Yet another variation on the Super Shaker name

By Tom Bonner | Published: August 13, 2010
1966 Chevelle Super Shaker

Super Shaker Chevelle coming right at ya at the 1967 Autorama Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)

Continuing my series on the ’67 Detroit Autorama, this is the Super Shaker. Or should I say yet another car called Super Shaker. I already featured T.W. McLean’s Super Shaker at Detroit Dragway. This car appears quite similar to the McLean car, but I don’t think there is any connection.

Like McLean’s Super Shaker, this Chevelle has a straight axle, and it appears the front wheels were altered by moving the front wheels forward under the fenders, without altering the location of the wheelwells.

Although it could possibly have run in the heavy-weight funny car classes, I’m guessing this might be some form of gasser, or because of the altered wheelbase it may have wound up in one of the altered classes.

Power was apparently a Chevy 427 rat motor. In those days, Chevy’s big block engine was known as the Semi-Hemi.

There does not appear to be an engine in the car. I think they displayed the Chevelle at the show, but the engine wasn’t installed. Because of that low-profile hood scoop, I doubt the car ran a supercharger or injectors.

The letters on the car read GMC, which I assume refers to the owner’s initials. Maybe there were three owners and they used the first letter of each owner’s name. That is just a guess, but this Chevelle didn’t have anything to do with GMC trucks.

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When Funny Cars had Names

By Tom Bonner | Published: August 10, 2010

There was a time when a catchy name was every bit as important to a funny car driver as a supercharger and a tank full of nitro. A memorable name would not make the car run any quicker, but it could be instrumental in getting match race bookings. Match races were where the money was, so race teams put a lot of effort crafting a suitable handle for their car.

Of course dragsters and gassers had names, long before the first funny car hit the track. When teams switched to the profitable funny car ranks, they brought their old names with them. Roland Leong utilized the label Hawaiian, made famous with his top fuel cars, on a series of successful floppers. Connie Kalitta used the name Bounty Hunter on several rails before adopting the title for his Mustang funny car. Stone, Woods and Cook recycled the name from one of their gassers for their popular Mustang dubbed Dark Horse 2. When a top-end crash destroyed the first car, they built a near-clone of the original Mustang. Rather than calling the new car Dark Horse 3, they christened it The Ghost of Dark Horse 2.

A wide range of events, activities and ideas inspired racers to select their car name. Roger Lindamood found his handle in a pop-county song from the early sixties. The song quickly faded into obscurity, but for more than a decade afterwards, Lindamood’s fans continue to cheer on the car known as Color Me Gone.

The Blue Max was both a movie and a famous World War I metal awarded to German heroes. It was also a highly feared funny car campaigned by Raymond Beadle.

Ford’s Mustang inspired a host of horse themed names, including the Trojan Horse, Boss Hoss, Stampede and Warhorse.

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Posted in Looking Back | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Chevy Also Funny Car Match Racer

By Tom Bonner | Published: August 6, 2010
Chevy Also Funny Car at Detroit Autorama

The Chevy Also match racer of Ron and Dan Elkins in better times. Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)

This was a difficult post to write, because I didn’t want to sensationalize a tragedy, yet I wanted to recognize a neglected car and driver.

Today, sanctioning bodies and track officials are fairly transparent when a fatal accident occurs at the race track. No one likes to see a racing calamity, but the leaders of the sport realize that mishaps do happen and they are open and above-board about it.

In 1967, it was different. Racing, particularly drag racing, had the image of an outlaw activity. Because of this, serious accidents were usually swept under the rug. No one talked about a wreck that ended someone’s life. Everyone acted as if the crash never happened. Which may explain why the Chevy Also funny car has been largely forgotten.

Ron and Dan Elkins campaigned their Chevy Also A/FX match racer throughout the 1966 racing season. The brothers took turns driving and did most of the work on the car.

The Elkins brought their match-batch Chevy to Cobo Hall to appear in the booth of their sponsor, Midwest Automotive, for ’67 Autorama

A play on the Chevy II nameplate, Chevy Also was given the old skool funny car treatment, with a lengthened front-end, altered wheelbase and an injected Chevy big block in the engine compartment.

I remember thinking the car didn’t look very competitive when compared to the flip-top entries like the Hemi-Hunter Camaro and Competition + Mustang. The car looked decidedly home-built. Don’t get me wrong, I love garage and barn built race cars because they display distinctive personality, unlike racers from major shops, which often look-alike.. But the steel body of the injected Chevy Also seemed to place it out the league of the fiberglass cars, or even the blown steel cars like Dick Jesse’s Pontiac.

Apparently the Elkins brothers came to the same conclusion. A short time after Autorama, the brothers slapped a GMC 6-71 supercharger on the big-block Chevy in an attempt to remain competitive against the onslaught of flip-top fiberglass machines.

The blower allowed the brothers to run with the big dogs, at least for s short while. Reportedly, the car hit 9.57 at 150mph on nitro.

Tragically, that extra power was more than the little Chevy II could handle. In August of 1967, while racing in Ulby, Michigan, Chevy Also got seriously crossed up and spun sideways at high-speed. The car rolled several times.

According to the website Dragstrip Deaths, Danny Elkins, who was driving that day, died in the crash.

Thus ended the colorful Chevy Also funny car. In 1967, funny cars were still evolving, and full-bodied cars were entering an unexplored area of high-speed aerodynamics. The physics of keeping light-weight cars on the ground and stable at speeds over 150mph was a little understood science.

My photo of the Chevy Also isn’t very good. It is dark with banners and advertisements cluttering the car. Still, it is a reminder of a different era, when it was possible to build a competitive funny car in your backyard. I think it is time the Danny Elkins and the Chevy Also received a little recognition.

 
Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Dick Jesse’s Mr. Unswitchable Pontiac GTO Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: August 3, 2010
Dick Jesse's Mr. Unswitchable GTO

Dick Jesse was not about to switch, so he relied on a blown Pontiac 421 to keep up with the hemis and rat motors. Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)

If you call yourself “Mister Unswitchable,” you can’t very well change to another brand of car or power-plant. So Dick Jesse started with Pontiac, and remained with Pontiac long after most indian-head funny car racers switched to Chevy or Chrysler engines under Poncho sheet metal.

Jesse’s GTO was another funny car that captured plenty of attention at the 1967 Detroit Autorama. Unfortunately, there are signs and advertising banners plastered over most of the car, but we can still glean some interesting info from this image.

The car is mostly original steel GTO, as you can see from the metal cowl in front of the windshield. If you look closely, you can also see a factory push lock button on the driver’s door. If you were installing a fiberglass door panel, would you bother to install the factory door lock mechanism?

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Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The mystery of the Competition + Mustang funny car

By Tom Bonner | Published: July 20, 2010

Competition + Mustang Funny Car

The SOHC powered Mustang funny car known as Competition + at the '67 Detroit Autorama. Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)


Last time around I posted about what I believe was the very first Camaro flip-top funny car. The 1967 Detroit Autorama also boasted what may have been the first Mustang flopper; the Competition + funny car.

Strangely enough, I can find no information about this car, despite exhausting my usual sources.

Draglist is my goto source for this type of information, but I couldn’t find even a scrap of knowlege about a 1967 Mustang named Competition +. I dug through old copies of Car Craft, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, Drag Racing, Drag Strip…with no results. Repeated Google searches came up blank for “Competition +.”

This car is a phantom…except for these photos and a couple more taken at Detroit Dragway, I can’t find any proof the car ever existed. Nor do I know who drove the Mustang and what happened to it.

(additional photo after the jump)
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Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Hemi Hunter Camaro Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: July 13, 2010
The Hemi Hunter Camaro Funny Car

In 1967, Mike Nicopolis went funny car racing with this flip-top Camaro. Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)

Strolling through the 1967 Detroit Autorama, I came across the Hemi Hunter Camaro funny car. Owned and driven by Mike Nicopolis, the Hemi Hunter was undoubtedly one of the most unusual floppers I ever saw.

To begin with, the original Camaro was introduced in late 1966, as a 1967 model. Nicopolis had his car more or less complete in January 1967, making this one of the first — or possibly the very first — flip-top Camaro funny cars in existence.

You cannot tell from these photos, but the car was painted a glossy fawn brown. That is an unusual shade to paint a funny car, but it suited the Camaro very well.

The big surprise came when the one-piece body was lifted to show the car’s underpinnings. Instead of the standard tubular ladder frame, the Hunter rode on a square tube chassis.

(more photos after the jump)
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Posted in 1967 | 2 Comments

Al Bergler’s More Aggravation dragster

By Tom Bonner | Published: June 9, 2010
Al Bergler, 1967 Detroit Autorama

Al Bergler's 1967 version of More Aggravation at Detroit's Cobo Hall. Notice Roger Lindamood's Color Me Gone Charger in the upper right. Tom Bonner photo (Instamatic 126)

Hopefully some of you caught the veiled reference to Al Bergler’s More Aggravation in my last post. Bergler is probably best known for his string of Motown Shaker funny cars, or as the aluminum artist who was responsible for the “tin” work on many of the nation’s top race cars in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

Bergler’s first claim to fame, however came with front-engine dragsters. His original More Aggravation earned Bergler the Ridler Award at the 1964 Autorama, which was also the very first time the Ridler was awarded.

That car featured a much modified Austin Bantam coupe body with a full-width windshield grafted on to it. After the jump, you’ll find a video that includes the restored version of the original Bantam bodied car.

For the 1967 Detroit Autorama, Bergler showed this version of More Aggravation, with a streamlined roadster body behind the big blown Chrysler.
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Detroit Autorama: Oasis in the Snow

By Tom Bonner | Published: June 3, 2010

The Milk Wagon appeared at the 1967 Autorama in Detroit

Unless you’ve spent time in a cold climate, you might not appreciate the significance of an event like the Detroit Autorama.

Although I actually enjoy snow and cold weather, it does tend to curtail most forms of motorsports. The local tracks usually close in October, and they don’t reopen until late March at best. The majority of hot rods and street machines usually go into hibernation during the same period.

If you are a gear-head in the north, the winter months are devoid of racing action. My friends and I followed the events in Southern California in the pages of Drag News, but it wasn’t the same as being at the track.

Thankfully, in the midst of the winter doldrums, Autorama would arrive, providing a reminder of why we were car-crazy in the first place.

Usually, we would attend Friday night, because we didn’t want to wait until Saturday. We would leave our coats in the car so we wouldn’t have to carry them around on the show floor.

We would arrive in the Cobo Hall foyer, shivering in the ghastly green flourescent light, as we waited in line to reach the ticket booth. Outside the floor to ceiling windows, the mounds of snow would look gray in the evening gloom.

That is how it was in the foyer, all cold and green and gray.

Then someone would open a door to the auditorium and we would catch a glimpse of summer. The lighting inside was orange and warm and inviting. Even more important we could make out chrome wheels, candy paint and meticulously detailed engines. It didn’t matter what the weather was like outside, inside the arena it was high performance heaven.
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Part 2 of Ingenuity in Action at Detroit Dragway

By Tom Bonner | Published: May 31, 2010

The second part of the 1959 film Ingenuity in Action takes place exclusively at Detroit Dragway. The track was apparently completed just in time for the ’59 NHRA Nationals as the famous ditches on either side of the track are brown mud with absolutely no vegetation.

It is interesting to see the track as it appeared when new, especially since I spent so much time there after it matured. Incredibly, much of the facility was exactly the same in the 1980s.

There are a lot of scenes of cars leaving the starting line. The footage is a far cry from what you see today on ESPN, and the cameraman shot too many cars from the same angle. Despite that, the film is highly entertaining because it shows the hot cars of 1959, which are unlike anything you see on a dragstrip today. This was the Nationals after all, so the contestants represented the ultimate drag machines of the day.

Apparently the “Christmas Tree” had not yet made it as the standard way to start a drag race, as the races were started by a flagman.

Things to watch for include the original Ramchargers High and Mighty C/A Plymouth, Ohio George Montgomery’s Little Eliminator winning Willys Gasser and Art Arfons in an Alison (piston driven) aircraft powered Green Monster.

There are many other cameo appearances by future racing stars, including future NASCAR racer and announcer Bernie Partridge.

If you want to see the ditch when it was brand new, take the time to watch this film, It offers a whole new perspective on Detroit Dragway back in the day.

 
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Ingenuity in Action: Detroit Dragway in 1959

By Tom Bonner | Published: May 24, 2010

Now we’re going back, way back to 1959, for the NHRA Nationals at Detroit Dragway.

This is not my work, I have already related that I didn’t start attending races at the ditch until 1966, eight years after this film was made. Ingenuity in Action was produced by Sid Davis and sponsored by Hot Rod magazine. It follows Jim Nelson and the DragMaster team as they head out from California to attend the nationals at Detroit.

The movie is in two parts. The initial 12 minute segment offers some nice arial views of Detroit Dragway, including a dragster boiling the hides as it nears the finish line. The flick then moves to the west coast and follows the racers as they make their way to the motor city, including a regional race in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Although the movie was made over fifty years ago, I was surprised that drag racing was portrayed as a positive, fun activity. In the fifties, drag racers were often characterized by the media as hoodlums or delinquents.

If anyone remembers the Wonderful World of Disney, then you have a good idea of what to expect from this film. The music and narration are quite reminiscent of the documentaries Disney would broadcast on the popular Sunday evening program.

I’ll post the second part in a couple of days. Part II takes place almost exclusively at Detroit Dragway, presenting plenty of footage of what the track looked like when it was first constructed. Some famous early diggers and gassers take part in the second segment, so be sure to watch for it.

 
Posted in 1959 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment
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