I'm sure you've heard that expression,
"one thing leads to another"? Well, I was thumbing through
some old Car Craft magazines from the mid-60's and came across an issue with one of their color gallery posters (or "Action Showcase" is what I think they used to call it) of a Ford wheel-standing drag racing pickup truck that went down the track backwards... or so it seemed. But I'll get to that in a minute. While it was kinda weird looking, it certainly was in good company. That led me to the question - how do you quantify weird?
In the vast areas that make up high performance, some aspects can get away with more weirdness than others. History has shown us, if it's too weird, it won't sell, or the public will shy away from it. Automotive manufacturers walk this fine line every year. It's called the concept car at various world-wide auto shows. However, every once in a great while, there is a concept vehicle that never made it into production, but looking back, everyone now wishes it actually happened. One of the biggest cases in point is the 1967 Dodge Deora concept truck. After all these years, it is still
way cool looking. It was so popular on the show circuit, Mattel made it one of their first sixteen Hot Wheels toy cars - all of which I still have. And while it was only powered by a slant six engine and the gauges were in massively awkward places, the body lines and interior details were so on. It took the oh-so-square cab-over-engine design that was so prominent back then to an entirely new and futuristic level. There has yet to be a truck that has been built by one of the automotive manufacturers that is even ten percent this rad.
However, when it came to drag racing, weirdness took a serious flyer into the dumpster starting in 1964 - when the wheel-stander first hit the drag strip. Just about every gear-head knows the story about Plymouth's Hemi Under Glass Barracuda. What a number of people don't realize, is that it was never built to be a wheel-stander drag car. It's original purpose was to compete heavily in the extremely fast-growing class of A/FX. The engine was mounted in the rear in an effort to gain more traction. What happened in it's first outing stunned the drag racing world, rendered it useless as anything competitive in A/FX, but open the door to an entire new industry that turned into a gold mine. Numerous rigs followed including Bill Maverick's
Little Red Wagon Dodge truck, Gary Watson's
Paddy Wagon Ford & Corvair vans, Chuck Poole's VW
Chuckwagon, Gary Klickner's
Chevado Chevy Nomad, and probably the weirdest of them all, the
Hell On Wheels tank. In the natural course of things, the vehicles themselves just couldn't be weird - what was done to add pizazz to the show was downright nuts. Like Gary Watson's racing partner who would actually stand up in the Corvair van while it was rocketing down the track!
NASCAR, on the other hand, pretty much swings the pendulum in the opposite direction. In this series, the term
"all things being equal" is taken to an entirely new level. After the turbulent 60's with wing cars, aerodynamics, and who knows how many other tried methods to gain an advantage, things started getting more orderly and homogenized. However, two aspects never received the memo - paint schemes and sponsorship. I have seen some truly over the top paint jobs on these rigs and I'm thankful for it. It still shows there are individuals who still value creativity. In the area of sponsorship, well, as they say, money is money. If you can compete because the company that strokes your checks also happens to make an erectile dysfunction pill called Viagra, then so be it. Another bizarre one, if in name only, was the 420 Formula sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo. Okay - we all know it's a metal / pipe / glass cleaner. But what exactly is in a cleaning formula you call 420? You know it's going to cause speculation and chuckles. If anything, you might say at the risk of being totally sexist, it attracts women... (see pic below).
On that note, this post has dipped the ladle into the punch bowl of weirdness long enough.
Until next time, peace out.
Dave
I'm sure you've heard that expression, "one thing leads to another"? Well, I was thumbing through 
However, when it came to drag racing, weirdness took a serious flyer into the dumpster starting in 1964 - when the wheel-stander first hit the drag strip. Just about every gear-head knows the story about Plymouth's Hemi Under Glass Barracuda. What a number of people don't realize, is that it was never built to be a wheel-stander drag car. It's original purpose was to compete heavily in the extremely fast-growing class of A/FX. The engine was mounted in the rear in an effort to gain more traction. What happened in it's first outing stunned the drag racing world, rendered it useless as anything competitive in A/FX, but open the door to an entire new industry that turned into a gold mine. Numerous rigs followed including Bill Maverick's Little Red Wagon Dodge truck, Gary Watson's Paddy Wagon Ford & Corvair vans, Chuck Poole's VW Chuckwagon, Gary Klickner's Chevado Chevy Nomad, and probably the weirdest of them all, the Hell On Wheels tank. In the natural course of things, the vehicles themselves just couldn't be weird - what was done to add pizazz to the show was downright nuts. Like Gary Watson's racing partner who would actually stand up in the Corvair van while it was rocketing down the track!
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