Larry Sutton, buddy, pal.... (1 Viewer)

[Randy]

ya,ya,ya,--- I didn't think you would remember something that long ago. LOL
Merry Christmas ol buddy
Larry Sutton

Merry Christmas, Larry!

This happened not long after we finished the altered. See the caption underneath? That's one way I remember. I actually had McCracken build me a Top Alcohol Funny Car chassis, had the altered body mounted, and for quite a while I had a McCracken Corvette Funny Car body on my dad's patio. Never went "BB/FC" back then but wanted to. Midway through the build Dave Calvert and Nick Arias contacted me about running one of their massive Chevy hemi's in it.

Then in 1989 I ordered a car from Steve Plueger to run TA/FC , who at the time told me he turned down Prudhomme when he asked Steve to build him one. I remember the Snake walking through the staging lanes at the Winternationals in 1991. He stopped and looked at my car and said, "How the hell did you get Plueger to build you a new car?" I looked up at him and said. "I asked him to." Steve and I were pals. Tommy Naccarato had the most to do with it.

 

[mikebcurve]

I love these conversations.

 

[Mike]

Hey Cliff, here you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cliff]

Larry talked about tightning the seat belts on a funny car - had to reach inside to do it. I saw Larry do that with the Plastic Fantastic Maverick F/C at Lions. The car did get out of shape and driver had to shut off. Announcer pointed out that if Larry hadn't tightened the belts, it could have been worse. That time, car just got out of shape, no one injured. Funny how you remember things like that.

 

[Nunz]

Merry Christmas, Larry!

This happened not long after we finished the altered. See the caption underneath? That's one way I remember. I actually had McCracken build me a Top Alcohol Funny Car chassis, had the altered body mounted, and for quite a while I had a McCracken Corvette Funny Car body on my dad's patio. Never went "BB/FC" back then but wanted to. Midway through the build Dave Calvert and Nick Arias contacted me about running one of their massive Chevy hemi's in it.

Then in 1989 I ordered a car from Steve Plueger to run TA/FC , who at the time told me he turned down Prudhomme when he asked Steve to build him one. I remember the Snake walking through the staging lanes at the Winternationals in 1991. He stopped and looked at my car and said, "How the hell did you get Plueger to build you a new car?" I looked up at him and said. "I asked him to." Steve and I were pals. Tommy Naccarato had the most to do with it.


View attachment 11806

Any time you post an old pic of your altered, I'm compelled to tell you how I remember as a kid seeing an article in (I think) Popular Hot Rodding featuring it, and have always thought it was badass, and would still be today with new wheels and a modern scoop. That's about all it would need and you'd think it was a modern car! Although there are no new cars that are laydown style, but that's why I love seeing these old pics.

 

[You!]

Some of my fondest memories will always be visiting with Larry at Dennis Taylor's then upholstery shop, Creative Auto Interiors. DT never stopped sewing either!

 

[Randy]

Any time you post an old pic of your altered, I'm compelled to tell you how I remember as a kid seeing an article in (I think) Popular Hot Rodding featuring it, and have always thought it was badass, and would still be today with new wheels and a modern scoop. That's about all it would need and you'd think it was a modern car! Although there are no new cars that are laydown style, but that's why I love seeing these old pics.

One Saturday at OCIR we were cooling it down in the water hole and Steve Reyes came over and asked if we had time to take some pictures for Popular Hot Rodding. It also ended in up Mechanics Illustrated a few months later for an article they did on the history of the V8 engine. I think the Popular Hot Rodding article was January 1981. Anyway, here's some pictures I took out of the Popular Hot Rodding magazine where Steve put together a three page spread.

By the way, regarding the scoop. Ron Butler built the baseplate and scoop for a car Bill Bagshaw was going to run. It was the current deal for pro stock back then. Dave Calvert the piston engineer for Arias at the time, later to be involved with CP Carillo, has it hanging on the wall in his den in North Carolina now. You can see his name and Nick Arias name on it, and on the back is my deceased wife's name, "Kathy". She died in 2018.

Dave told me he taped my name and address inside the scoop in case he meets his maker sooner than later, saying he wanted his family to send it back to me if the time ever came. I told him I would prefer that he enjoy it for a very long time! Dave was instrumental in getting he, Steve Montrelli and Nick Arias Jr on board to install one of their massive hemi's in a lightweight altered. When I got the phone call from Dave back then I was in shock.

Just doing the math, I ordered this car from Roger McCracken over 46 years ago. The body was from a mold taken off the Mallicoat Bros altered, which was a heavily modified version of the Fiberglass Trends body. Mallicoat's altered body was pieced together to get this look and weighed a ton. Mine was the first one out of the new mold because my car was so late in getting done. The body weighed just 18 pounds. Mallicoat's got body number 2. We were thrilled. Others, including Warren Brogie, bought bodies from Roger McCracken and splashed their own molds off it, calling it their body. Many 23T bodies you see today are still heavily based off this body splashed from the Mallicoat Bros car, and that's why to look at pictures taken 40 plus years ago it still looks current.

 

[Cliff]

Randy, did you run Top Gas West with this car? I remember a few altereds in that series. The Arias Hemi was/is just as powerful as the Chrysler. Lots of teams have run that motor in T/F, alky, etc etc. Asian Flew A/A tuned by Gene Adams had that engine. There is a TA/FC team today that owns the engine, & I'm spacing the name. Also, Top Gas West driver Lena Williams ran the first unblown gas 6 second ET at OCIR. I saw that car at the AHRA Winternats in Tucson, maybe 1982? They were running gas & nitrous and did very well. The track was really slick that year and Williams was able to hook up better than the blower cars. The class was the AHRA version of Pro Comp.

Re: the lay down chassis. Brad Anderson had that type of chassis in his Firebird. You could see Brad's knees up to his chin when he was in the car. I wondered, how can he drive the car in that position? That car was the baddest of the bad in TA/FC.

 

[Cliff]

Watch Some AHRA Drag Racing At The Old Tucson Dragway Circa 1983

Watch Some AHRA Drag Racing At The Old Tucson Dragway Circa 1983! You'll even see some John Force burnout action in this one.

bangshift.com

 

[tb]

There is a TA/FC team today that owns the engine, & I'm spacing the name.

That would be the Chip Beverett car, Division 3 Champ last year, 2021. They only ran a few races this year. MBR is Minor Bros Racing (that is what someone told me).

 

[Nunz]

One Saturday at OCIR we were cooling it down in the water hole and Steve Reyes came over and asked if we had time to take some pictures for Popular Hot Rodding. It also ended in up Mechanics Illustrated a few months later for an article they did on the history of the V8 engine. I think the Popular Hot Rodding article was January 1981. Anyway, here's some pictures I took out of the Popular Hot Rodding magazine where Steve put together a three page spread.

By the way, regarding the scoop. Ron Butler built the baseplate and scoop for a car Bill Bagshaw was going to run. It was the current deal for pro stock back then. Dave Calvert the piston engineer for Arias at the time, later to be involved with CP Carillo, has it hanging on the wall in his den in North Carolina now. You can see his name and Nick Arias name on it, and on the back is my deceased wife's name, "Kathy". She died in 2018.

Dave told me he taped my name and address inside the scoop in case he meets his maker sooner than later, saying he wanted his family to send it back to me if the time ever came. I told him I would prefer that he enjoy it for a very long time! Dave was instrumental in getting he, Steve Montrelli and Nick Arias Jr on board to install one of their massive hemi's in a lightweight altered. When I got the phone call from Dave back then I was in shock.

Just doing the math, I ordered this car from Roger McCracken over 46 years ago. The body was from a mold taken off the Mallicoat Bros altered, which was a heavily modified version of the Fiberglass Trends body. Mallicoat's altered body was pieced together to get this look and weighed a ton. Mine was the first one out of the new mold because my car was so late in getting done. The body weighed just 18 pounds. Mallicoat's got body number 2. We were thrilled. Others, including Warren Brogie, bought bodies from Roger McCracken and splashed their own molds off it, calling it their body. Many 23T bodies you see today are still heavily based off this body splashed from the Mallicoat Bros car, and that's why to look at pictures taken 40 plus years ago it still looks current.


View attachment 11810View attachment 11811

Wow, great backstory. I remember the Mallicoat Bros. AA/A they ran in Pro Comp, never knew it was the origin of your T and others.

 

[Cliff]

The Mallicoats ran AA/GS way back when & also did some turbocharging. I think there was a AA/GT class once that they ran in. (?) and they were one of very few cars in the class.

 

[tb]

The Mallicoats ran AA/GS way back when & also did some turbocharging. I think there was a AA/GT class once that they ran in. (?) and they were one of very few cars in the class.

From Hot Rod Magazine, They were also on the cover

 

[tb]

Mallicoat Bros AA-Gas Turbo

 

[Cliff]

Yep, that's the car. The chassis is what the funny cars ran around 1970, more or less. Almost looks like a Pro Stock chassis. These guys were pioneers in turbocharging. I know turbos go back to pre-WWII, and in drag racing from Day One, but because of turbo lag, turbos didn't work well in drag racing. Turbos sure work well today in Pro Mod. I heard that it has to do with the veins inside the turbo that now allow the turbo to spool up so there is no lag.

 

[Randy]

Randy, did you run Top Gas West with this car? I remember a few altereds in that series. The Arias Hemi was/is just as powerful as the Chrysler. Lots of teams have run that motor in T/F, alky, etc etc. Asian Flew A/A tuned by Gene Adams had that engine. There is a TA/FC team today that owns the engine, & I'm spacing the name. Also, Top Gas West driver Lena Williams ran the first unblown gas 6 second ET at OCIR. I saw that car at the AHRA Winternats in Tucson, maybe 1982? They were running gas & nitrous and did very well. The track was really slick that year and Williams was able to hook up better than the blower cars. The class was the AHRA version of Pro Comp.

Re: the lay down chassis. Brad Anderson had that type of chassis in his Firebird. You could see Brad's knees up to his chin when he was in the car. I wondered, how can he drive the car in that position? That car was the baddest of the bad in TA/FC.

I did run Top Gas West with it. If you look at the fuel tank picture in the Popular Hot Rodding article there is a Top Gas West sticker on it.

The original Arias hemi like I ran was actually a 3 pushrod configuration (two exhaust pushrods and one intake). Some people were afraid of it but I put 250 runs on it with no failures.

The Arias Hemi Program was sold to the Fontana guys, then later Bob Miner picked it up, made some significant strides with it, and it became known as The Miner Brothers Engine or "MBR". I haven't followed to too closely, but I had heard that Bob sold the MBR program not too long ago.

Nitrous was not allowed in Top Gas West so when Lena ran her six second passes it was all motor. Frank and Lena to this day are Facebook friends of mine. Lena weighed about 100 pounds according to Frank back then, where the rest of us sat in around 200 pounds or more in my case. And in Top Gas there was no minimum weight. Makes a big difference. They worked very hard at making their car light and fast. Frank still looks the same, by the way!

Ken Cox built a lot of lay down cars for people like Ken Veney (Veney's Vega), and that's where Roger and Steve McCracken (Sundancer BB/FC's) came from. I'm 6'4" (actually taller than Brad Anderson) yet the top of the cage in my altered measured only 42" off the ground. To be perfectly honest, I liked the look but didn't care for the creature comforts. I realized it even more when Steve Plueger built my first TA/FC back when he was still building cars for John Force. I felt like it was easier to keep track of things, sitting up and paying attention, rather than laying nearly flat on your back with you feet planted into the back side of the rear motorplate and your chin stuck in your chest. Except for one run in Bakersfield where I spun it out straight into the sand trap after the throttle stuck it was very easy to drive. But to your point about Brad, he as well as I (because of our height) had to do things to make it work if we wanted it bad enough. I remember as a bigger kid being told I was too big to ride that bike, to big to sit in that go cart, etc. You figured it out by learning how to fold yourself up if you wanted it bad enough. Brad was that kind of guy. I rode with him in some of his earlier Corvettes that were more suitable to midgets, but somehow we both managed to get in and out of them. Good times.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks Randy. I saw the Top gas sticker, that's why I asked. I always thought that was a great class. They came to the late Speedworld in Phx around 1987 and there was an altered that ran with them. Good show.

 

[Nunz]

I did run Top Gas West with it. If you look at the fuel tank picture in the Popular Hot Rodding article there is a Top Gas West sticker on it.

The original Arias hemi like I ran was actually a 3 pushrod configuration (two exhaust pushrods and one intake). Some people were afraid of it but I put 250 runs on it with no failures.

The Arias Hemi Program was sold to the Fontana guys, then later Bob Miner picked it up, made some significant strides with it, and it became known as The Miner Brothers Engine or "MBR". I haven't followed to too closely, but I had heard that Bob sold the MBR program not too long ago.

Nitrous was not allowed in Top Gas West so when Lena ran her six second passes it was all motor. Frank and Lena to this day are Facebook friends of mine. Lena weighed about 100 pounds according to Frank back then, where the rest of us sat in around 200 pounds or more in my case. And in Top Gas there was no minimum weight. Makes a big difference. They worked very hard at making their car light and fast. Frank still looks the same, by the way!

Ken Cox built a lot of lay down cars for people like Ken Veney (Veney's Vega), and that's where Roger and Steve McCracken (Sundancer BB/FC's) came from. I'm 6'4" (actually taller than Brad Anderson) yet the top of the cage in my altered measured only 42" off the ground. To be perfectly honest, I liked the look but didn't care for the creature comforts. I realized it even more when Steve Plueger built my first TA/FC back when he was still building cars for John Force. I felt like it was easier to keep track of things, sitting up and paying attention, rather than laying nearly flat on your back with you feet planted into the back side of the rear motorplate and your chin stuck in your chest. Except for one run in Bakersfield where I spun it out straight into the sand trap after the throttle stuck it was very easy to drive. But to your point about Brad, he as well as I (because of our height) had to do things to make it work if we wanted it bad enough. I remember as a bigger kid being told I was too big to ride that bike, to big to sit in that go cart, etc. You figured it out by learning how to fold yourself up if you wanted it bad enough. Brad was that kind of guy. I rode with him in some of his earlier Corvettes that were more suitable to midgets, but somehow we both managed to get in and out of them. Good times.

As much as you just can't beat the look of a low-slung lay down car, I think besides comfort issues, another factor is safety. I believe sitting more upright puts your neck in a safer position in the event of a crash, not to mention way better visibility.

 

[Ramjet]

Yep, that's the car. The chassis is what the funny cars ran around 1970, more or less. Almost looks like a Pro Stock chassis. These guys were pioneers in turbocharging. I know turbos go back to pre-WWII, and in drag racing from Day One, but because of turbo lag, turbos didn't work well in drag racing. Turbos sure work well today in Pro Mod. I heard that it has to do with the veins inside the turbo that now allow the turbo to spool up so there is no lag.

There has been a whole lot of technology advancment with the Turbochargers since we ran them. The greatest jump is in electronics. When we started out with the Bonneville Streamliner we were using hybred Air Research TEO6 compressors - T12 turbines. (Early 1970's). First lesson was to match the Compressor to the Turbine so that the pressures were as close as possible to being equal. Idealy more pressure on the Compressor than the Turbine side but good luck with that. Next we found that an even number on the Compressor vains and an odd number on the Turbine side resulted in quicker reaction and less harmonics. The Compressor side reacts much faster with the "Snail" type housing and the Turbine side with Offset housing. When the tips on either side go Super Sonic it can stall. Now: There is a way to assist the Turbine side for spool up. Back then without Electronics we had to run 2 seperate fuel systems - 2 pumps - two barrel valves - pressure operated Anaroid fuel valve & 24 nozzles. It worked great- came off the push with a 2:37 gear and could spin the tires from the get go. Problem was with 120" HG (59 PSI with 2" Waste Gates wide open) the poor old stock GM block pulled the top of the block off about 1 1/4" down from the deck. In todays world with electronics (Fuel managment) and good parts it would be a whole new deal.
P.S. I had dark hair when we started this project and Snow White when we finished .

 

[Cliff]

That is a slick lookin' car. Speaking about Slick - anyone know what became of Eldon P Slick, of T/AD fame?