(( Click on a picture to see a larger photo. ))
In 1960, it ran 13 races, losing only one race when the clutch disk surface let go. We towed the car to California and raced at two tracks, a race at night at Colton, CA. and a race during the day at Riverside, CA. I remember how thrilled I was when Don Garlits came over to see the car. The car beat all competition in its class (B Competition Coupe) at both tracks. Back at home, it set an NHRA National Record (Oct 1960 at SIR) 12.12 sec at 119.14 mph . The car actually ran 11.93 sec at 119.73 mph as it is on a card from one of the autoshow pictures.
Newspaper Article
The engine was in the rear. May have been the first rear engine funny car. Here are the specifications for the "Vacuum Cleaner" B Competition coupe.
(As I remember them anyway.)
Engine: 1953 Desoto Hemi 292 cubic inches.
Carburetor Configuration: The starting configuration had 4 Ford 97 Carburetors running just alcohol and later switched to 6 Carburetors with dual log manifold running 20% nitromethane.
Ignition: Vertex Scintilla Magneto
Cam: Howard Cam
Pistons: ~10/1 Compression
Transmission: 2 speed (Second and High Gear) Ford.
Construction of the car in about 1958 shows various views while sitting in the driveway just out of the garage. There is a view of the right side, looking down at it in the driveway, and a look into the cockpit. You can see the fuel tank on the inner side of the door with the fuel pressure gauge mounted just in front of the tank.
Looking from end of the driveway shows the back of the car and you can see that the engine was in the rear directly coupled from the transmission, a 2 speed Ford with 2nd and high, to the rear end. I can't remember the ratio but it probably was a 4.10 since I do remember that at about 120 the tach was about 7000 rpm.
Notice the little can on top of the scatter shield that held the water for the engine. It had no radiator since it ran on alcohol with a little nitro 20% usually it keep quite cool without any extra radiator water cooling. Even after a race I used to drive the car back to the pits. It never got hot or overheated.
You can see the base of the Vertex Scintilla Magneto under the can.
The car had to be pushed to start. The push bar is seen below the "trunk". This was common as a way to start in the early days of drag racing.
During 1960 I believe when my engine was being repaired as money was pretty tight in those days, we put in Jim Green's 283 Chevy. It ran very well and continued to win races.
Here is a look in each door at the engine.
The right side...
The left side... in the door and in through the trunk.
We used to go to Shelton, WA to race and here is one of the few pictures, taken in summer 1959, that I have of racing there. This was very early in the history the car. Here it is not even painted yet. As I remember I had a fuel leak there at one race or another at Shelton and set myself on fire. Alcohol you can't see when it burns but let me tell you, you can feel it. Anyway, a little roll and it was out and other that quite warm in spots I was not burned. It only burned on the outside. So here is the car getting ready to run there and I believe that fellow there is Dale Greer.
Here is an interum picture as you can see the racing strips are straight without the front curves and also had "Rapidville..." on the door with "Vacuum Cleaner" on the nose. I don't remember which came first any more but here is the picture anyway.
One of our favorite places to race in those days was Mount Vernon drag strip. There are several pictures of the car in full race form. A couple pictures the car in the pits in 1960. In the second picture that fellow there is Gil Halley.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
Newspaper Article
The engine was in the rear. May have been the first rear engine funny car. Here are the specifications for the "Vacuum Cleaner" B Competition coupe. (As I remember them anyway.)
Engine: 1953 Desoto Hemi 292 cubic inches.
Carburetor Configuration: The starting configuration had 4 Ford 97 Carburetors running just alcohol and later switched to 6 Carburetors with dual log manifold running 20% nitromethane.
Ignition: Vertex Scintilla Magneto
Cam: Howard Cam
Pistons: ~10/1 Compression
Transmission: 2 speed (Second and High Gear) Ford.
Construction of the car in about 1958 shows various views while sitting in the driveway just out of the garage. There is a view of the right side, looking down at it in the driveway, and a look into the cockpit. You can see the fuel tank on the inner side of the door with the fuel pressure gauge mounted just in front of the tank.
Looking from end of the driveway shows the back of the car and you can see that the engine was in the rear directly coupled from the transmission, a 2 speed Ford with 2nd and high, to the rear end. I can't remember the ratio but it probably was a 4.10 since I do remember that at about 120 the tach was about 7000 rpm.
Notice the little can on top of the scatter shield that held the water for the engine. It had no radiator since it ran on alcohol with a little nitro 20% usually it keep quite cool without any extra radiator water cooling. Even after a race I used to drive the car back to the pits. It never got hot or overheated.
You can see the base of the Vertex Scintilla Magneto under the can.
The car had to be pushed to start. The push bar is seen below the "trunk". This was common as a way to start in the early days of drag racing.
During 1960 I believe when my engine was being repaired as money was pretty tight in those days, we put in Jim Green's 283 Chevy. It ran very well and continued to win races.
Here is a look in each door at the engine.
The right side...
The left side... in the door and in through the trunk.
We used to go to Shelton, WA to race and here is one of the few pictures, taken in summer 1959, that I have of racing there. This was very early in the history the car. Here it is not even painted yet. As I remember I had a fuel leak there at one race or another at Shelton and set myself on fire. Alcohol you can't see when it burns but let me tell you, you can feel it. Anyway, a little roll and it was out and other that quite warm in spots I was not burned. It only burned on the outside. So here is the car getting ready to run there and I believe that fellow there is Dale Greer.
Here is an interum picture as you can see the racing strips are straight without the front curves and also had "Rapidville..." on the door with "Vacuum Cleaner" on the nose. I don't remember which came first any more but here is the picture anyway.
One of our favorite places to race in those days was Mount Vernon drag strip. There are several pictures of the car in full race form. A couple pictures the car in the pits in 1960. In the second picture that fellow there is Gil Halley.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
Notice the little can on top of the scatter shield that held the water for the engine. It had no radiator since it ran on alcohol with a little nitro 20% usually it keep quite cool without any extra radiator water cooling. Even after a race I used to drive the car back to the pits. It never got hot or overheated.
You can see the base of the Vertex Scintilla Magneto under the can.
The car had to be pushed to start. The push bar is seen below the "trunk". This was common as a way to start in the early days of drag racing.
During 1960 I believe when my engine was being repaired as money was pretty tight in those days, we put in Jim Green's 283 Chevy. It ran very well and continued to win races.
Here is a look in each door at the engine.
The right side...
The left side... in the door and in through the trunk.
We used to go to Shelton, WA to race and here is one of the few pictures, taken in summer 1959, that I have of racing there. This was very early in the history the car. Here it is not even painted yet. As I remember I had a fuel leak there at one race or another at Shelton and set myself on fire. Alcohol you can't see when it burns but let me tell you, you can feel it. Anyway, a little roll and it was out and other that quite warm in spots I was not burned. It only burned on the outside. So here is the car getting ready to run there and I believe that fellow there is Dale Greer.
Here is an interum picture as you can see the racing strips are straight without the front curves and also had "Rapidville..." on the door with "Vacuum Cleaner" on the nose. I don't remember which came first any more but here is the picture anyway.
One of our favorite places to race in those days was Mount Vernon drag strip. There are several pictures of the car in full race form. A couple pictures the car in the pits in 1960. In the second picture that fellow there is Gil Halley.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
The left side... in the door and in through the trunk.
We used to go to Shelton, WA to race and here is one of the few pictures, taken in summer 1959, that I have of racing there. This was very early in the history the car. Here it is not even painted yet. As I remember I had a fuel leak there at one race or another at Shelton and set myself on fire. Alcohol you can't see when it burns but let me tell you, you can feel it. Anyway, a little roll and it was out and other that quite warm in spots I was not burned. It only burned on the outside. So here is the car getting ready to run there and I believe that fellow there is Dale Greer.
Here is an interum picture as you can see the racing strips are straight without the front curves and also had "Rapidville..." on the door with "Vacuum Cleaner" on the nose. I don't remember which came first any more but here is the picture anyway.
One of our favorite places to race in those days was Mount Vernon drag strip. There are several pictures of the car in full race form. A couple pictures the car in the pits in 1960. In the second picture that fellow there is Gil Halley.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
Here is an interum picture as you can see the racing strips are straight without the front curves and also had "Rapidville..." on the door with "Vacuum Cleaner" on the nose. I don't remember which came first any more but here is the picture anyway.
One of our favorite places to race in those days was Mount Vernon drag strip. There are several pictures of the car in full race form. A couple pictures the car in the pits in 1960. In the second picture that fellow there is Gil Halley.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
Once during the year we went to Spokane to race I believe at Deer Park. Jim Green towed the car over with his ranchero (if I remember correctly). We stayed at some nice folks house and in the morning I took a picture of the car and race car on the trailer. This was 1960 I'm sure.
The other thing that we did a lot of was to go to Auto Shows mainly in Seattle and Portland and maybe some other places I can't remember any more. Here are some pictures from a couple of those shows and you can see how we decked out the area to show off the car. The first is black and white but a good picture that I think was from Seattle. The other two as I remember are Portland. Both in 1959 or 1960.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
I belonged to a hot rod club in that era called the "HEADERS" and it was the dominant club in those years. Here is some pictures that were taken of us and our cars. The last one is just me in my car and if you look over on the upper right side of a couple of the pictures you can see my 1955 Mercury hardtop and the trailer that got us to the back parking lot of Northgate in Seattle where the pictures were taken.
When packing here, the missing HEADERS plaque was found. Here it is in all of it original splendor. We always had this on our cars and it was mounted on the back of the "Vacuum Cleaner". You can see it in one picture above but it is hard to see as the sun is reflecting off it.
