I was stationed in Elizabeth City, NC in early 1970. A guy on the base there had a 61 or 61 Valiant 4 door that he'd put a 413 in. The car looked stock on the outside. It was a nightmare to work on and he himself would admit it handled terribly, but the concept had me hooked. That was my ultimate vision of a drag car.

A year and a half later I saw this one sitting in a parking lot for sale in the San Francisco bay area and I had to have the car. The purchase even broke up my engagement to my sweetheart back home (who it turned out was living with some burn out draft dodger anyway)

Different, yes: crude, yes: practical, hell no. I still have it. Learned a lot racing it. It hasn't turned a wheel in 20 years I'm sorry to say. I really want to get it going for one of these nostalgia events around the country.