These killer home movies come from one of our favorite eras in drag racing history, the early 1960s. It was here that the gas classes really started to come into their own, leading to the epic “gasser wars” of the middle decade, lots of weirdo altereds were built from all manner of strange little cars, and the burly twin engine top gas dragsters were crowd favorites. It looks like these movies were shot at a strip that was built from an old airfield, but at one point we can see a simply monstrous grand stand filled with what looks to be tens of thousands of people. We’re not sure if those stands are at the same place or another track the shooter went to.
The hot rods and competition coupes (dragsters with chopped up coupe bodies over the driver’s area) really turn our crank, but it is the rare footage of several top gas diggers that had us rewinding and rewatching the movies. Born of the infamous NHRA “nitro ban” of 1957-1963 the Top Gas dragsters evolved from fly weight single engine machines to big twin engine slingshots that were out performing the cars that brought the ban on by the time Parks allowed pop back into NHRA competition. (It should be noted that many tracks “outlaws” if you will, did allow competitors to run nitro despite the ban, since NHRA sanctioned most of the strips in the country though, it was a big deal when the ban was lifted).
Check out these home movies below, they’re a totally awesome peek into the digs, circa the early 60s!
Before the Albertson Olds Dick Harriman put the engine from his 49 Olds gasser into a Scotty Fenn Chassis owned by eiter frank or brown I can’t remember, as one was the owner and the other the driver
Would like more info and pictures —- Hot Rod mag did an article way back after they set the record for top speed and et for that era
Thanks Denny