Unusual Dragster Design

[TopFuel@Lions]

There was one digger builder who did things different and at the same time quite unusual. A chassis builder and a good one at that, Pete Ogden, came up with something very odd. Mr. Ogden would build some real sweet rides.

Here is one example and think of this for a moment. One of his gems of 65 was built for "Terrible" Ted Gotelli with the late and great Denny Milani at the wheel. The drivers legs went "under" the rear end and not over like all the others. Think about that one.



TopFuel@Lions

 

[Dragracer]

The Milani-Gotelli car was not built for Gotelli. Milani bought and owned the car and partnered with Gotelli. Gotelli owned the engine.

 

[Cliff]

That would have been a scary ride. The rear end gets loose and driver is in deep trouble. I can remember drivers getting badly injured when rear end mounts broke. Also remember the under the rear end design. May have been a few cars like that.

 

[Muddy]

There were more cars than you think that had the legs under construction. Actually saw one or two that had exposed rear axles with the legs almost unprotected a inch or two below the rotating axle. Matches some of the "roll bars" that were used back in the day.

 

[mick]

wow, that's sum scary sounding designs......somewhere around late 1990's i think? paul romine debuted a spitzer top fuel chassis. it had vortices on the bodywork from
around the cockpit back towards engine. also had a then single front wing, if not the first, then close to the first. i recall jim head using a single front wing too long before the norm.
i saw romine's chassis at brainerd, and he ran it at indy too, not sure after that, i think? there were some issues about design and it was not allowed.......i think?

 

[J. S.]

As noted, there were actually quite a few of the "legs under" dragsters built during that time period. As I recall from Don Ewald's excellent website, Milani was killed in that car, and because it was thought the legs under design contributed to him dying in the crash, no more dragsters of that style were built after his crash.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Was contacted by Lions starter Larry Sutton this morning, he drove a car with that design. Don Irvin drove it as well. Larry said that in the advent of a wreck, he would like his legs to bend, gosh I reckon.



TopFuel@Lions

 

[Cliff]

I think the 2 worst things about the front engine dragsters were sitting right behind the rear end and fire. You couldn't see ahead of you cuz the blower blocked your view. So you learned how to drive by looking at what was alongside you. If you have any photos of Don Garlits' last front motor car, check out the design. He had the seat high enough so that he could see over the blower & see the track. Had an injector that was flat & wide, to help him see. I usta always wonder why he did that. Now I know. The nostalgia front motor cars of today have the driver really high up, like a fuel altered. But they can see. No wonder all the front engine guys switched to back motor cars. They could see & way less concern about fire.