Southern California Funny Cars

Southern California Funny Cars
Author: Steve Reyes
Publisher: Arcadia Pub (Sc)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-06-19
Genre:
ISBN: 9781540256867

Southern California was the birthplace of organized drag racing, with the first organized race held at the Santa Ana airport in 1949 and the subsequent founding of the National Hot Rod Association in 1950. Over the next decade and a half, the dragster became the king of the quarter mile on Southern California drag strips. In 1964, veteran dragster owner/driver Jack Chrisman had an idea for something different to grace Southern California's drag strips. It was not a dragster but a stock-bodied race car using nitromethane for fuel in a supercharged engine. With the help of Gene Mooneyham, Mercury's Fran Hernandez, and sponsor Helen Sachs, Chrisman put together the world's first nitro-burning "funny car." It was a steel stock-bodied Mercury Cyclone with a supercharged 427 Ford engine running on pure nitromethane. Chrisman started the evolution that soon turned stock steel-bodied cars into fiberglass-bodied tube chassis funny cars. Southern California drag racers began to lead the way for racers all over the United States in the new funny car class.

Southern California Funny Cars

Southern California Funny Cars
Author: Steve Reyes
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2023-06-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 146710972X

Southern California was the birthplace of organized drag racing, with the first organized race held at the Santa Ana airport in 1949 and the subsequent founding of the National Hot Rod Association in 1950. Over the next decade and a half, the dragster became the king of the quarter mile on Southern California drag strips. In 1964, veteran dragster owner/driver Jack Chrisman had an idea for something different to grace Southern California's drag strips. It was not a dragster but a stock-bodied race car using nitromethane for fuel in a supercharged engine. With the help of Gene Mooneyham, Mercury's Fran Hernandez, and sponsor Helen Sachs, Chrisman put together the world's first nitro-burning "funny car." It was a steel stock-bodied Mercury Cyclone with a supercharged 427 Ford engine running on pure nitromethane. Chrisman started the evolution that soon turned stock steel-bodied cars into fiberglass-bodied tube chassis funny cars. Southern California drag racers began to lead the way for racers all over the United States in the new funny car class.

Early Funny Cars

Early Funny Cars
Author: Lou Hart
Publisher: CarTech Inc
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2022-04-15
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1613256981

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!

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

Don
Author: Elana Scherr
Publisher: CarTech Inc
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2020-10-16
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1613255187

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.

Funny Car Dragsters

Funny Car Dragsters
Author: Tyrone Georgiou
Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 143394698X

Learn about how fast funny cars can go and why they are funny.

Quarter-mile Chaos

Quarter-mile Chaos
Author: Steve Reyes
Publisher: Cartech
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 9781932494259

"Quarter-Mile Chaos" looks at the treacherous side of drag racing's golden age. Almost 200 rare and stunning photographs from the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s capture terrifying fires, explosions, and crashes, all by-products of the quest to go faster. "Quarter-Mile Chaos" is full of up close and personal documentation of the perilous task of reaching the 1,320-foot mark first. Armed with just a couple cameras and some film, veteran drag racing photographer Steve Reyes shot some of the most dramatic and eye-catching pictures of these quarter-mile warriors. Reyes roamed the nation's hazardous strips in search of the perfect action photo. The result is some of the most breathtaking drag racing imagery ever recorded depicting out-of-control demolition and devastation during drag racing's most entertaining era.

Cars Galore

Cars Galore
Author: Peter Stein
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2011
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0763647438

Cars of all shapes, colors, and sizes--including an igloo ice-fueled polar car and an eco-friendly car that runs on air--are presented in illustrations and rhyme.

The Last Open Road

The Last Open Road
Author: Bert Levy
Publisher: St Martins Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 1998
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312186241

A year out of high school in the early 1950s, New Jersey mechanic Buddy Palumbo falls in love with two things at once: race car driving with its speed and adventure, and his boss' niece, Miss Julie Finzio

Smokin' Dragsters and Funny Cars

Smokin' Dragsters and Funny Cars
Author: Jim Gigliotti
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2013-07-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1622850718

This fun volume explores the personalities, the history, and the crazy cars associated with the wild world of drag racing. Readers get a look into the different types of drag racing, and a "day at the races" for an exciting you-are-there feeling.

Crap Cars

Crap Cars
Author: Richard Porter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2005-10-01
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1582346380

Offers a window into the vanity and silliness of almost every decade as expressed by the ultimate status symbol of the car, showcasing the cheapest, tackiest, and most mechanically inept vehicles built from the 1960s to the 1990s.