Funny Car Fever

Funny Car Fever PDF Author: Steve Reyes
Publisher: Cartech
ISBN: 9781932494433
Category : Funny cars
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
There wasn't always a class for these "funny-looking" cars. In the mid 1960s, many of drag racing's fastest drivers were outgrowing the Super Stock and Factory Experimental classes, building cars that stretched and eventually broke the rules. Promoters discovered they could pair up these altered-wheelbase, injected, blown machines in exhibition match races--and the spectators came running. Rivalries were born, the Funny Car class was created, and the cars kept getting faster and faster. Funny Car Fever is a humorous, heart-felt, first-hand account of the most exciting and memorable years of the Funny Car class. Steve Reyes followed these fiberglass-bodied, nitro burning machines and their drivers from the years leading up to the creation of the Funny Car class through its halcyon days. He's included over 350 of his favorite images and more than a few never-before-heard stories to bring the feeling of the class and the era home to you.

Funny Car Fever

Funny Car Fever PDF Author: Steve Reyes
Publisher: Cartech
ISBN: 9781932494433
Category : Funny cars
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
There wasn't always a class for these "funny-looking" cars. In the mid 1960s, many of drag racing's fastest drivers were outgrowing the Super Stock and Factory Experimental classes, building cars that stretched and eventually broke the rules. Promoters discovered they could pair up these altered-wheelbase, injected, blown machines in exhibition match races--and the spectators came running. Rivalries were born, the Funny Car class was created, and the cars kept getting faster and faster. Funny Car Fever is a humorous, heart-felt, first-hand account of the most exciting and memorable years of the Funny Car class. Steve Reyes followed these fiberglass-bodied, nitro burning machines and their drivers from the years leading up to the creation of the Funny Car class through its halcyon days. He's included over 350 of his favorite images and more than a few never-before-heard stories to bring the feeling of the class and the era home to you.

Drag Racing Funny Cars of the 1970s

Drag Racing Funny Cars of the 1970s PDF Author: Wallace A Wyss
Publisher: Enthusiast Books
ISBN: 9781583880685
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
See the cars raced by many of the legendary names in drag racing, including Don Prudhomme, Tom McEuen and Jim Dunn. The authors include action shots, as well as clear, detailed "in the pits under-the-shell" shots. Photographs show various makes and models of cars that have been reconstructed as funny cars, plus everything from stock to modified Camaros, Mustangs, Javelins, Dodge Chargers, and Firebirds, to oddball exhibition cars like the "backwards pickup."

Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320

Don Author: Elana Scherr
Publisher: CarTech Inc
ISBN: 1613255187
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Don "The Snake" Prudhomme reveals for the first time ever his incredible life and career on and off of the drag strip.

Imagine spending a year with Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, having coffee together and talking about his life, his racing, his friends, and his family. He’d tell you about how he rose from being a high school drop-out who was painting cars to a respected Top Fuel dragster driver and successful businessman. You’d hear how he toured the country with Tommy Ivo and "The Hawaiian" Roland Leong, racing all the legends from "Big Daddy" Don Garlits to "The Golden Greek" [Chris] Karamesines. He'd say how he met Tom McEwen and recall how they became the Snake and the Mongoose, leading to a career in Funny Cars that netted him four championships in a row. He'd talk about the thrill of first wins and owning his own teams but also the struggles of bad seasons, crashes and fires, broken parts, and broken contracts. Along the way, he’d speak about the people in his life, such as engine-builder Keith Black and NHRA president Wally Parks, and those who were killed in the wild and unpredictable sport of nitro racing. It wouldn’t be only racing, though. Prudhomme would share lessons he learned about business and life from such varied sources as a neighbor in Granada Hills to Ford GT40 driver Dan Gurney. He also would talk about the importance of family: how his wife, Lynn, and daughter, Donna, changed his world and how finding out about his African-American roots opened his eyes to a culture and inheritance he’d always wanted. This is the experience you’ll get in Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320.


How to Build Altered Wheelbase Cars

How to Build Altered Wheelbase Cars PDF Author: Steve Magnante
Publisher: CarTech Inc
ISBN: 1934709263
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
In How to Build Altered Wheelbase Cars, renowned writer Steve Magnante first walks readers through the colorful history of the altered wheelbase period and then shows them how to perform these radical modifications themselves. Magnante's fun and colorful style makes for entertaining reading, and the coverage of floorpan mods, chassis alterations, and both front and rear suspension upgrades are covered in great detail on three different chassis types. After reading this book, the basic technical tenets of altering vehicle wheelbase will be understood and the almost mythical legend surrounding such cars will be fully realized. What were once considered "race only" modifications can now be civilized for street use, and Magnante carefully reviews all of the relevant points for optimal appearance, performance, and safety.

Drag Racing in the 1960s

Drag Racing in the 1960s PDF Author: Doug Boyce
Publisher: CarTech Inc
ISBN: 1613255829
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The 1960s were a fascinating decade on the race scene. Relive the memories today through this wonderful new book. Drag racing has a long and storied history. Many have said that the first drag race happened shortly after the second car was made. While that may or may not be true, racing prior to World War II was mostly centered around dry-lake activities and top-speed runs. After the war, drag racing became organized with the formation of the NHRA, and during the 1950s, many tracks were built across America to accommodate the racers. Technology in the 1950s centered on the manufacturers updating old flathead designs into newer overhead-valve designs, and the horsepower race really started to heat up. In many forms of racing, the 1960s brought technological evolution. The decade began with big engines in even bigger stock chassis and ended with purpose-built race-only chassis, fiberglass bodies, fuel injection, nitro methane, and blowers. Quarter-mile times that were in the 13-second range in the beginning of the decade were in the 7-second range by the end. New classes were formed, dedicated cars were built for them, and many racers themselves became recognized names in the sports landscape. In Drag Racing in the 60s: The Evolution in Race Car Technology, veteran author Doug Boyce takes you on a ride through the entire decade from a technological point of view rather than a results-based one. Covered are all the classes, including Super Stocks, Altered Wheelbase cars (which led to Funny Cars), Top Fuelers, Gassers, and more.

Early Funny Cars

Early Funny Cars PDF Author: Lou Hart
Publisher: CarTech Inc
ISBN: 1613256981
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Blast through the evolving early years of Funny Car drag racing when doorslammers morphed into flip-top rail monsters. The era features historic mounts from Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick, Al “the Flying Dutchman” Vanderwoude, "Jungle" Jim Liberman, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, and many more! The metamorphosis from doorslammers to fiberglass flip-top dragsters wasn’t ever a cut and dry plan. As drag racers pushed the envelope for more speed, a series of innovations quickly evolved and refined the genre. Funny Cars cut their teeth in the A/Factory Experimental (A/FX) and Experimental Stock (X/S) classes in 1964 with the 2-percent Mopars that looked funny with their axles moved forward. However, it was Jack Chrisman’s supercharged, nitro-fueled 427 Supercharged Factory Experimental (S/FX) Comet Caliente that trailblazed the class on which the NHRA turned its back and the AHRA fully accepted. Showmanship became the draw in the dawn of Funny Car with half-track burnouts and flame-throwing headers that packed fans five deep at the fence. By 1969, the NHRA had no choice but to create a class for these nitro-breathing, flip-top-sporting rail bruisers, indoctrinating the Funny Car (F/C) class at the Winternationals with 40 cars vying for 16 places in the field. The rest, as they say, is history!

Fuel and Guts

Fuel and Guts PDF Author: Dave McClelland, Tom Madigan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781610609388
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description


Diggers, Funnies, Gassers and Altereds

Diggers, Funnies, Gassers and Altereds PDF Author: Bob McClurg
Publisher: Cartech, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781613251058
Category : Automobiles, Racing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Contains four hundred illustrated full-color as well as black and white photographs depicting the sport of drag racing through the 1960s and 1970s and includes information on the history and nostalgia of the sport.

Drag Race Fever

Drag Race Fever PDF Author: Grady Bryant
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781477655276
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Legendary drag racer and fiction writer Grady Bryant has released his latest book, Drag Race Fever. It was only a matter of time before Grady shared his adventures of the early days of drag racing in a story that all sports and drag racers will enjoy. The story involves a young man getting started in drag racing in the early 1960's when the factory experimental race cars were the top calling cards of all drag race promoters. These cars were the first Funny Cars of today. Read how these racers evolved into the cars we see today and learn how driver Johnny Rock and his mechanic Clutch Roberts toured the states pulling their race car to the next match race, continuously sacrificing so their car would have the parts to race again. Although the story is fiction any drag race fan can fit different names to the drivers and relate to all the accounts of living on the road and racing every Saturday and Sunday at different tracks across the nation.

Burnout!

Burnout! PDF Author: Jay Denan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780893752569
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Describes those supercharged dragsters known as "funny cars" that have become a popular addition to drag racing.