Old Coyote Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 1960's .................. 1970's ............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Very nice ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitro norman Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Very nice. Especially like the rear engine car. Top Gas was an awesome class, with all those twin engine cars. Hated to see it go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Those are some fantastic looking models. Excellent! Are they Gas Dragsters? Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobthehobbyguy Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Nice job. What kits did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Those are some fantastic looking models. Excellent! Are they Gas Dragsters? Michael Yes sir, they are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 (edited) Nice job. What kits did you use? The front engine car uses an Altered States "Shorty" body on a Two Much chassis and small block Corvette engines from the Double Dragster ....... Two Jeb Allen kits gave their lives for the rear engine twin ........ Edited July 2, 2014 by Old Coyote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrass Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 John, Very nice builds!!! The 60s car reminds me of the Freight Train that used to run back in the day. I bought a lot of various car magazines for reference material on fleabay. Their is a great article in the Hot Rod Oct 1971 issue on a twin motored rear engine dragster that the Dom Paris family ran out of Rockford,Ill regards jwrass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 bad55 stan Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 they are both very cool.nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Well how much quicker were double engined dragsters anyway? Double the horsepower is obvious, maybe a second quicker? Cool models. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 They look great John... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Excellent, both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeBoyle Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Beautiful rails. I love the slingshot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr moto Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Well how much quicker were double engined dragsters anyway? Double the horsepower is obvious, maybe a second quicker? Cool models. Michael Not an expert, but as I've heard it, the twin engines kind of make up for not running fuel and if you're running fuel there's no advantage to twin engines because the limiting factor is not enough traction instead of not enough power. I don't know how the times for a twin engined gas dragster compared to a fueler back in the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davewilly Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Those are both pretty cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Thanks Manuel! I can just imagine those cars had some traction problems. Maybe some racers from back in the day could chime in and give some insight too? Like John alias Old Coyote! Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim boyd Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 John....terrific models....and the fact that they are both dual engined, including that mid-engined 1970's style job, very, very cool! TIM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truck parts Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Very nice build !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jade043 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Sweet lookin dragsters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted July 5, 2014 Author Share Posted July 5, 2014 (edited) Thanks Manuel! I can just imagine those cars had some traction problems. Maybe some racers from back in the day could chime in and give some insight too? Like John alias Old Coyote! Michael Back in the late '50's through the mid '60's, back before the advent of slipper clutches and delay boxes, about the only way to increase performance was to add horsepower .......... and you have to remember that NHRA banned nitro for many years ............ but those were the days of spinning slicks all the way through the quarter and horsepower meant speed and sometimes better ET's ............... so many of the teams tried twin engines ........... some were successful (the Howard Cams Twin Bear, Peters and Frank's Freight Train, Tommy Ivo's twin Buick, Eddie Hill's twin Pontiac, Jack Moss' Twin Chevy) .................. however, most of the time the ET's of the heavy twins and the significantly lighter singles were about the same ............ the twins did have a decided advantage when it came to top speeds ............. but top speeds don't win races The Freight Train could hold its own with some of the early, post fuel ban, fuel cars ............ but that situation did not last for long ............... since the nitro burners began making more horsepower than the gas cars as the mid to late '60's came along, plus they weighed significantly less, the gas cars just couldn't compete anymore ............ so Top Fuel Eliminator and Top Gas Eliminator were created ..................... by the early '70's, the interest in true "Top Gas" cars was waning and unfortunately the big gas burners were put out to pasture and Top Gas Eliminator became just a memory ................ but what a wonderful memory it is Here are a few pictures from Amarillo Dragway .................. gotta love those Top Gas Cars Prentiss Cunningham The last "Freight Train" .......... Frakes and Funk ......... Top Gas staging lanes ................. Edited July 5, 2014 by Old Coyote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 OMG! Look at the Prentiss Cunningham dragster! What a beauty, the wheels, color, all brings back the way they looked. So cool! Excellent photos and time capsule inventory from the earlier days. The cars looked cooler back then, more than today's top cars, in my opinion. I guess it was the class, well maybe it was the class that makes the difference. How about the front of the picture with an injected dragster, with a different label on each stack? Time documents. Thank you sir for sharing these documents, and of course your knowledge. Guys, you know what? I've been going to Moparts Forum for years now, and I get better info from the past, on various subjects, from this website than I do from a top notch Mopar forum. Thanks to all. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 John, alias Old Coyote, I have a question please. In your second and third photo the slicks have a white line painted on them. I've seen this often, even with stockers the steelies were sometimes half one color, the other white. Were these markings there to show the pit crew how the tire was spinning, meaning how the traction was? Too much traction or too little? I've often seen these markings on tires and steel wheels. I can only imagine these would aid visibility. It looked cool, but I'm sure there's more to tell. With a big horsepower car, the tires would spin easily at the green light, how could the naked eye see what was positive or negative about spinning? Can you chime in and give us some insight please. Thanks for your input. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) John, alias Old Coyote, I have a question please. In your second and third photo the slicks have a white line painted on them. I've seen this often, even with stockers the steelies were sometimes half one color, the other white. Were these markings there to show the pit crew how the tire was spinning, meaning how the traction was? Too much traction or too little? I've often seen these markings on tires and steel wheels. I can only imagine these would aid visibility. It looked cool, but I'm sure there's more to tell. With a big horsepower car, the tires would spin easily at the green light, how could the naked eye see what was positive or negative about spinning? Can you chime in and give us some insight please. Thanks for your input. Michael You are correct, they are a visibility aid ........... There were two different types of lines painted on the slicks ........... one, like on my rear engine dragster model crossed the sidewall area .............. the second (which came later) followed the circumference of the tire ................ check the picture below of Eddie Hill's Pennzoil dragster ................ the line across the sidewall allowed the crew chiefs to check for sidewall deflection and the possibility of beadlock failure (beadlocks were used to permanently "lock" the bead of the tire to the wheel, which kept the wheel from spinning inside the tire) ................... the line around the circumference allows the crew chiefs to see the distortion of the soft compound tires as they "grow" due to wheelspeed ............... there may be other reasons for the lines, but these are the ones I'm most aware of ............... you can see both on Eddie Hill's dragster Steel wheels don't "deflect or distort" (or shouldn't anyway) ........... so half painted one color and half another would probably just be the owner's paint preference Thought you might like these shots from Amarillo also .......... Stellings & Hampshire 1964 ......... Weekly, Rivero, Fox, and Holding .......... 1964 .... and Tommy Ivo and the Carroll Brothers doing "the starting line dance" ............ Photo by David Ray Edited July 6, 2014 by Old Coyote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Geeez, look at the rear wheel on the 64 Stellings and Hampshire pic, the red Kent fuller dragster! Beautiful. American mags? Gorgeous. The Tommy Ivo dragster pic, why is the other car coming down the wrong way? Was he in lane 2 and had to change over? The dragsters of this era are my favorites. OK. You've cleared this up well, thanks. I haven't ever seen the white coloring on the circumference before, what a fantastic photo! The tire distortion, and they're not small tires, is amazing. Question about blower belts; am I mistaken, or were sometimes the belts run on the outside of the middle pulley? Thanks for the replies, Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted July 7, 2014 Author Share Posted July 7, 2014 Geeez, look at the rear wheel on the 64 Stellings and Hampshire pic, the red Kent fuller dragster! Beautiful. American mags? Gorgeous. The Tommy Ivo dragster pic, why is the other car coming down the wrong way? Was he in lane 2 and had to change over? The dragsters of this era are my favorites. OK. You've cleared this up well, thanks. I haven't ever seen the white coloring on the circumference before, what a fantastic photo! The tire distortion, and they're not small tires, is amazing. Question about blower belts; am I mistaken, or were sometimes the belts run on the outside of the middle pulley? Thanks for the replies, Michael Back in the "Good old days" we didn't have roller starters or "snout" starters that spun the blower snout pulley ............... cars were started by pushing them and doing the "starting line dance" (notice the Chevrolet Suburban with the push board attached to the front bumper behind the Carroll Brothers car) .............. the cars were pushed from the finish line back to the staging area ............ in the picture, Ivo has pushed down lane one into the staging lanes (his push vehicle, which happened to be a Cadillac Eldorado, is out of the frame to the right .............. and he will run from lane two ............ the Carroll Brothers car will likewise make a "turn" into lane one but closer to the starting line than Ivo ............... Ivo's crew will then pull him back so he can straighten out into lane two ............ and vice versa for the Carroll Brothers crew so their driver can straighten out into lane one ................ burnouts and dry hops (no longer allowed) could be done past the starting line and the crews would then push the cars back into the staging area (reversers were not required back then) ............. dragsters, funny cars, altereds, any cars that had to be push started followed these procedures And yes, the idler pulleys could be positioned to the outside of the blower belt, or to the inside ................. it was simply a matter of what the owner/crew chief preferred (or felt most comfortable with) ............ since I never campaigned a blown car I couldn't give you an opinion of which way was better ......... John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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