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Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models.
Rambunctious, #26 1975 Funny Car Top Fuel, c. 1990. Gene Snow was an American racing driver who pioneered funny cars in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, bringing innovations such as a direct drive system using multiple clutches when rivals were still using automatic transmissions based on those used in production models. [1]
He began drag racing in the Stock division at Fremont Raceway in 1964 [5] and made a jump up to funny cars in 1965, driving an injected Nova on nitromethane dubbed Hercules. [5] Later that year he started on the national scene as the driver of Lew Arrington's supercharged GTO Funny Car, Brutus. [5]
He earned the nickname "The Snake" in high school. He was the first Funny Car driver to exceed 250 mph (400 km/h). [citation needed] After trouble getting the "vaunted" Gilmore Engineering-chassied Donovan Engineering Special dragster sorted out, Tom McEwen quit, and was replaced by Prudhomme, then owner-driver in the B&M Tork Master-sponsored ...
Nostalgia drag racing started in California in 1981 when old racers started using their front-engine "slingshot" dragsters, funny cars and Super Stockers to race again at Fremont drag strip also known as Baylands raceway park where the N.D.R.A. "nostalgia drag racing association" was formed by Tom Prufer along with partners Brian Burnett & Ken ...
Raymond Beadle (December 16, 1943 – October 20, 2014) was an American drag racer and auto racing team owner. Beadle was perhaps best known as the driver and owner of the Blue Max Top Fuel funny car. Beadle won three consecutive NHRA Funny Car championships from 1979 to 1981 and three IHRA Funny Car championships, 1975–76 and 1981.
McEwen's 1975 funny car. McEwen won the race against Prudhomme at Lions Drag Strip on September 12, 1964. He beat overcame Prudhomme's bright-orange edition of the famed Greer-Black-Prudhomme car two outings in a row, inspiring what may be the most famous match-race pairing in the history of drag racing. [11]
In 2009, after having taken a hiatus from the sport, Leong returned to drag racing, now acting as crew chief for "vintage" Nitro Funny Cars racing primarily in NHRA's new Hot Rod Heritage Series. [6] In 2014, Canadian drag racer Ron Hodgson hired Leong to tune the Troy Lee Designs Nitro Funny Car driven by Tim Boychuk, [ 7 ] for competition in ...