As wild and crazy as it may sound, there was actually time that a race car was capable of winning the vaunted Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama. Before the days of “rolling art” street rods bankrolled by heaps of gold bullion a nitro burning ass-kicker of a car like a AA/Fuel Altered could be crowned the coolest car in the country. Such was the case in 1976 when the “El Toro” Fuel Altered owned by Bob Sweatt took the prize.

Lest you think that the machine was just a show pony, Sweatt raced all around the Midwest with the car on the UDRA circuit and match racing. According to our research the best run on the car was a 7.22/199mph blast made in 1976, the same year it won the Ridler. Since some of the recent cars that have won the prize probably still haven’t been started, this is totally bitchin’.

The car was a real killer on the show circuit but wasn’t at the same level of contention on the strip. We’ve not been able to unearth any race win information on the car.

BangShift.com member Walt Dumont was doing his gearhead civic duty and trolling Craigslist, apparently for fuel altereds, when he came across an ad for a car claiming it to be the winner of the 1976 Ridler award. Gone is the awesome original paint and the blown, fuel burning Hemi, but the ‘cage mounted wing, and all the tin is still present and accounted for. Hell, it seems that the original wheels are still on it!

This would be a cool buy for someone looking to restore a car because all that would be needed here is paint, and a blown, nitro burning Hemi, stuff you can pick up at any speed shop.

Here’s a link to some history on the car.

Here’s a link to a story about a guy who spent some time driving it back in the 1970’s

Here’s the Craigslist ad showing the car for sale now 

Here’s a photo from the car in it’s heyday shot by Thomas Nagy