spending the previous 5 yrs of my youth on Saturdays and Sundays at the drag strip with my dad and, experiencing this magical era of slingshots, I was in for a rude suprise. When Garlits debuted swamp rat1R at Lions Dragstrip a year later after his incident at Lions, I was furious at him for, even as a young kid I knew then the writing was on the wall for the (my) beloved slingshot. I remember seeing pictures of the Pawnbroker rear engine dragster and how ugly I thought it was and had the same thought of Garlits' car. Also with evolution of the rear engine dragster went away the the symbol of nitro, the breather mask in favor of bell star full face helmets. The breather mask stayed in the AA/FC up until the mid 80's. I would also like to note that the biggest reason that the slingshot gets such a bad rap as being dangerous wasn't fire although, there is a valid argument for that, was by 67/68 slipping of the clutches had become an accepted risk to stay competitive and when you add the fact that these were just heavy duty truck clutches and pressure plates never designed for the type of abuse they were subjected to and the fact and some were also using lightened flywheels it was a recipe for disaster and many drivers were hurt and killed during violent high speed top end clutch explosions. The three incidents that stick out in my memory was, Mike Sorokin. After his ride in the " Surfers" car he got a new ride and suffered a catostraphic clutch explosion at night making a pass at Orange County I think, where his explosion caused the chassis to break but not separate, causing the rear end housing to rotate under him thus pushing him up in the roll cage and exposing his head outside the cage as the car rolled several times. Its also noted in recent interviews with the late Tom Jobe, it is one of the reasons they decided enough was enough because of the practice of slipping clutches and how all three of them expressed concern for Mike with his intention to carry on being a shoe. Unfortunately as you would expect, Mike was killed in this incident and it set shockwaves throughout the sport and industry. In 1969 at the U.S. Nationals John Mulligan suffered a clutch explosion that sent a flywheel bolt through the oil pan thus creating an oil fed blow torch that that severely burned Mulligan. The beloved driver ended up succumbing to his burns a few weeks later. You can listen to Ed Pink describe the incident in the film "American Nitro". The most famous example of a high speed clutch explosion was coincidentally at the same race in 1970 in the top fuel final when facing, Prudhomme, Jim Nicolls clutch exploded like a bomb cutting his car in half and sending the rear section with him still strapped in the seat and cage bouncing down the track over the guard rail. A deja Vu was that
Prudhomme won both 69/70 events. An ironic twist to Nicolls accident was the fact that sling shot design saved his life as still being securely strapped in between the two rear slicks acted as a cushioning device to protect him as he bounced over the guard rail. He got right back in the driver's seat about a month later continuing with a slingshot until he ultimately went to a rear engine car then to funny car which is where he finished his career. As a note I would like to add that when Garlits had his transmission explosion at Lions, violent top end clutch exposions had become so frequent that he thought momentarily he was having top end high speed incident. Its chilling to think what must have been in the back of every top fuel drivers mind during this period whenever they strapped themselves in to make a pass....The last real hurrah for the slingshot was the 1971 Winternationals when Steve Carbone gave the slingshot its last victory at a major meet by beating(snookering) the quickest and fastest car at the event noneother than Don Garlits in the final by refusing to stage first until Buster Couch put his foot down and made both him and Garlits stage. By this time both cars engines had built up so much heat thus power that Garlits went up in smoke thus giving the win to Carbone. There were s few other slingshot moments before the final curtain dropped on them such as "Kansas" John Wiebe. While testing the new Donavan aluminum blocks he I believe, set the fastest quickest time for a FED and by this time in a last ditch effort to keep up with pace the last few remaing holdouts adopted the use of small canard wings but, the reality was it was the end of the road for the slingshot and the end of an era😥. I sorely miss that otherwise magical golden era of, breather masks and push starts and turn arounds in the staging lanes, that I spent with my dad at various dragstrips in Ohio then in California at Fremont until him in I got into dirt bikes and the golden era of early motocross which is a whole magical era story in itself.......I love this channel and big thumbs up to Tony....you know your digger history👍.
Great content, but I would like to see a bit more vintage pictures. The narration could go in the background.
Hopefully AHRA will do a late model pickup stocker class.
This show has changed.
Like the show but need to wear lapel mics. Some times the audio drops off and lose words
Good one guy's 👍
Wonder if Tony remembers Dover as a kid...
Great vid just want to say I don't agree with the later 60s cars being better looking the Greer Black Prudhomme car was built in 62 & is classed as one of the nicest rails built
Personally I see your point and would never say GBP car era isn't beautiful works of art...but I do think the 67-71 era cars represent the state of the art at the time FED and the best looking but a I love all front engine diggers except the modern ones.....no disrespect intended
So damn glad I subscribed!!! Hey, guys! Whassup?!?
tyler hilton’s great expectations 3 is very similar to the 60s era nostalgia top fuel cars but he still sits a little bit higher above the engine
The only modern FED that comes to mind for me that still has a respectable period correct look is Bendan Murrays car. He is also the last one to wear a breather mask until the NHRA Nazis got involved.....I'll look at the Great Expectations car again but to be honest so called nostalgia top fuel and funny car to me isn't what it use to be or should be....no disrespect intended
AHRA needs to team up with Cletus McFarland. They recently purchased a race track !
I don't think that would be a good idea. CF seems to do more modern stuff and is way too much of a goofball ( Like Jim Carry / Jerry Lewis ) to be taken seriously.
The sound in that room has a lot of resonation
Yeah some good microphones and some foam sound deadening pads would go a long way to help the sound echo.
Personally I blame squirrels
Idk who's subconscious you are referring to but that is the last thing I see when I look at a slingshot dragster...
Really love what you guys got going with this channel the stories are great on their own but get in the habit of editing in as much footage or pictures of whatever your talking about into the video for the people who dont have that mental picture already im their head
Agreed, if you's can, do something about the sound and lighting. I could give a shit I love the info but I know you guys want to look professional.
Modern rail dragsters seem more like a phallic symbol
Lol. It never, ever crossed my mind that it was feministic. Until you guys pointed it out.
If that was truly the case, ill take the four engine, awd version nailheads!!!!
I agree because I say take anything nailhead 🤔
Should call this the Ronnie Sox Channel
👍😉
MANY cars of the '60s used "feminine" styling, known as the "Coke bottle" shape, because Coca-Cola knew what they were doing when they designed their bottles. ;) The most obvious are the Corvettes from '68 to '82. From the top, they look like a woman laying on her back, from the side they look like a woman laying on her side. The long nose, short deck and upswept rear fenders that nearly all midsize and sport compacts had, all came from designers making their cars look like women. Look at any C3 Corvette, from the top, with the front end down. The rear deck is the shoulders, the rear fenders are the parts all men notice first, the narrow waist of the doors, the front fenders flare back out to make the hips and the nose is even shaped like a V. Make it look like a woman, every man will want one and they won't even know why!
The Jaguar E type does not fit this mold.
My mom worked at Virginia Tech before she retired and remembers this international student telling a group of them "My girlfriend shaped like Coke bottle. My wife shaped like Coke can."
@@bobroberts2371 LOL... Do you remember "CSLAP"? SNL circa 1996?
@@johnwilburn LOL That's a good one! At least she wasn't shaped like a milk jug!
High performance lady bits. 😅😂🤣
😎👌✌🖖👍😁
Acoustics in this room are HORRIBLE! Put a little thought into improving it... Will help people to listen/understand and enjoy. THE HOARDER KNOWS!
We improved it on the second episode discussing gassers, it still needs more work and possibly a different mic.
l'm the 442 like.. last video l was the 426 th like. l'm meant to be here.
Two fallacies in this for me. 1.) I never saw an FED/Slingshot that I thought was beautiful. Or, really, any type of dragster. A dragster looks like a mashup of tinker toys when compared to the '53/"54 Studebaker coupe, XKE, GT40, '63 split window Vette, '69 Boss 429 and others. 2.) I never, NEVER saw any kind of correlation between the design/looks of a dragster and the design/looks/appeal of the most beatiful shape ever created for the appreciation of man...a woman. That smacks of the kind of #&!% non car guys spout about a powerful car or speed equating to sex. Both are magnificient, wonderful, etcetera, if things go well, but they are nothing like one another.
I appreciate you fellows going over the stuff I grew up absorbed in. No 'dis" about keeping history alive in this current revisionist era. But when Tony says there is no one that didn't think dragsters were beautiful, and dragsters resemble the nonpareil beauty of a well-proportioned woman, I seriously worry about his mental and even emotional state. When you make these sweeping generalizations that include "everybody" or "nobody", could you make a little addendum? Something like "Everybody loves...with one exception..." or, "Nobody...with one exception..." I don't care who or what you are, you can't lump me in with everyone or nobody. Especially about the one type of thing that gave me reasons to live and dream, that is, besides human females.
To each his own....but why post such a lengthy comment about your dislike for the topic....
Over 8 and half minutes into this I shut it off. Blah, blah, blah.
Seeing a female form on a dragster? Hmmmmm.