My purpose in setting up this blog is to help keep the memories of the "Glory Days" of Drag Racing. As a former drag racer from the '60's, I enjoyed racing in two different classes. In the mid '63 season, I started racing a '58 Chevy Convertible in G/SA and ran it through the '64 season. At the end of that season, I purchased a '65 Mustang and started racing it in L/S class. I ran this car until the '69 season. During these years, I had the opportunity to might many of the local drag racers. When the drag racing season was over, I was busy in my second hobby of model car building. Due to my interest in drag racing, it was a natural subject of the models I built. I will post photos of models that I have built over the years and try to add comments about this time period. I hope that you enjoy looking at my blog.
This is a diorama I built representing Indy Raceway Park from the '60's.
This diorama has been scratch built. The timing tower is a replica of the one at Indy during the '60's. I received assistance from D-A Lubricants in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their company built the original tower. They supplied me with the color code information so that I could match the color of the building. All the graphics on the exterior of the building I generated on my computer and printer on water slide decal paper and applied to it. The window frames were printed on aluminum colored paper, hand cut, applied to clear acetate and then mounted over the window cut outs of the building.
The Christmas Tree actually works. An Electrical Engineer friend of mine designed the battery operated circuit for it. The lights cycle from staging to start and will randomly show a red light. Additionally, I have made a digital recording of two Gassers revving their engines on the starting line. Various figures have been placed around the diorama and in the cars to add realism to the overall scene.
Like many of you out there, I did my share of street racing. There were groups around town that would go to different drive-in restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights. They would get together with their dates and before long two cars would leave and go street racing. I even remember racing down Main Street in downtown Dayton on Saturday nights. One of the buildings had a radio station in it that faced Main Street. Between records, the DJ would announce the races in that block of town. That was when I got bit by the drag racing fever. The car I owned then was a '53 Ford Convertible. This is a replica of that car.
I was the 3rd or 4th owner of this car. I was told that the previous owner was a nurse. The engine died on her and her boy friend replaced the flat head motor with a T-Bird 312 Y-Block. That car was a screamer. I managed to get myself in trouble with the police driving it too fast. It took me 3 speeding tickets before I started slowing down.
I even had a high school friend get angry with me over this car. Ron hated Fords with a passion. He would not even ride in my car. He owned a '57 Chevy Convertible with a 283 automatic. Ron would brag about that car and how many Fords he had beat in street racing. He kept wanting me to run against him and I kept saying no. He said that I was chicken because he was sure that he would win. He did not know about my engine, but I told him that he did not want to do this. Well, long story short, we raced and I won. He would not speak to me for a month. I finally showed him my engine and told him that is why I did not want to race him. I have to say that I really enjoyed owning that car.
The next photos are a replica of my first legal drag car. I bought this car back in '63. I started racing it that year and continued through the '64 season at Kil-Kare in Xenia, Ohio. This car ran G/SA. I never got the car to run it's best, but I did have fun racing it. It would hang in for a couple of rounds, but I never won the trophy run. I did learn at the get go, that street racing and drag racing are by no means the same thing. I only street raced this car a few times because of the number of tickets that I had gotten in the past.
I built this model using a Revell '58 Chevy kit and converting it to a convertible. The up top came from spare parts that I purchased at a swap meet. I have picked up some very useful items that way, as I know other builders do too. You know, "one man's trash is another man's treasure".
As I stated earlier, my purpose with this blog is to share memories of the "Glory Days" of drag racing. In addition, I will try to provide you with accurate information on how to build true vintage drag car models. Please understand that I am not attacking anyone is to what they have built, but to share the information only. First I would like to define the difference between a true vintage drag car and a nostalgia drag car. There is a lot of info on the web covering these topics, and like any info, some is correct and some is not. If anyone reads this blog and sees something wrong, please feel free to let me know. I do know that I can make mistakes and I do learn from them.
Probably the easiest was to tell the difference between a true vintage drag car and a nostalgia drag car would be that the nostalgia drag cars of today are in many cases are either clones of the originals or they are restored so that they can run legally in the nostalgia drag classes of today. The main things that have changed are for safety reasons. For example, the fuel lines on today's engines are breaded fuel lines. They were not around during the time of the vintage drag cars. Back then they used aluminum tubing with rubber fittings and metal clips on them. The photo below shows a typical engine that would have been in a Super Stocker in the '60's.
For anyone that was around during the earlier '60's and were in your late teens or early twenties, you will remember having your first, second or even your third car. Most of you learned how to do work on your own car. We were known as "Backyard Mechanics", and we did things like engine tune ups, oil changes, rebuilding carburetors, brake jobs and more. So it only followed that we might have decided to go drag racing. You may have already been street racing before you went to a drag strip to race. Most guys and gals could afford to do this on their own. As time went on, some of the racers were able to get a little financial support from a parts house, gas station or repair garage if you were lucky. It was still a low expense form of racing if you ran in a Jr. Stock Class. It was still "Grass Roots" for those of us at that time. By the late '60's it was a totally different story. More and more guys and gals were starting to get sponsorship that was more than free motor oil and spark plugs. They were getting help with having their engines rebuilt and race ready. Even more and more of them were getting a car that was strictly a drag car that they either towed or trailered to the local strip. That is when I had to drop out of being a driver and start being a spectator. The days of the "Backyard Mechanics"/Drag Racers were gone. The days of the Semi Pro and Pro Drag Racer were here. The sport was making many changes and the "Glory Days" were soon becoming a thing of the past.
With all this being said, the photos that I will be posting in this blog will be replicas of drag cars from the early '60's through the mid '70's. I will cover many of the drag racing classes as I can from cars that I have built to ones built by my best friend Jerry G. Kathe. Jerry and I were friends for over 31 years before he passed away. We built many models over the years and competed in model contests in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. I have been told that during that time, we were the guys to beat in the drag racing classes. I am not sure about that. We just enjoyed building and competing. Yes, we did win a lot of awards, but so did other builders. I am also open to posting photos of models built by others. If you have built any replicas of drag cars from this time period, please leave a comment and we can connect to get your photos.
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