Strange Custom Cars at SEMA

Tank Treads, Fabricated Bodies, and Unique Paint Jobs

These custom cars at SEMA this year really push the limits on what it means to have a modified car. SEMA is a show which primarily focuses on aftermarket performance and cosmetic modifications on cars, and the companies who make them. But among the supercars, tuners, truck, and muscle you get some very creative, and strange creations from some innovative and possibly mentally unstable builders. These guys bring a unique perspective, and love them or hate them, they definitely set the bar for modifications.

These are our best and strangest custom cars we saw at SEMA this year in Las Vegas.

First up we saw a couple of snow track oddities that were not the Ford Bronco. The riveted one being a Custom Bug Out Jeep Gladiator built by Expedition Vehicle Outfitters with custom metalwork done to it. If one of the treads somehow falls off they have a spare Milestar Patagonia Tire attached to the back of the vehicle as well, just in case.

We also saw this Humvee with snow treads, but this one had a giant Battleship horn attached to it by ProdigyTV on youtube.

Artist Rocketbyz, showed off this Pikes Peak ready Audi Quattro with his signature neon paint splatter paint job. Reminiscent of all the previous art cars from the past.

Chevy Revealed a custom desert Off-Road concept truck called the Chevy Beast based off the Silverado platform. It has 5 link suspension, Four wheel drive and a body that looks like its built for the UNSC.

Next Up we have a couple of Custom Trucks, one low one hight. The blue one is a Hodson JRT10 Truck with a Jeep Wagoneer front end and a Viper V10 engine.

This one is a 6×6 C10 with 1000hp and a wing instead of a truck-bed built by Deberti.

Classic V8 Muscle Cars

Clean and Low Restomods at SEMA 2021

Muscle cars and Hot Rods have been the backbone of SEMA since the beginning. Year after year not only do they show up, they are some of the most immaculate and classiest builds the 2021 SEMA Show has to offer. As we were perusing the show floor, we happened to see some beautiful examples. Lets take a peek at what V8s are rumbling around SEMA. (none probably, we’d be surprised if anything actually ran at SEMA)

Right off the bat are a couple of Chevelles so clean and modded you can barely recognize them!

Next we have this gorgeous blue Fastback Mustang and this slick Camaro. Both retain that classic styling but have opted for much more modern trim pieces, bringing these old geezers into the 21st Century.

Next up we have a couple of Old Chevy Trucks done in two completely different finishes. One With a nice slick green paint job that highlights those 50s body lines.

The other finished in a patina paint so strong it looks like it was pulled out of a lake! But there probably isn’t a spec of rust on this Apache.

Update: The owner of the build reached out to us and confirmed that this Apache is indeed 100% real patina.

“My Apache literally burned to the ground in the 2018 NorCal Paradise Fire and was on live tv doing so […] No rattle can patina, pure fire, then rain.  […] It was important for me to build this ride so people wouldn’t forget the devastation of that fire and when they see the truck, they know something survived.”Jason Fonte

Spray to Play

Nitrous and the N2O Need-to-Know

Call it spray, squeeze, juice, the bottle, or simply “naws” – nitrous oxide is one of the high performance world’s most popular power-adders, as well as being the most misunderstood. Because it’s easy to conceal a nitrous oxide injection setup, many consider it to be ‘cheating.’ Because it’s easy to give an engine more than it can safely handle, many consider it dangerous to your car’s health. Today, we’re going to take a quick look at how it works, bust a few myths, and tell you what you need to know about N₂O.

Nitrous oxide is a chemical compound consisting of two nitrogen atoms bound to a single oxygen atom. First synthesized in 1772 by Joseph Priestly (who was the guy who arguably was the first chemist to discover and isolate oxygen), by the mid-1800s its effects on human consciousness had led to its use as both an anesthetic for medical purposes and a party drug, both of which continue to this day.

It took another century for its usefulness as a power-adder for piston engines to be widely recognized; during the Second World War, many Luftwaffe fighter aircraft were fitted with what was referred to as the GM-1 system of nitrous oxide injection that greatly improved engine performance at very high altitude. Post-war hot rodders in the US made sporadic use of the gas, but in the late 1970s, the aptly-named Nitrous Oxide Systems (or NOS) company popularized it by producing the first widely-available kits and components that made it relatively easy to use without an engineering degree.

How Nitrous Works

People will often say that an engine is “like an air pump” – while that analogy is useful to a point, a better analogy would be a forge. Pump more air into the forge with bellows, and the fire gets hotter and more intense. The energy an engine can produce is directly related to how much fuel it can efficiently burn, and in order to create more horsepower, you have to burn more fuel, more quickly. In a high-performance naturally-aspirated engine, multi-valve cylinder heads and high RPM do the job of rapidly combining fuel and air into a mixture that can be ignited and turned into pressure to move the pistons. In a turbocharged or supercharged engine, a mechanical compressor forces additional air into the cylinders for every combustion cycle, and the additional air allows more fuel to be burned and converted into useful work.

In an engine with nitrous oxide injection, instead of increasing the rate of combustion events per second, or forcing more outside air into each one of those events, the composition of the intake air gets changed. The normal air we breathe is about 21 percent oxygen, give or take, while nitrous oxide brings one oxygen atom to the party for every two nitrogen atoms – about a 12 percent increase in the oxidizer available to burn more fuel.

“Why not just use pure oxygen instead?” you might ask. The answer is that nitrous oxide has another trick up its sleeve. Because it takes energy in the form of heat to decompose it into nitrogen and oxygen molecules, using N₂O as an oxidizer has a ‘buffering’ effect. At around 1,050 degrees F inside the combustion chamber, the oxygen is liberated, but not before absorbing some of the heat of combustion to power the reaction, slowing and controlling it. Pure oxygen fed into an engine will cause something more like an explosion than a controlled flame, but nitrous oxide is well-suited to the task of burning more fuel, without an uncontrolled reaction.

Nitrous oxide also has the benefit of cooling the ‘normal’ intake air charge as well. Stored as a liquid under pressure, when it’s released into the intake tract it flashes to a gaseous state, and the energy required for this phase change super-cools the air around it. This increases the density of the intake charge, delivering more air to mix with the available fuel and further adding potential power.

Nitrous System Terminology and Technology

There are two basic kinds of nitrous oxide systems: “dry” and “wet”. Dry systems only add nitrous oxide to the intake charge, while wet systems provide both N₂O and additional fuel. Dry systems were developed first, and relied on carburetors or mechanical fuel injection calibrated to run very rich when the system wasn’t in operation, so they wouldn’t be dangerously lean when the nitrous began to flow. Modern dry systems are a different story – they’re typically connected to an electronic fuel injection system that can provide the desired amount of additional fuel on command upon activation.

Wet systems are designed in a way so that when the system is activated, a calibrated dose of both fuel and nitrous oxide is delivered to the intake airflow at the same time. Both types of systems can introduce nitrous or the nitrous/fuel mix at a single point in the intake plenum, through a plate with spray bars or slots, or via individual nozzles located in each cylinder’s intake runner.

Nitrous oxide is stored in a self-pressurizing tank, with a capacity measured by the weight of its contents – ten and fifteen pound tanks are the most common. The tank is partially filled with nitrous oxide that is in a liquid state, topped by nitrous oxide gas. A siphon tube extends down to the bottom of the tank and leads to a valve that supplies the system. The pressure in the tank is determined by its temperature, and as nitrous flows out, some of the remaining liquid “boils off” inside the tank. To maintain temperature, a thermostatically-controlled electric heater can be used; sometimes you will see racers use a propane torch to heat a bottle, but this is an extremely dangerous practice as it can lead to weak spots in the tank that may not cause it to blow up on the spot, but that can lead to it catastrophically failing in the future when it is being refilled.

Nitrous flows from the valve up to the engine bay, where a solenoid (an electrically-operated on/off valve) controls the activation of the system. Wet nitrous setups will have a solenoid to control the flow of additional fuel as well, which is activated by the same circuit as the nitrous solenoid. One popular addition to the nitrous plumbing is a “purge solenoid” located adjacent to the main nitrous solenoid – by momentarily opening it, gaseous nitrous oxide is purged from the supply line and liquid is brought all the way up to the main solenoid, so that when the system is first activated it won’t briefly run rich.

Past the solenoids, the nitrous (and fuel in a wet system) proceeds to the plate or nozzle where it will be injected into the engine. At the connection to the plate or nozzle, a ‘jet’ is inserted inline to regulate the flow. Jets are made from brass, stainless steel, or other similarly durable materials and have small, very precise holes drilled through them. These orifices, measured in thousandths of an inch in diameter, are used to calibrate the oxidizer and fuel mixture. System manufacturers provide charts that explain, “With this nitrous jet, and this fuel jet, your engine will produce this much extra horsepower.”

It’s worth noting that the horsepower provided by a particular jet combination is constant, whether the engine is a 1.6 liter 4-cylinder or a 500 cubic inch big block V8, and it’s not dependent on engine RPM either. “100-shot” jetting is going to be very, very hard on a small four-banger, but is usually going to be OK with a large displacement eight cylinder engine. Even the V8 is going to have a hard time digesting that much fuel and nitrous below 2,000 RPM, though, because there aren’t going to be very many combustion cycles per second to safely burn all that extra fuel.

To increase the safety of a nitrous system, it’s possible (and advisable) to include components like a ‘window switch’ that will prevent the system from operating below or above preset RPM limits, a fuel pressure switch that shuts things down before the engine runs too lean, and even sophisticated progressive and multi-stage controllers that can pulse the solenoids many times per second instead of leaving them wide open as well as actively reducing ignition timing to prevent detonation. This allows the user to create a customized power delivery curve for the nitrous assist instead of it being a simple on/off proposition. But all of that aside, the most important advice to a would-be nitrous oxide user is “don’t be greedy – follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.”

Because it’s so easy to switch jets in a nitrous system (sometimes known as ‘pill it till you kill it’), the temptation is always to step things up and see what happens. But when used as directed, nitrous oxide is a safe, inexpensive, and effective way to significantly increase the performance of almost any engine.

Spaceport America

The Final Frontier of Land Speed Record Setting

“A rocket friendly environment of 6,000 square miles,” has to be the best description I have ever read about a racing venue. I am, of course, talking about Spaceport America and the East Coast Timing Association’s Spaceport America Invitational land speed record event. Would 6,000 square miles be enough, I wondered?

Spaceport America is the home of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, one of three companies vying with SpaceX, founded by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, to be the first business to provide commercial passenger flights in space. Anticipating a flood of would-be moon goers, Spaceport is the first commercial spaceport in the world.  It is located near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, (yes, that’s Truth or Consequences) on 18,000 acres next to U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range. It enjoys 340 days of sunshine, low humidity and low humanity and has a runway 12,000 feet long (2.273 miles/3.65 kilometers)—the perfect place to run a few fast cars, hence the word Invitational.

The East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) was formed to give land speed racers a place to run east of the Mississippi. Their first location was an old-World War II runway in Maxton, NC, where they had a one-mile course. Unfortunately, Maxton only operated between 1996 and 2011 and the ECTA moved to Wilmington, OH. That too is no longer available so the ECTA’s current home is Blytheville, AK, and the Eaker Air Force Base.

Spaceport America is a one-time only (for now), invitational pop-up event open to only to a limited number of racecars capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph. Luckily, StateofSpeed.com was invited along to participate in the action. Spaceport is out there, a long way from nowhere and an hour north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The security is military tight as are the rules. For example, they had us digging stones out of our tires before we were allowed to roll onto the apron which served as the pits. Never done that before.

“I was going just over 190 mph when I began to run out of room and I admit I was a bit slow on the chutes. No harm done though.”

As an untried track the event got off to a slow start and the course is a tad short consequently a couple guys went off the end: David Haas crashed heavily in his lakester which is land speed terminology for a dragster. Also off the end but unharmed was Ron Cooper in his cup car and Ron Hope in his twin-turbo, front-engine 1927 Ford Roadster saying, “I was going just over 190 mph when I began to run out of room and I admit I was a bit slow on the chutes. No harm done though.”

Hope, meanwhile, stepped up to sponsor the ECTA 200 MPH Club donating funds and merchandise from his race team, Rat Trap Racing and his company Capital Auto Reconditioning Services.

Without a doubt the most impressive driver at the event was Dan ‘The Blind Mechanic’ Parker. In March 2012, champion drag racer Parker was racing his Pro Mod Chevrolet Corvette at Alabama Dragway when it crashed into the retaining wall. Luckily, Parker survived but the impact rendered him permanently blind. Parker was devastated, suicidal in fact, but during a dream he realized that he could continue his passion for motorsports and go for a land speed record.

“Not possible,” you say but in 2013 with the aid of friends and sponsors he built a three-wheeled motorcycle and raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The following year he achieved an Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme world record in his class with no special dispensation for visual impairment. Following his success, Parker learned that Mike Newman, another blind racer, had just set a record for the highest top speed attained on land, reaching 200.9 miles per hour in a modified Nissan GT-R. Unintentionally, Newman had helped Parker focus on a new goal—racing a modified 2008 Corvette equipped with an audio guidance system developed by a friend of his at Boeing Phantom Works.

StateofSpeed.com watched while Parker piloted his dual-control Vette to a first-run speed of 120 mph. Parker was disappointed, saying, “I had hoped to go much faster.” Unfortunately, the audio guidance system needed recalibrating and the team worked into the wee hours to reconfigure the parameters in the hope of a faster run the second day when Jay Leno would be there to record Dan for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. Parker eventually ran an amazing 152 mph.

Imagine our consternation when we arrived at Spaceport on day two to find the weather beautiful but the wind gusting to almost 30 mph. We sat and sat and sat, had lunch courtesy of Spaceport and sat some more. Finally, at 2 pm the wind fell to 15 mph and a handful of cars including RJ Gottlieb in the Big Red Camaro went for a run. By the time RJ got to the start line the wind had picked back up to 20 mph and was gusting to 28. 

Finally, we heard that unmistakable roar way off in the distance rapidly getting louder and louder until that blood red bolide rocketed out of the brush and across our sightline. It was hauling’ ass. Suddenly, the chute popped, and the announcer shouted 251.3 mph.  When it was all over RJ said, “What a venue, it’s amazing. It’s probably the best mile and half runway event I’ve been to. We’re really jazzed to be here and to set the fastest speed of the meet was fantastic.”

For further information about the ECTA visit, ectamile.com

Big Red:

Maybe the World’s Baddest ’69 Camaro

Over the years there have been some bad ass Camaros but few have enjoyed the longevity, diversity and reputation of Big Red. From the rough roads of the La Carrera Classica to the Silver State Classic to the Bonneville Salt Flats to Pikes Peak Big Red has been there, done that and yet the story continues.

The saga of Big Red begins more than 30 years ago in 1987 when Dan Gottlieb and his son RJ embarked upon the creation of the baddest Camaro in captivity—a car that would take on the best in the toughest Mexican road race known as La Carrera Classica. Father and son put together what they anticipated would be a winning combination that utilized a stock ’69 Camaro body and frame, a roll cage and a 540-inch, all-aluminum, dry-sump Donovan built by the legendary John Lingenfelter. In flat-out trim Red was capable of 200 mph and quickly proved to be a contender.

Unfortunately, during its 1987 La Carrera II debut and while 18-year old RJ was leading the race and Chris Kaufmann was riding shotgun the Camaro had, well, a big accident at over 140 mph. They’d pushed too hard and the stock uni-body and sub frame was just not up to it. The car veered off the highway and was destroyed; only the Lingefelter engine and the rear end were salvageable. Luckily RJ and Chris walked away.

“That’s the magic of Big Red, making it look as much like a factory Camaro as possible but, and it’s a big but, it has to run consistently over 200 mph”RJ Gottlieb

Undaunted, and even before RJ was home, father Dan had located another ’69 from which to rebuild the racecar albeit this time with a full tube, stock car-style chassis assembled by Bill Osborne. Lessons had been learned; they wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. Nevertheless, the car looked as stock as possible from its steel body with glass windshield to its roll-up windows. In fact, Dan had the crew take the extremely rare, at the time, and expensive all aluminum block and heads and paint them factory GM orange to look like a stock, iron block.  He rather enjoyed popping the hood, pointing and saying, “Look it’s just a warmed over 427.” 

“That’s the magic of Big Red,” commented RJ, “making it look as much like a factory Camaro as possible but, and it’s a big but, it has to run consistently over 200 mph.”

For the rebuild Larry Mollicone overhauled the original Lingenfelter engine and dyno pulls resulted in 850 hp and 750 lbs-ft of torque. Backing up the naturally aspirated engine was a Jerrico four-speed and a 9-inch Detroit Locker rear end with Koni coil-overs and twin-caliper vented discs.

In 1988, after almost a year in the making, RJ and his new copilot Bill Osborne won La Carrera III. The following year they were leading by miles when they smoked the clutch and ended their race prematurely. Unfortunately, they were never invited back. That same year they also went on to win the Silver State Classic. They covered the 94-mile, two-lane black top in just 27 minutes, 54 seconds with an average, yes average speed of 197.99 mph. To maintain that average they hit a top speed of 222 mph. I’ve driven that road to Bonneville many times and it doesn’t look possible. RJ was just 19 years old. They won again the following year but intake valve issues reduced their speed.

Big Red was an attention getter and as a consequence Road & Track magazine invited RJ to compete in a top speed challenge at the Nissan/Calsonic test track at Casa Grande, AZ. Big Red trounced the competition with a top speed of 203 mph. The organizers didn’t believe the speed and made RJ run again but he backed it up. Unhappy that a mere muscle car won their supercar top speed shoot out Road & Track cropped Big Red out of the cover photo.

For RJ, it was time to go back east and go to school, consequently, Big Red was loaned to Don Laughlin’s Auto Museum, Laughlin, NV, where it was displayed for almost 10 years. In 2003, RJ returned to California and collected the car with the intention of taking it to a few shows, however, once a racer always a racer and RJ and Dan soon set about yet another ‘Red-surrection’.

Driving the modifications was a new Brodix-based 598 ci engine fitted with a modified Braswell “Severe Duty” carburetor flowing 1350cfm. Again, built by Larry Mollicone—it produced an insane 1,100 hp. To compensate for the huge increase in horsepower the team added safety improvements and bigger brakes. And, they turned to the Baer Brakes’ Z2Z Challenge for a new venue to express Big Red’s prowess. Once again, they took top honors in the acceleration/deceleration contest.

In 2006, it was back to the back roads of Nevada for the Silver State. Unfortunately, fuel problems caused them to splutter through the first 20 miles, nevertheless, after shutting down and rebooting the system RJ took off like a banshee to take first place in the Unlimited Class.

Over the ensuing five years, RJ competed in numerous events including The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, The Texas Mile, Vintage Auto Racing’s “Big Bore Bash” at Willow Springs, the Mojave Mile, the Mojave Magnum and the Virginia City Hill Climb. RJ took top honors at nearly every event while Red was featured in the 2009 movie the ‘Fast and the Furious 4’.  It was also in the 2017 feature film version of the hit 70’s TV show “Chips” directed by Dax Shepard who is a big fan.

If you really want to see Big Red in action, and who doesn’t, the whole process has been filmed by Josh Oliver in an eight episode docuseries, “The Original Outlaw Racer” and is viewable here.

In 2013, with a blown 1,800 hp motor the team tried their hand at the Bonneville Salt Flats where they ran a strong 227 mph. Despite all the different venues at which RJ had wheeled Big Red he had still not attempted the infamous Colorado spike known as Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, during a test session at California’s SCCA Buttonwillow track, in preparation for Pikes Peak, Big Red caught fire due to a fuel fitting vibrating loose. The fire was devastating and any plans for future events had to be put on hold while the car was rebuilt, yet again. Undeterred, as always, Big Red was rebuilt to run at the Mojave Mile in April 2017 where it broke its own record of 251 with a blistering run at 253.7 mph.

This ProCharged version of Big Red was both an evolution and a tangential move away from the road race and hill climb combination toward a quest to discover the ultimate top speed of a ’69 Camaro. This development began with mile racing in 2009 in Texas with the 598 road race set up that continued to evolve over the years through a dual quad ram to nitrous for the Mojave Mile to a ProCharged version for Bonneville running on methanol with water injection. 

The secret to this build is the ‘switchability’ and versatility: one minute its in road race trim, the next hill climb mode and the next its set up for balls out land speed racing. Indeed, as the car has evolved and gone faster and faster the team has learned the secret of prepping the car for each specific racing venue. For example, the set up employed for the Mojave Mile would not be the same set up used for hill climbs. Purpose-specific tuning resulted in a very competitive 11:08.357-second run to the clouds placing them fourth in the Pike’s Peak Open Class. 

StateofSpeed.com caught up with RJ and the Big Red team at the recent East Coast Timing Association Arkansas Mile event at Blytheville, AK, where RJ had run 244.4 in June 2018. The weather was not cooperative and Big suffered mechanical problems, nevertheless, RJ managed a run at 246.238 mph besting his own record.

From Arkansas the team moved north to Limestone, Maine, for a run at the 1.5-miles course operated by the Loring Timing Association loringtiming.com. There, RJ ran a strong 256 mph taking the class record from Roadkill’s David Freiburger and running just shy of his best run ever of 266.2 mph at the Mojave 1.5 Mile.

So, what’s next for RJ and Big Red? Well, there are more records to be broken, hills to climb and speeds to be bettered. It ain’t over yet.

World Fuel Altered Challenge

If you trace the history of that unique American motorsport drag racing back to its roots in 1949 at Goleta Airport, now Santa Barbara International Airport, you can see that most of the racecars were really hot rods, street-driven roadsters and coupes modified for racing. As the racing evolved so did the cars becoming more and more venue and class specific. Some evolved into rails, what we now call dragsters that were little more than the frame rails with an engine, a driver and four wheels. Others still resembled their production roots but grew more cartoon like with short wheelbases, giant raised engines for weight transfer, huge tires for grip and somewhere back there a driver hangin’ on life.

These hot wheels on steroids were called Altereds, because they were altered from stock and the top of the class was the AA/Fuel Altereds as they ran the biggest engines on nitro methane. Their short wheelbase—minimum 92 inches—and their high center of gravity made them insanely unpredictable and hugely exciting to watch, as you never knew which way they would go as the leapt off the start line.  According to Lou Hart in his book Drag Racing Fuel Altereds they were “Pure entertainment” and the crowds loved then.

They heyday came at the end of the ‘Swingin’ Sixties’ when a bunch of them including Pure Heaven, Rat Trap and the famed Winged Express went on a nationwide tour. They killed it but in 1973, at the height of their popularity, the NHRA’s new ruling bounced the Fuel Altered class from national events forcing many racers to become ‘Outlaws’.

Their short wheelbase—minimum 92 inches—and their high center of gravity made them insanely unpredictable…

Fuel Altereds kinda disappeared from the scene until the advent of nostalgia drag racing in the late eighties. Soon, guys like Ron Hope were resurrecting historic Altereds such as Rat Trap while other like Randy Bradford and ‘Mousie’ Marcellus were dusting off cars such as Bradford’s Fiat and the by now infamous ‘Winged Express’. Hope is actually a driving force behind the resurgence and has been touring the world with Rat Trap racing across the US and in Canada, Europe and New Zealand and most recently in Australia in the inaugural Aeroflow World Fuel Altered Challenge presented by Gulf Western Oil (WFAC).

The idea of the Challenge came about when Hope was talking to ‘Kiwi’ Morice McMillin who happens to be the head honcho at Australia’s Aeroflow Nitro Hot Rods & Funny Cars. Over the course of three weeks they thrashed out a plan to host the event at Sydney Dragway, Australia and bring in teams from New Zealand and the US to do battle with the local Aussies.

The American team comprised of Randy Bradford’s Fiat, Ron Hope’s Rat Trap, Rich Guasco’s Pure Hell driven by Ron’s son Brian and Hughie Callen’s High Heaven driven by Shawn Callen. The Australian contingent comprised Agro driven by Paul Messineo, Berzerk driven by Justin Walsh, Chucky’s Toy driven by Rick Gauci and Pyscho driven by Shane Olive. The two New Zealanders were Nightmare driven by Dave Gould and Spooky driven by Morice McMillin.

For the Americans Australia was an awful long way to travel for a one-day race. For Hope’s Rat Trap it was more than 9,000 miles from their home just south of Nashville, TN. Nevertheless, the four cars were trucked to Los Angeles and shipped in containers to Sydney. The Aussie customs released them only the Thursday before the Saturday race and to make matters more stressful the weather forecast was rain.

Thankfully, as Saturday dawned the skies cleared and the cars were paired for a Chicago-style event whereby there would be three rounds with the two fastest cars going to the final. Despite the Aussie cars being mostly shortened Funny Cars fitted with Altered-style bodies the ten cars were fairly well matched and all we’re running in the low- to mid-6s at in the 230 mph range. The US’s Randy Bradford, a tough competitor at the best of times, ran a 6.07 and a 6.19 that put him in the final against Aussie Rick Gauci driving Chucky’s Toy.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. While the teams were all thrashing to perform repairs after a tough second round a few spots of rain turned into a downpour and the race was called. There was huge disappointment in the pits. Everybody had worked so hard to pull this event together and here they were with no result, however, co-organizer Ron Hope declared, “This has been a fantastic experience. We made a lot of new friends and saw some great racing but there’s unfinished business. To paraphrase The Terminator, ‘We’ll be back’.”

Bonneville – The World’s Fastest Racetrack

The World’s Fastest Racetrack is a big name to live up to but Bonneville is a big place and folks have been chasing records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, since the 1930s. The fastest man on the salt is Brit Richard Noble who went 633.468 mph in 1983 in Thrust II. His next car, Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green, upped the land speed record to the current 763.035 but that was at Blackrock Desert, now home of Burning Man, consequently, Noble remains the fastest man at Bonneville.

I’ve been making the pilgrimage to what we racers call The Great White Dyno since 1975, mostly as a spectator/journalist but in the early 2000s myself and hot rod builder Jimmy Shine raced a 1928 Model A Roadster that eventually set a land speed record at 208.454 mph. It wasn’t easy, it took us about six years to get the record and involved taking the car to the wind tunnel at MIRA in England where we gained some ‘free’ horsepower.

The main sanctioning body for land speed racing in the US is the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) that was formed in 1937 by car clubs that were racing at the various dry lake beds north of Los Angeles. Eventually, they settled on El Mirage where they still race May through November except in August when the group decamps to Bonneville for the annual Speed Week that began in 1949.

Unfortunately, heavy winter rains cut a groove north to south right through the 1.3-mile El Mirage course. The Bureau of Land Management, the SCTA and a group called The Friends of El Mirage have been trying to fill the fissure but so far to no avail. It may mean no racing at all this year. Thankfully, the SCTA has access to the Bonneville Salt Flats but that too is a living desert where this year rain on the night before Speed Week all but devastated the event turning the salt into a spongy, mushy mess. Plenty of runs were made but few records were broken.

For example, in October 2018, Rick Vesco’s Turbinator II became the first wheel-driven car to exceed 500 mph with a run at 503.332. Driver Dave Spangler manage only 81 mph this past August because of the fast deteriorating surface. Fastest speed of the meet and the associated HOT ROD Magazine trophy went to George Poteet driving his Speed Demon streamliner to 369.533 mph that was well below his previous top speed of 469 mph. Other ‘fast cars’ such as Marlo Triet’s Target 550 driven by bike race Valerie Thompson managed 270.762 while Tom Flattery in Salt Shark topped out at 290.568.  Less than 25 records were broken and none were over 200 mph.

And therein lies the problem with land speed racing and record setting, the lack of test facilities and indeed tracks. Besides the SCTA-BNI.org there is the Utah Salt Flats Racers Association that hosts the World of Speed event at Bonneville in September. There is also the East Coast Timing Association that sanction speed events on airfields including Blytheville International Airport, a disused Strategic Air Command base in Arkansas, north of Memphis. 

Unfortunately, land speed racing is a tough sell as a spectator sport as apart from the start area the vehicles are some distance away for safety reasons and the action is less than exciting. That said, at this year’s Speed Week our friend Dave Davidson spun his #911 ’34 Ford Roadster and went through the speed traps at 241 mph—backwards. Conditions notwithstanding, Dave usually wheels his roadster to speeds in excess of 300 mph but salt conditions this year were not conducive to record breaking.

Electrics and hybrids could well spell the future for land speed racing…

That said, over on the 1-mile, so-called ‘Rookie Course’, some found traction including Greg Tracy driving Dennis Palatov’s all-electric D2EV sports car. On that slippery, one-mile track Greg went a staggering 196.96 mph. Incidentally, Greg also came second in the unlimited class at this year’s Pike’s Peak hill climb in the same car.

Electrics and hybrids could well spell the future for land speed racing and the current top speed record for an electric vehicle is 314.958 set in 2004 by Roger Schroer driving the Ohio State University’s Venturi ‘Buckeye Bullet’.

While the world of land speed racing will no doubt eventually succumb to modern technology for the present the ‘infernal’ combustion engine continues to rule the roost. However, old school brute force is quickly giving way to electronically controlled turbo’d engines. Evidence Ron Hope who has been chasing the elusive ‘red hat’ for many years.

Most people are under the misconception that any run over the magic 200 mph automatically gives you entry into the exclusive Bonneville200mphClub.com and the celebratory red hat. Not even a record in excess of 200 gives you automatic entry because the Club has set arbitrary minimums. No doubt to keep their club somewhat exclusive.

In Ron’s case, he chased the Blown Modified Roadster record with a traditional top-blown Chevy but it was only when brother Steve switched to an electronically controlled, twin-turbo Chevy that they reached a speed of 257.729 mph, setting the record and getting the hat.

Brit Geoff Stilwell found himself in a similar ‘no hat’ situation. Geoff was bitten by the salt bug when Ron’s son Brian Hope let him drive his Rear Engine Modified Roadster. Hooked, Geoff purchased a record-holding rear-engine ’27 Ford Roadster and after a valiant effort from Bob Muravez, Bill Schultz and the late Sparky Perry set a record in 2018 at 258.569 mph, however, that was not good enough for the hat as the arbitrary minimum is a staggering 290 mph. Determined to get his $14 hat, Geoff turned to Mick Jenkins at MicksPaint.com for a complete rebuild with a big, blown Hemi built by Jon Beck, VintageHotRod.com, Chico, CA.

Brad Anderson supplied the 494 ci billet aluminum block that Beck filled with a Sonny Bryant crank and Bill Miller pistons and rods. Atop the motor is a 14-71 Blower Shop supercharger with a new Enderle progressive injector feeding a 63-percent nitro mix. Controlling the parameters is a Holley RacePak system ably installed by fellow racer Donny Cummins. Basically it’s a $100,000, Top Fuel engine de-tuned to produce about 5,000 hp. 

Unfortunately, some transmission problems and the abysmal salt conditions prevented Geoff making any runs at the August 2019 Speed Week. That hat will have to wait. Geoff wasn’t alone though and all of the almost 500 racers who came from all corners of the globe faced the same problems. Within a couple of days the salt surface had deteriorated so much that the meet was called. Land speed racers are a resilient bunch though and they’ll be back hoping, as always, for ideal conditions.

Your First Dragstrip Pass:
Safety Equipment

…once you’re hooked, you will absolutely want to empty your wallet and fill your driveway with cars just for the track.

The great thing about going to your local drag strip’s grudge night or test and tune day is that you get the chance to actually race your car on the track with very little extra effort or expense – it’s one of the best ways to get involved in motorsports without having to spend a ton of money or have a specially-prepared race car. Don’t get us wrong, though; once you’re hooked, you will absolutely want to empty your wallet and fill your driveway with cars just for the track. But in the meantime, the car you already have will do just fine as an inexpensive gateway drug.

 
One of the things that holds people back from getting out of the stands and into the staging lanes is concern over tech inspection and track safety rules. Depending on how quick your car is, you’ll have to meet some basic equipment standards in order to be allowed to run at a dragstrip that follows the NHRA or IHRA rulebook, and today we are going to take a look at those requirements so there are no surprises when the nice man with the clipboard asks you to hand him your tech card and pop your hood.

Safety requirements are broken down into three basic categories: How quick your car is (elapsed time), how fast your car is (trap speed), and what specific modifications you’ve made (things like adding an aftermarket supercharger, turbo, or nitrous system). The main criteria is elapsed time, and for each level of required equipment, you’ll see a break point for both quarter mile and eighth mile ET. The rules are divided up that way in order to make sure that cars running the shorter track length but accelerate just as hard as their quarter mile cousins have similar levels of safety equipment. Each level builds on the previous requirements unless otherwise noted, and please keep in mind that this isn’t the ultimate authority to what’s allowed or required – consult the NHRA rules and your local track officials if you’re in doubt

All Vehicles

In general, your car needs to not be leaking any fuel, oil, or coolant. Your battery needs to be properly secured with a real hold down clamp (no zip ties, shoelaces, or other janky fixes), and you will have to have a radiator overflow catch reservoir. Your tires should be in good condition, and you can’t have any broken wheel studs or missing lug nuts. Factory seatbelts are another necessity, and you will be required to wear a shirt, long pants, and closed-toe shoes. Finally, you’ll need a valid driver’s license or NHRA/IHRA competition license.

Plain old DOT-rated motorcycle helmets do not meet this requirement, so don’t grab the chrome-plastic skullcap you wear on your Harley and presume you are good to go.

Some tracks will have specific additional rules – in some places, all drivers will be required to wear a helmet, no matter how slow their car is, and you may also find tracks that prohibit anything but plain water in your cooling system, so check if you aren’t sure.

13.99 and Quicker (8.59 ⅛ mile)

• Approved helmet – this will need to have either a Snell or SFI rating sticker from within the last 10 years (for example, in 2019, the oldest acceptable Snell-rated helmet would be a M2010 or SA2010). Plain old DOT-rated motorcycle helmets do not meet this requirement, so don’t grab the chrome-plastic skullcap you wear on your Harley and presume you are good to go.

13.49 and Quicker (8.25 ⅛ mile)

• Convertibles only – an approved roll bar, and SFI-rated seat belts. Be aware of the fact that there are specific design requirements for drag racing roll bars that are different from those required for road racing or track days, so consult the rulebook if you are unsure whether yours meets the specification.
• Rotaries only – SFI certified clutch and flywheel plus flywheel shield.

11.49 and Quicker (7.35 ⅛ mile)

• Approved 6-point roll bar (see above)
• SFI-rated seat belts – this includes an ‘anti-submarine’ strap (making it a 5-point restraint) and it has to be either manufactured or recertified by the manufacturer in the last two years, as shown on the tag attached to the belt. As an aside, this is often a cause of grumbling among racers who think that recertification every two years is excessive, or even a way to force people to buy new belts they don’t need. The reality is that next to helmets, belts are the most important personal safety item in your car, and they’re easily damaged by sunlight, heat, and abrasion. If you’re putting together a car that will need SFI 16.1 belts, do yourself a favor and wait until you are completely done and ready to run the car before you buy them so that you get the most use out of them as possible before they need recertification. If you don’t want to go to the hassle of sending them back to the manufacturer for inspection after two years and just want to replace them, check out your local off-road forums to sell your old ones, because harnesses that are out of date but still serviceable are popular with ‘wheelers who aren’t concerned about high speed crashes.
• Manual-transmission cars – SFI certified clutch and flywheel plus flywheel shield.
• Rear-wheel-drive cars – Driveshaft loop.
• Jacket meeting SFI Spec 3.2A/1.

10.99 to 10.00 (6.99 to 6.40 ⅛ mile)

• Automatic Transmission – SFI-rated transmission shield and locking dipstick tube. The transmission shield can be either rigid or blanket-type, as long as it meets SFI 4.1 specifications.
• Rear-wheel-drive cars – Aftermarket axles and axle retainers.
• SFI-spec harmonic balancer.

9.99 and Quicker (6.39 ⅛ mile)

Single-digit timeslips are a big break-point for safety rules, where a whole bunch of new requirements kick in, including a competition license for the driver. Cars this quick are beyond the scope of this article, and by the time you’ve built one capable of running under a 10-flat quarter mile, you will already be well-acquainted with the safety requirements.

Trap Speed Safety Requirements

Note that these requirements apply to both quarter- and eighth-mile trap speeds, but generally speaking if you are going fast enough to trigger them, you’re already way past needing our advice…

• 135 MPH – SFI-spec padding anywhere the driver’s helmet may come in contact with roll bar or cage components.
• 135 MPH – All the same requirements as a car running faster than 10.00, regardless of actual elapsed time.
• 150 MPH – Parachute.

Modification-Related Safety Requirements

On the other hand, if you show up in your HEMI Challenger with a big aftermarket supercharger strapped to the top, all bets are off.

Here’s the part that trips people up; once you start modifying your car with speed parts, an eagle-eyed tech inspector may find certain changes trigger additional safety rules. For the most part, as factory cars have gotten quicker and quicker over the years, drag racing sanctioning bodies have been pretty lenient about allowing them to run in unmodified form even if they are technically past the ET limits for some requirements. This allows cars like late model ZR1 and Z06 Corvettes, Nissan GT-Rs, Shelby Mustangs, and Dodge Hellcats and Demons to pass tech.

On the other hand, if you show up in your HEMI Challenger with a big aftermarket supercharger strapped to the top, all bets are off. Here are some examples of safety regulations that are triggered by modifications made to your car, regardless of what elapsed time you are running:

• Non-OEM turbo, nitrous, or supercharger – SFI 3.2A/1 jacket for the driver.
• Water/Methanol Injection – The tank, pump, and lines can’t be in the passenger compartment, and if the tank is in the trunk, a solid bulkhead of .024-inch steel or .032-inch aluminum is required to isolate it from the driver.
• Nitrous Oxide – If the bottle is in the passenger compartment, it must be equipped with a “blow down” tube that vents the pressure relief valve outside the vehicle. No matter where it’s located, it must be “permanently mounted”; hose clamps and tie wraps aren’t acceptable, and you can’t just stuff it in the back seat footwell and run the passenger seat all the way back to jam it in place.

• Drag Slicks – If you’re running quicker than 14-flat in a RWD car and running slicks, you’ll need a driveshaft loop. Tires with DOT approval for street use don’t trigger this requirement until you go quicker than 11.50, as mentioned above.

• Spool – RWD cars with a “locked” differential need aftermarket axles and axle retention devices to go with, regardless of ET.
• Relocated Battery – If you’ve moved the battery from the stock location to the trunk, a master electrical cutoff mounted at the rear of the car and accessible from outside is required.

Preparation is the Key

We’ve covered the major points of required safety equipment here, but this article isn’t intended to be the final authority on the subject. Our goal is to give you an overview of what you’ll need to pass tech and have a safe, enjoyable day at the dragstrip. For most street-driven cars, the safety requirements are very easy to meet; first-timers are often wildly optimistic when estimating just how quick their whip actually is, so chances are that a good helmet and a car that isn’t dripping oil or antifreeze is all you will need.

Your First Dragstrip Pass: Heads Up or Handicapped?

Or, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dial-In”

One of the great things about drag racing is that, in the words of legendary broadcaster Dave Despain, “It’s racing that you do, not racing that you watch.” Most motorsports have a high barrier to entry—in order to be competitive at even the lowest levels, you need a dedicated race car, a trailer and something to tow it with, and a fair amount of disposable income.

Of course, if your dream is to be the next John Force, you’ll need a dump truck full of money to reach that goal, but drag racing has always been about run-what-ya-brung competition going all the way back to its origins in the 1950s, and it’s definitely possible to have a lot of fun (and win some races) on a budget. It comes down to the difference between “heads up” competition and handicapped racing, and today we’re going to break down how these two broad categories work.

Heads Up Racing

Conceptually, heads up competition is the simplest form of drag racing, but in practice, things get a lot more complicated. Two cars line up, and both get the green light at the same time. First past the finish line wins, barring a “red light” start where one (or both) drivers jump the gun and leave the line before getting the green. In order to keep things fair, a set of class rules defines which cars run against each other, based on power, weight, and traction (or a combination of all three).

Power can be equalized by limits on engine displacement, which power adders are allowed, and even the type of fuel used. It’s common to see heads-up classes where cars powered by large-displacement naturally aspirated engines compete against others with smaller boosted engines (which are also limited in turbocharger or supercharger size) and nitrous-fed combinations that are restricted by the number of “stages” and nitrous jet size.

Weight is another way to try to make things fair; some combinations may be required to run a higher minimum weight across the scales at the end of a run than others in order to balance things out. Traction is the final piece of the puzzle—by limiting the size or type of tire, a heads up class can level the playing field, and by restricting the modifications allowed to a car’s suspension, another way of evening out the difference between combinations is introduced.

…A set of class rules defines which cars run against each other, based on power, weight, and traction.

Balancing all these factors is one of the hardest things a race series has to do, and it’s critical to how successful that organization’s races are in terms of the number of competitors. Nobody wants to build a car to the limit of the rules, then be uncompetitive because of a mid-season change that nerfs their combination, but it’s equally crucial to make sure that there isn’t a runaway escalation that turns the class into “pay to win.” As a result, even “entry level” heads up classes tend to be expensive, since they require a car that’s built to take full advantage of the rules if you want to be a frontrunner.

Handicapped Racing

Fortunately, a very long time ago drag racers figured out a way to let cars with vastly different speed potential compete against one another on a level playing field. Handicapped-start drag races, most commonly seen in the form of “bracket” racing, reward consistency and driver skill over raw speed. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you have a moderately-quick street car. When you bring it out to test and tune night at your local drag strip, you typically run mid-13-second quarter mile passes, run after run. Your buddy has a car that’s got more power and more tire, and he’s running high tens. If you lined up against each other and started at the same time, you’d lose every race.

But you’ve street raced a bit, and so you know that to make things fair, you can negotiate a head start. On some rural two-lane, that might be getting a couple of car lengths, or having your buddy wait until you move before he does, but at the track, you can build that handicap into the timing system.

The beauty of handicapped-start drag racing is that literally anyone in any car can run against anyone else on a level playing field

If you know your car runs 13.50 in the quarter mile, and he knows his car runs 10.75, these predicted elapsed times can be “dialed-in” to the timing system. Because your car is slower, your side of the tree will show you a green light 2.75 seconds before your buddy, so if both of you have the same reaction time and run exactly on your predicted elapsed time, you’ll reach the finish line at the same instant. Just like that, a race that wouldn’t be a fair fight comes down to who reacts quicker.

“But wait!” you say. “Can’t I just sandbag and say my car is slower than it really is, and give myself a huge head start?” You certainly could, but that’s where the “breakout” rule comes into play.

In a bracket race, if you run quicker than your predicted elapsed time, you “break out” of your bracket and lose the race, unless your opponent did the same thing but by a greater margin. If you dialed in 13.50 and ran 13.48 while your buddy ran 10.78 on his 10.75 dial, you may cross the finish line first but still lose the race.

The beauty of handicapped-start drag racing is that literally anyone in any car can run against anyone else on a level playing field, but consistent success requires you to be able to very accurately predict your car’s elapsed time, and cut a quick reaction time. It’s a true test of how well you know your equipment and your driving skill.
Some drag racers will disparage bracket racing as being inferior to running a heads-up class, but it’s the easiest way to get on the dragstrip and build your experience and skill. Running your 13.50 street car down the track every Friday night beats sitting around in the stands and running your mouth about how you’re going to have a fast heads-up car “someday, when I can afford it” every time.

Your First Dragstrip Pass: Know Before You Go

Essential Information for Graduating from the Bleachers to the Burnout Box

Drag Racing is the most American form of motorsports, and is the one form of competition where almost anyone can participate. It’s “racing that you do,” not just “racing that you watch.” Maybe you’ve been to a couple of events at your local track, or maybe you live your life a quarter mile at a time on the street – here’s the essentials you need to know before you make your first dragstrip pass.

It’s Not Expensive

Most dragstrips try their best to keep “grudge night” and “test and tune” entry fees low. In most places, $25-$50 will get you as many passes down the dragstrip as you care to make during normal weekly racing. You might have to pay a little bit more for entry into events where there is an elimination ladder and prizes at stake, but if you just want to drive your car flat-out on the track, it will cost you less than dinner at a nice restaurant.

“But street racing is free!” you might say – well, while it doesn’t cost you anything up-front, there’s always the chance of thousands of dollars in tickets and court costs if you get busted, not to mention the fact that you aren’t getting an ambulance, safety safari, and EMTs on standby in case something goes wrong. You also aren’t getting the assurance that the guy lined up next to you isn’t driving some dangerous piece of junk either. Which brings us to…

You Can Race Just About Any Car That’s Safe Enough To Drive To The Track

Tech inspection, the process where your car is looked over by a track staffer to make sure it meets the minimum standards to race, might seem a bit intimidating. But in reality, unless you have a highly modified car, it’s going to come down to a few simple checklist items which are all just common sense. Is your car leaking anything? That’s going to be dangerous for you, and for anyone behind you, so it will definitely send you back for a refund on your tech card. Are you missing lug nuts? Trust me, telling the tech guy “You let Hondas run with four per wheel” will not convince him to let you race your five-lug Mustang down the track with a couple of sheared-off lugs. Do you have a proper battery tie down? Electrical fires are no fun, and a shoelace or a couple of zip ties aren’t going to cut it, even on the street.

“Get the trash, recyclables, crown-shaped air freshener, and basically anything you wouldn’t want hitting you in the junk out of there.”

Once you get inside the car, you’ll need working factory seatbelts at a minimum, but one of the most common ways to waste everybody’s time in the tech line is to roll up with a bunch of loose stuff rattling around in the passenger compartment, just waiting to hit you the moment you have to brake hard. Get the trash, recyclables, crown-shaped air freshener, and basically anything you wouldn’t want hitting you in the junk out of there.

For you nitrous enthusiasts, there are a couple of special considerations. First, the tank has to be properly secured to the body/frame of the vehicle, so that in the event of a crash it won’t become a projectile. Just pinning it in the back seat footwell by pushing the seat all the way back isn’t good enough, nor is bolting it to a loose piece of plywood and hoping for the best (both things I have actually seen people try before, by the way). Second, any time a nitrous tank is sharing space with your fragile human body, it needs what’s known as a “blow-down tube” that connects to the pressure relief valve and is designed to safely route the gas outside the body of the vehicle in the event the burst disc ruptures. If you have your bottle in a separate trunk, you don’t need a blowdown tube per the rulebook, but it’s still a very, very good idea.

You’ll Need A Few Things

For most street-driven cars, there isn’t a lot of special “safety equipment” you’ll need, but there are a couple things that often trip up new racers. Technically, most sanctioning bodies don’t require helmets on cars slower than a certain elapsed time cutoff, but many tracks have gone to a “helmets for everyone” policy to make it easier for the staff and safer for everyone. To get started, you don’t need anything fancy, but some helmets that are technically legal for use while riding motorcycles on the street aren’t considered sufficient for drag race use. At a minimum, you’ll want an open-face helmet with a SFI or Snell rating sticker that’s no more than 10 years old – no DOT beanies, weird chrome plated WWII biker helmets, skate lids, or the like. Many tracks have a few loaners on hand that you can borrow, but it’s best not to depend on it, and let’s face it – other people’s heads have been in there, and other people are often gross.

“Don’t try to go down the track looking like the love child of The Dude and Freddy Mercury in your mesh tank top and flip-flops.”

The second piece of gear you will absolutely need is long pants. This can literally be almost anything that covers your legs all the way down to your ankles, from sweatpants to jeans. It just can’t be shorts, and if you try to sneak around this rule because it’s too hot to sit in the lanes with long pants on, I can guarantee the person working the starting lanes will look inside and notice. You don’t need a long-sleeve shirt, but tank tops are also right out, as well as open-toe shoes. Don’t try to go down the track looking like the love child of The Dude and Freddy Mercury in your mesh tank top and flip-flops.

Pay Attention To The Track Staff, And Learn Basic Etiquette

Nobody is born knowing how things work at the dragstrip, and a good track staff will be happy to answer a first-timer’s questions to make your inaugural racing experience a positive one. Even if you’ve been a spectator before, there are still some things that might not be obvious if you’ve never raced.

First, if you are on street tires (not drag radials or slicks), don’t drive through the water box when the person running it motions you forward. You will drag a bunch of water and bits of rubber up to the starting line with you if you do, and everyone who IS on drag radials or slicks in the staging lanes behind you will silently judge you. Drive around it to the outside of the track. For that matter, don’t try to do a long, smoky burnout halfway down the track like you’re John Force – this is pointless on street tires, as they will develop less traction when they’re overheated, you’ll tear up the rubber laid down on the track, and usually if you go past the start beam during your burnout, you won’t be allowed to make a run anyway. A short “dry hop” to clean the tread of any debris before rolling up to the line is more than sufficient for street tires.

Once the starter motions you forward, edge forward carefully until your prestage beam lights. Check where your opponent is, then move the rest of the way to fully stage once they are also ready in the prestage beam. Don’t be the noob who didn’t pay attention to where the photocells are, who either drives right through the beams and tries to stage on the back tire, or worse yet, drives all the way up right next to the tree. The starter will have to walk all the way out there to talk to you and get you to back up, and that’s not fun for anyone.

“…Get that battery secure, fix those leaks, and get out of the stands and into the staging lanes…”

When you get the green light, keep it pointed straight, try not to miss any shifts, and if something doesn’t feel right, don’t stay in it – If your car has real problems, move to the side of the track as quickly but safely as you can, instead of laying a stripe of oil or coolant all the way down through the finish line. If everything does go well, once you are past the finish, remember that usually (but not always! Check your local track for their particular procedure) the car in the lane closest to the turn-out has right of way to prevent cutting across the path of another vehicle.

Obviously, we can only scratch the surface in the space we have available here, but there’s lots more to learn – Stay tuned, because there’s more to come! In the meantime, get that battery secure, fix those leaks, and get out of the stands and into the staging lanes of the closest drag strip near you…

What’s a Hemi?

My very first car as a kid in England was a 1946 Riley RME. I thought it was cool because it had a chrome grille like a ’34 Ford and it had a race-developed, twin-cam HEMI—whatever that was. Back then, there was no internet to look things up but a trip to the library revealed that the word HEMI was an abbreviation for hemispherical combustion chambers—whatever that was.

Believe it or not, HEMI-heads are nothing new and their history can be traced back to the early 1900s when they could be found in a number of European cars including the 1904 Welch Tourist, the Belgian Pipe of 1905, the 1907 Italian Fiat Grand Prix car, the French Grand Prix Peugeot of 1912 and the Italian Grand Prix Alfa Romeo of 1914—race-bred alright. However, it was the Welch design that became the blueprint for the many successors that included numerous motorcycle engines.

Where the HEMI-head differs from other cylinder head designs such as the “flathead” Ford which is known as an “L” head design, is that their combustion chambers are hemispherical or half-bowl-shaped compared to most chambers that resemble a flattened, double egg. The chamber operates in a cross-flow configuration where the air-fuel mixture flows in one side; the more-or-less centrally located spark plug ignites the mixture and the exhaust gases exit on the opposite side from the inlet.

The use of a HEMI-head became prevalent in motorcycle engines because not only was it efficient, but it was not an overly complicated assembly in a single-cylinder application where the pushrods ran up the outside of the cylinder. Incidentally, a HEMI-head can be used with a pushrod, SOHC or DOHC valve train.

Believe it or not, HEMI-heads are nothing new and their history can be traced back to the early 1900s when they could be found in a number of European cars…

The concept even worked well in early air-cooled, radial airplane engines that are more-or-less a number of single cylinders arranged in a circle around a common crankshaft. In fact, by 1921 the U.S. Navy had announced it would only order aircraft fitted with air-cooled radials.

Obviously, World War II propelled engineering development, as it did with much technology, as speed and power became all-important. Chrysler worked with Continental on the development of a giant, 1,792 cubic-inch (ci) V-12 that would be used in the Patton tank. It produced 810 horsepower and 1,560 pounds-feet (lb-ft) of torque and enabled Chrysler’s engineers to gather some valuable information that they put to good use in their post-War automobiles.

In 1947, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the so-called “Father of the Corvette”, was commissioned by Ford Motor Company to improve the output of their aging flathead V8s. Zora, his brother Yuri and designer George Kudasch developed an overhead valve conversion (OHV) for the Ford V-8 that featured hemispherical combustion chambers. Tagged the “ARDUN”, which was a contraction of ARkus-DUNtov, their OHV heads looked great and increased the power, however, they were somewhat temperamental.

Only about 200 sets were made in the U.S. before Duntov moved to the U.K. to work with Sydney Allard where a few more sets were made for Allard’s J2 sports car. For many years, ARDUN heads were a much sought after hot rod accessory until the mid-90s when Don Orosco began to reproduce them. He made about 30 sets before the tooling was sold to Don Ferguson whose family continues to produce the heads albeit updated with some modern technology along with a compatible cast-aluminum block. Companies such as H&H Flatheads are known for building complete ARDUN engines.

While the Duntovs were working on the OHV Ford, Chrysler engineers John Platner, a graduate of the Chrysler Institute of Engineering, and William Drinkard, manager of the Engine Development department, got to work in 1948 downsizing that tank engine for use in an automobile.

The engine was tough and you could throw all kinds of power-enhancing devices from blowers to nitro and it thrived on it.

What they came up with was a 90-degree, 330 ci, cast-iron V8 engine with HEMI-heads. Code-named A-182, the “HEMI” was not quite ready for production and a lot of valve train development still needed to be done along with some ignition and crankshaft work.

Nevertheless, Chrysler debuted the HEMI V-8 for the 1951 model year as standard in the Imperial and New Yorker models and optional in the Saratoga. Initially, the “Fire Power” capacity was 331 ci due to an “oversquare” 3.81-inch bore and 3.63-inch stroke. With a 7:1 compression ratio (cr), it produced 180 hp and 312 lb-ft of torque but weighed a whopping 745 pounds—one head alone weighed almost 120 pounds and you’d better be wearing a belt when you lift one.

Chrysler’s DeSoto division came out with their 276-ci “Fire Dome” version in 1952 and Dodge followed suit with their 241 ci “Red Ram” in 1953. Although all three engines differed in detail, they shared the same basic architecture.

In 1955, Chrysler claimed a dual 4-barrel (bbl) Carter version the first production car to produce 300 hp. The displacement was increased in 1956 to 354 ci and the engine now produced as much as 355 hp and became the first American engine to produce 1 hp per cubic inch.

Two years later, the infamous 392 version was introduced and it was almost square having a 4-inch bore and a 3.906-inch stroke. It had a taller ‘raised deck’ compared to previous engines; however, the heads were cast with wider ports so that earlier manifolds could be used with the new heads on the new block. The following year, a single carb version with 9.25:1 cr was rated at 345 hp while a dual-carb version offered 375 hp.

The 392 is significant because it became the drag racer’s engine of choice, especially in the fuel ranks: Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Fuel Altered. The engine was tough and you could throw all kinds of power-enhancing devices from blowers to nitro and it thrived on it.

By 1958, the 392 was producing 380 hp but had reached the end of its production life. It wasn’t until 1964 that Chrysler re-introduced the engine and officially called it a HEMI. Nicknamed the “elephant engine,” because of its size and weight, the new Gen II HEMI displaced 426 ci. Not initially available to the public, it was used in NASCAR in ’64 but not in ’65 because it was not available in a production car and therefore could not be raced.

Not to be outdone, Ford also introduced a 427-ci HEMI in 1964. Nicknamed the “Cammer” because it had a single overhead cam (SOHC), engineers had worked hard to design a symmetrical combustion chamber with the plug located for maximum efficiency only to discover that the plug didn’t care where it was. The plugs were then located near the top of the cylinder for easy access. NASCAR wasn’t at all happy about these “special” racing engines, however, the “SOHC” motor (pronounced “sock”) remains a “halo” engine for Ford.

Chrysler fixed their NASCAR problem in 1966 by introducing the “street” HEMI with lower compression, a milder cam, cast instead of tube headers and two 4 bbl Carter AFB carbs. The Gen II HEMI was produced until 1971 and was rated at 425 hp at 5,000 rpm and 490 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm.

Of course, this is only the American version of HEMI history. Across the pond, in the homeland of the HEMI, the Europeans never left the concept alone.

Incidentally, the 426 HEMI is a HEMI in name only. Rather than build the new 426 from the old architecture of the 392, Chrysler engineers chose to use the existing 440 Wedge-head big-block. That said, the 426 evidences many improvements over the Wedge and indeed the 392 and became the modern drag racer’s engine of choice and was known colloquially as the “late model” compared to the 392 “early model.”

As the factory HEMIs came to the end of their respective lives Ed Donovan of Donovan Engines introduced a cast-aluminum 417 ci aftermarket version in 1971 that was based on the 392. That was followed in 1974 by Keith Black’s 426 HEMI based on the factory 426. Versions up to 573 ci are now available as are heads and numerous other parts milled from billet aluminum from numerous aftermarket manufacturers such as Hot Hemi Heads.

In fact, we use a billet 417 ci Donovan block with billet heads from Hot Hemi Heads in Ron Hope’s Rat Trap AA/Fuel Altered that we race. With a billet BDS supercharger and 90-percent nitro, it produces some 3,000 hp. However, in current Top Fuel/Funny car racing they use architecturally similar 500 ci blocks milled from forged billet aluminum.

These proprietary blocks are produced in-house by Don Schumacher Racing and John Force Racing but similar blocks that can withstand in excess of 10,000 hp are available from companies such as Brad Anderson and Alan Johnson Performance—all based on that Chrysler HEMI.

Of course, this is only the American version of HEMI history. Across the pond, in the homeland of the HEMI, the Europeans never left the concept alone. For example, Daimler, using Triumph motorcycle architecture, developed two aluminum-headed HEMI engines of 2.5 and 4.5-liters.

Other British brands such as Aston Martin and Jaguar both employed hemispherical combustion chambers in the DOHC V-8s and straight 6s respectively. However, no doubt the most well-known use of their HEMI-head was by Porsche in many of their engines—particularly the flat-six boxer engines of the 1963-’99 911s.

Never Lift: Bruce Meyer’s Car Collection

Not to be confused with Bruce Meyers, the inventor of the Dune Buggy, Bruce Meyer is a car collector extraordinaire and generally regarded as the man who first saw the historic value in old hot rods and began adding the right cars to his collection more than 30 years ago.

Housed in an anonymous brick building on Los Angeles’ west side, Bruce Meyer’s diverse collection is to die for and includes the first production Cobra CSX2001, the 1962 Greer, Black, Prudhomme Top Fuel dragster, the SO-CAL Speed Shop belly tank lakester, the Doane Spencer and Bob McGee Deuce Roadsters, the 1979 Le Mans-winning Kremer Porsche 935 K3 and several Ferraris. The list goes on.

Few but the fortunate get to see Bruce Meyer’s collection, and passers walking by have no idea what jewels are hidden behind those walls.

Housed in an anonymous brick building on Los Angeles’ west side, the diverse collection is to die for…

However, he is very accommodating when it comes to sharing his vehicles with others having taken them to shows and events all over the world from Goodwood to Pebble Beach. He is even a member of the exclusive Bonneville 200 MPH Club and even drove one of his roadsters at 204 mph.

As a ‘kick off’ to the Petersen Automotive Museum’s 25th Anniversary year-long celebrations, Bruce, who helped found the museum in 1994 with its namesake Robert E. Petersen, was asked to lend his cars to a very special display.

…passers walking by have no idea what jewels are hidden behind those walls.

Titled Winning Numbers: The First, The Fastest, The Famous, the newly opened exhibit features 10 of Bruce Meyer’s groundbreaking racecars:

Winning Numbers will be open until January 19, 2020, so you have plenty of time to visit. For more information, visit petersen.org

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing

I first saw “Big Daddy” Don Garlits race in England at Blackbushe Airport, west of London, in 1964.  By then, Gar’, as he is often called, was already famous having begun racing in 1950. In 1959, he traveled west from his home in Tampa, Florida, to race at the 1959 Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championships. He was not popular and whenever they moved his infamous “Swamp Rat” dragster it had to be pushed through a field of empty beer cans.

“It got so bad,” said Garlits, “that one of us had to walk in front of the car as we pushed it through the pits, to kick a path through the empties.” Unfortunately, for him, Garlits did not win but he learned a lot and came back in ’65 with three cars, two of which raced in the final that Don won against teammate Marvin Swartz.

Garlits continued to win race after race, but it was in 1970 while running at Lions Drag Strip that he would unwittingly cause a racing revolution.

One of us had to walk in front of the car as we pushed it through the pits, to kick a path through the empties.

While driving Swamp Rat 13, his home-built, two-speed transmission exploded and severed his foot in half. Shaken, Garlits came back the following year with a new rear-engine dragster that changed the look of drag racing forever.

In 1976, Garlits made another trip to the U.K. and while there came to the realization that the U.S. needed it’s own drag racing museum. Consequently, Don and his late wife Pat founded the “Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing and in 1984 opened the original 25,000 square foot facility in Ocala, Florida, just off Interstate 75.

Over the years, Don has added to the facility that now tops 50,000 square feet and even that is nowhere near enough as the place is jammed to the walls with not only Don’s cars and memorabilia but around 200 other cars and related artifacts. Note some are housed in an adjacent building called the Museum of Classic Cars.

To be honest, it’s a bit much to take in on one visit; you really need several visits to see everything. Obviously, it’s great to see so many of Garlits’ Swamp Rat dragsters but some of my personal favorites include Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Yellow Fang” dragster that was driven by George Schreiber; Red Greth’s “Speed Sport Special”, Jocko Johnson’s “Jocko’s Porting Service” streamliner, Dean Moon’s Moonbeam Devin sports car and the Mooneyes dragster, and the Mooneyham & Sharp 554 Fuel Coupe.

Finally, and sadly pushed into a corner was Jim Lytle’s “Big Al” an Allison V-12-powered ’34 Tudor sedan chopped to the point that it had slits for windows and the driver’s head poked out through a hole in the roof.  Those were the days when drag racing was wild and unpredictable and racers experimented with the unconventional.

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day from 9 am until 5 pm. Parking is free and admission is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors (60+) military, veterans, college students and teenagers (15-18) and, $10 for children (5-12).

As for Don, whose personal best was 318.54 mph in 4.76 seconds in 2002, you might bump into him working on one of his projects that includes an electric dragster that might just change the sport again—he’s done it before.

Bias Ply vs. Radial Ply Tires: What Is the Difference?

When it comes to your standard driving tires, bias ply hasn’t been a term used in decades to describe the latest and greatest tires coming out on high-performance cars. In the racing, trailer, and even motorcycle worlds we still see bias ply but, even then, it’s quickly being displaced by radial tires. So, what is a bias ply and why has it been replaced by radial ply tires?

What’s being referenced when you talk about bias ply and radial ply are how the cords that make up the carcass of the tire are run from bead to bead. You’ll never see it until you wear the tread beyond its rubber layer. The term “bias” and “radial” are describing how the patterns of the ply are done.

A bias ply tire has its plies in a crisscross pattern as they overlap each other. So, one ply will lay in one diagonal (between 30- and 40-degrees from the direction of travel) while the other will lay in the opposite direction and would make an “X” if you were able to see through them. You can have multiple plies in a bias ply tire, too, usually in 4, 6, 8, or even 10 plies.

Most will be 4 plies, though. Bias ply tires also use far more rubber to create both the sidewall and tread as well as being supported by the plies. This was how tires were done from the 1930s all the way into the 1970s, with the last few cars coming with a bias ply in or around 1974.

A bias ply tire is far more flexible, so they can make for great off-road tires and drag radials where sidewall flex is beneficial. They also exhibit better traction at low speeds and in straight-line travel.

[Bias ply] treads wear faster and exhibit more rolling resistance, so you go through more money as you use up the tires and your gas far more often.

Because so much rubber is used, they are far more resistant to cuts and punctures. However, because they use so much rubber and are more flexible, they lose traction in cornering because they tend to roll-over on to the sidewall.

The treads wear faster and exhibit more rolling resistance, so you go through more money as you use up the tires and your gas far more often. This also means you’ll get flat spots if you allow a bias ply tire to sit on the vehicle’s weight for too long. You’ll also feel like your wandering due to cracks, ruts, and bad driving surfaces as these tires tend to follow those deformations.

While the tread isn’t directional, the way you rotate bias ply tires for maintenance is specific to them. You’ll take a left rear tire and move it to the left front, left front to the right rear, right rear to the right front, and right front to the left rear. Well, unless you have five tires (where you can use the spare as a normal driving tire) and then the left front becomes the spare and the spare moves to the right rear.

A radial tire, however, has its plies in a 90-degree pattern from the direction of travel from bead to bead (or radially from the center of the tire and where they get their name from). They have been around longer than most people realize, with tire patents dating back to 1915 by Arthur Savage in San Diego, California (the patents expired in 1949).

In France, Michelin designed, developed, patented, and commercialized a radial design by their researcher, Marius Mignol, in 1946 and Michelin X radial tires were installed as a factory standard tire for the 1948 Citroen 2CV.

…[Radial ply tires] have been around longer than most people realize…

The first factory standard radial tire for the US is credited to the 1970 Lincoln Continental Mark III after the August 1968 issue of “Consumer Reports” showed that they had better tread life, better steering characteristics, and less rolling resistance.

What makes the radial superior to bias ply tires (outside of high-load capacity) is that those radial cords allow better flex. It makes a tire act more like a spring and improve riding comfort even as load capacity rating increases. This also increased tire life as the flexing required was easier than bias ply, which would resist and begin to overheat the tire. Because of its radial pattern and using less rubber, you’re able to run a much wider and flatter tire footprint.

These tires will also have a rigid set of belts to reinforce the tread, usually made of steel, Kevlar, polyester, Twaron, or sometimes even a combination of them. That means that your sidewall and tread function as two independent part of the tire instead of one like a bias ply.

These belts can also be added between plies to meet specific design goals like reinforcing the sidewall for puncture resistance, increasing load capacity, and many other objectives.

Because of that and the expansion of rubber compounds using silica, we’re starting to see more and more applications that use radial tires over bias ply. In racing, many tires are now radial over bias because of the advantages of feel and character of the radial.

Much like the carburetor, the bias ply won’t go away but it will be only around for the niche.

Even drag radials are offering more straight-line grip and sidewall flex needed for powerful launches on the strip with the added benefit of not needing inner tubes.

For off-road, radial tires offer better flex and more grip on the rocks and sand. Trailer tires have even begun to make the switch to radial, even in higher load capacities typically reserved for bias plies. If you’re trying to look period correct, there are even radial tires for you.

The short story is that the areas where bias ply dominated are no longer solely for them. Radials have become an acceptable replacement in those areas. As ply and rubber technology continues to improve, the need for any type of bias ply will be left for those who are just in it for numbers-matching correct restoration. Much like the carburetor, the bias ply won’t go away but it will be only around for the niche.

The Vault

Originally opened in 1994, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California recently underwent a $125 million makeover and reopened on December 7^th, 2015. The exterior of the building, an old Mid-Century department store, is stunningly wrapped in 100 tons of stainless steel ribbon but there is no obvious entrance. I guess they don’t expect you to miss it, located on the junction of Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard in what is called The Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles.

Originally the brainchild of the late Robert E. Petersen, founder of HOT ROD Magazine and dozens of other publications, the “Pete” as it is affectionately known is, nevertheless, a world-class museum well worth a visit even if you are not a complete car nut.

Within the stainless shell, there are 300,000 sq. ft. divided into 25 galleries that house about 100 vehicles depending upon specific exhibits.

…well worth a visit even if you are not a complete car nut.

However, below the stunning, if controversial exterior, there is 60,000 sq. ft. containing another 250 or so vehicles in the Petersen Vault. Unfortunately, getting into the Vault is, as you might expect a bit like getting into, well, a vault.

At the time of our visit, the Vault was undergoing some refurbishment so some of the vehicles were in disarray. Usually, they are parked quite closely together. There are no ropes but you cannot take photographs and you are not allowed to wander away from the guide, but that is understandable as many of the cars are rare and quite valuable and not all are owned by the Petersen.

We got to see everything from an original Model T Ford to one-off concept cars to movie cars to celebrity-owned vehicles to a number of winners of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Award.

Perhaps one of the most impressive cars is Mr. Petersen’s unique Art Deco ‘Round-Door’ Rolls Royce of 1925. It is the pinnacle of that era’s coach-built automobiles and in a way, the jewel in the crown of the Petersen. And right now, like many other cars, it can only be seen on the Vault tour.

…the jewel in the crown of the Petersen.

There are two types of guided vault tours and both carry a premium in addition to the cost of general museum admission which is $16 for an adult, $13 for seniors, and $8 for children 3-12. A 90-minute introductory tour is $23-25 extra and a 120-minute, so-called, world tour is an extra $30.

There are other rules too:

• Tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged once the order is placed.
• NO children under 10 permitted on Vault Tours.
• NO backpacks, food, or drink allowed in the Vault.
• NO photography or video in the Vault.
• Online ticket sales close out on the morning of each date.
• Visitors must refrain from touching the vehicles and stay together with their guide during the tour.

Tours are not conducted every day so be sure to check the website and make your booking before turning up and don’t forget, parking is another $15: petersen.org/vault

First to 500

The first person to set the land speed record was Frenchman Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat. He achieved his lofty goal on December 18, 1898, at Acheres, France in an electric vehicle called the Jeantaud. He went 39.24 MPH. In fact, the first seven land speed records were set in either electric or steam cars and it wasn’t until 1902 that William K. Vanderbilt set the first record using an ‘infernal’ combustion engine. Billy went 76.59 MPH.

The absolute land speed record now sits at 760.343 MPH set by Brit Andy Green driving Richard Noble’s ThrustSSC. It’s powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey Turbofan jet engines.

Over the years, the rules of land speed racing and land speed records have had to change as more and more people entered the fray. There are now records for just about every contraption man and woman can conjure up. That said, there are still milestones of achievement that the average Josephine can grasp. For example, the wheel-driven record seems simple to understand: Take an engine, any engine, use it to drive the wheels rather than push the car, and there you have it. A record for wheel-driven vehicles.

The first guy to reach a significant milestone was the late Mickey Thompson who possibly went 406.60 MPH in his four-engine Pontiac-powered Challenger 1 in 1960. He didn’t back up the run, therefore, did not get a record. Instead, the record went to the Summers Brothers in 1965 with a two-way average of 409.277 MPH. They used four Chryslers.

The next milestone is engraved with the name Al Teague who in 1991 set a two-way average at 400.986 MPH with just one piston engine. It was a new wheel-driven record. However, in the wings was veteran racer Don Vesco who was determined to get the wheel-driven record, but rather than piston engines that he had tried, he planned to use a jet engine in his ‘Turbinator’ streamliner.

The Turbinator first appeared in 1997 when it ran over 400 MPH and at each subsequent event Don upped the speed until 2001 when he bumped the F.I.A. international record to 458.481 MPH. On one run Don’s exit speed reached 470 MPH and he was still accelerating! 500 MPH was within Don’s reach and that became his goal.

Powering the Turbinator was a Lycoming turboshaft engine mostly used in Bell helicopters producing around 4,000 hp at 16,000 rpm. An output shaft drives the Turbinator’s four-wheel drive system. A pair of Stroud Safety parachutes and four-wheel disc brakes stop the projectile. And remember, at some Bonneville events they only have two miles in which to stop. That takes about 16 seconds.

Sadly, Don died in 2002 having set 18 motorcycle and six automotive records during a career that began when he was 16. After Don’s death, his brother Rick took over the flame. No slouch, Rick is a member of the elite 300 MPH Club and actually built the Turbinator in his Utah shop.

In 2013, Rick’s new longer, meaner, faster, Turbinator II made its debut at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It sported an all-new carbon fiber body, new tail fin design, powerful new T-55, 4,213 hp turbine engine, new parachute system, new steering, new brakes, new tires, wheels, and a beautiful new paint scheme. There would also be a new driver, Dave Spangler, now age 76.

For the 2016 season, a new Advanced Turbine Services (ATS) T-55-L-712 shaft gas turbine engine was installed with a new electronic control system to manage fuel, traction, engine temperature, and provide emergency shut down. Turbinator II made five runs but there were problems with parachute deployment.

By 2017, the car was really beginning to shape up and made three runs at over 430 MPH. Rick and Dave were both confident they would be able to break Team Vesco’s own national record of 427 MPH set in 2001.

At the following year’s Speed Week event Turbinator II set the fastest mile time in the 70-year history of Speed Week at 463.038 MPH, the fastest record at 455.107 MPH and the fastest exit speed at 470.605 MPH. Don’s goal was in sight, all they needed good salt and good weather. A month later at the USFRA World of Speed event, Dave hit 492 MPH—just 8 MPH shy of their goal.

The planets aligned in October 2018 at the SCTA-BNI World Finals. The sky was blue although there was rain in the forecast. The salt was flatter and harder ‘n’ concrete. The course was 9 miles long. How ‘gooder’ could it get? 

Tuesday, October 2, 2018, the announcer excitedly declared, “The Turbinator’s coming.” Every man, woman, and child in the pits gravitated to the edge like a scene from Close Encounters. And then you could hear the whine growing louder and louder as if a spaceship was landing. Then whoosh it went by with almost disappointing lack of drama until that goofy commentator announced an exit speed of 503.332 MPH. Team Vesco had finally made it: Goin’ to impound! The first wheel-driven car to go 500 MPH.

That night, the gods cried and by Wednesday morning it was Lake Bonneville at the end of the road. It was awash. It was over. No chance to set a record but nevertheless, the first wheel-driven car to go 500 MPH.

The In-N-Out Hot Rod 70th Celebration

There is no better way to describe the California hot rod culture than cruising out in your custom roadster and getting some In-N-Out burgers. However, in order to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of both In-N-Out and Hot Rod Magazine, the only place big enough was the home of the NHRA. This is the In-N-Out Burger and Hot Rod Magazine 70th Anniversary Celebration at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, CA.

It’s burgers, it’s burnouts, it’s classic and historic drag cars, it’s the 70th Anniversary of two California icons: In-N-Out Burger and Hot Rod Magazine. It’s amazing to think that both are reaching closer and closer to 75 years in existence. Both companies were created in 1948, with the burgers frying for the first time on October 22, 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder, and the first edition of Hot Rod Magazine flying off the shelf in January of 1948 with Robert Petersen in charge. Hot Rod is now a part of Discovery but In-N-Out is still headed by Lynsi Snyder with 342 locations in the West of the US as well as Texas and Utah.

What a celebration it was, too. There were so many amazing hot rods, roadsters, and classic custom cars packed on the paved lot beside Auto Club Raceway’s drag strip. From the tally, over 2,200 hot rods and race cars showed up to celebrate. Through the day, many of these cars would take runs down that strip, too. Nostalgia Funny Cars and classic drag cars would fire up and blast down for fun. No trophies, just a fun run in a 200+ MPH funny car. Old Hot Rod feature cars were displayed under the tent while classic music from the era was played live on the main stage.

At sunset, a dozen of those cars would gather in the pits for Cracklefest, where those open-header drag cars would fire up and run to delight the aural senses for just a few minutes. However, In-N-Out would serve those fresh burgers that have made them famous for those 70 years all day long.

However, the show cars that arrived were some of the most spectacular outside of the Grand National Roadster Show. 40s Fords, 50s Chevys, 60s Dodges and everything in between came down to show off. It was restorations, resto-rods, rats, lowriders and customs. This was one show that wasn’t going to disappoint as it had something for everyone in attendance.

This might have been a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, too. Many of these classic and historic Hot Rod feature owners and getting up there in age. This may be the only time all these people would have gathered in one place to celebrate the culture they helped influence and create for the generations after them. Tell the stories of their legacy before they move on from their mortal coil.

The saying, “if you missed this, you missed out” gets tossed around by journalists covering an event like Halloween candy. However, this one will most likely ring true. While it’s sad to think about, it’s not what should be. These men and women were celebrated for who they are, what they created, and with their stories that will live on for generations longer. There’s nothing sad about that, it’s worth the massive party that In-N-Out and Hot Rod created.

Mendy Fry: Queen of the Drags

At the recent California Hot Rod Reunion presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, Mendy “Nitro Kitty” Fry, once tagged Drag Princess, was finally crowned Top Fuel Champion — the first ‘Queen’ of drag racing.

I first saw Mendy race at Sears Point (now Sonoma Raceway) in 1989 driving a bright red, injected ’27 T roadster that she had built with her father Ron. It didn’t matter that she was a 19-year-old female, she raced hard and was admired for that. In fact, while she was driving the Super Street T in the NDRA/Street Rodder Magazine Series, she was also racing an NHRA Top Alcohol dragster. The summer before, at age 18, she became the world’s quickest Top Alcohol driver while racing at Fremont, California.

But let’s back up a little to the staging lanes. How did she get there? To say that Ron pushed her would be an understatement. At age 4 she was driving quarter-midget sprint cars saying, “I was my father’s only boy. He was an engine and chassis builder and wanted a son. Instead, he got me so he cut his losses and took me racing. I started racing quarter-midgets before I was in kindergarten. My family didn’t vacation, we raced.” Realizing even at such an early age that she preferred straight line racing to roundy round, she retired from the ovals at age five.

When she wasn’t at school, Mendy worked at Fry Racing at Sears Point, answering the phone, paying bills, chasing money and learning to build racecar bodies saying, “I guess it was a different life than most girls had but it was all I knew.” Ron was one of those rare talents who could do it all from designing the car to building the engine to coaching the driver but he was an exacting taskmaster.

In 1985, Judy and Tom Boswell were looking for somebody to build a fast street rod. At the time, guys like Steve Castelli, Cole Cutler, ‘Fat Jack’ Robinson and Jerry Moreland were vying for the unofficial title ‘The World’s Fastest Street Rod.’ Ron’s response was a lightweight, full-fendered ’27 T roadster powered by an injected Rat. Initially, Mendy was the test driver while Jeff Gillette was slated to race the car, however, at age 16, Mendy was soon in the hot seat while Ron ran the car. Eventually, the brashness of youth beat out the ol’ guys and Mendy and Ron won all but two of the races they entered.

Mendy got married in 1989 but the following year would be memorable. It began well when father and daughter traveled to Indianapolis for the Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals where Mendy won the event. Unfortunately, the year ended badly when the dynamic duo suffered a major setback after they installed a new 8-71 blown alky big-block with a Crower pedal clutch and a Lenco in the T. In their quest for speed she admits they made a lot of bad decisions. It was time for a change.

Suddenly, father Ron died all-too-soon in 1995 at age 51 and Mendy’s racing career with him. She hung her race suit in the closet, graduated as a CPA and stayed away from the strip for almost a decade. Finding it difficult to ignore what was so ingrained she revisited the strip in 2000, the same year she became the president of the San Diego Chapter of the American Women’s Society of CPAs. She was surprised at what she saw, how nostalgia drag racing had progressed and indeed, that people remembered and missed her.

Later that year, she got back behind the wheel of a Junior Fuel Dragster thanks to Ron “Big Yohns” Johnson. She raced Jr. Fuel for two years but yearned and lobbied hard for a Top Fuel ride. It finally came in 2004 when Frank “Rootbeer” Hedge and Tom Shelar of HighSpeedMotorsports.com (HSM) gave Mendy her first Top Fuel ride. A two-car team, she was racing alongside Sean Bellemeur but an engine explosion caused her to comment, “There was a flash of fire that singed my eyebrows and there was all of this hot, burning oil in my face, and I couldn’t see snot. Imagine roller-skating down a hill in San Francisco and suddenly someone puts a paper bag over your head. The lights go out, and I am reaching for the brake and the parachute and just have to trust that the car is still going straight, that the end of the track isn’t too close, that the other car didn’t come into my lane. And then I had to unpucker my ass from the seat when I tried to get out of the car.” It was a ride in the hot seat to hell; nevertheless, she became the first woman to run a 5-second E.T. at 5.87 with a top speed of 251 mph.

The deal with HSM ended at the end of 2005 but not before gonzo journalist Cole Coonce interviewed her for the LA Weekly in a story titled Drag Princess. It’s obvious that the boy was smitten—it’s not every day you meet a tall, slim, attractive female Top Fuel driver. During the next decade, Mendy went on to drive four different Top Fuel dragsters and three nostalgia Funny Cars.

In 2016, she was invited back to HSM and it’s been a race to the finish ever since with major wins at the California Hot Rod Reunion, March Meet, Nightfire Nationals and the Nitro Nationals. Oh, and by the way, having got divorced, she also found time to marry that smitten reporter Coonce.

This year, 2018, has proven to be Mendy’s year and the planets aligned at the March Meet where she was runner-up and again at Bowling Green where she won the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. She went on to win the Nightfire Nationals at Boise, ID. Consequently, a rainout at Tulsa mathematically gave her the Championship but there’s nothing quite like winning as, well, winning. Hence, all fingers and toes were crossed for a win at Bakersfield Reunion.  She set the pace as top qualifier and set low E.T. for the meet at 5.55. In the final, she took out Rick McGee with a blistering 5.61 pass at 259.36 mph. Suddenly, the Princess was crowned Queen.

You can’t do it alone though and Mendy would like to thank Tom and Rick Shelar for giving her the seat, Walt and Maria Stevens for their continued support, the High Speed Motorsports team and their families and not least their sponsors: Cam2 Blue Blood Racing Oil, The Blower Shop, A&A Precision Machining, Donovan, SCE Gaskets and Webster Cylinder Heads for their support.

Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum

Located at Fairplex, Pomona, California, about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles—conveniently on the same piece of property as the Pomona drag strip and the Pomona Swap Meet—the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum opened in 1998. The 28,500 sq ft Art Deco building houses approximately 80 vehicles along with photographs, trophies, helmets and driving uniforms, artifacts, paintings, and other memorabilia chronicling more than 65 years of American motorsports. While the vehicles on display are primarily drag cars, you can see a smattering of other types including sports cars, customs, hot rods, and land speed cars.

On the first Wednesday of the month from April through December (but not September) the museum hosts a cruise that used to be free but now you have to pay. It runs from 3 until 7 pm but check their website for full details.

One of the best times to visit is on a Sunday of one of the monthly Pomona Swap Meets. You can do the Swap Meet in the morning and then visit the museum when the parking is free. Make sure you visit their website www.pomonaswapmeet.com for dates and times because there are no Swap Meets on the weekends when there are drag races or when the Los Angeles County Fair is on.

The Fairplex itself hosts hundreds of events each year from reptile shows to the LA County Fair. It is well worth checking their website, as there might be something worth a visit: www.fairplex.com

HOURS

The museum is generally open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. However, it is best to check their website or call because hours can change due to other events at Fairplex. Entrance is just $10 for adults, $8 seniors. Children under 5 are free. It is air-conditioned.

GETTING THERE

Driving is the best option. It is possible to get there by public transport but not easy. Trains do run from Los Angeles to Pomona but it’s a 2-mile hike from the station to the museum, you’d have to take a taxi or Uber especially in the summer months when it can be 30°C.

Parking is usually free, however, on special event days such as during the drag races, the Grand National Roadster Show, or the LA County Fair in September, parking can be as much as $25 per car.  There is an adjacent Sheraton hotel but book well in advance if there is a special event on as the hotel does fill up www.sheratonfairplex.com. For further information check the museum’s website at www.nhramuseum.org.

El Mo

Even the most ardent motorsports fan might never have heard of El Mirage Dry Lake or, El Mo as it is known to the cognoscenti. 

El Mo is located about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. Used to be, it was way out there, nowadays the townies are creeping ever nearer with housing tracts, strip malls, and the inevitable traffic. Nevertheless, the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), formed in 1937, continues to sanction land speed racing events every month from May through November except August when they go race at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

Unlike Bonneville, which is a salt lake, El Mo is a dry lake of alkali dust. Most every winter it rains and levels out the bed, more or less, to form a long, flat race track. Every spring a hearty and hard-working band of pure volunteers arrives to lay out a 1.3-mile course that runs arrow straight West to East.

At each event, several hundred racers face Mecca and try to break a record. The fastest car so far on the lake is the Leggitt-Mirage Blown Fuel Lakester, an open-wheel device driven by Paul Prentice to a speed of 312.100 mph. There are plenty of records in excess of 200 mph that puts you in the ‘Dirty Two’ club. The fastest motorcycle is John Noonan with a speed of 252 mph.

I’ve made the pilgrimage to El Mo many times, even raced a car there and every time I drop down onto that dirty, dusty, hotbed of activity I, like so many others, get a chill from walking where the founding fathers of hot rodding raced in the ’40s.

I currently hang with ex Shelby employee Steve Hope and his crew Jim Alvaney, Chris Thoman and driver Jere Teepen who race an FWD ’84 Dodge Charger. Scott Harvey began racing the car in 1984 when it was new and when it went 142.85 mph. Now, with sponsorship from Capautorecon.com and USAutomotive.co.uk, and running in the 2.0-liter Blown (turbo) Gas Coupe class it has gone over 206 mph at Bonneville, however, they were unable to confirm the record. Meanwhile, driver Jere holds the class record at El Mo at 190.587 mph but as yet the team been unable to break the ‘Dirty Two’ mph barrier.

To experience land speed racing and watch all this amazing machinery you just have to pay the Bureau of Land Management $15 for entry to the lake bed (per day). To learn more about the SCTA and to get a schedule of race dates, visit scta-bni.org or visit their Facebook page @SCTASouthernCaliforniaTimingAssociation

LS Fest West 2018

Fans of GM’s All-Conquering V8 Gather in Las Vegas

It’s hard to believe, but 2018 marks the 21st anniversary of the introduction of the original LS1 engine for the 1997 model year. In those two decades, the LS family of V8 engines has become all things to all people and has been swapped into practically everything that moves – not just cars ranging from Mustangs to hot rods, but boats, aircraft, and even helicopters. 

It’s easy to make power with these inexpensive and anvil-tough engines, and if you can’t find the parts you want in a junkyard waiting to be reborn, the aftermarket has you covered with everything you need; blocks, internal components, engine management, and even swap kits to make installation paint-by-numbers simple. 

Recognizing how important the LS engine had become, back in 2010 Holley Performance Products organized their first LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and ever since then, the annual event has drawn larger and larger crowds, with participants coming from all corners of the continent. It’s more than a car show, though – there’s something going on from the time the gates open until they close, on the dragstrip, the drift and autocross circuit, the chassis dyno, or the swap challenge tent. “An assault on the senses” is sort of a cliché, but it’s a totally appropriate description for a day at LS Fest.

In 2017, Holley added a second event to the schedule, the LS Fest West, taking over the sprawling dragstrip and motorsports complex at The Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. May 2018 marked the second annual spring event, and as anticipated, it was even bigger than the inaugural LS Fest West.

“The best way I can put it to you is that LS Fest events are a party,” says Holley’s Blane Burnett. “Sure, there are competitions that take place within the event, but for the most part, everyone is here to enjoy what they’ve built and have a good time.” In case you think that Burnett might just be saying that to earn a paycheck, know this – He’s a True Believer with the cleanest daily-driven (and autocrossed) LS-swapped Nissan S14 you’ve ever seen. 

Speaking of swaps, one of the most striking things about LS Fest West 2018 was the sheer variety and number of LS-powered vehicles on the property. While the event runs three full days, it’s almost not enough time to take it all in, between all the various competitive events including drag racing, drifting, a road course time attack, and even off-road competition, then trying to see everything in the show-n-shine. 

We only got to experience a fraction of everything that was going on this year, but as you can see, if you are a fan of late-model GM performance (no matter what is wrapped around that engine) there’s a compelling reason not to miss LS Fest West 2019.

Holley Performance LS Fest West 2018

Who knew you could have so much variety from just one engine design? Holley Performance LS Fest West was the perfect way to show that and celebrate all things GM and LS V8.

LS Fest has been a staple of Holley Performance since 2010 but the West was begging for their own event. So, last year, Holley brought their famed celebration to Las Vegas and with it came a variety of automotive disciplines to show off the amazing LS engine. 2018 brought some changes, improvements, and expansions with two new exhibitions.

One of the substantial changes that came this year was combining the Autocross, 3S Challenge, and Drifting into a single area. This made getting to and from those events and the off-road or drag racing a much shorter trip. Not far from it were the new attractions – the Hoonigan “Thunderdome” and Mr. Chow’s Side Show, a demonstration of the NorCal car stunting culture that normally takes place illegally on city streets. Basically, it’s doing donuts in an enclosed area but doing so legally as compared to what normally happens.

Drag racing and LS engines just go together, so of course The Strip would be open for all three days with the Three Pedals Rumble, Cam Motion True Street, SAM Tech Street King, Vortech Late Model Heads-Up, Earl’s LS Truck 1/8-mile and MSD LS Outlaw 275 1/8-mile classes. For those not looking for compete or just wanting to run for fun, Hooker Headers opened the drag strip to Grudge Racing and Test-and-Tune, as well.

Over on the off-road side, with the Nitto Tires Off-Road Challenge, Loren Healy in the MBRP/Nitto Ultra4 4400 rig took the win. This is his older 4400 that might have seen its last race with him behind the wheel of it. It’s potentially sold and his new Unlimited ready for Ultra4 Racing’s Metal Cloak Stampede at Prairie City SVRA on May 11th and 12th.

For on-road, it was dominance by Rich Willhoff and his 2006 Corvette Z06. On the QA1 Autocross Course, Willhoff set fastest time with a 32.067-second run while on the Super Chevy 3S Challenge, he finished first with a 26.174. The Racepak Road Course Challenge saw him on top for a third time with a 1:22.388 time. The Lucas Oil Drift Challenge brought out the youngest winner so far in LS Fest History with Branden Sorensen taking first place in LS-swapped 212 Performance BMW. Second went to Noah Michaels in his Torqstorm supercharged S13 Nissan 240SX while Ian McDougall took third in his Drift Shop S14 Nissan 240SX Coupe.

That was it from LS Fest West in 2018 and they have promised to come back with even more in 2019. We’ll be there as well and look forward to bringing it to you next May!