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.
Maynard's Corvair was stretched by adding about 2 feet to the hoodline - - it looked great.