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For this page, I thought I would concentrate largely on a brief episode in the late 1980s concerning the life of a funny car. On page one there is a picture of the yellow Topolino bodied AA/FA belonging to Gary Willy and Bill Felstead (click here to see that picture). Gary drove the car in the main, with Bill having a few runs although engine builder Rob Loaring was the first to have a go! My involvement was that I’d lettered the body. The car crashed at Avon Park and the chassis was rebuilt, the team fancying a go at funny car. This is the brief story of what happened. |
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The Topolino was displayed at a car show and attracted the attention of the boss from James Lister, a business that made performance hoses. Following some dialogue, an arrangement was made so that Lister’s would supply some product to help with the construction of the new funny car. I was commissioned to prepare artwork and the Lister name would be prominent, featuring a big braided hose on the side. The team were on the tightest of budgets but they wanted the car to look good. It was based on a Toyota Supra. |
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The Supra was new at the time. None existed as a flopper, so they adapted the bodyshell they had - a Pontiac Trans Am, (This was originally to re-body one of the Pod cars.) Bill and Gary reckoned it could look like a Supra and they were right. The apertures for the indicators were filled on the nose and the rest was down to paint. We went around Essex looking at Supra tail lights and I made notes. We bought the 2-pack paint and the motor factor guy asked what sort of yellow Bill wanted and he said “the cheapest”! It turned out really bright and this is how it looked before I started. |
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Though daunted by the sheer amount of brushwork required I knew it would look good. The bottom of the wobbly ‘glass body was like a dogs hind leg and when I masked off the red pinstripes, the tape was four inches proud in places! Here’s me, younger and skinnier, laying up the low- tack tape on the (big!) Lister logos. The side window apertures were rounded slightly at the back with a sharp point at the front, à la Supra. This is in Bill’s garage in Rayleigh. |
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Here’s the shell, mostly done. The anodised hose ends were tricky, using mixed shades of blue and pink. The rear window was in three sections, masked off. A pot of light grey enamel was mixed and I went like mad using the biggest (barely half-inch) brush I had to quickly cover it smoothly. The ‘flip-up’ headlamps were suggested with black paint lines. |
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This is the completed car outside Lister’s premises in West Bromwich. The prominence of the Lister signage probably took them by surprise and people presumed, as we found out later, that lots of money was thrown at the car. This was not the case, as it was only product like hoses and fittings. |
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Gary Willy is at the wheel here on the car’s maiden voyage. I should know what year this is, but I can’t even remember which meet it was - 1989 Cannonball at a guess? The car was well received and there was a shot of it in that week’s Motoring News. This caused complaints from certain parties who wanted to know why Lister’s, known only in circuit racing, were throwing cash at a funny car. |
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Even one of the Pod commentators at the time didn’t guess at the Trans Am origins of the shell. Note the unique grille and lights treatment. That’s Tantrum T altered driver Pete Wallace on the right in smart race shirt. The episode taught me two things. One that big signage makes people presume big cash injections are forthcoming, despite being told otherwise; and secondly, how simple paint transforms the look of a car. |
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This was the Supra later in the year. Can’t recall the ET’s but they weren’t earth shattering. The team were selling Eliminator Topolino T-shirts and some experimental and very popular black on white ones with a blown Keith Black Hemi design I had done. The experience with these would serve me well later on. |
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The following year, it was decided to tone down the Lister logos and revert back to the Eliminator name. It was necessary to give the car a fresh look so two pieces of artwork were prepared. This was the design chosen. Gary did most of the paint preparation but when the car was first painted the yellow top coat reacted and it went really soft. On the car’s brief debut in May, the lettering was not quite complete, which was just as well as the pudding-like yellow had to be messily stripped off. |
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An alternative paint scheme was this one. What we didn’t know was that the car would be destroyed at the Cannonball of 1989(?) and this design was pressed into service the following year in it’s basic form. |
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If memory serves, the car didn’t qualify so was thrown into the first round of Cannonball ‘eliminations’. The Supra has a Birdcatcher instead of the Hilborn shotgun injector. A solid weeks work of brushwork from myself added fresh grille, windows, striping and lettering. No vinyl whatsoever! That’s Bill on the right. What happened next? |
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This! On his only full bore run, Gary Willy found himself wrestling with the Supra on the centreline. Two seconds later, the car was pitched into the right hand barrier, destroying itself. Note the hinged (to alleviate air pressure) tailight panels flapping. Gary’s complaint of no steering was vindicated on an enlargement of this picture - the front A arm had collapsed. |
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Gary was shaken but unhurt after the crash. The weirdest thing was that the crowd took literally every scrap of the body shell home with them that day. All that was left was a bit of tin and the mangled internal bracing. Bill made a superhuman effort to rebuild the car with a fresh chassis and body. That’s Bill in the cockpit and Gary on the headers. The car never ran due to some mechanical gremlins. |
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The new body had a fibreglass central panel to fair into the big injector hat and the Eliminator name was dropped. Roy Phelps got a name check on the front quarter as he’d helped with the rebuild but the gaffer tape on the front lower fairing was where it had to be raised for clearance. The look of the car seemed to go down well. |
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By the time the car got on the track, Gary Willy was no longer in the hot seat and John Niedowidz was driving. No great ET’s were recorded and the team was at the end of it’s tether with the financial stress of campaigning the car. |
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This shot, with plenty of smoke from an ailing power plant, signified an ignominious end for the car. Thereafter, Bill did a ‘Lord Lucan’ and vanished from drag racing for many years but he’s now having fun with the Johnny Mental slingshot. |
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Fellow Acceleration Archive contributor Steve Woolatt is well renowned for his Dealer blown nitro Puma Top Fuel Bike, but back in the '80s, six-second runs were not the order of the day. Steve campaigned this nicely turned out Kawasaki machine, seen here giving it some serious twist grip at Avon Park. |
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Motor Cycle Weekly was a new paper for the biking fraternity that never lasted the distance. Here is low six-second rider Brian Johnson on the newly liveried Imperial Wizard at the Pod. The bodywork is particularly nice. |
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Geoff Hauser is another of my fellow contributors, he had arguably the first all-tube framed door slammer in this country. Running in the new Pro Modified class the Sierra was one of the top cars in the class, seen here at the Pod in typical launch mode in the afternoon sun. |
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Another year, another track and different weather conditions. Unfortunately, this is all that remained of Geoff’s trick Sierra after it rolled in blustery conditions at the newly revamped Avon Park. At least the safety systems built into the chassis construction did their job, which is the important thing. |
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All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
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