San Fernando Drags (1 Viewer)

[Cliff]

First "name" driver I saw at Fernando was Tommy Ivo, driving the Ernies Camera Shudderbug, Pontiac engine. Car ran gas or fuel. That was 1962, I think. My fav Fernando story is Don Prudhomme VS Bary Kaplan JR/F. Prudhomme had debuted a brand new car (This was around end of 1968), made a shut off run & then RD 1 T/F. Snake got sideways & Kaplan won the round. People talked about that for weeks. Used to see James Warren a lot. They usually won.

 

[dr flames]

When I saw the Wagonmaster at Tucson, Ivo drove it. I remember Tom McCurry driving the car.

OK, San Fernando.... I think the best ET there ever was 7.0 something. I know 230 was run many times, don't know what the record would have been. 232, 233??? Everyone smoked the tires off the line cuz of the track surface. I think a few make smokeless runs w/ slipper clutches, but normally T/F was smoke city and that was a good show. I don't think Garlits ever ran there, but lots of big name SoCal racers did. Snake, Ivo, McEwen, Tony Nancy, on & on. BTW, anyone ever remember Cliff Roa in a front motor T/F car at Fernando? Oh, once I did see a T/F car run like a 6.98, but the announcer said the car broke the beams w/ the rear tires, so run was tossed. I'd go to Lions or OCIR & the same guys running at Fernando were 1/2 second quicker cuz tracks were so much better.

Tom McCurry had Tom Hanna fabricate the wagon master body when he owned the car

 

[glofria]

First "name" driver I saw at Fernando was Tommy Ivo, driving the Ernies Camera Shudderbug, Pontiac engine. Car ran gas or fuel. That was 1962, I think. My fav Fernando story is Don Prudhomme VS Bary Kaplan JR/F. Prudhomme had debuted a brand new car (This was around end of 1968), made a shut off run & then RD 1 T/F. Snake got sideways & Kaplan won the round. People talked about that for weeks. Used to see James Warren a lot. They usually won.

Here's the Ivo car as it sat last month at the Taco (protest) Nationals. Part of the Don Preito's collection.

 

[Cliff]

I think Ivo went from this single engine Buick car to the twin unblown Buicks, which ran pretty good. I think this engine was called the "Nailhead" for whatever reason.

 

[Ramjet]

I think Ivo went from this single engine Buick car to the twin unblown Buicks, which ran pretty good. I think this engine was called the "Nailhead" for whatever reason.

The Nailhead's had very small exhaust valves that almost looked like a "Nail" (1 3/8" diameter if I remember right). That was before the 52% Intake - 46% Exhaust max number that most engineer's want. You can only get a combonition of valves in a head that is approximately 98% of the bore and not shroud the edges or the center and Buick engineers wanted the Intake valves to be as large as possible. They figured that the exhaust would get out OK & the intake needed help. Beside that there has never been another engine that looked that great in a Hot Rod.

 

[Nick Name]

Here's a shot of Phil Tadlock. Forgive me as I don't remember all the details, but Phil was my mentor and taught me a lot of fuel injection. One thing I do remember Phil saying was that record run was right before he left for Vietnam. Unfortunately, Phil was expose too much to agent orange and he suffered the effects before passing away awhile back.
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