Fav. Dodge Charger Funny Car? (1 Viewer)

[TopFuel@Lions]

LOL


TopFuel@Lions

 

[vegasnitro]

Gary Scelzi's Milestone Oakley Funny Car and Matt Hagan's Chrome Pennzoil Funny Car are the 2 that immediately come to mind.

 

[Rajunz]

When I was a kid, every convenience store that I walked in had a magazine rack, full of Drag Racing mags. That '69 Chi Town Charger seemed to be in every one of them.

Modern day has to be Hagan's Chrome Blue MOPAR car.

 

[aakar]

Forgot about Willie Borsch's Revell yellow Charger, also loved the Mini Chargers The Flying Dutchman, Super Chief, Color Me Gone and of course (being from Chicago) Mr Norms & The Chi Town Hustler.

 

[exdry15]

 

[Mike_in_Boston]

Grew up near Niagara Falls NY. We had NIagara Dragstrip and all the east coast circuit cars would race there. My favorite was Phil Castronovo's Custom Body Mini Charger. Many other Charger bodied cars too, but I thought it was cool that Nichols & Oxner's Charger was red on the left side and green on the right side. Good memories!

 

[Cliff]

Y know, all these years later, and these cars still look cool.

 

[timebombkal]

Roger Lindamoods 69 Charger

 

[Mike_in_Boston]

Some way cool Chargers back in the day... (I saw all of these at Niagara Dragstrip in Niagara Falls, NY in the '70's)....
Tom Hoover's White Bear Dodge Charger (c. 1972)
Gene Snow's twin Chargers (not the Rambunctious car, but the next gen with the Ram horn, other one driven by Jake Johnston)
Phil Castronovo's Custom Body Mini Charger out of Utica NY (the one with the round solid white headlights)
Roland Leong's Hawaiian (the 1971-72 version)
Many more.

 

[SoCal Racer]

Hands down the '69 Chi Town Hustler Charger. Why? Because it was one of the first two funny cars I ever saw at a match race vs. the Ramchargers Challenger. But I've always thought the '68-'69 Chargers were the sexiest American car ever produced.

 

[Custom Body Fan]

Phil Castronovo's Custom Body Mini Charger out of Utica NY (the one with the round solid white headlights)

Phil and Joe Namath were my boyhood idols ( I grew up in Rome, NY, next town over from Utica).

 

[Mike_in_Boston]

Y E S ! ! ! --- I Saw this car (and his previous one) at Niagara at least 3 times. So cool!!! Thanks for the pic.

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Phil and Joe Namath were my boyhood idols ( I grew up in Rome, NY, next town over from Utica).
View attachment 9112

Chris, are you the one that built the model ( the picture you posted above ) if so, outstanding job!
Saw the 1972 version at Seattle, 1972 64 Funny Cars

AA/FC 1971 Phil Castronovo in the seat at Lions

AA/FC 1971 at Lions

 

[Nunz]

Y E S ! ! ! --- I Saw this car (and his previous one) at Niagara at least 3 times. So cool!!! Thanks for the pic.

Hey Michael, I'm from the Rochester NY area, and as a little kid I spent many weekends at Niagara watching my dad run his A/As. Some of the guys he raced with in that era were Jim Zakia, Jim Oddy, Glen Lazzar, and Bill Drake. There are many others from our region. If you don't already, you should look up Dean Johnson on FB, he has a page where he posts pictures daily from Niagara.

 

[Cliff]

Wow, Nunzio, your dad raced with some heavy hitters. Jim Oddy....He is the Gene Adams of AA/GS. Didn't Lazzar & Drake have F/C's?

 

[Custom Body Fan]

Chris, are you the one that built the model ( the picture you posted above ) if so, outstanding job!
Saw the 1972 version at Seattle, 1972 64 Funny Cars

View attachment 9115
AA/FC 1971 Phil Castronovo in the seat at Lions
View attachment 9116
AA/FC 1971 at Lions

Yes. I built that - labor of love! I’ve got a b&w pic of Phil doing a burnout in that car with the Lions sign on the wall behind him. The two pics you posted are great. I’ve seen them but didn’t know they were at Lions. Phil and company really got around!

 

[Nunz]

Wow, Nunzio, your dad raced with some heavy hitters. Jim Oddy....He is the Gene Adams of AA/GS. Didn't Lazzar & Drake have F/C's?

Hey Cliff, Lazzar had a wild little B/A Willys Pickup, it was chopped and seemingly a scale model of a Willys, lol. Then he added a blower. Eventually he built the Funny Farmer Pinto BB/FC. Bill Drake had the Rumble Guts A/G Austin, which was a hitter as well. And just to toot the horn for my dad, he was a hitter in Div. 1 back then, and set the speed record in A/A in 1970. A couple more guys who are great friends of ours to this day, that made some noise after my dad had stopped racing, were Jim Wemett and Rod Phelps. Jim started running fuel FCs in the early '70s, then had George Johnson drive a bit before Tom Anderson took over tuning and driving in the early '80s. Rod Phelps has driven everything, from a blown alky small block dragster in Pro Comp, to Jets, to Rocket cars, and both of his rockets are in Big's museum. Can you tell I grew up on this stuff?

 

[Mike_in_Boston]

Hey Michael, I'm from the Rochester NY area, and as a little kid I spent many weekends at Niagara watching my dad run his A/As. Some of the guys he raced with in that era were Jim Zakia, Jim Oddy, Glen Lazzar, and Bill Drake. There are many others from our region. If you don't already, you should look up Dean Johnson on FB, he has a page where he posts pictures daily from Niagara.

Hi Nunzio. Dean's not only on Facebook, he has a whole Niagara Dragstrip website with tons of pics and stories. Check it out: https://www.sundayniagaradragstrip.com/

 

[Nunz]

Hi Nunzio. Dean's not only on Facebook, he has a whole Niagara Dragstrip website with tons of pics and stories. Check it out: https://www.sundayniagaradragstrip.com/

Yeah I figured you knew about that as well, just wanted to let you know in case, lol.

 

[ZWeinstein]

Even though its not a charger I always thought the Blue Max from the early 80's is one of the best looking funny cars of all-time

My personal favorite was Jack Beckman's from 2015. I still say his 3.921 & 3.958 from Sonoma are the two greatest runs I have ever personally seen at a dragstrip. That weekend and that car started the laid back header deal which saw unreal times and speeds over the next few years.