Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner
I remember watching that! :thumbsup:thumbsup
Drag racing just isn't the same w/o you, Garlits, McEwen, Prudhomme, Ruth, Chrisman, Karamesines, et al, behind the wheel. :frown
(The "good ole days" really were...)
Today's picture of the car that ran the world'd first four-second quarter mile
- Thread starter FourFather
- Start date
I remember watching that! :thumbsup:thumbsup
Drag racing just isn't the same w/o you, Garlits, McEwen, Prudhomme, Ruth, Chrisman, Karamesines, et al, behind the wheel. :frown
(The "good ole days" really were...)
Wwabbit
GT Owner
That was a great pioneering accomplishment. How about some more pictures from the day,,,, please...
Thanks, CJ428. I reckon it was just our "time", :wink and we enjoyed it to the max. Still do-
Thanks, roketman. At the time that happened, I never considered that we'd still be enjoying it this many years later, but we do.
Thanks, twobjshelbys.
Wow is right, as far as the thrill, but it was not torture, it was FUN!!
Our G-meter read five and a quarter Gee early in the run, but to me, the amazing part was that it still pulled over one Gee at over 300 mph! I think the Space Shuttle is throttle-limited to three and a half Gee, but their ride lasts a lot longer than around four seconds.
Talking about Gee, - one of the very first things you learn about piloting a top fuel car is to put your head/helmet solidly back against the headrest when you stage the car, else you get soundly whacked by it, when you step on the loud pedal!
Thank you, SFSDFGT. We were very blessed to be able to pursue our dream of being the fastest and quickest drag racer on land and water, and have our dream come true. We were, and continue to be, very blessed, and we thank the good Lord every day.
Hi, Empty Pockets, and thank you for the thought. Does it seem to you that twenty seven years have gone by since then? In a way, to me, it doesn't seem that long ago. But then sometimes it seems like it was a different lifetime, and in a way, I guess it was-
The good ole days really were!
But drag racing finally became too "corporate", or business oriented, for us. The sponsorship that is required to pay for the insane cost of running top fuel (2.3 million dollars a year for us, back in the day, much worse now) brings on a lot of demands from the sponsors. The sponsors legitimately want a return on their investment, but a lot of the things they require are not really all that much fun, and have very little to do with enjoying the ride in the car.
This may sound absurd to some folks, but wife Ercie and I are now enjoying racing our Ariel Atoms, (amateur racing with no money or TV coverage involved), more than we did our last two or three years on the top fuel circuit. Ercie and our puppies go with me in our motorhome, we sleep in our own bed and make our own meals and coffee, race with like-minded folks in a fun and relaxed, no-pressure environment, where the track personnel treat us like family. Such a change from the adversarial relationship between NHRA and the racers. NHRA would steal a racer's sponsor in a heartbeat if they could, by having the sponsor put their name on a race and give their dollars to NHRA, insted of to the racers that put on the show.
NHRA could fix top fuel if they would adopt a one-engine-per-race-weekend rule, like Don Garlits and I suggested over and over again, but they don't want to hear that.
Copenhagen GT
GT Owner
Amazing accomplishment :thumbsup:usa
Being non US I´ve never gotten to follow sports like drag racing up close like others, so I had to Google on the background .... WOW what an impressive career in racing all kinds of go fast Machinery :thumbsup:thumbsup
Please share more race stories and pictures. How did you end up boat racing?
For those that hasn´t seen the Wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Hill
:cheers
Anders
Being non US I´ve never gotten to follow sports like drag racing up close like others, so I had to Google on the background .... WOW what an impressive career in racing all kinds of go fast Machinery :thumbsup:thumbsup
Please share more race stories and pictures. How did you end up boat racing?
For those that hasn´t seen the Wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Hill
:cheers
Anders
It's All About Money
Sir Eddie -
As inevitably happens in all sports, successful adventures bring out the entrepreneurs who wish to make money off of the accomplishments of others, and then the sport turns very professional with each competitor or team vying for the funds necessary to maintain their existence. And, as you state so clearly, organizers of the sport see the opportunity to provide better coverage for an advertiser's products. To the early participants which develop the interest in the sport, they become disillusioned with the inevitable changes which must be made to maintain their participation, and must change to accommodate to the evolving regime. The sport now changes to become a business, and after a while, the participant changes (for the entrepreneur's requirements to be successful) as he is caught up in the growth and fame of the sport, not realizing that the enjoyment once obtained as a participant has now disappeared and replaced by the work required to maintain his success and the income of the organizations --- basically becoming an "employee" of the "firm."
I admire your ability to now go back and re-discover the enjoyment which brought you the success that put your name in the history books. You now have the ability to bask in your accomplishments, yet know that the enjoyment of competition does not reside in the ability to make money, but rather to humbly enjoy the spirit of competition and improvement of your skills.
Bravo!
Sir Eddie -
As inevitably happens in all sports, successful adventures bring out the entrepreneurs who wish to make money off of the accomplishments of others, and then the sport turns very professional with each competitor or team vying for the funds necessary to maintain their existence. And, as you state so clearly, organizers of the sport see the opportunity to provide better coverage for an advertiser's products. To the early participants which develop the interest in the sport, they become disillusioned with the inevitable changes which must be made to maintain their participation, and must change to accommodate to the evolving regime. The sport now changes to become a business, and after a while, the participant changes (for the entrepreneur's requirements to be successful) as he is caught up in the growth and fame of the sport, not realizing that the enjoyment once obtained as a participant has now disappeared and replaced by the work required to maintain his success and the income of the organizations --- basically becoming an "employee" of the "firm."
I admire your ability to now go back and re-discover the enjoyment which brought you the success that put your name in the history books. You now have the ability to bask in your accomplishments, yet know that the enjoyment of competition does not reside in the ability to make money, but rather to humbly enjoy the spirit of competition and improvement of your skills.
Bravo!
Thank you, Wwabbitt.
Pictures? Sure.
Anything, or period, in particular?
The reason I ask, is that I have been blessed with a lot of different rides!
I built and raced:
Cushman motorscooter in the the late '40's
An unblown gas Pontiac dragster in the late '50's
Blown gas Pontiac dragster- early '60's
Twin Pontiac engined dragster first on gas and later on nitro -mid 60's
Single engine Pontiac fuel dragster-mid 60's
392 Chrysler Hemi fueler (several of those) (all the dragsters I built through this point in time were front engined) -mid 60's
A variety of motorcycles -mostly short track and half-mile dirt, and some road racing at Daytona -'66-'74
Unblown gas dragboat -'74
Unblown fuel dragboat-'75-'77
Blown fuel dragboat -'78-'84
Rear engine top fuel dragster (my first "store-bought" dragsters, I built all the ones before this, myself) -'85-'99
Ariel Atoms, road racing and autocross,- 2007 through present day
Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner
I agree, time sure flies. I remember reading about the 4.990 pass and was simply amazed by the accomplishment. You were always one of my favorite drivers!
As for the NHRA, they have lots of problems and it remains to be seen as to whether they can figure it out. It seems like the Pro Stock class is dying a slow death which is too bad.
As for the NHRA, they have lots of problems and it remains to be seen as to whether they can figure it out. It seems like the Pro Stock class is dying a slow death which is too bad.
Would love to see pictures of these boats!
Ralphie
My '74 Sanger -
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Copenhagen GT
GT Owner
Hi, Anders,
I appreciate your kind words and will be happy to share some of the fun memories.
How I ended up boat racing is not a question that I think I can answer briefly, but I will have a go at it, after church.
We go to a little country Cowboy Church that is a 60 mile round trip for us, and we usually have lunch with our church friends before starting back, so we're away from computers till around 3 or so. Incidentally, that is how I have accumulated almost all the 4,000 + miles on my Heritage. "Just rarely driven, by an old man and his wife to Church, never over the posted speed limit, and only on pretty Sundays" sounds like a used car salesman's pitch- but actually almost literally true in this case.
And it may take a while to find some of those old pictures and convert them to a form we can use on here, may not make it today, but don't give up on me-
Eddie
In answer to Anders question about how we got started boat racing:
By the mid-sixties I was a Stage IV nitrohaulic. Considered irreversible and incurable. This was in the days of the front motor dragsters, and we used iron 392 c.i. Chrysler hemi's we were able to obtain from wrecking yards for about $35-50. We used the stock Chrysler block, cylinder heads, intake valves, and other stock parts. The blocks, unfortunately, would split lengthwise top to bottom on about the 30th run, and this generally led to engine fires that blew right back on us, since we were sitting right behind them. I finally got burned badly enough (this was before firesuits and proper safety equipment) that I vowed never to sit behind one of those fuel-burning engine bombs again.
So I was in remission for several years while I raced motorcycles, until I watched a pair of blown fuel hydros run at the Aqua Festival at Austin, Texas. The first boat race I saw was where one of the hydros crashed into pieces high in the air with the driver also high in the air among the debris with his personal parachute open. I thought at the time that those guys had to be crazy to do that, but it looked like an unblown gas hydro would still be a lot of fun and perfectly safe.
About 28 days later I had my own unblown gas Kindsvater hydro with a 494 c.i. Reynolds aluminum alloy Can Am engine in it. I won my first race, and it was about three races later that I set the national record. I then thought an unblown fueler would be faster but still safe; so I built an iron 496 Chevy, port-injected, on 98% nitro, and it became the world's quickest and fastest unblown fueler. It ran 170 mph NDBA record in the quarter at Lake Ming in 1977, the last time I ran it.
The next logical move was blown fuel hydro, and we were blessed with incredible success with them, having official records in all four sanctioning associations and the overall world e.t. for drag racing at 5.16 (quicker than the cars). The 229 mph quarter mile I ran for the NDBA record at Chowchilla California, was in the Guinness Book of World Records for ten years as the world's fastest propellor driven boat.
I crashed heavily in 1984 at Lake Firebird in Phoenix, Arizona at 217 mph while winning my second championship in the World Series of Drag Boat Racing. So my last ride at a drag boat race was out of there in an ambulance, with the most broken bones and trauma of any my crashes either before or since. So far.
About one full year later, I had made a full recovery except for the brain damage, which the doctors all said was a pre-existing condition, or else I wouldn't have been doing that in the first place.
By the mid-sixties I was a Stage IV nitrohaulic. Considered irreversible and incurable. This was in the days of the front motor dragsters, and we used iron 392 c.i. Chrysler hemi's we were able to obtain from wrecking yards for about $35-50. We used the stock Chrysler block, cylinder heads, intake valves, and other stock parts. The blocks, unfortunately, would split lengthwise top to bottom on about the 30th run, and this generally led to engine fires that blew right back on us, since we were sitting right behind them. I finally got burned badly enough (this was before firesuits and proper safety equipment) that I vowed never to sit behind one of those fuel-burning engine bombs again.
So I was in remission for several years while I raced motorcycles, until I watched a pair of blown fuel hydros run at the Aqua Festival at Austin, Texas. The first boat race I saw was where one of the hydros crashed into pieces high in the air with the driver also high in the air among the debris with his personal parachute open. I thought at the time that those guys had to be crazy to do that, but it looked like an unblown gas hydro would still be a lot of fun and perfectly safe.
About 28 days later I had my own unblown gas Kindsvater hydro with a 494 c.i. Reynolds aluminum alloy Can Am engine in it. I won my first race, and it was about three races later that I set the national record. I then thought an unblown fueler would be faster but still safe; so I built an iron 496 Chevy, port-injected, on 98% nitro, and it became the world's quickest and fastest unblown fueler. It ran 170 mph NDBA record in the quarter at Lake Ming in 1977, the last time I ran it.
The next logical move was blown fuel hydro, and we were blessed with incredible success with them, having official records in all four sanctioning associations and the overall world e.t. for drag racing at 5.16 (quicker than the cars). The 229 mph quarter mile I ran for the NDBA record at Chowchilla California, was in the Guinness Book of World Records for ten years as the world's fastest propellor driven boat.
I crashed heavily in 1984 at Lake Firebird in Phoenix, Arizona at 217 mph while winning my second championship in the World Series of Drag Boat Racing. So my last ride at a drag boat race was out of there in an ambulance, with the most broken bones and trauma of any my crashes either before or since. So far.
About one full year later, I had made a full recovery except for the brain damage, which the doctors all said was a pre-existing condition, or else I wouldn't have been doing that in the first place.
Copenhagen GT
GT Owner
:biggrin:lol:rofl
So what´s the secret behind you and your team repeatedly being able to build engines - I would imagine - with more power than the competition.
Hope to see you at the upcoming Rally.
:cheers
Anders
RALPHIE, Your "it's all about money" post is stunning in its insight, clarity, accuracy, and kindness. I actually teared up a bit reading it, perhaps because it seems like you condensed my whole life into a very few well-chosen words, and better than I could do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, SBR.
I perceive NHRA's main problem is the the amount of money it takes to be competitive in the pro ranks. The $ required makes it impossible for a team paying their own bills to be able to race. I still believe that if NHRA would limit engine use to one per weekend in the nitro classes, the good tuners would quickly figure out a way to make them last, still go plenty fast, and cut expenses WAY down, to probably less than half what it is now.
