| We now go
to May 31, 1965. Rockford Dragway, Byron, IL. It's Monday
of the
Memorial Day Weekend and we are ready to go after yesterday's run. Let me give you just a little background before we continue, the car ran direct drive using a gutted 48' Ford trans as a in-out box back to a early Ford U-joint to a narrowed 48 Ford rearend. These parts had been used since the 1st dragster in 1961 with no problems, The U joint was changed several times as a safety measure. Now to the 1st run of the day, major disaster. About 300 feet off the line the drive line came apart with pieces flying everywhere. Now remember in these cars your legs are over the rear end, with the rear end between your legs. Look closely at the next 3 pictures. |
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| Note the
condition of the steering wheel and gas pedal.
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| Here you
can see that the entire trans and bellhousing are gone.
Also you can see that all of the fingers on the pressure
plate are gone.
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| Here you
can see parts of the trans laying on the floor pan, also note the
steering mounts have
broken free. None of the parts have been moved, this is how they ended up as the driveline blew up. |
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| As the
result of the damage done to the chassis, driveline and rear motor the
dragster was scrapped.
All usable parts were kept for the future. To this day I consider myself a very lucky man, the only damage I suffered was 7 stitches on the inside of the upper left leg. I find it amazing how many colors the body can turn from being hit and bruised. Purple, blue, black, green, yellow and many shades of each. I walked rather stiff for about a month. MAN THAT NITRO IS SOMETHING ELSE!!!! |
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