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Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: Mr.Yuck] #880934 12/17/10 06:29 AM 12/17/10 06:29 AM
Joined: Jul 2010 Posts: 49 mogadore ohio 44260 R racingblues1426 member
racingblues1426 member R Joined: Jul 2010 Posts: 49 mogadore ohio 44260	the magazine pitted a 327 300 hp vette against the 413. Guess they couldn't find a 63 fi vette or didn't look very hard. Find an old national dragster magazine from 1963. The nat records were posted just like todays. The A/SP record (held by a 63 vette is faster than the A/S record that was not held by a 413 dodge or ply.Saw all of these cars run, nothing at the time could beat a vette on the street or strip at that time. All cars ran recapped casler slicks at the drags. The auto cars were slower in every class during this time period. Not enough was known about torque converters to make the automatic work. Just my 3 cents worth. Merry Christmas to everyone.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: racingblues1426] #880935 12/17/10 01:53 PM 12/17/10 01:53 PM
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,532 off the grid 340B5 pro stock
340B5 pro stock Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,532 off the grid	chris3...Crizilla.. racing blues; I sincerely envy you guys for having been there. I see drag racing dying a slow death nowadays and wish something could be done about it. Last edited by 340B5; 12/17/10 02:07 PM.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: 340B5] #880936 12/17/10 02:21 PM 12/17/10 02:21 PM
Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 622 NC chris3 mopar
chris3 mopar Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 622 NC	340B5, my son "hemiparts" has made a comment several times that it is a shame that someone could not assemble all of the stories he has heard from those days into a book or something. He hears the stories all the time when, my remaining brothers and I get together, but he also hears all the stories from old friends and racers that he meets at reunions and such. When he had the opportunity to drive the Motown Missile car against Hemifred he commented that unless someone preserves the cars and the stories they will eventually all be gone. When you get guys like Stewart P, Tom Hoover, Hubert Platt talking, the history of Drag Racing is in the recollection of those days. On Saturday night in Henderson, NC I looked through some photographs of the old missle cars on Stewart's lap top and as we were talking at our table, Bo Laws (side note Stewart pointed out who Bo was since I had not seen him in 35 years, old Modified Production days, did not recognize him)and a group were telling old stories and another table, Fred Bear, Dave Hale and other members of the S&S Racing Team (Gassers) were at another table telling stories. Chris "Hemiparts" called me last night and asked if I realize that 2011 will be the 40th Anniversary of IHRA and that they have a contact on their site wanting names, pictures and stories from the beginning of IHRA. If you are interested in the History of Drag Racing go to East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame 1 & 2 on You Tube and look at 2010 reunion. Turn the volume up when you get to the hemi in Billy Lynch's dragster.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: chris3] #880937 12/17/10 04:02 PM 12/17/10 04:02 PM
Joined: Aug 2003 Posts: 43,172 Bend,OR USA C Cab_Burge I Win
Cab_Burge I Win C Joined: Aug 2003 Posts: 43,172 Bend,OR USA	I remember sitting in the pit side granstands at Fonatana Drag city in the summer of 1965 on a saturady evening watching top fuel cars qualify and race. Hot car staging and pits where at the far end of the pits, they would push start the cars on a narrow paved road to the starting line in front of the stands. The drivers would put the clutch in , let the push car get up to speed and then let the clutch out, as soon as the motor got oil pressure they would turn the mag and fuel on and let the motor start and run a short distance before psuhing the clutch in and rev the motor to clean it out. One night a lady was standing by the fence hanging over the fence by the starting line watching the fuelers push down and circle around to stage and race, the push road was probally less than 15 ft. wide where it went by her. One of the drivers wack the throttle right in her face and she passed out falling on the ground They ran those motor really fat so I don't know if it was the fumes, noise or sudden scare, but down on her butt she went, priceless I had to drive around a hundred miles to get there, gas was 23 cents a gallon and a new 1964 Dodge 330 with a street 426 4 speed costs $2764.00 out the door, I should have bought four of them but I couldn't I was working for the local phone company as a apprentice lineman making $1.76 a hour The California Minimumum wage was $1.00 an hour back then Last edited by Cab_Burge; 12/17/10 04:19 PM. Mr.Cab Racing and winning with Mopars since 1964. (Old F--t, Huh)

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: chris3] #880938 12/17/10 04:06 PM 12/17/10 04:06 PM
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,532 off the grid 340B5 pro stock
340B5 pro stock Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 1,532 off the grid	I'll definately do that, and it's about time for another visit to "We did it for love" too. I remember one story of a drag racer that had a wheel bearing problem on his open trailer and showed up for a drag race w/a pair of vice grips holding the wheel bearing on. Yeah, it's got a smallblock.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: Cab_Burge] #880939 12/17/10 04:51 PM 12/17/10 04:51 PM
Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 622 NC chris3 mopar
chris3 mopar Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 622 NC	Cab, now that's funny. See how many of these types of stories are out there. Would you get that close to a fueler now days. I'm getting old, you just reminded me of a step in start-up. Forgot to get the oil pressure up. And you remember, we had those "aluminum foil" suits with the hood and those airplane goggles. When the car fired you had all that fuel, remember there were not electrical pumps mechanical drive off the crankshaft, would blow out the headers and back in your face. Boy, what memories. The irony of this post is I am negotiating on a Junior dragster for my 11 year old grandson (third generation) you should have seen the look on his grandmother's face last Sunday afternoon when went to look at the the car and he climbed up and slid down in between those rails like a pro.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: ] #880940 12/17/10 05:39 PM 12/17/10 05:39 PM
Joined: Oct 2003 Posts: 7,506 Az Crizila master
Crizila master Joined: Oct 2003 Posts: 7,506 Az	One of my last passes at that track - summer 68. 6362981-lastpass.jpg (45 downloads) Fastest 300

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: chris3] #880941 12/17/10 06:05 PM 12/17/10 06:05 PM
Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,031 Raleigh N.C H hemiparts "Missile Pilot"
hemiparts "Missile Pilot" H Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,031 Raleigh N.C	And I'll say it again, YOU"RE LUCKY YA"LL AIN"T DEAD !!!! I look @ you guys running Fuel in a chassis that looks like you guys robbed a plumbing supply yard to build. Sitting on top of rear diffs with no sort of shield. I have to wear more saftey gear in my Super Stocker than you guys wore racing fuel dragsters. I look pictures of Chris3 and all those guys from back in the day racing in t-shirts and polyester bell bottoms ( oh yes i know where i can find some pics of Chris3 @ Rockingham abut the time ya'll are discussing ) and even Dick Landy snatching gears with a foot long stogey hanging out of his mouth. I do wish that someone would set down and record as many of these old stories as possible for the generations to come. We have already lost so many of the legends and the stories that they took with them that will never be told again, these are wonderful stories of times when pro drivers travled on open trailers, sleeping in the trucks and racing 6 nights a week in 5 diffrent states. The sport has evolved so much that if theses stories aren't saved by time my son gets old enough to enjoy them they'll be long gone. Chris 6363020-RACECARS131.jpg (35 downloads)

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: hemiparts] #880942 12/17/10 06:10 PM 12/17/10 06:10 PM
A Anonymous Unregistered
Anonymous Unregistered A	Quote: And I'll say it again, YOU"RE LUCKY YA"LL AIN"T DEAD !!!! I look @ you guys running Fuel in a chassis that looks like you guys robbed a plumbing supply yard to build. Sitting on top of rear diffs with no sort of shield. I have to wear more saftey gear in my Super Stocker than you guys wore racing fuel dragsters. I look pictures of Chris3 and all those guys from back in the day racing in t-shirts and polyester bell bottoms ( oh yes i know where i can find some pics of Chris3 @ Rockingham abut the time ya'll are discussing ) and even Dick Landy snatching gears with a foot long stogey hanging out of his mouth. I do wish that someone would set down and record as many of these old stories as possible for the generations to come. We have already lost so many of the legends and the stories that they took with them that will never be told again, these are wonderful stories of times when pro drivers travled on open trailers, sleeping in the trucks and racing 6 nights a week in 5 diffrent states. The sport has evolved so much that if theses stories aren't saved by time my son gets old enough to enjoy them they'll be long gone. Chris Looks pretty safe to me. They don't have any guardrails to hit.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: ] #880943 12/17/10 06:27 PM 12/17/10 06:27 PM
A Anonymous Unregistered
Anonymous Unregistered A	I swear if I find a deal on a Front engine dragster project I am going to build one! Go to six week ends a year--get my thrills and go home--no more bracket BS and no more every Sat at the track all year long ( did it for 15 years) have a GOOD wife now and want to do other stuff-- but make it FUN again! I may be crazy but I really do plan on getting one!

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: chris3] #880944 12/18/10 12:29 AM 12/18/10 12:29 AM
A Anonymous Unregistered
Anonymous Unregistered A	Went back through my pictures I took with my Mom's Instamatic. I'm suprised they even turned out. Here is the only one that shows a dragster out of the hot pits in the background being pushed towards the starting line. I'm sure it would have already fired off as it is getting close to the starting line. Love the clothes, dress pants and button shirts. The blue jeans and t-shirts must be in the pits.

Re: Pushed Out of the Hot Pits [Re: Monte_Smith] #880945 12/18/10 12:39 AM 12/18/10 12:39 AM
A Anonymous Unregistered
Anonymous Unregistered A	Quote: Some tracks, like INDY, were state of the art. That is why the lanes at INDY are long, right behind the starting line, for the old push starts. Beech Bend, had "roller starters" buried in the ground, under the bridge. A guy sat in a pit and operated the SBC, that drove the rollers. It was cool to stand on the bridge, watch the cars fire and get a big dose of nitro fumes. Other tracks, would push to the finish line, turn the cars around, push back, fire then at the tree and turn them around again. And even after they became self starting, TF cars still did not have reversers for several years and you had a gang out there to push the car back after a burnout. That was pretty cool. Monte You mean sort of like this.... A little better camera this time compliments of a shopping trip to Nam. He could bring the crowd to their feet.

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