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. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.
Top Fuel is a type of drag racing whose dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of 338 miles per hour (544.0 km/h) and finishing the 1,000 foot (304.8 m) runs in 3.62 seconds.
The Ford FE engine is a Ford V8 engine used in vehicles sold in the North American market between 1958 and 1976. The FE was introduced to replace the short-lived Ford Y-block engine, which American cars and trucks were outgrowing. It was designed with room to be significantly expanded, and manufactured both as a top-oiler and side-oiler, and in displacements between 332 cu in (5.4 L) and 428 cu in (7.0 L).
Shirley Muldowney, also known professionally as "Cha Cha" and the "First Lady of Drag Racing", is an American auto racer. She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. She won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She won a total of 18 NHRA national events.
The Ford Fairlane is an automobile model that was sold between the 1955 and 1970 model years by Ford in North America. Taking its name from the Dearborn, Michigan estate of Henry Ford, the Fairlane nameplate was used for seven different generations of vehicles. Through its production, the model line would be marketed in a wide variety of body styles, including two-door and four-door sedans, two-door and four-door hardtops, station wagons, and both traditional and retractable-hardtop convertibles.
Conrad "Connie" Kalitta is an American businessman and former drag racing driver, nicknamed "The Bounty Hunter." Kalitta is the CEO of Kalitta Air and the owner of Kalitta Motorsports.
A Toploader transmission is a manually shifted gearbox design built in three-speed and four-speed configurations, introduced in 1963 by the Ford Motor Company to replace the BorgWarner T-10. It was used in most Fords and Mercurys from 1964 until 1973, as well as in some foreign models, and is officially designated the 3.03 three speed or Ford design four speed. The designation 3.03 is the centerline distance between counter shaft and mainshaft. The Toploader got its name from the fact that the access plate to the inner workings was located on the top of the main case, as opposed to side access on most gearboxes it would be compared with, such as the Ford Dagenham or GM's Saginaw or Muncie. Distinguishing the three speed from the four is as simple as counting the fasteners on the top plate: the four speed has ten fasteners; the three, nine. Both the three and four speed top loader gearboxes were designed to function in constant mesh, due to synchronizer sleeves being used instead of sliding gears, and be fully synchronized, with the exception of reverse. Forward gears are helical-type, while reverse gear and the exterior of the first and second synchronizers sleeve are spur-type gears. This transmission is also known as the Tremec T-170, HEH, or RUG depending on the year(s) of production. At some point in the early 1970s production of this transmission was moved to Mexico, and the name was changed to Tremec.
Don Nicholson was an American drag racer from Missouri. He raced in the 1960s and 1970s when there were few national events. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) estimates he won 90 percent of his match races. As of 2002, he held the record for the most number of categories in which he reached a final round : Funny Car, Pro Stock, Super Stock, Competition Eliminator, Stock, and Street. He was nicknamed "Dyno Don" after he was one of the first drivers to use a chassis dynamometer on his cars in the late 1950s, a skill that he learned while working as a line mechanic at a Chevrolet car dealer.
Billy Lewis "Wild Bill" Shrewsberry is an American exhibition drag racing driver primarily active throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Originally from Mansfield, Ohio, Shrewsberry moved to Southern California in October 1962. Shrewsberry is best known as the driver of the drag racing replica of the Barris-built Batmobile from the 1966 television series and of the "L.A. Dart," a series of wheelstanding funny cars each with a rear-mounted, supercharged Chrysler Hemi engine and each sponsored by the Dodge and Plymouth dealers of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The result of the rearward weight transfer caused by the engine's mounting position was a "wheelie" for the entire quarter-mile at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). Steering was accomplished by a combination of the service brake pedal activating the brake on the left wheel while a brake lever from a racing go-kart activated the right brake. So proficient was Shrewsberry at this sort of driving that he would often spin his car to face the opposite direction at the end of the track and race back to the starting line, all the while maintaining the wheelstand.
A gasser is a type of hot rod car originally used for drag racing. This style of custom car build originated in United States in the late 1950s and continued until the early 1970s. In the days before Pro Stock, the A/Gas cars were the fastest stock-appearing racers around.
Tom McEwen was an American drag racer who was a winner of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals. His racing career spanned 45 years. He is ranked at number 16 on a list of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years.
Nostalgia Super Stock is among the most popular, and fastest growing forms of drag racing. The Class recreates the style of drag racing very popular in the 1960s with drivers like Ronnie Sox, Dick Landy, Butch Leal and Judy Lilly.
The Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt is a limited production, factory experimental, drag racing version of the Ford Fairlane produced during the 1964 model year only. A total of 100 units were produced; forty-nine 4-speeds and fifty-one automatics, enough to secure the 1964 NHRA Super Stock championship for Ford.
The Logghe Stamping Company is a dragster and funny car fabricator based in Detroit, Michigan.
Bronco Buster is an American wheelstander exhibition funny car built by Doug Nash.
Altered is a former National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing class and a current drag racing chassis configuration that forms the basis of many classes of NHRA Competition Eliminator.
Willie Borsch, nicknamed "Wild Willie", was an American AA/FA and funny car drag racer.
Gaspar Ronda, better known as Gas Ronda, was an American drag racer. He was also a restaurateur. In 2016, Ronda was made a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Doug Thorley was an American Funny Car drag racer, hot rodder and businessman. In 1967, he won the NHRA Nationals' first Funny Car Eliminator title, and was given Car Craft's All-Star Drag Racing Team Funny Car Driver of the Year Award in 1968. Hot Rod magazine describes him as "one of drag racing's most famous early era drivers."
Steve Reyes (Born:1948) is an American photographer and storyteller from Oakland, California. Reyes has been included in Don Garlits' International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2002), NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion Honorees (2009), and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame (2011).