BLOWERS
Tom Cobbs ran a GMC 4-71 roots blower from a diesel truck atop a '34 V-8 in his 1929 Model A Ford at Goleta, Calif., in 1949. However, blowers really came into their own in the late 1950s, most notably at the first Bakersfield March Meet in 1959. Race winner Art Chrisman ran a GMC 6-71 blower with Hilborn injectors atop a Chrysler Hemi. He and Gary Cagle probably were the first consistently over 180-mph. One week later, Don Garlits added a blower (with carburetors instead of injectors) on his "Swamp Rat I" and won a big fuel meet at Kingdon, Calif.

"I ran fuel injectors until 1958 and then for the NHRA Nationals that year, we went with a front-mounted Potvin 6-71 blower and injectors. 'Didn't do much, but we got Best Engineered Car. In late 1958, we went to Riverside (Calif.) and tried the 6-71 blower with the Hilborn injectors and these were top-mounted. We ran a 450-cid Chrysler we went with bigger tubes to the engine, but the fuel pump broke and the blower blew.

"We went to Weiand and found a manifold that would work with the GMC 6-71 blower. (Ernie) Hashim and some of the guys ran 4-71s, but the 6-71 stood to make more power about 1,000 horsepower roughly, so we stuck with it. We went to Riverside February 1959, put a chain drive on it and ran 20-percent overdrive. First run, we broke the Halibrand Quik-Change rear end, but right then, I knew we had a monster. Next run, there were no problems. As soon as I hit the throttle, I knew it would fly. We ran 181-mph, first run 180-mph run on the West Coast." - Art Chrisman

ZOOMIE HEADERS

Chet Herbert designed them for his twin in-line injected Chevy-powered fuel dragster in 1961. These headers directed the air exhaust over the top of the slicks, cleaning up the airflow and improving traction by blowing away bits of rubber on top of the slick. It remained for Southern California chassis builder Woody Gilmore to refine the technique and mass produce them in 1964. These were key components in the breaking of the 200-mph barrier.

"Well, Chet did have the first set of zoomies. He had this twin-engine injected Chevy car and it was wheelstanding. So, he bent up some pipe and put it on the car. It really in some ways was accidental how he came up with it. Anyway, he tested the car at Lions and the thing's wheelstand tendencies went away. Frank Cannon was friends with Chet and talked to him about the headers and he told me. Herbert was sharp and Cannon told me that the headers appeared to clean off the tires and force the car down for more traction. You look at those old pictures from the pre- zoomie days and the fuel cars are all smoked in. It wasn't soon after the zoomies, a term the writer Ralph Guldahl Jr. created, that the speeds went from 193-195-mph to 200-202-mph. This happened in a matter of weeks.

"Cannon's 'Hustler IV' got the first set and ran the first 200-mph times at Lions (in August 1964). Paul Sutherland's 'Charger' got the next set and he was in the 7.4s at 202-mph. Jim Brissette got a set and his driver (Bill Alexander) was running as fast as 205-mph. In three weeks from Cannon's 200-mph run, we were cranking 'em out left and right. We'd go to H&L Metal in Signal Hill, have 'em bend us some pipe, put 'em in a bag, and ship 'em out with the mail." - Woody Gilmore

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