There are plenty of guys who will probably roll their eyes at the sights and sounds of Ken Kull’s awesome twin engine blown hemi dragster. Why? Well, because it was built as an exhibition machine and as something that would put on a great display of tire smoking fury at nostalgia drag racing events. The car is not built to be the quickest thing from point a to point b. Instead it was built to delight crowds and give us all a little taste of what the world was like before modern tire technology, slipper clutches, and a seating position that actually allowed a drive to see where he was going. Hell, just look at Ken back there trying to figure out which way he was going to look to see around both engines and maintain some semblance of control of the car as it headed down the wide open expanse of Beaver Springs Dragway. BSD is a perfect location for nostalgia racing because of the fact that it has the old time look with no immediate guard walls next to the track and plenty of grass area to run off on. This isn’t a place where modern fuelers run, but they have some pretty quick stuff dropping the hammer there.
Anyway, back to the car at hand. This machine is pretty indicative of what would have been seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s during the infamous NHRA fuel ban that disallowed the use of nitromethane at any sanctioned NHRA race or track. The ban of nitro birthed the top gas dragster class and with its relatively wide open rules, guys discovered that they could add a second engine to their combo and go faster with no legal penalty. The incurred as weight penalty but the extra power largely overcame that. Cars like the “Twin Bear”, the “Odd Couple”, the “Freight Train” and others were born. Consider this twin a modern built tribute to those massive machines of yore that wore their multiple engines like supercharged badges of pride.
Ken Kull’s car may not be the quickest thing down the track but it sure puts on one hell of the show and we can totally appreciate the value in that!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO HEAR THE TWIN HEMI ENGINES WORK AND SEE THEM DESTROY A SET OF SLICKS!
So cool! Sure beats watching modern day dragsters.
The show that this video was taken at is known as the Jalopy Showdown Drags. Been a big fan of this event for a number of years and it’s is probably one of the best hotrod events in the northeast.
2016 Jalopy Showdown Dates
May 21st Jalopy Showdown
EMMR Latimore Valley Fairgrounds
York Springs PA
Sept 24th Jalopy Showdown Drags
Beaver Springs Dragway
Beaver Springs PA
Hit the following website for more information:
http://www.jalopyshowdown.com/
Not the fastest but easily amongst the coolest. In the late 80’s they had stuff like that out west before Nostalgia races became all modern. The Champion Speed Shop Twin smoked them the whole track and the 554 Coupe too.
I just want to say that you need to change this article a little bit and give credit to the right person. Kenny Kull does not own this car. A man by the name of Jeff Lear owns the car. Kenny only drives for Jeff. Jeff is the one who puts out all of the money and should be getting all the credit for putting such an awesome car together. It really bothers me to see this done incorrectly and ask that you please fix the article. It would be a good idea to make sure you have the correct facts before you print something like this. It was based off of Joe Gerdelman’s original twin stroked out 454 inch hemi powered Chassis Research dragster.