Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

   Richard Bays has spent a lifetime in motorsports,and he is widely known as being part of the Drag Racing Fuel team Bays & Rupert. Richard’s thirst for racing came in 1966 when he was running a foreign car repair shop, he was in his early 20’s at the time.  He worked mainly on Volkswagen's and he was one of the pioneers of VW performance. At night he was street racing his own home built Hot Rod and gained quite a reputation in the tuning department. What started out as his daily driver soon turned into a Drag Strip terror. Richard started with a 1958 Fiat 600 that needed an engine. He made adapters and installed a Porsche engine. Why not, his shop was full of go fast parts. He said he chose that combination because it was different. Bays won so many street races with it, that the spectators would make side bets and they would frequently win betting on him.     He called the car a street sleeper and a Corvette killer. In 1966 he also raced it in ET brackets at Lions Dr

* Exhibition Cars *   An exhibition car could be any vehicle that doesn't fit in any class at a sanctioned event. It could also mean it was built just to get crowds excited between rounds. When a racer has a new idea that they want to try and it is not considered mainstream the race event staff might call it an exhibition run or a test session.  Most vehicles were built to run the quarter mile on the just rear wheels. The first official wheel stander was the Dodge A100 pick-up truck built by Dodge to show off their new 426 HEMI race engine & their new compact A100 pick-up truck. The Little Red Wagon pick-up truck was introduced in 1965,and was the first wheel standing truck and was the world's fastest truck at that time. The vehicle was not originally intended to perform wheel-stands. The slight rearward weight bias caused the nose to lift in the air for nearly the entire quarter-mile run. Its first drag strip run netted a mid-11 second quarter mile at 120 mph on just th

  Street Machine Spotlight ! Dodge had some tricks up its sleeve when it introduced the Dart. In 1963 Dodge built the Dart on the compact A-Body platform for the fourth generation, engine options ranged from a 225 C.I. slant-6 to a hot 340,and there was the GTS version that featured the 383 big-block. Even Dodge super-tuner MR.Norm built a Hopped-up street special called the GSS that was built with the 440 HP engine.         This Dart features a 340 small-block that has been stroked to 408 C.I. and it's backed up with a 727 automatic transmission built with a 3800 RPM stall converter and a stage-2 shift kit,giving it firm shifts that chirp the tires.     The chassis features heavy-duty torsion bars up front with disk brakes and the rear was upgraded with Cal-track bars with S/S leaf springs and factory drum brakes. Hooker headers and a 3 inch exhaust system let the engine breathe. Other features include a Holley 950 CFM carburetor and Edelbrock aluminum heads. Out back an 8 ¾

  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.                                         J ack Chrisman with Mickey Thompson. Mickey is turning the wrenches on