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(11-26-2007) CHARLOTTE, NC – Charles Carpenter made quite an impression on the drag racing world with a resurgent 2007 season, taking home two wins in the American Drag Racing League’s ultra-competitive Pro Nitrous category. But it’s the impression he made long before there was even a Pro Modified class that has earned him one of the most prestigious honors of his racing career.
Carpenter’s original, all-steel ’55 Chevy was elected one of the most influential hot rods of all-time by Hot Rod magazine, coming in at #87 on the list of 100 cars in the January 2008 issue. The list was compiled by motorsports and automotive journalists from around the country in commemoration of Hot Rod magazine’s 60th anniversary. Carpenter is the only Pro Modified driver, past and present, to be included in the rankings, which conclude with the Dukes of Hazzard’s ‘General Lee’ at number one.
“This is quite an honor,” said Carpenter. “At first it didn’t really hit me how big this was, but after looking at the magazine a few times and thinking about both the cars that were included in the list and those that were left out, I realized that this is a very special thing. I’ve won a lot of trophies over the years, but it’s hard to compare to something like this.”
Carpenter has had a series of ultra-popular ’55 Chevys, with each one getting progressively sleeker, lighter, quicker, and faster. But it was his original, full-size machine that first turned IHRA Top Sportsman and the national media on its ear in the early 1980s. When Carpenter plumbed his first nitrous system and started spotting dragsters then chasing them down at 180+ MPH in his self-proclaimed “Winnebago”, it set in motion a chain of events that would eventually give birth to modern day Pro Modified, with Carpenter being referred to as the “father” of the class.
“I was just a kid that loved to race,” Carpenter recalled. “At the time, you don’t see everything that’s going on around you. In retrospect, the media buzz was probably huge, but all I cared about was making laps down that track.”
25 years later Carpenter is still making those laps down the track, though in a much different machine. A little older and a little wiser at 49-years-old than he was at 24, Carpenter sees things now that he was blind to back then. “I tell everyone that I wouldn’t get out of the electric chair to drive that thing now,” said Carpenter. “It was big and heavy, and I was going much faster than I should have been in that car. But all I could think about was going even faster. The cool thing is that I never sold the car; it sits covered up in my shop to this day. I’m really glad I held onto it.”
Longtime drag racing announcer and TV personality Bret Kepner always summed it up best, calling Carpenter’s refrigerator-white ’55 the same thing each time it pulled to the line: “The most popular sportsman machine ever created.”
Carpenter’s original ’55 Chevy named one of the top 100 hot rods of all-time
(11-26-2007) CHARLOTTE, NC – Charles Carpenter made quite an impression on the drag racing world with a resurgent 2007 season, taking home two wins in the American Drag Racing League’s ultra-competitive Pro Nitrous category. But it’s the impression he made long before there was even a Pro Modified class that has earned him one of the most prestigious honors of his racing career.
Carpenter’s original, all-steel ’55 Chevy was elected one of the most influential hot rods of all-time by Hot Rod magazine, coming in at #87 on the list of 100 cars in the January 2008 issue. The list was compiled by motorsports and automotive journalists from around the country in commemoration of Hot Rod magazine’s 60th anniversary. Carpenter is the only Pro Modified driver, past and present, to be included in the rankings, which conclude with the Dukes of Hazzard’s ‘General Lee’ at number one.
“This is quite an honor,” said Carpenter. “At first it didn’t really hit me how big this was, but after looking at the magazine a few times and thinking about both the cars that were included in the list and those that were left out, I realized that this is a very special thing. I’ve won a lot of trophies over the years, but it’s hard to compare to something like this.”
Carpenter has had a series of ultra-popular ’55 Chevys, with each one getting progressively sleeker, lighter, quicker, and faster. But it was his original, full-size machine that first turned IHRA Top Sportsman and the national media on its ear in the early 1980s. When Carpenter plumbed his first nitrous system and started spotting dragsters then chasing them down at 180+ MPH in his self-proclaimed “Winnebago”, it set in motion a chain of events that would eventually give birth to modern day Pro Modified, with Carpenter being referred to as the “father” of the class.
“I was just a kid that loved to race,” Carpenter recalled. “At the time, you don’t see everything that’s going on around you. In retrospect, the media buzz was probably huge, but all I cared about was making laps down that track.”
25 years later Carpenter is still making those laps down the track, though in a much different machine. A little older and a little wiser at 49-years-old than he was at 24, Carpenter sees things now that he was blind to back then. “I tell everyone that I wouldn’t get out of the electric chair to drive that thing now,” said Carpenter. “It was big and heavy, and I was going much faster than I should have been in that car. But all I could think about was going even faster. The cool thing is that I never sold the car; it sits covered up in my shop to this day. I’m really glad I held onto it.”
Longtime drag racing announcer and TV personality Bret Kepner always summed it up best, calling Carpenter’s refrigerator-white ’55 the same thing each time it pulled to the line: “The most popular sportsman machine ever created.”
