All of the pictures on these pages were taken by readers of
The Acceleration Archive who have kindly agreed to share them with us.

Click on any image to get the bigger picture

The first two pictures on this page were submitted by Bruce Frame.
Pictured on the left is Liam Churchill's first attempt at building a funny car which, as you can see, was not half-bad.  It was based on a Ford Capri bodyshell, I am not sure if he christened this one The Sting, but the two cars which followed it certainly were.

This is Tony Froome's Sundance AA/FC.
It was the second of only two rear-engined cars to appear in this country and featured a radically re-worked Vauxhall VX/490 body which had originally been run on the Mr Shifter competition altered.

These three pictures were taken by Dave Burditt in July 1971 at Santa Pod.
Left : Dave Brodie's Run Baby Run Mark I Ford Escort.
Right : Kevin Pilling's Pure Seven (on the left) racing the Hillbillies' Fiat Topolino.
Below : the powerplant in the famous F1-engined Ford Transit van.

The next collection is from Martin Quince.
Left : Mick Butler in the far lane on Cyclops gets ready to race Dave Clee on Shotgun.
Right : this is how burnouts used to be done in the days of yore.  Later on they developed little trolleys to lift the rear wheel clear of the asphalt and they wheeled the bikes to the line to keep the slick clean.

The picture on the left is definitely Bruce Brown's injected 327" Chevy-powered Age Machine dragster taken in 1971.  The picture on the right was probably taken in 1974 by which time it had the ex-Hillbillies' 454" Rat motor installed.

Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car pilot Clive Skilton in the centre of shot.

Left : Santa Pod Raceway's Gloworm funny car gets some attention between rounds.
Right : several years later the body was modified and found its way on to Phil Elson's Sneaky T fuel altered chassis and became known as Sneaky Gloworm.

Santa Pod Raceway were prolific builders of fuel cars and here are three pictures of their Firefly AA/FD.  A beautiful looking car but rather a handful to drive.
The pictures above and left are quite rare because they show the car very shortly after it was constructed, probably on its first outing. Compare the bodywork immediately in front of the cockpit with that in the picture on the right, and you can see  it has been opened out. Apparently it was a little too snug for the driver to get in and out of so it had to be modified.

On the left is the Priddle, Riswick, Gane & Stanford top fuel dragster of 1971 sponsored by Hot Wheels.
Fast forward a few years and this is Dennis Priddle at the wheel of his first Chrysler Avenger-bodied funny car with STP sponsorship.

Jet cars are fairly common these days but it was not always so.
Arnold Sunqvist's Silver Streak made quite an impression when it visited Santa Pod Raceway.

People who get involved in Fuel Altereds are not always the most rational folk - sorry guys but you know it's true.
This was definitely the maddest creation ever - a four wheel version of a Bond Bug with fuel motor and the shortest wheelbase imaginable.  That Mark Stratton - what was he like?

The 'first in the fives' Crane & Edmunson's Top Fuel Dragster being manoeuvred behind the start line at Santa Pod.

This engine is thought to be the 409 cubic inch Chevy in Phil Smith's Bone-Nydle Too dragster unless anyone knows differently?

Two of the cars that first made doorslammers entertaining to watch.
On the left is the late Tony Dickson's Money Hungry as imported from the USA.
On the right is Keith Harvie's Firebrewed.
Great cars, both of them.

Left : The Volunteer was powered by a 272 inch Chevy and driven by Dave Winnerey.
The car was sponsored by Dave's local pub which was called The Volunteer hence the rather odd name.  That is Alan Sherwin's blown Travel Agent altered in the foreground.
Right : Dave Stone brings the Mark II version of the Tee-Rat Fuel Altered to the line.  This picture must have been taken shortly after it was built because the paintwork is not yet complete.

Steve Stringer's Mk I Ford Cortina Tune Twister had a definitely non-standard 3 litre V6 engine fitted.

The next set of pictures were kindly set in by Neil Marks and were taken in the USA.
Introducing two legends of US drag racing who have each won more championships than you can shake a stick at.
On the left is Bob Glidden who was a dominant force in Pro Stock racing, on the right is multiple winning Top Fuel pilot Joe Amato.

Above : a starting line study of Joe Amato and Dick LaHaie.
Left : Dick LaHaie again at the wheel of the Miller High Life sponsored fueller.
Right : Frank Hawley (he of the present day drag racing school) also at the helm of a Miller High Life sponsored fueller.

Left : Johnny West boiling the slicks on the Hawaiian Punch flopper.
Right : double NHRA Top Fuel champion Shirley 'Cha Cha' Muldowney.

The final set of pictures on this page are by Paul Somerville.
Bill Sherratt drove The Cannonball AA/FC but I am not sure what was going on here because the driver does not have a helmet on. Perhaps the car was being towed on to the strip for a line up of all the floppers.

Gary Page driving the legendary Monza-bodied Panic funny car.  This car was built and driven by Dennis Priddle before passing to the Page brothers.  I think by this time Bob Jarrett might also have been involved with the team.

Björn Ardin in his superb Pro Comp funny car.

Rune Fjeld is best known as a the owner of a small fleet of Top Fuel Dragsters these days, but here he is driving the beautiful Motown Shaker funny car which he imported from the USA.

Has there ever been a longer, lower funny car than Nobby Hills' Corvette-bodied Houndog 11?  It is seen here with John Woolfe Racing sponsorship and looks absolutely fantastic.

And finally, another Corvette-bodied car, this time it is Tom Hoover driving his Showtime flopper on one of his regular visits to Santa Pod.

All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission

Return to the Site Map    

Navigate through the
Readers' Galleries