Ace-Garageguy

The car in the build thread wasn't the only rear-engined funny, either. This Javelin was run By Doug Thorley...the header guy. There were others. How 'bout rear-engine, all-wheel drive?

Like I said...read through all the rules and minutes of the NHRA safety and rules meetings of the period surrounding Garlits' little problem, and I'm sure you'll find exactly the REAL reason funnies aren't rear-engined today. I honestly don't know. I'm only making logical guesses. And remember...humans don't always do what's logical...even NHRA rule makers... or draw the right inferences from one set of facts and correctly apply those to another one.

Here's the story of the top-fuel rear engine transition from NHRA itself... http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/2015/02/20/front-to-back-the-rear-engine-transition/

Garlits was the driving force behind making the switch in top-fuel to rear engine. He was also an early promoter of fire-retardant full driving suits...well before they were required by NHRA. If there had been the kind of frequent catastrophic failures in funnies that there were getting to be in top-fuel, and the injuries that went with them, you can be damm sure NHRA would have required SOMETHING. " injuries and even death were a constant companion as engines, clutches, and bellhousings, pushed to and beyond their limits, began to give out with an alarming frequency, claiming heroes like Mike Sorokin. The aforementioned 6.43 was clocked by John Mulligan in qualifying No. 1 at the 1969 Nationals, but a disintegrating clutch in round one led to a terrible fire that ultimately claimed his life. Add in Garlits losing half of his right foot in the Lions transmission explosion and Jim Nicoll riding out his terrifying tumble alongside Don Prudhomme after a clutch explosion in the 1970 Nationals final, and you can see that it was a terrifying time to drive a fuel dragster." But scattershields and bellhousings and ballistic blankets for blowers got better and better, and rear-engine configurations just weren't necessary for the funnies.

You wear a full face mask for one thing, and for another thing, it wasn't the blower that took 1/2 of Garlits' foot off. It was part of the exploding transmission. In a top-fuel car, you sat with your feet pretty much on it.

I wasn't there, so I can't really say. I DO know that racing is a lot about winning, and if the thing wasn't fast enough or handled weird, due to a lack of development funds (or whatever), even if it WAS safer and had HUGE potential, if the drivers in the class weren't making a stink over it and it wasn't a winner, nobody would jump on the bandwagon and say "let's build 'em all this way from now on". For another thing, you sat farther back from the engine in a funny than in a top-fueler, so the hazards of getting body parts removed by flying mechanical bits weren't quite so apparent. And to make more of the point about winning and folks copying winners, there were more than a few rear-engined rails well before Garlits made the switch...but when HE did it, and was pretty much the man to beat, everyone in the class followed suit. A thorough reading of the funny-car rules of the period might be revealing too. Maybe the rear-engine configuration was subsequently outlawed. The cars were supposed to kinda represent production cars, kinda, and rear-engine may not have seemed in keeping with the spirit of the class. I really don't know.

That kinda thing appears to be pretty common in the transportation field too...

My guess is that it was two-fold. Enhanced driver safety, like the move to rear-engined rails after Garlit's horrific ride... ...and better weight distribution for drag racing, with the engine weight closer to the drive wheels. It probably wasn't terribly successful because, as mentioned above, it was underfunded, and the design probably didn't become popular because it wasn't all that successful.

Here's the story. Macy's owns the thing now, but it was originally a piece of publicity done by the then-Rich's store, before the Macy's consolidation. The publicity guy came up with a small train that ran in the toy department around Christmas and called it "Priscilla the Pig". Only he would know why "pig" and not "duck". Apparently it just morphed on its own the rest of the way. You know how pushy pigs can be. http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/Macy's_Pink_Pig

It is obviously the father of Macy's Pink Pig monorail that ran on the roof of an Atlanta department store in the '50s and '60s. Really. It was known to have had alliances with females of several other mechanical species, and to have sired multiple offspring with them as well.

Here's some more backup for your story. Weslake apparently made some really trick heads for the old Y-block, and though this engine is set up with an equally trick alloy front cover and a magneto driven off of it (in front), it could have easily retained a rear-driven distributor or mag, like the stock Y-block. http://www.hotrod.com/news/0811cct-weslake-ford-y-block-engine/ http://www.taringa.net/post/autos-motos/8843419/El-prototipo-Ford-mas-famoso-de-Argentina.html

Nice to see it back up. And hey...if anybody gives you any grief over the distributor in back on a Ford engine, just tell 'em it's a one-off aluminum Y-block (a Ford V8 that DID have the distributor in the back), with a set of one-off alloy heads to go with it. The reason for using the Y-block was that, because of the deep skirt the block had, it worked out to be a lot stiffer when cast in aluminum than the other Ford blocks at the time. That allowed it to be used as a stressed chassis member, with the suspension hung off the rear like a Lotus 49. This is total BS I just made up, but it sounds good. Watch it turn up as the gospel on the internet in a couple of years. (Well, it's not ALL BS. The Y-block is a real engine, it has a deep skirt, and the distributor IS in the back. The original Y-block heads didn't flow that well and were down on power compared to other engines, but Ford of Argentina built some that worked much better. There were even a few sets of alloy heads built for the old Y-block, so your story could actually be true.) This IS a Y-block with multiple downdraft 2-bbl Webers.

Nice!. I have to sit in most of my 1:1s and make vroom-vroom noises. I really envy a man who has one that actually moves.

Yes, and thanks, Tom. I wouldn't have known where to start looking without your pointing me towards Jada. I'll be hollowing out the entire backside of them to use them as covers over wire wheels on a build of a vintage classic.

Thanks for your interest and comments, one and all. Here's the deal on the front ends. The kingpin inclination on the old straight axles wants to put the tire contact patch at the center of the steering axis (the centerline of the kingpin), to make steering relatively easy, and the axle is actually made with a little camber built in. Usually on an old slingshot dragster, besides the rear axle being as narrow as is practical, a lot of caster was dialed in at the front (by tilting the top of the axle back) to make the car track in a straight line and to help the steering to self-center...which is what caster does by placing the tire contact patch behind the steering axis...especially important if one rear wheel has more traction than the other one (which tends to make the car want to go sideways, and more sideways the wider the rear axle is). The extreme amount of front axle caster and its effect on camber as the wheels are steered is what makes these things look so odd. Before this narrow-rear / lotsa-caster-front setup was adopted, dragster "rail jobs" were notoriously squirrelly to drive.

Yup. The "insert other media" thing is useless.

It always makes me kinda sad to see how people just throw their faithful old machines away, and let them rust to uselessness. I know I'm odd, but if I had unlimited money and was going to live forever, I'd save 'em all.

I would have much preferred the Caddy like you have, but I couldn't find one for the price...at least with the ribbed wheel covers I needed for another stalled project. It's just a shame Jada didn't do a well-proportioned chopped Merc instead of the sat-on looking one thay chose.

Looks great. I love '57 Fords, love gassers, this is the best of both. Love that fast orange color too.

Wow. Beautiful model. You set the bar high indeed, and your work is always inspiring.

That is truly beautiful work. First impression is of a real car, and that's tough to pull off in 1/24-1/25. The texture of the top finish and your added details like the door window frame being just visible, the door lock button, etc...plus what looks like perfect foil work...man, that's just fine fine fine.

Yeah, the TBI mess went belly-up a few months back, so I made a cheapo adapter carved from a chunk of 3/4" aluminum plate and bolted a Rochester 2GC (off the '63 Olds) to it, swapped the OEM distributor for a junkyard HEI with vacuum and mechanical advance. Runs stronger than the TBI (which had been failing for a while), gets at least the same fuel mileage too. Engine's got over 200K on it now and I'm starting to hear a lot of piston slap when she's cold, so it's about time. This is a truck I saved from the crusher for $100, put another $1000 or so in to, and she's been working hard for several years now. She's earned some goodies.

Got a set of nice M&S takeoffs for my '89 GMC pickup, and made a deal for a complete Chebby 283 out of a '60 Impala that got a new 350 crate-motor. I've been kinda lucking into a mess of Chebby smallblock parts lately and I already have a pair of beautiful Chebby double-hump heads, so depending on what crank is in the 283, I MAY build a little sleeper 3X2 (Rochester) / shorty-header engine to replace the 305 small-port engine in the GMC. It's kinda fun to drive with the 5-speed, and handles better than a lot of beam-axle hot rods, so I figure with a set of lowering blocks in the rear and dropped spindles in front...and a cool old-school engine...I can drive happy for a while while I build something else. And the truck can still work for its living as a truck. The 283 will let me dump the first-gen serpentine belt setup too, the one that makes it a real PITA to change a water pump. I also found out that somebody finally makes dropped disc brake spindles for my '63 Olds 88 ragtop, so all the procrastination I've been doing about getting her running can finally end.

I got this Jada 1/24 diecast Merc for about $10, specifically for the ribbed optional wheel covers. The car also has some pretty nice Caddy sombreros that will be perfect for another stalled build...that I didn't have the right wheels for until now. These are really nice little models. I don't care for the awful squashed-looking chop on this one, but the quality of the fit and finish is very good.

Love the Jag. Finally, something to do with one of those horrible old Aurora / Monogram E-type fastbacks. It'll still need a new nose, but that's one cool old car.