Remember this?

[MM]

To my knowledge, it was the first FC with a roof hatch. Gramps always said he had never seen or heard of a car having a body with a roof hatch and nobody has ever been able to show otherwise. The picture looks like he is probably getting ready to get in. That body weighed a ton and took two people (at least) to lift it and a lot of times at the track it was just him and Coil with a rogue helper or two here and there, so it wasn't feasible to lift the body for him to get in. Car had an on-board starter as well, so once it left the pit area, the body very rarely got raised.

Cliff, Jungle never drove the car at OCIR. He drove it at race in Dallas, GA.

 

[mick]

rogue helper

 

[mick]

who knew cleetus was standing there that day, before he was even cleetus

 

[z28]

To my knowledge, it was the first FC with a roof hatch. Gramps always said he had never seen or heard of a car having a body with a roof hatch and nobody has ever been able to show otherwise. The picture looks like he is probably getting ready to get in. That body weighed a ton and took two people (at least) to lift it and a lot of times at the track it was just him and Coil with a rogue helper or two here and there, so it wasn't feasible to lift the body for him to get in. Car had an on-board starter as well, so once it left the pit area, the body very rarely got raised.

Cliff, Jungle never drove the car at OCIR. He drove it at race in Dallas, GA.

according to what I read Shoemacher was first with the roof hatch

 

[Gone Dead Train]

according to what I read Shoemacher was first with the roof hatch

No, Schumacher didn't have one on his flopper until 1973. The photo I posted of the "Hustler" is
from 1970, I would say.

 

[z28]

No, Schumacher didn't have one on his flopper until 1973. The photo I posted of the "Hustler" is
from 1970, I would say.

I guess whoever wrote that was wrong

 

[LAZYC]

No, Schumacher didn't have one on his flopper until 1973. The photo I posted of the "Hustler" is
from 1970, I would say.

I guess whoever wrote that was wrong

John Buttera built dons Vega Wonder Wagon with a roof hatch like the F/C's today, around 1973-74 only it was a plex glass roof hatch so Don could see the tree as the car was way trick and low.

 

[Cliff]

Mike, I saw Jungle drive the car at OCIR. Announcer made a big deal about it. I remember being surprised that Jungle wasn't driving his own car.

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Mike, I saw Jungle drive the car at OCIR. Announcer made a big deal about it. I remember being surprised that Jungle wasn't driving his own car.

Cliff, I remember hearing something about Jungle driving the "Chi-Town Hustler" at OCIR. Did some digging around in my
old drag rags and came up with this. Jungle drove the car at OCIR All-Pro Series race Dec 27th, 1970. Found this picture,
it has a watermark on it from the seller (remember seeing this photo a few years ago) photo was taken by the late great
Tom West, it has the same info Dec 27th, 1970. So, fact or fiction? You should know Cliff, you were there in SoCal when they
invented asphalt for the first drag strip. lol, sorry, lol

AA/FC Is this Jungle in the seat at OCIR? Will we ever know? Someone has to know?

 

[Cliff]

OK, lessee, 1902, dirt drags and Low ET was 45 seconds at 14 MPH. hahahahahaha I DO remember Pomona having hay bales as guard rails, and that was 1963? Also Fernando had no guardrail in right lane. Lions had Armco barrier. Went to San Gabe once and they had a chain link fence on spectator side. Lotsa tracks didn't have barriers. When they said a driver was "off in the weeds" they weren't kidding. Oh, I did hear some track in 1950's were dirt tracks. BTW, I agree on that date Dec 1970. Do remember it was a sunny afternoon.
Jim, did you ever take the Seattle Underground Tour? See the rats?

 

[Gone Dead Train]

OK, lessee, 1902, dirt drags and Low ET was 45 seconds at 14 MPH. hahahahahaha I DO remember Pomona having hay bales as guard rails, and that was 1963? Also Fernando had no guardrail in right lane. Lions had Armco barrier. Went to San Gabe once and they had a chain link fence on spectator side. Lotsa tracks didn't have barriers. When they said a driver was "off in the weeds" they weren't kidding. Oh, I did hear some track in 1950's were dirt tracks. BTW, I agree on that date Dec 1970. Do remember it was a sunny afternoon.
Jim, did you ever take the Seattle Underground Tour? See the rats?

I did take the Seattle Underground Tour once. I was in grade school (school field trip) it was either 1967 or 1968,
it was dark, cool and damp and did not see any rats. And speaking of damp and cool, I should be at the drags
right now (Pacific) and at 11:45am it is damp and cool, 50 degrees. Oh well, that's drag racing.
The picture I posted, it looks sunny?

 

[Cliff]

Uh, it kinda looks sunny. I seem to remember sunny afternoon and raced until dark? U are lucky with 50 degrees. It will be 103 in Phx today. Dawg Daze have started. Oh, the joke about the Seattle Underground Tour was that there were big rats. But never saw any. I still have a t shirt from that tour, and of course, has a rat on it. I think I did it in 1990, when I went to the drags.

This is a link for the tour, in case folks are wondering what we're talking about.

UNDERGROUND TOUR - A Tour of Seattle's Under Ground

Guided walking tour beneath Seattle’s sidewalks and streets. The tour begins inside Doc Maynard’s Public House, a restored 1890s saloon.

www.undergroundtour.com

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Uh, it kinda looks sunny. I seem to remember sunny afternoon and raced until dark? U are lucky with 50 degrees. It will be 103 in Phx today. Dawg Daze have started. Oh, the joke about the Seattle Underground Tour was that there were big rats. But never saw any. I still have a t shirt from that tour, and of course, has a rat on it. I think I did it in 1990, when I went to the drags.

This is a link for the tour, in case folks are wondering what we're talking about.

UNDERGROUND TOUR - A Tour of Seattle's Under Ground

Guided walking tour beneath Seattle’s sidewalks and streets. The tour begins inside Doc Maynard’s Public House, a restored 1890s saloon.

www.undergroundtour.com

It's been really nice here, off and on for the last month or so. Last weekend it was in the 80s even yesterday was nice
70 and it went down the drain today. Oh well, I'm watching Chicago on NHRA.TV and eating teriyaki chicken and a
salad for lunch.

 

[M Jones]

Uh, it kinda looks sunny. I seem to remember sunny afternoon and raced until dark? U are lucky with 50 degrees. It will be 103 in Phx today. Dawg Daze have started. Oh, the joke about the Seattle Underground Tour was that there were big rats. But never saw any. I still have a t shirt from that tour, and of course, has a rat on it. I think I did it in 1990, when I went to the drags.

This is a link for the tour, in case folks are wondering what we're talking about.

UNDERGROUND TOUR - A Tour of Seattle's Under Ground

Guided walking tour beneath Seattle’s sidewalks and streets. The tour begins inside Doc Maynard’s Public House, a restored 1890s saloon.

www.undergroundtour.com

Thanks, never knew that was there

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Cliff, I remember hearing something about Jungle driving the "Chi-Town Hustler" at OCIR. Did some digging around in my
old drag rags and came up with this. Jungle drove the car at OCIR All-Pro Series race Dec 27th, 1970. Found this picture,
it has a watermark on it from the seller (remember seeing this photo a few years ago) photo was taken by the late great
Tom West, it has the same info Dec 27th, 1970. So, fact or fiction? You should know Cliff, you were there in SoCal when they
invented asphalt for the first drag strip. lol, sorry, lol

View attachment 14501
AA/FC Is this Jungle in the seat at OCIR? Will we ever know? Someone has to know?

Hi Jim (plus Mike and Cliff),

I've got some good info!
The story goes like this. The 12-27-70 OCIR All-Pro race featured 8-car qualified fields for TF and FC. I'm not sure why Pat couldn't drive the Hustler but National Dragster says that JJ qualified both the Charger and his own blue JJ Camaro. The report goes on to say that the Camaro had too many blown pistons so JJ chose to drive the Hustler. However, he lost to Snow in Rd. 1. A broken fuel pump drive had the Hustler dying while still in the bleach box. I've attached a portion of the ND report. BTW, this was a great issue because it also featured 2 other 1971 New Year's Day FC races in Calif.

In calendar order:
12-27-70: OCIR, John Wiebe def. Larry Dixon....Jim Dunn def. Snow. The other 6 FCs were the aforementioned Chi-Town, Fighting Irish, Big John, McEwen, Conway and Midnight Skulker.

1-1-71: Irwindale's 16-FC New Year's Day race, Dunn's 6.80 def. McEwen in the final. The great field consisted of JJ, Stardust, Snow, Snake (ND loved his new flamed paint), Fighting Irish, Skulker, King Fish (the one I owned for 7 years!), M/T-Pulde Pinto, Braskett & Burgin (beautiful maroon-lime green-orange Camaro), Dick Bourgeois' Javelin, Conway, and Tom Sturm.

1-2 or 3-71: Fremont's New Year's Day 16-FC race. Irwindale held theirs on Jan 1st. That was a FRI and I'm not sure if the Fremont race was on SAT or SUN.
Anyway, Snow's 6.83 def. the Snake's new Hot Wheels Cuda. Snow was still racing his 1970 all-conquering Challenger. He wouldn't get his '71 Rambunctious Charger until the Gatornationals. The other FCs: Chi-Town, JJ, Stardust, Maz, Dunn, Telestar, Paula Murphy, Burgin, Kenney Goodell, and Don Cook's Vette.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

I saw Jungle drive this car once at OCIR. No one could do burn outs like Chi Town. Seem to remember the engine was off set in this car.

Hi Cliff,

The '69 thru '71 Chi-Town Hustler did indeed have an offset engine! The motor was a bit to the R side while the driver was more to the L. That's why the hatch touches the L window.
The '69 Seaton-then-Hedrick's Super Shaker Nova also had an offset engine/driver. It had a one-off Logghe chassis that featured an independent front suspension. In order to make this work w/ the wide chassis the lower main rail twisted underneath the uppers to create clearance!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Mike, I think I ask you this before, was the "Chi-Town Hustler" the first flopper ever with a roof hatch, or one of the first?

Cliff, Jungle driving the "Hustler" see the article below.

View attachment 14496
AA/FC Austin & Grandpa checking something?

The day that 'Jungle' drove the Chi-Town Hustler

It’s a fact of life that just when you think you know everything about something, you get slapped upside the head, which happened to me (again) this week.

www.nhra.com

Jim,

And to anyone else who is a "hardcore" '69-'71 Chi-Town fan....
This is the 2nd of 3 paint jobs this Charger wore. The original debuted at the July '69 Rockford Mfrs. Meet (their first annual). It was painted by Dave Puhl's House of Kustoms. That one featured flames on the hood, yellow tinged side panels and a meandering pinstripe pattern on the trunk (like L. Christopherson's '69 Nova). To me this was the best of the 3 paint jobs. Then, the Charger's roof was damaged on a ship to Hawaii that winter.

That necessitated the paint in this photo. Here the side panels are accented in soft brown. There's no hood flames and the grille's "Dodge" is in different corporate font (the original was in squarish italic). No meandering pinstripes on this 2nd version too. And the word "Hustler" had rounded ends for each letterform. This 2nd paint raced from about JAN '70 to about AUG '70.

Then the Charger was repainted a 3rd time and soon returned to SoCal. Although it was painted by Customs Unlimited, it looked VERY close to the Dave Puhl version.
Flames returned to the hood. So did the squarish italics "Dodge" on the grille, along w/ the more sharp ended "Hustler" lettering. That's cause Dexter did both the 1st and 3rd Chi-Town lettering jobs. But the 3rd's hood flames were a bit more simple. There were no meandering tape lines on the trunk, and the side panels were just straight pearl white (no soft yellow or brownish glowing edges). Also, the easiest way to ID the 3rd version is by looking at the front spoiler. It's in silver, not red like the first two. This 3rd paint raced until AUG '71. That's when the CTH Challenger debuted at the IHRA All-American Championships at Bristol TN.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

FC ROOF HATCHES
If we mean hinged roof hatches the '69 Chi-Town may indeed be the first. However, Dyno Don's '67 Eliminator II Cyclone had an "escape hatch" that was held in w/ small pop rivets. If an emergency arose the hatch could be knocked out by hand. See the attached Car Craft feature on Dyno's FC. And I don't think he's the only one who had a hatch. During my quick search this was the only one I could find in my files. But notice how the CC caption mentions that escape hatches are required by NHRA! That said I don't think most, if not almost everyone, didn't comply. FCs were still an outlaw class in '67. NHRA had 2 "less than 16 cars" FC eliminators that year; one at Bristol's Springnationals and the other at Indy. Those poorly attended FC eliminator offerings led to NO funny car eliminators at all in '68. But by '69 the FC phenomenon could no longer be ignored so NHRA featured FC eliminator at Pomona, Dallas and Indy. However, none was offered at the World Finals that year.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

How about when a Chrysler exec was visiting Keith Black’s shop and the L A Dart did it’s thing on the street out front….View attachment 14492View attachment 14493View attachment 14494

Nice LA Dart photos, Bob!
I loved how the LA Dart's paint job continued underneath to make the L and R side stripes a continuous pattern.
These photos reminded me of a fun run-in I had w/ "Wild Bill" Shrewsberry years ago.
It was 1989 and Bill had long since retired from driving wheelie cars. It was also time for me to buy a house. In the LA Times real estate section I saw an ad for very inexpensive new homes in the San Fernando Valley, Sylmar to be exact. So I drove 25 miles north to investigate this new housing development. The houses were small but they had a beautiful view of the Valley and were nestled right up against the mountains. I asked to speak to a sales rep. After I short wait I was led into the salesman's office. The nice man welcomed me and offered me a seat across from his desk. As he sat down he handed me his business card. Upon reading the card I did the following. I made an open palm w/ my L hand, w/ all of my fingers straight ahead and tight together. Then I placed the butt of my palm on his desk at a 45 degree angle and dragged it across his desk as I asked, "Is this you?" The man smiled and said, "Yes, it is!"
The card read "William Shrewsberry."

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Hi Jim (plus Mike and Cliff),

I've got some good info!
The story goes like this. The 12-27-70 OCIR All-Pro race featured 8-car qualified fields for TF and FC. I'm not sure why Pat couldn't drive the Hustler but National Dragster says that JJ qualified both the Charger and his own blue JJ Camaro. The report goes on to say that the Camaro had too many blown pistons so JJ chose to drive the Hustler. However, he lost to Snow in Rd. 1. A broken fuel pump drive had the Hustler dying while still in the bleach box. I've attached a portion of the ND report. BTW, this was a great issue because it also featured 2 other 1971 New Year's Day FC races in Calif.

In calendar order:
12-27-70: OCIR, John Wiebe def. Larry Dixon....Jim Dunn def. Snow. The other 6 FCs were the aforementioned Chi-Town, Fighting Irish, Big John, McEwen, Conway and Midnight Skulker.

1-1-71: Irwindale's 16-FC New Year's Day race, Dunn's 6.80 def. McEwen in the final. The great field consisted of JJ, Stardust, Snow, Snake (ND loved his new flamed paint), Fighting Irish, Skulker, King Fish (the one I owned for 7 years!), M/T-Pulde Pinto, Braskett & Burgin (beautiful maroon-lime green-orange Camaro), Dick Bourgeois' Javelin, Conway, and Tom Sturm.

1-2 or 3-71: Fremont's New Year's Day 16-FC race. Irwindale held theirs on Jan 1st. That was a FRI and I'm not sure if the Fremont race was on SAT or SUN.
Anyway, Snow's 6.83 def. the Snake's new Hot Wheels Cuda. Snow was still racing his 1970 all-conquering Challenger. He wouldn't get his '71 Rambunctious Charger until the Gatornationals. The other FCs: Chi-Town, JJ, Stardust, Maz, Dunn, Telestar, Paula Murphy, Burgin, Kenney Goodell, and Don Cook's Vette.

Wow, James great info. And now we know that JJ did drive the "Chi-Town" on that late December day in 1970 at OCIR.
One thing I like is the ND article. I got ND for Christmas 1970, (still getting it) so that article was in the late Jan or early
Feb issue 1971 and the photo by Gary Densford. I believe Gary started Newport Production in the early 70s, I spent a
lot of my lawn mowing money there. Posters, t-shirts, back issue's of great drag rags, ect.

Cliff, way to go, you still remember and you were there. I'm jealous!

James, is this the beautiful AA/Flopper of Gary Burgin you mentioned?

AA/FC Gary Burgin in the seat

With all the talk about JJ, it's only fair to post a couple of photo's of JJ. I've posted these before, but what the hell.