Our Top Fuel points leader, 22 years ago..... (1 Viewer)

[coyotedale]

I think it's just the angle and length of the front cage hoop making it look that way.

No, it isn't the angle/length of the cage. It is lower. Chassis back then had the driver laid back a bit, and slightly forward of the rear axle c/l. The chassis today had the driver sitting upright, back toward the rear axle c/. and the cage is much higher.

We run into this when making nostalgia bodies fit on new chassis. Pulde and I were talking about this some time back, and he sent some photos of him in his last f/c that he ran (Miller Warrior), and then sent a photo of him in one of Shoe's f/c while testing. Just some evolutionary changes with funny cars.

coyote OUT

 

[Shan]

That's Big Brad on the left! He's the reason you see ropes on the Purdomme's picture and none in the Kalitta shot! People knew thier boundries! I'm sure he was a big part of the old days' Kalitta pit brawl stories........

Killer pic, Chris. I bet any brawls that involved Big Brad were VERY short-lived.

 

[Toejam]

Anyone seen Big Doug Palmer (Not the Pro mod guy) who does Clutches for the Follow a Dream TAFC crew? He showed up at one of our Mater meetings once, and I was like who's this guy?

 

[Nunz]

Thanks, Dale, i knew that car was low. Actually, one of the things I loved about the older FCs was how low-slung they were, especially the BB/FCs from the Pro-Comp days. Remember how low Veney's cars were? You could see his knees up in the air through the side windows! Great looking cars.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

My 115" chassis from the mid 70s is more of a sit up. I'll know how much of one when I measure it this weekend for Donnie Reeves request on this other board. My housing is currently out of it, but when I put a yardstick up to and eyeballed about where my axles would be, I got about 35" from there to the top of cage.

http://www.classicfunnycarboard.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=1;t=2717

Makes me think they must have gone from more sitting up to more lying down and back to sitting up again. The angle and length of the front hoops in that picture does look crazy to me regardless of the cage height. I'd have to think that shorter there would be stronger. Definitely seen cars with a shorter hoop than that with extra tubes for gussets. I thought that maybe it was just making it look shorter to someone.