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Mickey Thompson's Challenger One. Still alive, Feb. 8


Ace-Garageguy

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Last bench shots...morning light on the 'alloy' body. This is the 'bare metal', fresh-from-the-body-builder effect I've been working on for a little while now.

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The other side...

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On the trailer, going to Under Glass and the NNL Southern Nationals...

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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I agree, Bill. One of the more counter-intuitive trends in things automotive is the rise of the blunt nose as the dominant form in reducing drag. We see it everywhere these days, particularly in passenger cars,often aided and abetted by other factors such as the EU law mandating that at speeds below 10 kph a car coliding with a pedestrian must throw the hapless victim upwards and not under the car, and the move to increasing interior space by having passengers sit more upright. All this has eliminated the old long and low, "swoopy" streamline look from the automotive design vocabulary. It's fascinating to see it so obviously manifest in Thompson's Challenger. The injected car was fast, though not quite fast enough to be a record setter. But it was fast enough to attract plenty of additional sponsorship. I have no doubt your surmise is correct, that MT got some professional help and this accounts for the car's more blunt shape at the front. I'll have to scratch around the web some more to see if I can find some history on this matter but it's quite clear in comparing the two versions. How very, very cool...

By the way, when it comes to voluptuous streamliners the old Hammon-Whipp-McGrath Redhead will never be equaled!

early+redhead+2.jpgredhead+1+1964.jpg

Being from Redding, the home of bothe Roger Whipp, & Don Hammon, I got to see quite a bit of this car, personally I was really disappointed when the switched from the early Hemi to the "Baby Hemi" Daimler engine. I looked like someone left it in the dryer to long.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There really IS a remarkable amount of information already available on this forum. I've been looking for some realistic velocity stacks for the FI on the early engines, and came up with these from searching the site. Not perfect, but definitely in the ballpark. http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70078419

70078419.jpg

The stacks I'm looking for are much more bell-mouthed, like the one clearly visible in the far, front engine in this photo. Any suggestions?

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EDIT: Like these...

engine-keith-black-hemi.jpg

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Thanks for the photo, Brett. Based on this and a couple of responses I got over on the "resin and aftermarket" board, I'm going to order the Parks versions. Cut down to the height I need, I think they'll give as close to the right look as I'm going to get (which looks pretty close to me) without taking a lot of time to make custom parts. Thanks again.

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  • 1 year later...

No pix, but just a little update. I finally pulled the trigger and sprung for 4 sets of the Parts by Parks stacks, and located a can of the right period-Pontiac-engine-blue.

Shortly after the first of the year, I should also be in possession of a fresh gallon of the magic epoxy aircraft resin I use to build molds and body skins.

All comments, negative or positive, entirely welcome. Anyone who might have photos of the non-blown car's guts, with the skins off (other than what's on the net), please contact me as well.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 years later...
On 1/22/2019 at 2:04 PM, Don Sikora II said:

Great project.

Thank you sir.   :D

22 hours ago, chris chabre said:

did you ever end up making any bodies Bill?

Not yet. The water-based release agent I tried had an adverse reaction with the surface finish, and I didn't want to use a silicone-based product. There's another one I have used in the past that might work, it's a two-pert process, I've run out of the first part, and the new minimum quantity is a gallon...and it's not cheap.

Still kinda studyin' on which way to jump.  

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13 hours ago, chris chabre said:

well when/if you do, Ill most likely be in the market! I use to land speed race and love land speed cars

There will be almost-scale-thickness fiberglass copies at some point, mainly because I want to finish the guts of the injected version and be able to remove the body panels to show it all off. The body now is really just a plug for the molds, but it came out so nice, I'm a little hesitant to bugger the finish to make molds. I finished the plug for a show here, but it didn't get as much attention as I thought it would. I overheard a couple of folks saying "ah, that's nothing...just a diecast that's been sanded on". Pretty effective finish though, if people up-close thought it was really metal.  :D

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46 minutes ago, Bob Ellis said:

Which MIckey Thompson car had Tempest 4s?

Attempt I ran single Pontiac 4-cylinders of various displacements to set multiple world records...several of which still stand (IIRC).

Image result for Mickey Thompson Attempt I

                                                                                  Image result for Mickey Thompson Attempt I

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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