Look at how packed those stands were! I wish people today were even half as enthusiastic about racing as they were then! It’s so cool to see the enthusiasm for racing people had during its golden age!!
That's ONE thing I LOVE abt all of these old hot rod & drag flicks.....showing the original LOCATIONS where much of the early history was MADE!!! So COOL. So many are gone now. Thanks developers.
Robert Petersen of the petersen automotive museum in pomona ca. Also HOT ROD magazine! Great man for bringing this to us after so many year's of DRAGRACING knowledge here in cal., i cherish what information we can get in this year 2014 of real dragracing fan's like you and me out there who are just itching for great movies and news of california's race track's that are not here anymore, so sad! But at least we can remember the old day's i sure miss old RIVERSIDERACEWAY i used to watch on tv in the 70's,80's!!! Thank's mr. Petersen!
My dad was at a lot if these races in the late 50's and into the early 70's. I need to show him this video. And he will be sure to tell me about all the other side stories that the narrator can't tell you..
Love these videos from "early" days.Thank you for showing them and beautiful race cars like art. Always loved your car culture in USA. From a big old fan from Sweden🇸🇪 (get so excited.sorry).
Nostalgic drag racing famoso drag strip Bakersfield California hot rod reunion held in October every year 3-day event great old school drag racing put on by the national hot rod association
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"
WOW. AMAZING!!! JUST FABULOSO OVERVIEW of the sport from it's humble beginnings, including lakesters and Ending in my FAVOURITE ERA of the Sport, in STYLE, EQUIP. and PERSONALITIES TOO! Ed McCullough before he became a crew chief for many of the Greats, Connie K's early days driving, WALLY PARKS makes an appearance, SO many Hi-Lites!! I STILL think this era produced the most sublime LOOKING stuff EVER, often combining OLD with NEW, Way betta than todays cars (imho). Even the MUSIC was GOOD! Wonderful. OK, mebbe they weren't the safest cars ever...but STILL!! Thank you!
When this video was made, Top Fuelers we flew from zero to 200 ph in Bout 7.9 seconds. Today, zero to 100 mph in .8 of a second and 200 mph in 2 seconds. One nitro funny car went from zero to 339 mph in 3.8 second in just 1000 feet.
It’s crazy how fast the cars are today, but there’s something cooler about this era. Seeing this many people show up for an event with their families. They were selling out these races back then of 30,000 people plus. It was the number one sport even bigger than football back then. Would be cool to go back and enjoy that again.
lol he said "hundreds of hours building their racecars" Dude, I've heard stories from my uncle of people spending 100s of hours just getting their carb where they were happy. lol
@41:11 waiting to stage looks like the Jim Davis chassis Jr. Fuel car I owned in the 80s. It was campaigned by Ora Vasquez out of Arroyo Grande ,ca. running a ford boss302, probably not, but mine was painted that same blue.
Greg Wilde put a 429 in a 64 Chevy Nova that did under 10 flat in the quarter mile. One day he put it against a fuel rail. Just over halfway down the strip the rail blew and a piece of its flywheel flew up in the air and hit Gregs windshield. It hit and broke Gregs hand . We were all in High School at the time. Thanks for the reminders. Vaya con Dios
I love it, this is when life was fun, this is when you had true, to build modify or anyting else you wanted to do to your vehicle!! But that any threat that is
The sad part about watching this video for me is we can't find any of these cars anymore in the area I'm in and I love hot rods I've had one all my life have been the Chevelle guy a Beaumont guy I've had them all but now I have nothing after my divorce I had to sell my car well I have something I got my S10 but in this part of Ontario Canada it's hard to find any kind of cool hot rod to build that's what makes me sad and I'm going to be 60 years old
I have a retired friend with an S10 Blazer that is on his 3rd engine. I think a Smeding Performance was his last engine and i'm sure it has street/strip gears although i think it's an overdrive automatic.
CARL: You're going to chop something up and weld together other parts, rebuild a V8 engine w/auto trans ~ if you know about cars "you can do it" ! Throw away your whiskey & drugs and get with it brother ! ***then speed on***
I miss Riverside Raceway. it's all a bunch of stinking houses now. The roar of the engines are all but a thing of the past. It only exists in my mind now.
ALMOST shit myself when i heard that!! Seein a waaay younger-than-when-I-met-him (1980's) Wally Parks was SUPER COOL; much different animal w/o Wally. Check the UFO-esque, SUPER HILARIOUS mic Enberg had at the tree! This vid was F-N AWESOME!!!! THNX
@@jasonaldenhaley1 those were the days. Like you, I love these looks back at the old days when men were men and women were glad for it. Why are so many of the males today so afraid to be men? Anyway I say thanks for this video too.
@@jasonaldenhaley1 those were the days. Like you, I love these looks back at the old days when men were men and women were glad for it. Why are so many of the males today so afraid to be men? Anyway I say thanks for this video too.
good because in the background is a 64 or 65 Malibu when there talking about the dragster with the supercharged Hemi on it it's red if you look in the background so this is the mid-sixties not the forties and fifties when they're talking to this guy
If you’re really into this stuff then you should check out the NHRA heritage series and go to event in Bakersfield either the March meet or the hot Rod reunion in October guarantee you will love it
Many top drivers racing at the time the Christmas Tree Starting Light system was implemented, did not like the tree, and protested it in writing, claiming that tree took away the skill of "reaction time" off the line. I think they made a good point and IMO, it is not preferred to remove skill from a sporting dicipline. But the current race start flagger, flagging from between lanes, had to go.
33.20 ... wears a fire suit .. with Mokassins . his feet placed round a set of gears and clutches cooked by hellfire ... lesson of today .. Safety . is a relative word 😯
Alot of people ask, how did they know how to pack a parachute back then.. remember... you had paratroopers back in ww2. Most men of this Era racing cars were veterans. Not all were paratroopers but most knew how to pack one. Alot of the racing was driven from chasing the adrenaline of facing combat honestly
The dude could paint numbers he was awesome with that brush & great video to bad it’s so expensive now I guess though 10000 dollars back then would be a ton of money a top fuel car nowadays costs a small fortune and a lot more than a 100 a run lol they would spend that idling a car in ther pit for 3 min lol
Can you imagine letting a 16 old kid running nitro race today?! The lawyers would be salivating at the potential civil liability of an accident for anyone connected to the races with two nickels to rub together. It was a different time, I miss it. Not the laxity with safety but the assumption that if you’re stepping up to race you know what you are doing and if not it’s your own decking fault, not someone who didn’t realize that you were an incompetent shite stain.
smart enough to build a good engine but not smart enough to figure out to do a burn out first? I don't get it. why did it take so long to invent the burnout and who invented it?
Did you see the part of the video where Connie Kalitta was showing his broken transmission input shaft? He complained that either the engine had too much power, or the track had too much grip, and something had to give. This sort of explains why they didn't do burnouts in that era; they would have broken too many driveline parts, so they accepted smoking the tires. It took a few more years to develop stronger driveline parts, and the slipper clutch, before top fuel racers started doing burnouts to improve traction at the starting line. I have watched videos on YT, and have seen that by the 1969 US Nationals, most, but not all, competitors were doing burnouts. At the '68 Nats, none were. By 1970, all of them were. It probably wasn't a matter of "inventing" the burnout; more like figuring out how to build the car to take advantage of the hard launch that hot tires could provide.
In the beginning they used bleach during the burn out. It made the surface slippery at first. That helped spinning the tires initially, and lessened the shock to the driveline. 😁
Look at how packed those stands were! I wish people today were even half as enthusiastic about racing as they were then! It’s so cool to see the enthusiasm for racing people had during its golden age!!
i’ve never seen wally parks not as a trophy. and to hear him talk was fascinating
I've heard of this movie but this is the first chance I've had to see it. Awesome. Thanks a lot for putting it up.
Glad you liked it.
The AM radio ads were awesome... SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY, AT BEAUTIFUL RIVERSIDE INTERATIONAL DRAG RECEWAY!!! BE THERE!!!
My town used to have a drag strip...R.I.P. Lions.
That's ONE thing I LOVE abt all of these old hot rod & drag flicks.....showing the original LOCATIONS where much of the early history was MADE!!! So COOL. So many are gone now. Thanks developers.
11!11111111111qq😊😊1! @@abaddonbolero9605
I know , Lions was my second home👍
LIONS DRAG STRIP Was the BEST on the West coast. 👍
Fantastic insight into the early era of drag racing. Thanks for uploading.
Well done! Awesome memories for this 67 year old! I was there...and I remember!
IS THIS JEFF i KNOW ALEX WAS MY NEIGHBOR?
Robert Petersen of the petersen automotive museum in pomona ca. Also HOT ROD magazine! Great man for bringing this to us after so many year's of DRAGRACING knowledge here in cal., i cherish what information we can get in this year 2014 of real dragracing fan's like you and me out there who are just itching for great movies and news of california's race track's that are not here anymore, so sad! But at least we can remember the old day's i sure miss old RIVERSIDERACEWAY i used to watch on tv in the 70's,80's!!! Thank's mr. Petersen!
This is a classic movie! Thank you very much for putting it up! Looks like 1965.
Glad you liked it.
@randsterama I think i saw a Mustang fast back who was introduced as a 1967 model.
@@andrefiset3569*1965
Spent many Saturdays at Riverside Speedway as a kid, man do I miss this!
Me too. Lived in Sunnymead, just a couple miles from the track. You could hear when races were going on. Those were the days...
Great film and Dick Enberg does a tremendous job.
My dad was at a lot if these races in the late 50's and into the early 70's. I need to show him this video. And he will be sure to tell me about all the other side stories that the narrator can't tell you..
Oh boy! What nifty music!I love this, thanks for sharing it!!!
Wicked, love it, definitely a golden age.
Love these videos from "early" days.Thank you for showing them and beautiful race cars like art.
Always loved your car culture in USA. From a big old fan from Sweden🇸🇪 (get so excited.sorry).
I can't believe they didn't interview the Swamp Rat
2:20 and here's a chassis that hasn't changed since Adam and Eve! Yessss!
"Now we know why they put blinders on horses" LOL Dick Enberg is my hero.
The best one yet!!!
how I long for those days.
Brings back memories, I remember watching these slingshot dragsters at Green Valley Raceway in Dallas.
Nostalgic drag racing famoso drag strip Bakersfield California hot rod reunion held in October every year 3-day event great old school drag racing put on by the national hot rod association
That is the best of all right now, but only once a year
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"
Old school forever🤟 tanks👍
Thank you for this excellent video presentation ! So many big names from the '60's a nd '70's , really great video ! Thanks for posting this.
Fantastic documentary, thanks for posting it.
Awesome old school love it
WOW. AMAZING!!! JUST FABULOSO OVERVIEW of the sport from it's humble beginnings, including lakesters and Ending in my FAVOURITE ERA of the Sport, in STYLE, EQUIP. and PERSONALITIES TOO! Ed McCullough before he became a crew chief for many of the Greats, Connie K's early days driving, WALLY PARKS makes an appearance, SO many Hi-Lites!! I STILL think this era produced the most sublime LOOKING stuff EVER, often combining OLD with NEW, Way betta than todays cars (imho). Even the MUSIC was GOOD! Wonderful. OK, mebbe they weren't the safest cars ever...but STILL!! Thank you!
When this video was made, Top Fuelers we flew from zero to 200 ph in Bout 7.9 seconds. Today, zero to 100 mph in .8 of a second and 200 mph in 2 seconds. One nitro funny car went from zero to 339 mph in 3.8 second in just 1000 feet.
It’s crazy how fast the cars are today, but there’s something cooler about this era. Seeing this many people show up for an event with their families. They were selling out these races back then of 30,000 people plus. It was the number one sport even bigger than football back then. Would be cool to go back and enjoy that again.
Yep and this past Saturday in Charlotte a T/ F car (Steve Salinas made history by running 300mph at the 1/8th mile
The modern era doesn't hold a candle to this era including, to the mid 70's.
@@jeffdavis5841 wow, I only see bits of NHRA on youtube these days, but this is better in so many ways
17:44 I like the Eddie Cochran summertime blues cover!
Thanks for sharing 👍 😊
That was something else from one end to the other, loved it! :D
"So he's well protected indeed" "yes he is" lol @11:55
Well of course he has padding and there is a hand brake so completely safe
lol he said "hundreds of hours building their racecars" Dude, I've heard stories from my uncle of people spending 100s of hours just getting their carb where they were happy. lol
Want to know how smoggy LA was in the 60s? Look at the flags.
The wind is blowing and it's still a smoggy haze in every direction.
@41:11 waiting to stage looks like the Jim Davis chassis Jr. Fuel car I owned in the 80s. It was campaigned by Ora Vasquez out of Arroyo Grande ,ca. running a ford boss302, probably not, but mine was painted that same blue.
Greg Wilde put a 429 in a 64 Chevy Nova that did under 10 flat in the quarter mile. One day he put it against a fuel rail. Just over halfway down the strip the rail blew and a piece of its flywheel flew up in the air and hit Gregs windshield. It hit and broke Gregs hand . We were all in High School at the time. Thanks for the reminders. Vaya con Dios
Thank you for sharing that story with us, and thanks for watching!
Love videos like this! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻😎😍
Great movie excellent
I love it, this is when life was fun, this is when you had true, to build modify or anyting else you wanted to do to your vehicle!! But that any threat that is
I loved 'lid skids' the best!
11:55 The brake is listed as a safety feature 😂
Lmao: The mother measures the fuel mixture as if it were baby formula. Good times for sure.
Amazing!
Fantastic but no Daddy? Swamp rat 1? Still thanks for uploading.👍
I really liked your video. Great post.
Put me back in the time machine, I'm ready to go back!
RIP William "Uncle Bill" Gray
Check out the Southeast Gassers ..... 'Return to 1967' Best thing goin' today!
Great suff!🏁
The opening scene looks like Fontana Drag City.
It was Fontucky drag city 🥳 in Fontucky, ca.
You can tell by the tall power lines crossing over the trak high above. 🎯🤡💯👍
Used to ride my bicycle to irwindale in the 60s 😅
music score says by ed norton, cant find anything to source this music, can you help? thanks
Best movie ever👍👍👍👍😲😃😎🇭🇲
10:04 "these zoomies also oil your slicks when rings fail"
I remember Hot Rod magazine.
Vic Edelbrock, Connie Kalitta wow. To hear those names again
The sad part about watching this video for me is we can't find any of these cars anymore in the area I'm in and I love hot rods I've had one all my life have been the Chevelle guy a Beaumont guy I've had them all but now I have nothing after my divorce I had to sell my car well I have something I got my S10 but in this part of Ontario Canada it's hard to find any kind of cool hot rod to build that's what makes me sad and I'm going to be 60 years old
I have a retired friend with an S10 Blazer that is on his 3rd engine. I think a Smeding Performance was his last engine and i'm sure it has street/strip gears although i think it's an overdrive automatic.
CARL: You're going to chop something up and weld together other parts, rebuild a V8 engine w/auto trans ~
if you know about cars "you can do it" ! Throw away your whiskey & drugs and get with it brother ! ***then speed on***
Cool to see Perky Patty Flannery, Miss Hurst before Linda. Don't see her very often.
I like the hot rods story drag race
16.45 THE ACE
I need this! Where can I buy it! This is SO cool! Thanks for posting! :D
I miss Riverside Raceway. it's all a bunch of stinking houses now. The roar of the engines are all but a thing of the past. It only exists in my mind now.
9:55 Wally Parks, I've only seen him in Brass....LOL
The true " BIG DADDY " of drag racing for sure no doubt❗💯🎯
Wally Parks seemed like a real down to earth " cool guy " 👍💯🎯🥳
Wow-- Connie Kalita being interviewed by Dick Enberg seemed like a very sharp cool guy, a big thumbs up to him🎯💯❗❗❗👍
@ 24:48
FYI 16 year old Les Allen is Jeb Allen's older brother.
It costs upward of $75 -$100 to make a single run in one of today's dragsters
LOL !!!
Gosh all golly gee whiz skippy, how we gonna do this!?
ALMOST shit myself when i heard that!! Seein a waaay younger-than-when-I-met-him (1980's) Wally Parks was SUPER COOL; much different animal
w/o Wally. Check the UFO-esque, SUPER HILARIOUS mic Enberg had at the tree! This vid was F-N AWESOME!!!! THNX
@@jasonaldenhaley1 those were the days. Like you, I love these looks back at the old days when men were men and women were glad for it. Why are so many of the males today so afraid to be men? Anyway I say thanks for this video too.
@@jasonaldenhaley1 those were the days. Like you, I love these looks back at the old days when men were men and women were glad for it. Why are so many of the males today so afraid to be men? Anyway I say thanks for this video too.
A LOT more than that I can tell you!
The first funny car I remember was the Hiwaian
They lived just a few blocks from me,
@@user-bl6ne3hc6n wow cool 😎 THANKS
17:07 A little bit of Eddie Cochran.
Modern Top Fuel dragsters now make 11,000 hp from just 500 cubic inches.
great movie but no mention of one of the founding fathers of the sport BIG DADDY Don Garlits
This film was made before Don Garlits started his drag racing career.
good because in the background is a 64 or 65 Malibu when there talking about the dragster with the supercharged Hemi on it it's red if you look in the background so this is the mid-sixties not the forties and fifties when they're talking to this guy
126 mph and he says many of these cars are like the ones you drive daily
LOL
- no production cars were running 126 in the 1/4 back then
If you’re really into this stuff then you should check out the NHRA heritage series and go to event in Bakersfield either the March meet or the hot Rod reunion in October guarantee you will love it
@26:44 is my dad's car...
I raced one of those they're not called a skid lid they were called brain buckets
kool , thanx
any ideas on who's rendition on firebird suite? 30.00 mins
Real boss daddy !!!
Cool Man!!
Many top drivers racing at the time the Christmas Tree Starting Light system was implemented, did not like the tree, and protested it in writing, claiming that tree took away the skill of "reaction time" off the line. I think they made a good point and IMO, it is not preferred to remove skill from a sporting dicipline. But the current race start flagger, flagging from between lanes, had to go.
Yep, one guy took out on purpose
What year did they start using parachutes?
31:58 > tennisman Jo Wilfried Tsonga bro? 😉
back when a junkyard was all you needed for parts. be4 EVERYTHING had a perfomance version
33.20 ... wears a fire suit .. with Mokassins . his feet placed round a set of gears and clutches cooked by hellfire ... lesson of today .. Safety . is a relative word 😯
35:58 A broke shaft like that is usually because the shaft was running out of true too much at the end, and it broke off at a bearing.
Today’s top fuel dragsters cost over $2000 per second at full throttle to operate and about $8000 per run.
Alot of people ask, how did they know how to pack a parachute back then.. remember... you had paratroopers back in ww2. Most men of this Era racing cars were veterans. Not all were paratroopers but most knew how to pack one. Alot of the racing was driven from chasing the adrenaline of facing combat honestly
What year was this produced? Looks around 1965.
I raced against Tommy Ivo 1 time in las vegas mid 50s
Is this film available for purchase on CD?
David Rockwell Hi - we normally don't make our videos available for purchase.
King Rose Archives You say "normally" but IF the time ever comes, would love a copy to be able to show some young people the history of speed
+David Rockwell You can download a video by typing "ss" before the word "youtube" in the URL-bar. I would ask for the owners permission first though.
The dude could paint numbers he was awesome with that brush & great video to bad it’s so expensive now I guess though 10000 dollars back then would be a ton of money a top fuel car nowadays costs a small fortune and a lot more than a 100 a run lol they would spend that idling a car in ther pit for 3 min lol
8 second..😨..and now 4...
What year was this filmed?
WOW!!! 🟣🔵🟢
Isn't that Tony Nancy's full bodied car in the intro?
Yes it does appear to be 👍💯🎯
Can you imagine letting a 16 old kid running nitro race today?! The lawyers would be salivating at the potential civil liability of an accident for anyone connected to the races with two nickels to rub together.
It was a different time, I miss it. Not the laxity with safety but the assumption that if you’re stepping up to race you know what you are doing and if not it’s your own decking fault, not someone who didn’t realize that you were an incompetent shite stain.
Lol at “lid skid” sheesh. Really?
And the cars smoking the tires 75% of the run is just crazy. I wonder what that era would do with today’s rubber.
EGAD
smart enough to build a good engine
but not smart enough to figure out to do a burn out first?
I don't get it.
why did it take so long to invent the burnout and who invented it?
Seeing all your comments shows that you have no clue at all
Did you see the part of the video where Connie Kalitta was showing his broken transmission input shaft? He complained that either the engine had too much power, or the track had too much grip, and something had to give. This sort of explains why they didn't do burnouts in that era; they would have broken too many driveline parts, so they accepted smoking the tires. It took a few more years to develop stronger driveline parts, and the slipper clutch, before top fuel racers started doing burnouts to improve traction at the starting line. I have watched videos on YT, and have seen that by the 1969 US Nationals, most, but not all, competitors were doing burnouts. At the '68 Nats, none were. By 1970, all of them were. It probably wasn't a matter of "inventing" the burnout; more like figuring out how to build the car to take advantage of the hard launch that hot tires could provide.
thank you Andy, I did not know that. I've been to the races but never raced.
Billy , please see Andy's reply to learn how to answer someone who is just asking questions to learn something. Play nice.
In the beginning they used bleach during the burn out. It made the surface slippery at first. That helped spinning the tires initially, and lessened the shock to the driveline. 😁