Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

  This cool looking Gasser is based on a 1962 Mercury Comet. The Ford-Lincoln-Mercury exec’s were looking for a catchy name and they found one ! The NASA space-race was on everyone's mind at the time, so they named it after NASA’s mission “Mercury”, added in Comet for an extra nod to the space-race and you have a winner. The body was painted a classic matte-black. Throw in some old-school lettering and some period looking decals and you have a classic race car for the street.     The body was customized with the typical racer tricks of the day, the front bumper was removed & the grill was worked over by removing the inner headlights.   Poking through the fiberglass hood sits a transplanted Chevrolet 454 big-block, topped off with a tunnel ram and dual quad Holley carburetors. The motor was hopped-up with a solid roller cam and roller rocker arms.  Backing up the big-block is the heavy duty TH-400 with a high stall converter and manual valve body, the tr...

  The Legacy of Jack Chrisman Part I     Jack Chrisman was an American Drag Racer who had an active racing career that started in 1953 and ended with retirement in 1972,but he remained active behind the scenes.   Throughout his career he raced at Southern California tracks such as Lions, Pomona,Riverside, San Fernando & Santa Ana. Jack wasn’t just an inovator he was also a record setter.  In 1961 he drove the Howard Cams Twin Bears gas dragster to the first 8-second run in NHRA national event history and won the first ever Winter Nationals with an 8.99 second pass.     Chrisman won the 1961 World Championship after winning in national, regional, and divisional meets throughout the United States. In 1962 Jack joined Mickey Thompson’s team where he drove the Tommy Ivo-built A/Gas Dragster to an 8.34 second pass,giving him the Top eliminator crown at the U.S nationals.             ...