(Photos by Greg and Jason Rourke) – To this point in our Meltdown Drags photo coverage we have showed you full bodied cars but now we’re switching some gears and brining you images that feature some of the more hardcore drag race only machine that were running at the event. Yes, there were plenty of dragster, gassers, and altereds at the event and this collection of photos gives them the spotlight.

One of the things we love about the history of drag racing is how linear the evolution of the competition vehicles is. You can literally look at something that was cutting edge 50 years ago and determine what changes and alterations were made over time to create the modern machines that blaze strips at speeds and elapsed time that engineers and thinkers from those glory days would have never envisioned or predicted. Yes, people still race altereds and stuff and you can buy cutting edge, scienced out versions of these classics to run today in classes like Super Comp and others but nothing will ever beat the originals. They were often weird and dangerous but they represented the best ideas of their time and whether those ideas were practical and functional back then is up for debate. One thing that is not up for debate is how stinking cool all that stuff was and this photo gallery is like a time warp back to the age of experimentation and free thinking that dominated the sport during the era at the Meltdown Drags celebrate. You are going to love this.

 GASSERS, DRAGSTERS, AND MORE FROM THE MELTDOWN DRAGS