Yesterday, I mentioned our tipsters and how they provide us with lots of really neat stuff. Take this photo for example, sent to us by reader Phil Richardson. He didn’t know of its exact origins or the year it was taken, but it really is amazing. As best I know this is the only photo that exists with Walter and Art Arfons at their Akron, Ohio mill and hardware store, posed up with three of their racing creations. I am thinking that this photo was taken somewhere around 1955/56 as it features The Green Monster V which I believe made it’s debut in the middle 1950s and then went on to set top speed at the 1957 NHRA Nationals at 152.54mph.
So from left to right, we have Green Monster II with an Allison V12 power plant, followed next by the truly unique and cool “Bologna Slicer” of Walt Arfons which had an Allison V12 that was not hooked to a drive axle. Instead that propeller on the back provided the umph for the car. I have no idea how long lasting or successful this design was, but it had to have sounded like the end of the world with that big Ally screaming and a propeller spinning around like the dickens at the back. Finally to the right is what looks to be Green Monster V. This is the car that dominated at many races it appeared it, would set amazingly high quarter mile MPH records for the day and eventually caused Wally Parks to ban anything other than automotive engined powered cars from side by side competition.
Art and Walt were two of the most brilliant, speed obsessed minds in America for a span of 40+ years. It always bugged Art that his drag racing machines were relegated to exhibition status and in 1970 he did something about it…which we will tell you about later today and it will blow your freaking mind.
For now just admire this photo, the creative genius that exists in it, and an era in America where there was no one sitting around telling you that you couldn’t do stuff. When this snap was taken, the only things limiting Art and Walt were their imaginations and as history bore out, they were both limitless.
