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Expert
Posts: 2788
   
Location: USA - KY | 
Hope this link works - interesting stuff.
I've attached a couple of photos from the link - kinda-sorta FL related. 
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http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/the-golden-age-of-drag-r...
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 dragracing.png (381KB - 121 downloads)
dragracing2.png (311KB - 127 downloads)
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Invermere B.C. Canada - Rocky Mountains | Thank you for posting. |
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Expert
Posts: 1886
| Dad got one of the first factory hemi 4 speed race cars in 65. A lot of cool mopar heritage when it comes to drag racing. |
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Expert
Posts: 2519
Location: central Illinois | I had the chance to purchase a lightweight 1964 Plymouth Savoy named the "Hemi Harvester" in the early 90s. The odometer showed just over 120 miles. It had its entire original red interior, aluminum doors, fenders, hood, grill, bumpers, etc. Truly a time capsule car that was "only" missing its original Hemi and automatic transmission. I couldn't raise the entire $10,000 price in time and it went to a guy in town that was owed money by the owner. The car still exists somewhere as I've got a picture of it from a few years ago. But now it has a ransom price of over (cough!) $300,000, which it will never bring.
Thanks for posting the link! |
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Expert
Posts: 2519
Location: central Illinois | These are pictures of friend of mine has of the Harvester, taken some years ago. I don't know its current location.
Edited by b5rt 2015-03-08 2:04 PM
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hh rear.jpg (131KB - 120 downloads)
interior.jpg (121KB - 120 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Fin --
Things were rather primitive back then. The stock classes were determined by using the ratio of shipping weight divided by advertised horsepower and if memory serves this old fudd right. "A" Stock was the highest or most powerful class in 1960, with "I" Stock being the lowest. Except for Chrysler's TorqueFlite, the automatic transmissions of the day were very heavy and not as efficient as the manuals and they had their own classes (A/SA, B/SA, C/SA, etc.) The most desirable trans was the Borg-Warner "4-on-the-floor" as the "3-on-the-tree" not only dropped engine revs more at shift points, but that linkage mas more complex and harder to "speed shift." I regularly tangled with a '60 Belvedere with the 325 horse/383 Commando and a 3-speed manual and the driver always had problems shifting quickly (until he got a Hurst -floor-mounted shifter).
Incidentally, that kinda brings up another interesting war story. He never could understand how my Fury 2-dr H/T (with TorqeFlite) had no trouble blasting away his Belvie 2-dr H/T with just five less horses. It's only that after I reached my old age that I started to think about it and came to the conclusion that if the 300F with its 413 could produce 375 ponies, my 383, with basically the same components, should put out proportionally the same amount; thus, since 383 was 93% the size of the 413, it should come up with about 93% of the HP of the 413, or somewhere around 350 or so. In the same vein, the Dart ram-inducted 361 CID was listed at 320 HP, while the Plymmer 361 was advertised as having 310 -- and Dodge manufactured both at one plant. I've had some interesting discussions with some of the Chrysler historical people (and even a couple of the original Ramchargers), and it seemed to have been an internal political issue: "Why should the lowly Plymouth and Dart have an engine with almost the same horsepower as that in the 300F ('America's Most Powerful Car') or as much as that of the top-of-the-line '60 Imperial?" You might also find this of interest -- in the 1959 model year, the big engine for DeSoto was the 350/383, while that of Dodge was the 345/383. Again, I hope you remember that earlier I said that Dodge was the ONLY division putting out B-Series engines.
Regarding safety, all that the stock classes had to have were seat belts, a drive shaft loop, and a shatter shield over the clutch and, which, of course, the automatic classes did not need the latter. My '60 didn't have seat belts as they were only an option then, so I went to a local auto supply store, bought a couple, just drilled holes through the floorboard (not the frame), and bolted them in with fender washers. The drive shaft loop was just a strip of steel 1/2" wide and 1/8" thick, but that was all that was necessary to pass the NHRA tech inspection. "Brainbags" (i.e., helmets)? I thought I was pretty swavy and deboner (i.e., suave and debonair) because I wore loafers, cords. and ivy-league shirts!
Another bit of ancient history: other than at a "Stop Light Grand Prix," my first genuine drags were set off by a flagman who pointed one flag in one hand at the driver on one side, raised it when that guy nodded his acknowledgement, then pointed the flag in his other hand at that driver to get the same response. When both flags were in the air, both drivers watched for them to drop, so that's when the action started. Another BTW, during the "Top Stock Eliminator" runs, it was very possible that an A/SA car would draw an I/S job, so you just kind of watched a car like that get his flag, then stroll down the strip until yours dropped. The first time I saw a "Christmas Tree," I watched it for quite a time just to see if I could find a flaw.
As to "Dial-In" speeds, it was just "balls-to-the-wall" and hope that what you "brung" was enough as in those days, almost all the guys that ran in the stock classes, drove their cars to the strip. This in itself was expensive. Can you imagine driving a '60 Fury SonoRamic Commando with 4.10 gears and Hedman Hedders some 200 miles one way? What was even dumber, I unbolted the "Lakes' Pipes" plugs and rolled the windows down (always with a hard top).
Thanks for giving me a chance to reminisce about the days of my misspent youth!
Joe Godec
Edited by Sonoramic60 2015-03-08 3:02 PM
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Expert
Posts: 3775
Location: NorCal |
Northern California drag strips had somewhat helter skelter way of classifying coupe/sedan cars that didn't quite fit in either the stock classes or the gas classes.
WA= Little Cheaters...a car that was slightly modified from stock
XA= Big Cheaters...a car that had major modifications but not quite a gasser.
OM= Olds Modified...any modified Oldsmobile. (My class back in '62)
HPU= Hot Pickup...any modified pickup.
There were others but memory fails. All of these classes were at the discretion of the individual tech inspector so there was a lot of inequality...but we had fun. |
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Expert
Posts: 3775
Location: NorCal |
RE: Helmets in Stockers
NHRA was a little slow in implementing many safety rules, seat belts weren't required in stockers until 1962 and helmets were still not required in stockers in 1963, maybe later. Below is a page from the 1963 NHRA rule book.
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Location: Parts Unknown | There is a cat around these parts that saved every one of his factory-issued
drag cars AND bought up all his competitors' discarded "last year's models".
I about shat myself when I saw this collection of late-50's, early 60's factory
draggers.
I was too young to be hip to it all, but it must have been a helluva lot of fun
when it was so organic and you could see the same kind of cars chasing groceries
and running errands around Everytown, USA.
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| 57 --
In the mid/late summer of 1961, I was so humiliated by some guy in a '60 Savoy 2-dr post that I never set tires on a legal strip again. That car was an ugly green and came in on a trailer, but as I think I remember, he had 4.56s (to my 4.10s), the first tuned headers I had ever seen (they went round and across, every which way, while mine were "store-bought" Hedmans), and even what we called then, "Cheater Slicks" or very wide tires with just narrow groove on each side to qualify as a "street" tire. I got a bit of a jump on him coming off the line, but when that 383 of that Savoy started to wind he steadily gained on me throughout 1st gear, started pulling away in 2nd, and then left me with the bitter smell of exhaust and tire rubber (as well as defeat) in his wake. I don't know what his winning time and speed were as I think it took me more than a half-an-hour to cross the finish line after he did. Well, maybe not quite that long a time, but I can say I saw little of his profile as he did -- just his tail fins. I wish I had had the guts and courtesy to talk to him afterwards, but I just gathered up my stuff (to the snickers of GM and Ford types that had seen our own tail fins a few times) and slunk off into the traffic of the nearby highway. The car resembled Ray Christian's, but I don't think he was out this way then.
BTW, drag racing was somewhat frowned upon by my family, so when I got married, they destroyed all the "evidence" of that activity -- they trashed all my timing slips and even gave away the few (a very few) trophies. But it was fun and even my grandchildren like my '60 Big-Tailed Beast better than the 300C or the '65 Vette.
Joe |
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Location: Parts Unknown | This cat I mentioned told us a story of having a new car ordered/delivered. What showed up
was a 62 Plymouth with a 413 and Torqueflite and all the factory jazz they could throw at it to
beat the Brand X cars. He said it was ugly as hell, and people immediately began calling it "The
Rambler". It arrived on a Friday and they had one day to get it tuned and "broke in" before the
Saturday night races, so a bunch of them jumped in the car and drove all over the county getting
500 miles on it. At one point, they ran into a group that raced Chevys out near Stateline, and
found themselves being teased about driving Grandma's Rambler. He said he decided to give
them a run and left the 409 Chev in the dust. Later, when they made it up to Deer Park, the
time trials were already going, and I guess the rule was you had to be signed up before they
began to participate. But things being what they were, they were allowed to run in an open
slot, and if they beat everything run up to that point, they could get in. He said they laid down
the fastest track time on record, and the whole night was cancelled and everyone just had a
big party in the pits.
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Doc --
I don't know how accurate I am about this, but this old brain has been thinking about the story that supposedly some young guy took delivery of a '62 413 Max Wedge "Plymmer" one day and then a few days later drove it to a rather competitive NHRA event and did quite well.
Those '62's were just a bit ugly, though now I think the droptops are attractive.
BTW, the Plymouth Owners Club voted the '61 as the ugliest with the '60 following at a close second. After my second Big-Tailed Beast (a '60 Fury) was unloaded in my driveway, to my delight, my boss came out to say,"It was ugly when it was new and I think it's ugly now!"
God bless her since she's still with me!
Joe |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Are you referring to another 62 Plymmer, or the story I was told ?
My appreciation for fin era cars came long after they were very out of style
and largely hated by everyone. So, I don't carry much (if any) nostalgic "love"
for a given year or design like many do. I run it all through a more logical
aesthetic filter and eye of design training, and while I would never want a
60 or 61 Plymouth for myself, and I can understand some people thinking
they are ugly, I can also appreciate them as being a final "hurrah" for the
George Jetson styling theme. And to be perfectly honest, with as character-
free as cars have become, I just love seeing them for the fact that they have
a whole lot of character ! Both are pretty extreme, although in very different
ways.
I prefer the 62 Dart to the 62 Plymouth. That "blob" horizontal flare at the
belt line on the Plymouth (also used on the 61) is an unattractive body shaping
contour to my eye. The Dodge had a lot more "movement" in the contouring.
But I still think the 57-58 cars smoked 90% of what came later.
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Drag Racing back in the day:
