Eddie Hill Top Fuel Dragster

[jlucky]

While work continues on Dragster #43 in my Top Fuel History collection, yet to be revealed...I thought I'd share this build of Eddie Hill's fueler from 1993. This is probably my most detailed dragster having won a couple IPMS show ribbons. I built this one BEFORE Revell came out with the kits with air deflectors, so I had to create those from a template. Cheers

[Stephen0625]

Looks great! It looks like you could put a splash of nitro in the tank and she'll fire right up. Now if only someone would make a modern day Top Fuel and Funny Car kit. 

[Force]

Nice build, very well detailed and right for the time period.

[Force]

On 7/7/2025 at 8:08 AM, Stephen0625 said:

Looks great! It looks like you could put a splash of nitro in the tank and she'll fire right up. Now if only someone would make a modern day Top Fuel and Funny Car kit. 

One can say Revell/Monogram entered the "modern" nitro racing era at the worst time back in 1985 with the Funny Cars kits and 1987 with the Top Fuel kits, the evolution in the nitro classes both technically and visually was so fast in the mid 80's and 90's so it was hard to keep up as it changed all the time, and every time Revell did updates to the kits they still fell behind as they didn't do enough as the progress in the sport was so fast...but that progress slowed down and stabilized in the early 2000's so if they had persevered and had done the necessary updates to the last kits the kits would have been a lot more accurate even for today as most of the progress after that are internal and technical.
The Top Fuel kits from 2002 are the last issued from Revell, but they did not do all the necessary updates on these kits and that I can't understand as it wasn't that much, they did some updates but not everything needed to even do the cars correct for what they were supposed to be.
The things needed updating in these kits to be what they use today are mostly a different roll cage with a head shield and a larger wind shield, or a DSR canopy, the ignition should have larger 44 amp MSD magnetos instead of the smaller Mallory Super Mag III magnetos, the fuel system needs Sid Waterman "Big Bertha" inline gear fuel pumps instead of the old style side by side Enderle rotor pumps, a set back 14-71 blower and intake manifold, new titanium valve covers with spark plug shields, a one piece front wing mounted in front of the nose instead of the two wings mounted to the sides of the nose, a 3 element rear wing with updated side panels instead of the 2 element wing, a larger puke can, and a belly pan...and that's about it...there are also some explosion blankets and hold down straps on the engines but they are easy to do.
If Revell had done most of these updates to the Tony Schumacher ARMY Dragster and the Kenny Bernstein Budweiser King Dragster wich were the last issued from Revell they would pretty much have been up to date even today 23 years later...except for wheels wich change all the time, the rest is what they still use to this day.

For the Funny Cars they need to do the same things to the engine as with the Top Fuel Dragsters, a fuel tank with a dry sump oil tank beside it (funny cars have dry sump systems to be able to mount the engine lower in the chassis), change the roll cage some and put on a head shield and padding, and of course the bodies and the wheels.

Edited July 14 by Force

[TonyK]

Wow! Great engine detail. Ahhh yes, the Eddie Hill days with lots of white hair. 😀

[Mike 1017]

Great build of Historic NHRA Top Fuel Dragster

[John B.]

Incredibly well done!

[Phildaupho]

I saw Jerry's dragsters back in the 1990's and the level of detail blew me away

[iBorg]

Funny someone posts the Nuclear Banana while I eat a banana. Very nice work. Most of the detailed TF motors I see look cluttered and messy. Not so in your case. Having said that, I don't see anything missing. Very nice work.

[M W Elky]

Very nicely done I can remember him settling the ET record at Maple Grove with a 4.99 right around this early nineties era . Eddie was usually the under dog I think penzoil was his first big sponsor 

[ChrisR]

Looks great.

[Dragline]

That's what I'm talking about about!

Very well done brother.

I stick plug wire or something a bit bigger in my braided hose. It stops the collapse and allows placement. Try it next time brother. And, you can use it to connect to fittings as well. Win/Win

[dragin70s]

Such a great build. I may have to reference this one sometime.  Saw Eddie at the Mid-South Nationals (or other of the names it went through near Memphis). Like all fans, love walking the pits. Not the type to try to talk the drivers/crew, but was looking at Eddie's car and he starts talking to me. Seemed like a good guy, I miss that era. 

[jlucky]

Hey everyone...thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I agree with the post regarding Revell should have updated the Top Fuel and Funny Car kits. That would have been great to see and would have been relatively accurate to this day. Thanks again.

[Force]

The thing with Revell and their "modern era" Top Fuel kits is that the first one was Don Garlits Swamp Rat XXX in 1987 (now with Atlantis)...and that bit them in the tail end as that dragster was pretty much a one off and no other team followed on that one.
So they had to start all over and do mostly everything new when they did the Gary Ormsby Castol GTX and Joe Amato Valvoline dragsters in 1991 and they plus the following kits in 1992, the Lori Johns Jolly Rancher and Tom McEwen Mobil 1 dragsters, were very accurate, after that even tho' they did some updates, they fell behind more and more and could never really catch up.

With the Funny Car kits wich first was introduced under the Monogram brand they based all the "modern era" kits on the Don Prudhomme Pepsi/Wendy's Pontiac, Dale Pulde Miller Warrior Pontiac and Billy Meyer's Chief Auto Parts/7-Eleven Mustang from 1985, so they all have the same basic chassie and engine from that time with some small updates, and new bodies as they changed over the years, and same here, they did updates but never enough to catch up.

Edited July 14 by Force

[slusher]

Great looking build!