Innovation Locked in Time
3/8/06
ne of the greatest things about nostalgia and vintage racing is that it amounts to a celebration of an era in drag racing that has since passed into history. This was an era when a couple of guys could cobble together an old hemi, some performance parts here and there, maybe a 6:71 blower off an old Jimmy diesel, a can or two of the good stuff, and motor right into the history books. Their record would most likely would be displaced by an even quicker elapsed and trap time the following week, but for that moment they would be on top.
This was a time when innovation and risk taking was the key to always-faster speed and quicker ET's. Some of the craziest contraptions ever to hit the 1320 sprang from the minds of people willing to bet it all on trying something unproven, and sometimes they lost the bet. They took the chance nonetheless, and the history books are full of drag cars that at one time inspired awe and head scratching. The four-engine all-wheel drive Tommy Ivo Showboat. Art Arfons' series of Green Monsters, and the surplus airplane-engined cars of others. Jim Dunn and his mid-engine funny car that made a certain summer famous. Countless others tried everything they could to go faster, some succeeding further than others. There was no service manual for speed and elapsed time out on the 1320.
As drag racing gained popularity and momentum in the '50s and '60s the innovation employed by hot rodders and racers hit a fever pitch. Many of the things we take for granted out on the drag strips of America today were once groundbreaking innovations in the world of motorsports.
The very same things that make a dragster, funny car, or quick doorslammer boogie down a dragstrip have etched themselves not only into the spoken language of American motorsports performance, but also into the visual lexicon of automotive speed and performance worldwide. A bug catcher poking up through the hood of a hot rod or street car on top of a supercharger literally screams horsepower. A set of butterflies winking in the sun through the billowing smoke of a burnout makes for smiles all around. The raked forward attitude of a funny car translates into a tough look for a street machine. Huge slicks out back are not just for traction, they're for looks, and they look bitchin'. Even if you don’t need them it can never hurt to have a little extra meat down on the pavement.
Magnesium alloy used in the construction of super lightweight racing wheels worked its way into the language. The word mag is synonymous with a cool set of wheels, even if there's not one shred of magnesium in them. A blown small block usually means it's got a supercharger bolted up to the manifold, unless it's blown up. The list goes on and on. The collection of engines, tubing, plumbing, fiberglass, steel and aluminum were hewn into a collection of racecars that not only went quick, but looked that way even when they were standing still, and this look became synonymous with performance.
Racers communicating and testing parts from the speed merchants like Ed Iskenderian, Mickey Thompson, and Jack Engle led to even greater achievements on the track, along with a whole lot of folks bolting up speed equipment to their own rides in an effort to get their own piece of the drag racing action under the hood.