Some Funny Car History

 

There are some things about Pre 1985 Funny Cars that I love , from the custom paint jobs to the full track burnouts . From 1960's to the early 1980's, Coast to Coast every Drag Strip on any given weekend had a huge match race style event . Some had a 32 car field , and as Match Racing hit it's peak tracks competed  against each other by bringing in even more cars,  some booked 64 or more just to boast that they had a bigger & better event .  

The most funny Cars that I witnessed at one single event was when Englishtown had an event sponsored by K-Mart in the early 80's, they featured 32 Funny Cars and a couple of wheel standers, The Paddy Wagon, The little Red Wagon, and some VW pick up. The show lasted from 12 in the afternoon until after 9 PM .Those who know Raceway Park know that the lighting  was just over flashlight bright. But at night you could see header flames 4-feet in the air the full 1320.

There were a lot of heavy hitters that followed the match racing scene and for some it was the only way they made a living. Today a new generation of Drag Racing fans are getting turned on to this style of racing. A lot of old cars are being restored and even more are being built from scratch, thanks to S&W Race Cars for reproducing vintage chassis and the Funny Car Farm is re-popping fiberglass bodies, you can build your favorite car from the past. Some can be seen running in the Funny Car Chaos series .

 

At most of the Drag Strips during the match race hay-day all the Funny Cars would line up on the track and the teams would start them  and warm them up for the first round of racing. 

This would get the fans pumped with excitement, the sounds and the smells from those Zoomie headers were just amazing. Just ask someone who has been at an event like this, 32 Funny Cars revving up sounds like a volcano erupting mixed with a tornado, and the ground shakes like a California earthquake. Lets just say your grin on your face would last til until Monday or Tuesday.

 Most Funny Cars had fancy multi-colored paint jobs, and they all had cool nicknames.There was little or no sponsorships at that time, so most racers only did a few races a season.

This Corvair Funny was built by Roy Anania out of his South State Speed Shop in Hackensack, NJ. It was later sold to Ken Poffenburger. His shop is 15 minutes from me and he is still building Supercharged big block engines in the same shop for over 55 years. Roy still has a couple of his vintage Drag cars, his 1955 Chevy is a time capsule of performance .

In the late 1990s vintage Funny's made there comeback, this photo was taken at Raceway Park during their first Funny Car reunion show in 2002.

This was restored by Bob Rosetty, Joe Jacono was there and saw it for the first time in 30 years and stated it looked better then it ever did when he owned it.

This photo is from the Funny Car Chaos event in Texas in 2021, if I didn't tell you the year, you would swear it was 1977. The cars might be built with modern 21st century safety and tech, but the racing action is pure and far from today's multi car teams .

If your in the North East, take a trip to the York U.S.30 Reunion, it is held at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.

They always have Funny Cars on display, and some are even warmed up for the crowd .

 

 Bruce Larson is local to the event, and always brings one of his Funny Cars.

 

     The Frantic Ford Mustang II  is an accurate recreation of the original, it was built as a tribute to their friend Dodger Glenn and is owned by, Henry & Drew Sweetman and the crew consists of Big Al Liebma , Tony Facenda & Willie Stull.  Joe Morrison was a past driver,  Morrison now drives a Top Fuel Dragster in the big show. 

Rocky Pirrone was one of the first people to to get vintage Funny Cars back on the map in the early 90's, he has built and restored some significant racing machines from the early 60's and 70's.  

This original Plymouth Duster was restored and has made some shakedown runs, this car is all paint. Everything was hand lettered the old school way. 

 

Power and Performance !   

Power plants ranged from Injected & or Blown  SOHC 427's for the Ford ,  Injected and or blown 427- 454's for Chevy's and Chrysler's ran the 392 or the 426 Hemi's, most were Supercharged with 6-71superchargers then later 8-71 converted diesel cases. Soon the aftermarket joined in, such as Littlefield, Mooneyham, RCD, & Bowers all offered supercharges in many sizes from 4-71 to 14-71, in aluminum & magnesium .

 

Famous engine builders were Ed Pink, Donovan, Milodon & Keith Black. 

 

 

Transmissions consisted of the GM Powerglide 2-speed, the Chrysler Torqueflite 3-speed, and the rare Clutch-Flite transmission made by B&M, where in place of a torque converter there was a clutch and pressure plate. It is considered to be a  precursor to the trans brake. They also ran Lenco 3-speeds. It was brutal on parts and all automatics were phased out by the late 1970's for a safer and more reliable three disk clutch with direct drive .                                                           

Paint jobs

Most of the Funny Cars on the East Coast were painted by Bob Gerdes of Circus Custom paint in Lyndhurst , NJ .

He did all of his work out of a two car garage on a residential side street. He was only open for a few short years, but he worked 7 days a week painting some of the most famous Floppers, most of Jungle Jim's cars were done there.

 

Today the building is still standing , but now it is just a simple body shop. This shop is only 15-minutes from m , when I found it, I just stood there and imagined what is was like with a shop and parking lot filled with funny car bodies, & all the flake and candy paint jobs shining in the sun .

There is more to come , I just wanted to get this posted .

I have vintage photos of the Circus shop that will be posted .

So stay tuned !

 

 

 

 

 

The Total Insanity Monza making a pass at Island Dragway.

 

 

 

Life was more simple in the 1970's, this is how most of the pits looked . One or two people might crew a Fuel Funny car. It was back-breaking work and most of it was done in the dark with little to no lighting, very few pit areas were paved, most pits were just hard packed dirt.  

There were no high dollar support trailers with air conditioning or fancy mobile work shops. There were pick up truck beds with the tailgate as a work bench.                              

Some more well-funded teams had ramp trucks or enclosed trailers. 

But the hard work paid off in the end and put food on the tables of the racers families . 

Just look at this guy's face, he is grinning ear to ear. He is having the time of his life just working away on that blown Donovan HEMI, he will have that monster back in the car by final round just in time before the track closes. These are the unknown little guy racers that made Drag Racing what it is today.  

This is a modern Funny Car built to resemble a vintage car, It's called Fool's Gold and is driven by Fire Fighter Chris King.

Check out his article ,

 

https://shoptourhardcoredragracing.blogspot.com/2020/12/chris-king-fools-gold-plymouth-duster.html

 

     This Mercury Comet is powered by Fords exotic SOHC 427 , it was only available over the counter as it was never intended to be used on the street in a production car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom McEwen's Plymouth Duster