Don Prudhomme announced his retirement from the NHRA after almost 50 years. As I count it 30 years as a driver who started in the 60's and then the years after in various roles including team owner. Always The Snake, what a classic!
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Recently in History Lessons Category
When I first met Norm Grabowski his running partner was Kaye Trapp. Mr. Trapp has since passed away, but at that time I knew Mr. Trapp as Norm's best friend, movie prop maker and retired photographer. I also knew there was more and drag racing was a big part of the story.
In 1964 the Winkel, Trapp, Fuller "Magicar" was all the talk of drag racing. Kaye Trapp's photos and articles helped publicize one of the most noteworthy dragsters of the 60's.
To read more about the history of the Magicar please click here.
Maynard Albertson, owner of the nationally-known Konocti Motor Company in Lower Lake CA. was killed in a fatal crash in one of his custom hot rods.
SearchAutoParts.com has a nice article about the Mitch Kelly of Kelly & Son. if you haven't read Rumpsville's bio on the Kellys it is located here.
"My junior year in high school I was working at a cabinet shop for six hours after school and four hours at the paint shop," Kelly says.
Danbury Mint will produce a metal replica of the famous Kookie Kar until Dec 2009. Be sure to get them while you can. The limited edition Kookie Kar is Norm Grabowski approved and detailed all the way down to a skull shifter. In addition Aug. 2009 Rod and Custom has a short article about the scale replica.
I recently read a review of the book Dean Jeffries: 50 Fabulous Years in Hot Rods, Racing & Film at Speedtv and then followed it up with a 2003 article from Motor Trend. Both talked about James Dean's Spider but it seems the book touches a little more on the long feud between Barris and Jeffries with some straight forward mythbuster statements.
"Jeffries designed and trademarked the famous flying eyeball logo that Von Dutch is famous for and Dean airbrushed T-##### at car shows long before Ed "Big Daddy" Roth started doing so."
How about a driver's view from inside Twin Mills taken at the 2009 S.E.M.A.show. Found this with a few others on Tom Kelly's website.
This is a video of Ed Roth interviewing Kenneth "Von Dutch" Howard. It is not a new post but I enjoyed watching it and thought it would make a good test for an embedding a video. Enjoy.
Today I thought I would take a few minutes and think about Jim Liberman, also known as Jungle Jim. Please take a minute to read his biography. Jim's showmanship could only be upstaged by one person and she is still keeping Jungle Jim's name alive and that is Pam Hardy whos site can be found here.
