|
|
|
Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
|
|
|
Here are two pictures of the famously bad-handling Firefly Top Fuel Dragster to start off Bill's collection. They show the unique straight front axle which was later thought to contribute to the handling problems. |
|
|
|
|
Firefly was originally owned by Santa Pod Raceway and so was this car, the legendary Commuter Top Fuel Dragster. If this picture was indeed taken at the 1971 July International meeting then Allan Herridge would have been driving and may even be pictured here pushing the car. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Between rounds work never stops on a Top Fuel Dragster. This is the John Woolfe Racing Hot Wheels sponsored car of 1971 which was powered by a 392 cubic inch Keith Black Chrysler and was driven by Dennis Priddle to a best performance of 7.13 seconds and 203 mph. |
|
|
|
Dennis Priddle's arch-rival at this time was Clive Skilton and this is his Castrol-sponsored Second Revolution Top Fuel Dragster. Clive became the first British driver to post a seven second run in this dragster. |
|
|
|
|
Two nice shots of Swede Björn Andersson's Sub Sonic Top Fuel Dragster pictured at Santa Pod. |
|
|
|
|
The Dos Palmos gas dragster was brought over to this country in 1964 to compete at the British International Drag Festival series and was driven by Bob Keith assisted by his partners Gary Goodnight and Maurice Williamson. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arthur Christie and his Hawaian III Top Fuel Dragster travelled all the way from South Africa to compete at the 1971 International meeting. |
|
|
|
Brian Ringsell's blown and injected Taxi dragster. |
|
|
|
|
Mark Stratton was the twisted genius behind the mad, bad Metronome AA Fuel Altered which featured the body from a Bond Bug three-wheeler. Steve Cryer was the driver. Metronome is pictured with the Hillbillies' Topolino altered below. |
|
|
|
|
The Hillbillies team of Mike Derry and Roland Pratt campaigned this beautiful Topolino-bodied altered complete with big block Chevy power. |
|
|
|
|
Kevin Pilling's Pure Seven was powered by a 413 cubic inch Ramchargers Wedge enlarged to 440, which had replaced a weak Oldsmobile lump. The original Pure Seven car cost all of 25 pounds to get to the line at Santa Pod. Kevin had to struggle against its squirrelly behaviour, until one day an engine mount broke and the car ran straight. When the mount was fixed, it
went back to its previous errant handling again, so goodbye to the right front mount and hello success! Kevin says that looking back on the team's best ever 168mph and 9.6 secs gives him a shiver today; the madness of youth! The car was an Austin Seven rebodied by Swallow. A B&M Clutchflite replaced a destroyed Cadillac transmission. |
|
|
|
|
This is the second version of Freddie Whittle's Shutdown, this time in full Fuel Altered mode. Most people would assume that the Bantam body on this car would be fibreglass. This is not the case as Bryan Whitfield (himself an accomplished hot-rodder) reports. Fred Whittle was a genius with metal, and he formed this body from aluminium sheet, including
all the compound curves, by hand and using an "English wheel". |
|
|
|
|
This is Phil Elson and the Blue Flash team's Chrysler hemi-powered Sneaky. Phil later changed to a Model T body and this one was passed on to US serviceman Freeman Rogers who painted it in camouflage colours and ran it on his Aardvark altered. |
|
|
|
|
A couple of shots of the Gleadow brothers' Motor Psycho competition altered. This car was later bought by Alan O'Connor who called it Al's Gasser and ran in the Street Altered / Modified classes. |
|
|
|
|
Marshall-Dickson Racing's Good Vibrations Ford Pop altered. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of Mark Stratton's earliest creations was Hustler, a competition altered built in 1965/66 using a BSA Scout body as the basis. |
|
|
|
The right hand car in this picture is Dave Hayden-Smith's Baby Bee which was originally built by Freddie Whittle in 1969 although this shot was taken two years later in 1971. It had a Chevy and the body was a '32 roadster hand made in aluminium by Freddie. |
|
|
|
|
Lars Torngren from Sweden drove the Wild Honey altered and won the Top Competition Altered eliminator at the July 1971 International meet with a 10.21 second pass at 139.38 mph. |
|
|
|
This Wild Honey hailed from the UK, used Jaguar power, and was campaigned by the Ison brothers. |
|
|
|
|
These pictures show two incarnations of Alan Sherwin, John Crosby and Ray Webster's Travel Agent Jag-powered altered. On the left was the Mark II version which sported a Bond three-wheeler body, below and to the right is Mark III with a Jago Model T body. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Midas Touch was driven by Rob Skinner and was powered by a Jaguar lump. The body is thought to be a Falcon which was a kit car of the period, the period in question being 1969. |
|
|
|
Poison Ivy featured Jaguar power and a replica Jaguar D-type body. |
|
|
|
|
Midas Mist was another Jag-powered car with a full sports car body. This time the body in question was a from a Falcon kit car. Pete Skinner was the owner and driver. |
|
|
|
|
Alleycat was built by the team of Malcolm Beakhurst, Steve Gillian, Chris Wilson and Malcolm Watts around 1970-71. It was Jaguar-powered again and the body was from a Fordson van. |
|
|
|
|
Yet more Jaguar power, this time it is Barry Sheavills' Austin Ruby-bodied altered which he called Stagecoach. |
|
|
|
|
Ron Billbury's Pony Express was powered by a four cylinder 1098cc Ford mill. |
|
|
|
Rick Fielding's Imagination 4 altered featured Ford four cylinder twin cam power and a blower. |
|
|
|
|
The late Alan Wigmore drove this 305 cubic engine Vauxhall HA Viva-bodied altered. As you can see he also pranged it big style at the 1971 August Bank Holiday meeting fortunately without serious injury to himself although the car was written off. |
|
|
|
|
Colin Mullen drove the famous Invader all-steel Vauxhall HB Viva-bodied flip top altered. That must have taken some lifting! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The altered is Ian Garbutt's Ford-powered High Fever which incidentally features the same body that Nick Pettitt used on his slingshot in the 1990s. |
|
|
|
CCCA7 was run by Dave Winnerey and featured a Morgan body with propulsion from a 272" Chevy. This picture was taken in 1971. |
|
|
|
|
Hush Too was run by Ed Gurney and Pete Smith in 1970 with a Buick lump and what is thought to be an AC body. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hush Bloo was the boys' ride from 1971 to 1973 and still had the Buick engine but the body has obviously changed to a Falcon. |
|
|
|
This pit shot was taken on a pretty grim looking day at Santa Pod (of which there many!). That is Invader on the left and the Hillbillies' altered on the right. I am not sure if the Zodiac was running in competition or was just a push-car. |
|
|
|
|
Mark Stratton built this Reliant GTE-bodied altered which was originally named Whistler. It was re-christened Sizzler, as in these shots, when the John Woolfe Racing team picked up sponsorship from toy maker Mattel. Dennis Priddle drove the car in 1969 after which Ed Shaver took up the driving duties. Sizzler was equipped with a 427" Chevy L88 motor which the late John Woolfe had bought to go in the team's earlier Hustler altered.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gloworm was the first funny car in Europe and was built by Santa Pod Raceway in 1970 and driven by Roy Phelps. It had a Ford Capri body and a V8 Ford engine. |
|
|
|
|
Tony Anderson built a whole series of blown and injected dragsters and this is his 1971 car which he called Trouble. It was powered by a Ford V6 which he ran on the hard stuff. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Two more slingshots : in the background is Red Witch which was a Jag-powered rail run by Keith Elliott. |
|
|
|
Chicken Coupe was purchased by the John Woolfe Racing team from the famous cartoonist the late Pete Millar who was resident in Sweden at the time. They promptly extracted the engine and put it in their Top Fuel Dragster. Chicken Coupe was renamed Crescent Coupe and run by the team of Mike Treutlein and Keith Dancey using an engine originally intended for use in a Formula 5000 circuit car. |
|
|
|
|
Ken Cooper getting ready to run his Bazooka 2 flathead rail in 1971. The Bedford van behind was John Siggery's push van for the Geronimo dragster. |
|
|
|
|
Ray Archer's Crab in the foreground with Bert Knight's Knightmare behind. They both used Jaguar engines but that's about where the similarities ended! |
|
|
|
Harold Bull was the engineering genius behind the diminutive Stripduster dragster. The four cylinder engine displaced less than one litre but it was good for nine second runs. A truly outstanding car by any standards. |
|
|
|
|
Arnold Sundqvist from Sweden was one of the first proponents of jet-powered cars in Europe with this Westinghouse J46-powered machine which he brought to Santa Pod for the July 1971 International meeting. |
|
|
|
|
Two shots of John Harrison's Twin Jinx slingshot of 1971 powered by two Austin Healey motors. |
|
|
|
|
Alan O'Connor is a legendary figure in UK drag racing. This old Zodiac called Rocky II was one of his earlier forays into the sport. It is pictured with and without the roof chop. |
|
|
|
|
Richard Foley drove this AMX which he called Pandemonium. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No ID on this radically chopped Austin A40 but what a neat looking car even after all these years. |
|
|
|
Sadly no ID either on this Swedish street rod which was running in the Street Altered B class. |
|
|
|
|
Has there ever been a taller hood scoop than that on Ed Shaver's Hot Wheels sponsored AMX? I don't think so! |
|
|
|
|
Tune Twister was a 3 litre V6 Ford-powered Mark I Cortina and was driven by Steve Stringer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Santa Pod Raceway built this Stingray wheelie car in 1968. It is still going strong today (2009) in the hands of Ron Picardo and his son Gary. It must hold the record for the longest-lived drag car still in use by a country mile. |
|
|
|
Alan Ward drove Otis Blue his Ford V6-powered Escort in 1969. |
|
|
|
|
This unusual looking car is a French Facel Vega HK500 Coupe which was powered by a Chrysler V8. It is thought to have been driven by Martin Kent. |
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately no ID on this bike. |
|
|
|
|
In the foreground is Tony Weedon's Triumph-powered Blue Rondo, the other bike is Tony Bartram's Impala which, unsurprisingly, had a Hillman Imp engine. |
|
|
|
Tom Quinn's Sher-Khan Triumph is on the left of shot with A Cockburn's Astral-Khan Triumph in the centre. No ID on the bike on the right sadly. |
|
|
|
|
No ID on either of these bikes unfortunately. |
|
|
|
|
Keith Lee's Split 2 Triumph-powered Lambretta scooter - scary! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stu Bentley pictured with his Centaurus IV twin Triumph in 1972. |
|
|
|
|
No ID on this Vincent-powered combination. |
|
|
The level of detail in the captions above would not have been The first is David Kipling. David runs a Stock Car Racing web site which includes a very My second benefactor is drag racing guru Nick Pettitt who has kindly exercised |
|
All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Navigate through the |
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
