Why were 60s front engine dragsters so dangerous? 

I think the front engine dragsters are the coolest looking racecar. Especially with the blown hemi.

Racing was NUTS back then.

I can remember racing one of these in the UK back in the 60s and looking back sitting there with all your most important parts that close to large pieces of metal spinning at a high speed was insane

I remember seeing Don Garlits out on tour, standing on crutches after his right foot was injured. He kept his tour dates and had "Starvin' Marvin" Swartz filling in on the driving chores.

I remember Garlits talking about the twitchy steering and I think it was Art Malone that said, "Well Gar, just slow it down". Also, sometimes the rearend housing would break loose a reek havoc. I believe both Art Christman and Mike Sorkin (Surfer's dragster) encountered this malfunction.

The actual design of the slingshot gets a bad wrap due to product technology not keeping pace with the the hard sometimes abusiveness of what was demanded of them. The main culprit of this was as stated purposeful slipping of clutches that were nothing more than heavy duty over the counter automotive/truck pieces with aluminum bellhousing and light weight flywheels to save weight. It was catastrophic clutch failures that caused horrendous crashes and fires such as the one claimed John Mulligan, Mike Sorokin, and probably the most famous one caught on tape was Jim Nicole's incident in the AA/FD final at Indy against Prudhomme. A valid argument can be made that was what save Nicole's live was being positioned between the two rear tires that acted as a cushioning effect as he bounced over the guard rail after the explosion cut the car in half. Numerous drivers were killed such as Marvin Schwartz in the rear engine design as no protection was offered to a driver in a side impact type scenario in a crash. Drivers in the 80's thru the modern era have also suffered death or severe life altering crashes as well. With clutch technology today and other advancements a lot of those crashes or incidents with the slingshot design would never have happened as well as when dragsters smoked the quarter mile and the tires took the abuse and load off the drivetrain. When was the last time a funny car experienced a clutch failure? Nostalgic top fuel is another example of purpose built race only items such as the clutch having eliminated clutch explosions. Racing is dangerous no doubt but the slingshot fell to the wayside mostly because of the increased performance of the rear engine design

"promo sm"

Rear engine cars suck!