Just a couple of months ago I got to talk to Connie Kalitta; he’s NOT a liberal.
The other guys you mention really take me back in time. I love the weed-burner pipes on the Swamp Rat; they burned out your eyes big-time!
One of the greatest runs that I saw was Tom McEwen in the Yeakle Plymouth Dragster. He left the line smoking the tires like crazy. Then the car got sideways. Tom throttled back and gradually applied power as the car straightened out; he smoked them all the way to 205mph. It must be noted that this happened just after Denny Milani in the Gotelli Speed Shop dragster broke 210 for the first time. Damn, the Mongoose’s run was beautiful and impressive!
“Throttled back and gradually applied power” is something today’s cats can’t do. Granted, they have the performance and the noise, but I really would like to see throttled cars again, with the better DRIVERS rising to the top.
From my conversations with a few other small name drivers, they would like that too.
When I was a kid my moms friend watched us during the summe. Her husband was Allen Backla, who had the fastest fuel dragster in CO. I spent time in the shop and pits. In those days we pushed the car down the return lane to fire it up. And crew guys pushed it back after a burn out. Sitting in the chase truck and watching them leave was awesome.
There were also some guys, Kaiser bros, who brought a funky contraption they called a “funny” car. The one I recall was a stretched out Corvair body called “Assasination II”.
Shortly after we moved to another state we heard Allen rolled his new car, a beautiful long dragster, at nearly 200 mph and was almost killed. When I moved back here I found he was still big in the Top Fuel scene, but no longer driving. Last I heard he was still alive.
Yep, the old guard owners and drivers demonstrated outstanding engineering or driving skill, it was intoxicating to watch.
They quickly migrated to the 392 Chrysler Hemi and a 6-71 to get the near 1000 horsepower they wanted. Now the computer controlled drag race only custom engines turn out 10 times that, and the cars go so fast it necessitated a shorter track. The driver that could handle that would be impressive indeed.
The rivalry in the old days was intense, East vs West (California), but the camaraderie was just as intense, too. They kept secrets, but not grudges. These guys were just regular Americans living in a place where an ordinary guy could have a quality motor car, and make it go like Hell if he wanted to.
Is this a great country or what?