Bill "Maverick" Golden's traction setup for '63 Dodge?

During November of 1962, I built a set of traction bars out of 2"X3" rectangular tubing that ran from plates I made to replace the normal shock mounts. They ran back to the frame rail just before the bumper. At first I had 3 bolts through the shock mount brackets. It caused the car to porpoise, so we took out 2 of them to let it pivot. Worked great. At Buckingham drag strip in Ft. Myers, Fl, you could launch the car at 6000 rpm on the concrete and expect the clutch to slip because the hook was so good. My 63 Dodge was equiped with the T-85 three speed tranny. Later that year, oh the hindsight, Traction Master came out with the Traction Monster that was a copy of my design but made of a 1" tubing instead of my clunky rectangular tubing. Wish I had copyrighted it. I was sponsored at this time by Biscayne Dodge in North Miami Beach who was a factory owned dealership, or dealer enterprise. It was because they were only interested in developing the South Florida market that prevented me from racing at places other than Valkaria, where I met "the Ramchargers", Masters Field in Miami, and Gainesville where Ronnie Sox drilled me in my 68 Hemi-Dart at the Gators in 69. I belonged to the Cabriolets Road Club in Hialeah, Fl and we had members such as Jerry Gwynn, Chase Knight of Crane Cams, Jerry Tyson of Chrondeck Timing Systems,Danny O'Connell, Bob Stratman retired of Crane Cams, and a host of other inovative and talented racers. Dick Landy held one of the clinics at Biscayne Dodge and I had the pleasure of having his and my "Deadly Dart" on the showroom floor together. I met with him at Carlisle just before he passed away leaving only good memories. As to Bill Golden and his traction device, I am sure that word traveled quite fast in those days with the factories being so involved, so I really can't say if I was first or second with the concept, I just wish I had kept all those old cars.

deadly dart,
Thanks for the old history lesson.
I saw a '63 Plymouth at a resto shop in Clearwater that had a set of these bars on it. It was black/red interior. Being in FL, you may have run against it at one time.
Not to hijack the post, but what was the history of the second Hemi Dart you had, the Bob Dance car? Who was the original racer that had it?

I had photos of a cupple of cars with that setup on them, Gartlets car had it, but thay were lost when my old computer died. The Maverick car was owned localy and I got a good look at what was left of the brackets welded to the rear most part of the rear clip. That was one of the ways that thay authenicated the car. I have thaught of trying it on my bracket car, I can;t see why it would not be leagal in a bracket car today.

Some one that races at Atco had come onto a old pro stock Dart that had leaf link suspention, and when he redid the car he kept the setup. It worked good. bouth sides were not the same as thay had the rear of the leaf mounted higher on one side than the outher, car went strate.

You mention the Garlits 63 Dodge. I raced at Buckingham Drag Strip in Ft. Myers, Fl where Don had an identical car as mine with the exception that his was an automatic and mine was a stick. I was running my traction bars there and also hurt the clutch due to the bite on that concrete track. He later used that engine in one of his dragsters. Guess he liked the way my car hooked too.
The black 63 Plymouth max-wedge car with the red interior belonged to a guy in Miami. Don't remember his name but his favorite thing to yell out of his door window was, "What does a 500lb canary say?" 'CHIRRRP!!!"

Well v-code
Forgot to include the info on my second hemi-dart that I got from Bob Dance. That car was sold through Transitown Dodge in New York to twin Italian brothers. I no longer remember their name but I do know that I found 7 different colors of paint on it when I prepped it to paint. There was a time slip under the dash from Englishtown that was during the Sports Nationals event if my memory serves me well. Most of these cars were never titled and were just delivered with an MSO, or manufaturers shipping order.

I use to have a magazine that had an artictle in it about the traction bar and had a pic of him by the rearend of the car and saying how it was outlawed. Bradley

Richard Charbonneau had some on his 63 Plym..essentially a reverse ladder bar running to close to the bumper. When he would disconnect them from the rear brackets, when the pinion angle got positive on the brake and on shifts, these things were quite visible...we called them "grasshopper legs"...almost forgot!!