Nostalgia A look at early 70s Top Fuel

Nothing like taking a look back at the old way of doing things , just to notice how many changes have occurred in this sport . Subtle changes over the years add up as you will see ! What HRC wants to know , for obvious reasons funny cars could not be push started , thus came the invention of a starter attached to the supercharger. Half the time they broke down more than the cars did . And not to forget it was funny cars that had a gear called reverse . This let the drivers do unreal long burnouts , then back all the way back to the line , in a upcoming photo I have Jungle Jim doing a full 1/4 mile burnout .

It was the beginning of the new area in drag racing , dragsters now with the new rear engine design similar to today . And the chassis on funny cars are not much different either , to what you see today .

A time when TV Tommy Ivo did his flaming burnouts for the crowd , or after driving for Ronald Leong , Gordy Bonin backing up at 60 mph . in his Pacemaker F/C . Also you must remember to go over 300 mph on a pass was completely unheard of , and also said to be impossible . And of course running an E.T under 5 seconds , would just never happen .

The Point being ; why did it take Top Fuel so long to adapt to the starter instead of a push start and why did it take as long to adapt to a reverse gear . I could never understand this ? both dragsters and funny cars have the same transmission , 2 spd power glides , they use to this day .

So stay tuned Hot Rod Canada . com is going to ask those very questions to the drivers you see in these photos . Terry Capp , Wheeler Dealer car and Gary Egbert , International Racing Ins. car