Thank you for your comments. Just to clear a few thing’s up, we start this car on regular gasoline not alcohol. The driver in this video is a girl. We don’t have straps on our supercharger because they weren’t required in 1969. That is the last time this 1965 car was raced. No, it doesn’t sound like today’s top fuel cars do because it’s almost 60 years old. The little red tank strapped to the frame rail is for the gasoline, there is another tank near the front of the car that has the nitromethane in it. We did not race with the red tank. Hope this helps.😊
@@kne2323From the other FED’s that I’ve seen they are usually in the ball park of 3-4k and maybe 5 if you are lucky. Not my car but just in case you don’t get a response you have an estimate.
@@drag.race.god7316 yeah I was thinking 4-ish but honestly never heard it discussed before. Plenty of numbers on Pro Mods, Outlaws, Top Fuel, etc. I’ve seen a couple of the original nitro cars run but don’t see them much here in TN. They must have been quite a sight back in the day!
I was the Safety Firefighter at the starting line at Connecticut International Dragway in the 1970s. When the Nitro rails and funny cars came to the line, everyone evacuated the starter's booth, except me. I knew if and when one of these blew, you had seconds to get the driver out. I miss the ground vibrating under me, the smell of nitro in the morning, the thumping of the engines. This brought me back to a better place and time. Thank you!
I remember being 10ft from John Force and his crew when they fired up his Castrol funny car. I lasted about 30 seconds...eyes burning, no oxygen to be found. I swear my heart skipped a couple beats. I hope NHRA never dies!! A lot of memories with this video
@@MikeFleming-ts7viI had to stand behind about 5 cars for a total of 15 minutes of straight nitro 😂 the best and worst time of my life. Couldn’t breathe or see but it was great.
@@drag.race.god7316 Going from mild to wild ,that sound is so intoxicating... Gotta spend a few bucks to have some wild fun,and I'm ok with that I guess cause ive got a little and I'm doin ok. I know how to make a large pile of money get small,because I love cars too. Can ya possibly give a little estimate of how much it cost to do that little run-up? As far as fuel,oil ,maybe figure in a couple hundred for some wear parts like valves /rings etc. Like for example say a valve lasts 20 cacklefests(I dont know) and it costs 100$,then that run just cost 5$ on that valve and ya got 15 to go. Loose numbers is fine ,I'll take a guess and say that litrle escapade cost 400-500$? Folks its ok,its only money,realize you cant take it with you so you should party hard in the later years,like this.
@@MrTheHillfolk Actually 1 minute of running this % of nitromethane is around 300 dollars. These cars run on nitro from 2-3 minutes. You have to do a bunch of internal work to be able to support the fuel change also. It’s probably around 1300 dollars to run a car like this for 3-4 minutes.
Nah alcohol is for basic driving. Its burns cleaner than gasoline, gasoline cars can run fine off of alcohol And gasoline was never meant to be burned to begin with. Alcohol is meant to be burned
The sudden donning of the HPD by the crew chief was a dead giveaway that the sound was fixing to change radically, and put a grin on every face. AWESOME VIDEO ! ! !
A video is good but experiencing that in person is a next level experience. The noise, vibration, and smell really helps you realize your living at that moment.
Fremont drag-strip in Fremont CA. As a high schooler, I spent many, many weekends there. Don the “snake” Prudhomme. Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits. Those were the days! I knew all the gate personnel and got in free, plus a pit-pass! Saturday nights was “grudge night.” All you needed was a helmet and you could settle scores with locals. Much safer than the street scene today’s youth are stuck with. They have no place to blow off steam, SAFELY! Sad. 😔
I agree my friend. I’m 73 too and longingly remember the days when AA/Fuelers were configured this way. Sitting back there on the differential with all that raw torque running between your legs. Awesome ! I guess it was Don Garlits who was a pioneer in front driver rails, in that time frame anyway, but while it was a whole lot safer, something was lost. Loved those days watching Garlits, Kalitta, Muldowney, Ivo, Prudhomme, McEwen, my memory dims, but you get the idea. I can see it yet. And smell it.
I'm 70 and the first pass with a rail on nitro was a life-changing moment to me... never could I conceive such sound could emerge from a piston engine without exploding/coming apart in a billion pieces...still amazes me to this day with shorter tracks/faster E.T.s/faster speeds/etc. John Force is older than I am and that dude is STILL kickin' butt!!!
The most Awesome engine sound Ever !! ....From smooth gasoline running to most Explosive wicked sound.....Really invigorates this old guy & brings back early '60's strip pit sounds !! ....Thx for sharing.....
Love the powerful simplicity of nitromethane. Makes me cry, but I love every tear😅 Back when most anyone could afford to go racing. I sure miss the good Ole days. I pray there are drag strips in Heaven.
@@Bobbymull7174.... With regards to your comment.... "Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”, and Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again." (John.3:3-7) There most likely Will Not be drag strips in "heaven"..... but, I completely understand the sentiment.... I owned, built (engines & all the other Non-chassis components) and drove FED's for 18+ years starting back in 1972. It's a nice thought, though.
And the simplicity of nitromethane can be attributed to the two oxygen atoms it brings to the party. It takes about 32 pounds of air to burn 2.2 pounds of gasoline, but only 3.7 pounds of air are required to burn the same amount of nitromethane. Liquid supercharging on steroids. And you're right about those sweet tears of joy!
I'm 67 and been watching these guys since I long as I can remember . Damn few in person unfortunately. Even tapping the throttle, listening on my phone is cool. 200 in the quarter passed long ago . So many rules ,and safety improvements have come along . And over all the years of speeds climbing,times dropping, grenaded engines ,wrecked ,rolled and completely destroyed works of engineering art , there are still folks willing to climb in , release the brake and stomp the go pedal to the floor and try like hell to keep it going straight long enough to beat the car next to him who is doing the same. Knowing the whole time this could be their last day on earth . No matter. Just go . Let's see what happens. Amazing ain't it?
Whittier, Ca circa ~1970. Rode my bike to my girlfriend's house (not driving yet) and we're chillin' on the front porch. I hear a nitro car fire up pretty close! "Bye, Dear. Gotta find this!" I head toward the music (it IS music!) and find the source less than a half mile away. Its the "L.A. Hooker" funny car that I had seen at the Winternationals just a few months previous. The crew was running the engine in the driveway of a house in a housing tract. Don't know what the neighbors thought but I was lovin' it. Good times!
Driver so calm...he's sitting two feet behind a hand grenade ( the engine), with a hand grenade between his legs (the transmission), and another hand grenade under his seat ( the diff). Plus two rubber bombs at his elbows ( the tires). Got to respect the nerves on these drivers.
@@mikebaker9574 I saw her move her head. That's real 60's gear, the stars and stripes open face helmet, goggles and respirators. If you watch closely, you can see her breathing heavily and kind of squirming around a little when it is switched to Nitro.
You have to love that instant joy that kicks you in the pants when nitromethane is introduced into the mix. Man that’s just so satisfying to listen to .
Boy this brings back sounds of my childhood! I grew up about 7 Mi away from Englishtown Raceway in the 1960s! Even that far away I could hear them clearly in my backyard every Saturday night! Wednesday was amateur night but they have a few Funnies and maybe a jet car up there! It was only $2 on Wednesdays, those were the days!
That's just EVIL! Sounds like 90% pop! Reminds me of 1974, I was fifteen, at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL. I was standing around the burnout box steadily going deaf when one of the NHRA guys handed me some earmuffs and a broom! He told me if I was gonna' stand around, I might as well sweep "marbles" and keep the burnout trough full of water. I had to fetch food and drink for the starter crew and the safety guys off and on. After they fed me lunch and kept me hydrated (You guessed it! All the Gatorade I could drink!), I was a marble sweepin', water splashin sonovagun! I had a blast! Learned a ton of stuff, got sunburned like hell, half-deafened, and methanol/nitro nuked sinuses and eyeballs! I wouldn't have traded that long weekend for nuthin'!
It dropped to almost backfire when it switched. I was chanting "More idle!, More idle!!". He did jump in and twick it a bit. Kenny Bernsteins car was louder than all the rest when it would switch. Dale A would reach in and crank the magneto a bit,,,for more fun. Van Halen, Hot for Teacher, crank it up!. The intro is a Top Fueler, thanks to Alex. Love it when a Fueler switches over. Thanks for the clip. Thumbs up.
I remember these as a kid in the 60s. Awesome sound. You hear it and feel it. Can't imagine driving one of these with that crackling beast 3 feet in front of you. 2:25 - I don't think the giant in the top left screen will have any trouble seeing this demo 😎
That what that engine was running on until Crew Chief flipped the lever and let that 392 start drinking the good stuff. I was 11 or 12 when I saw my first Top Fuel Dragster start and it absolutely blew my mind that they started the engine on low octane pump gas
I had the pleasure of getting access to John Force’s pit at Norwalk years ago, yes top fuel engines are indescribable. Also felt like I had been tear gassed🤣
Aussie here. Don Garlits lent my dad his "Big Daddy" top fuel rail for one of our school celebration get togethers. We had it in our workshop and parked out front of our house in its trailer for a week. As a 9 year old, i never gained so many friends so quickly 😂. At the school, people wanted to know if we were going to be giving rides around the block.... 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Greetings from SF Bay Area California! This video just showed up in my feed so of course I had to click and... ahhh, music to this man's ears! Thanks for the smile.
In the 60's I used to live at drag strips. Now it's been almost 20 years since I've even been to one....took my wife to Fomosa in Bakersfield the last time I went...1st time she ever saw top fuel dragsters, or jet dragsters.
Love the cackle of supercharged engines running on nitromethane. Drivers of front-engined fuel dragsters and funny cars have serious cojones. I can't imagine being behind one of those engines when they blow.
I will never, ever forget the first time I heard a Top Fuel Dragster! It was at a small drag strip in Upstate NY, in a valley at night. The air was humid and dense and that sound echoed everywhere. The sound gave me the chills as I had never heard anything like it! Became a regular at the drags there and we got so close to the start you could smell the nitro, and feel the car in the ground like it was being hammered with Thor’s own hammer. Fun times.
You knew this unit was pre 1970, the motors in the front. Remember when "Big Daddy" almost lost a foot? The next year, he introduced the modern rear mounted engine, "Swamp Rat" that car was considered experimental. It ran solo and is on display at Don Garlits drag racing museum in Florida. It is always great to see operational history. We have to know the past, so we understand the present.
Still remember when the first pictures of Don Garlits' rear-engine Swamp Rat came out - Hot Rod Magazine, if my memory is still working. After seeing the setup of the new car, and thinking back to some of the driver injuries in front engined Top Fuel machines, a few of us car crazed high schoolers sat passing it around, and somebody said, (slightly censored) "Why the heck didn't anybody do THAT before?" There was me and another guy who were stone "Big Daddy" fans, and two other guys who had different favorite cars. It wasn't long before the idea caught on. Never got to run a big Hemi on full Niro, but our local strip had weekend races for small-block rails running Nitro - kind of "3/4 size." One of the strongest contenders was the son of a local GM dealer, and he had all the money he wanted, no problem. Real slick machine, beautifully put together. Then he got waxed by a team made up of kids from local farms, who had an old barn as a workshop and plenty of talent and imagination - just not bags of money. They were MoPar, so of course those were our guys. They rolled out a rear-engine mini-rail, blown but based around a 340 block. Took GM Junior to the cleaners right off the bat. Not as loud as the big Hemi, but it was still very loud and considering it was not full Pro, a really good machine. Looked kind of odd - they'd done the paint with several foo-foo cans that didn't quite match People laughed when it was rolled up - right until it left the line. That was one loud crowd when the front-engine "Farmbuilt" MoPar beat the old-school big-buck rail.
@@DS-ss7vl Usually they start on gas by spraying into the injector and then it picks up the methanol, after the engine warms up go to nitro. Gas to nitro on a cold engine is not good. They do go gas to nitro in-between rounds because the block still has heat in it. been there done all of this.
@@klutchdust4346 i remember once they told me it made in cast iron. I was shocked to learn that but that was back then when i was younger. Later the college years taught me many things about how blocks made in relative in heat conducting and and what not. This dragster above looked like a cast iron as it retain heat better. Despite the weight it pulls good.
When the guy picked the ear protection I rushed for the TV volume... JESUS I can only imagine the chest thumping those guys are feeling next to that engine with wheels! Great video!
Man the throttle whack gets me every time lol instant lol. My grandpa used to race these in the 60s set a track record a Pamona speedway right before don garlits beat him on the next pass lol. But still in the record books Les fletcher sr 188.25mph don garlits 188.5 😂 he would already start his old dragster up and switch to nitro and whack the throttle a few times for us. Made every trip bring tears to my eyes
I love seeing the flames coming out of the pipes at idle. When I was a kid in the '70s going to the World Series at Cordova, that's one of the coolest memories I have as they backed up from the burnout.
Many years ago I was in the pits at the Southern Nationals checking out the fuelers. They were warming up the engines and checking for leaks as usual before qualifying. The one I was looking at fired up and as soon as it started cackling, I went into a deep trance like state of total euphoria and suddenly, Rod Serling appeared ! His lips moved but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He smiled and gave me a wink of approval while giving the thumbs up gesture. When I heard the fuel shut off and the engine dying down, he slowly vanished. The dream was gone but I had become comfortably numb. Now you know the rest of the story 🏁.
Just think. When we're forced to go electric you'll be able to get the electric mixer out of the kitchen cupboard to make engine revving noises. Long live nitro.
Pretty badass having your head directly behind and in line with high octane, high pressure, engine parts and a nod away from two massive slick tyres turning at insane speeds.
My dad raised us building top fuel cars the first time I ever went to Bonneville was in 1969 the first time I ever drove a blown fuel roadster at Bonneville was in 2009 I just turned 50 before I left that race I have an unlimited driver's license and a world record my father died that week before I even got there upon my arrival I had the entire team standing tbere wanting to know if I was still going to drive. Really do miss that old man.
Yeah, the motors blowing up was bad, but worse was the differential location. It was literally in the driver's crotch. Driver's knees were cradling that pumpkin, and if either the diff or driveshafts grenaded, somebody was going to have a VERY BAD day.
