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Keep on truckin'
And the wheels on the ramp truck thread go 'round and 'round.
So here we are, columns later still talking about ramp trucks as this thing grows bigger and bigger tentacles, reminding many of the way that our wedge dragster thread spiraled out of…
Ramp Truck Tuesday
It's Ramp Truck Tuesday at the Insider … OK, well, I guess it doesn't need its own day of the week anymore because stuff just keeps pouring in. I've received a ton of ramp-truck photos – including…
Band of brothers
How many can you name? (View bigger)
They belong to a fraternity founded in the…
Of Snakes, Mongooses, and horses
Today's column is a bit of a mash up of comments from recent columns, including the ongoing ramp-truck discussions, Tommy Ivo's glass-sided trailers, "the Snake" and "the Mongoose," and Hot Wheels. I'm having to create so many subfolders in my email…
'Snake' and 'Mongoose' collection
Y'know, I thought I was one of the biggest "Snake" and "Mongoose" fans in the world, but Jeff Mittendorf has me and just about the rest of you beat like the Army Monza did the world in 1975-76. I was the lucky guy who grew up playing with the Hot…
More ramp-truck ramblings
Not unexpectedly, everyone flipped over "T.V. Tommy" Ivo's trailer gallery here Tuesday, including Jim Randel, who saw Ivo's Corvette-topped truck in the early 1970s.
"This was probably around 1971 to 1972 timeframe at Motion Raceway off of Route…
Tommy's towing toys
So, last week I mentioned that Tommy Ivo was putting together a little something for your reading enjoyment about his glass-sided haulers. I had dropped him a line to ask where he had gotten the idea, how they came to be, etc., and, as always, "your…
Is there anything you guys don’t know?
If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times in the 350-plus columns I've filed here: You guys rock. Sure, a lot of times, I'm the guy coming up with the topics based on whatever tickles my fancy that week, but it's the ongoing dialogue that…
Just ramp truckin' along ...
Predictably, the ramp-truck thread is expanding and appears about to run out of control like a trailer that jumped its hitch. And I'm smiling all the while.
Keith Crouch of Toledo, Ohio, wrote, "I find this 'Snake' and '…
Going all commercial on you
From early indications, this ramp-truck thread may just turn out to be another long-winded wedge-type deal as tips and pics continue to flow in and out of Insider International's global information headquarters. Part of this, of course, is due to…
Ramping up the excitement level
News of Don Prudhomme's find of former partner Tom McEwen's Hot Wheels ramp truck, first reported here last week, has really ramped up the excitement, if you will, at the prospect of seeing it with Prudhomme's…
Two of a kind: 'Snake's' new find
For a guy who created and lived a lot of it, Don Prudhomme sure digs drag racing history, especially the equipment that helped make him a megastar in the sport. He began by tracking down and restoring a lot of his old Funny…
Power to the people
It's not as if I didn't know this would happen, but I was besieged with e-mails following Friday's Patriotic Power column, in which I foolishly made what I knew was only a partial list of cars with…
Patriotic power
Well, here we are, on the cusp of a Fourth of July weekend, a time that's known as much for backyard barbecues and fireworks displays as it is an expression of pride in the United States. Though I'm sure that there are many…
'Home movies' from OCIR
With the exception maybe of Lions Drag Strip, no drag racing facility seems to be more canonized than one of my faves, good ol' Orange County Int’l Raceway. It seems that the love, admiration, and good memories of the SoCal…
Feedback Friday
It's Friday, the end of the working week for a lot of you, but with Bristol thundering along this weekend, plus the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion and more going on around the country, it's going to be a busy weekend in the old NHRA.com…
Bet you're pretty tired of the streamliner stuff, but...
So, there we were, enjoying brewskies and fine bench racing at the annual Scott Kalitta memorial get-together in the Kalitta pit Saturday night in E-town. One well-lubricated PR type, a self-professed big fan of the column, leaned over and said…
Fish stories and other stuff
Response to my "fish tale" about the famed AMT Piranha was, like the fish itself, quick and strong and with a little bite.
Like me, many of you had heard of the car but not in much detail. It's always fascinating when I do these in-depth research…
The Piranha
I don’t know where car companies come up with the names for their models. What's a Sephia? A Camry? Heck, for that matter, what's a Camaro, other than one of the most famous car names ever?
In the mid- to late 1960s, animal names were the…
All wedges, all the time ...
Ho hum. Another week, and still more loose threads from the wedge discussion. Sorry for today's late-week posting and that this will be the week's only entry; the work overload on National DRAGSTER has been smothering with no letup in sight…
Today's topic: Wedge Top Fuelers (surprise!)
Previously on the DRAGSTER Insider, Steve Reyes had submitted a photo of an unpainted, unlettered, and, best of all for us, unknown wedge running at Orange County Int’l Raceway. He wondered if the Insider Nation might know…
One more thing before I go ...
Surprise, it's me! Yeah, I know I told you last week not to expect anything from me for the next week due to travel and a heavy National DRAGSTER workload, but you know me … a glutton for punishment. I got all of my stuff done and am…
The Thread That Won’t Die
Unless someone intervenes and adds a few more hours to the day, this might be the last Insider column for a week or so. I fly to Atlanta early next week for the "Big Go South" (catchy, eh?), and I’ll be thrashing on event coverage there for NHRA.com…
More of the same
Yeah, OK, I know it's Wednesday and not Tuesday; my apologies for not posting this yesterday, but I was waiting for return phone calls and e-mails on a couple of topics germane to our recent conversations here. Sorry 'bout that.
And now, on with…
Write slower, I'm drowning ...
Stuff is piling up in my inbox almost faster than I can sort and catalog, so I'm going to blast out the majority of it today before it swallows me whole. It's a rambling, multiheaded beast of a blog, so sit back, enjoy, and learn more stuff you…
The prettiest car to ever run only once
It was inevitable that our long-running and ongoing discussion of wedge-shaped Top Fuelers would eventually get around to the beautiful but short-lived John Buttera-built monocoque dragster of Barry Setzer. A…
Phoenix '92
As a rule, it’s usually not wise to question your superiors at work. And when it’s your first day on the job, that is especially true, but I feel that this subject must be addressed and sooner, not later, so here, in what is my first (and…
When pins were in
I used to have a really nicely organized garage. Really, I did. Stuff was where I put it and stayed there. My tools were all neatly organized, and I could always find the tool I needed. I could walk in and just smile at the neat racks of tools hung…
Still more on Kalitta's wedge crash
Sorry for the prolonged absence, but between travel to and from Charlotte for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the rain delay there, and a jam-packed issue of National DRAGSTER that not only includes Charlotte results but also our in-depth…
More tales of the Kalitta wedge
I received a lot of great feedback from Friday's column about Connie Kalitta's wreck at the 1971 U.S. Nationals in Robert "Poncho" Rendon's wedge Top Fueler. Despite some effort, I…