Lookin for NHRA Stock Class ET/MPH from 1970-71

[Terry Witzel]

Originally Posted by DeuceCoupe

Freddie has sent me several records sheets (thanks) and that is helping the effort. Trouble is, they are the cryptic "69 Chevy" style so you have to guess at model/engine. I am getting pretty good at it.


But here is one for any gurus:
June 1971
H/S Gary Moore-Carroll's Auto Service-Pierson Pontiac, Tulia, TX
114.06mph, Houma, LA May 71


So I am ASSUMING the car is a Pontiac but they don't even give the year. A 70 GTO 400/350 fits but that is a total guess.

Web search discovered nothing on the car.
Anybody recall?

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

NHRA knocked out all combinations that were never built or offered as regular production line combinations.....this included hydro equipped SD's. I think it was after the 1968 season.

'57 Chevy's could not use 4 speed transmissions anymore since they were only offered in Corvettes. 3 speed manual or P/G

'62 Plymouth same deal.....383/343 could not run a 4 speed....3 speed manual or auto...

Lot's of other combinations were disallowed.......

I thought all that was way over due. I could not understand those being legal to begin with.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by bill dedman

Deuce coupe...

Here is a copy of a post I wrote back in 2007 that may help you with your article., The thread it comes from (one from December, 2007) has lots of posts from knowledgable people whose posts you might want to investigate.

This is my contribution to that thread:

"NHRA allowed the 4-speed HydraMatic in Chevy sedan deliveries and El Caminos from about 1964 until they pulled the plug on all the "Dual-Range" 4-speed HydraMatics somewhere arounf 1972 or '73....not sure of the exact dates.........

This is a link to that earlier thread: http://classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=8410

Hope this helps!

Bill,
Thanks for that old Dec.2007 link:
Great history on transmissions & NHRA.
I gather from your comments:
1. Nobody drag raced a TurboGlide (or very few & not for long), fairly easy to see.
2. On the Roto / SlimJim - why was it so slow, isn't it just a simpler Super/Jetaway 2-coupling Hydramatic?
3. I had assumed folks like Lloyd & Carol Cox (61-62 Ventura/Cat) would have run the Roto, cant find that info, do you know? Or did they run the bigger-car Super Hydramatic?


Good pics of Lloyd & Carol & Cars:
http://www.dragracingonline.com/feat..._11-cox-1.html

[bill dedman]

1. The problem with a Turboglide was, it held the engine at about 3,500 rpm until it was going about 75 mph... Only then, after it was in 3rd gear (1:1) would the rpms start increasing. A small block Chevy doesn't make much power at 3,500 rpm... so, no, not many people ran them...

2. The Slim Jim was a 3-speed automatic that suffered from having one too few gears; it acted like a 4-speed automatic that was missing second gear... the large rpm drop from 1st to second was excerbated by the fact that second was a direct (mechanical) application of engine torque (had no power going through the fluid coupling) so there was no "slip" at all,and this droppped the rpm even further.. not a good thing.

2. I don't know which transmission the Cox cars ran, but if I had to guess, I would imagine that they all ran the two-fluid-coupling, 4-speed transmission; the Slim-Jim was too fragile and slow to be effective.

Oldsmobile called that big-car transmission "Jetaway HydraMatic", while Pontiac called it "Strato-Flight HydraMatic"..... same transmission. I have never seen either referred to as a "Super HydraMatic."
Sorry I don't know more about the Cox cars... but, I seem to remember that the Cox race cars were always high-performance versions, and as such, would not have come with the Slim Jim boxes.

[jimmyparker]

Reference the 70/71 Records, I have one little tidbit that reminds us what communication was like in the "old days". I set the O/S record at the Gainesville Div II race in '71 at around 13.45, tore down and was really happy to get the record. What I didn't know was that Bruce Wilkinson set it the same weekend in Bowling Green at 13.41 or so. I got my certificate but it never hit ND which was a big deal back then. I had a 220hp '66 Belair Two door sedan and Bruce was running his '56 wagon at that time.


Jimmy Parker

[Rich Biebel]

The automatic transmissions and converter or fluid coupling issues were a very big deal back then and why manuals were preferred. "Slush Box" was a popular term...I had a '58 Pontiac with an automatic trans and raced it a little. It was my Street car and I also used it as a tow car. Trans went and I had it rebuilt by a racing buddie. Shifted to hard after the rebuild. Those transmissions failed often if raced.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by jimmyparker

Reference the 70/71 Records, I have one little tidbit that reminds us what communication was like in the "old days". I set the O/S record at the Gainesville Div II race in '71 at around 13.45, tore down and was really happy to get the record. What I didn't know was that Bruce Wilkinson set it the same weekend in Bowling Green at 13.41 or so. I got my certificate but it never hit ND which was a big deal back then. I had a 220hp '66 Belair Two door sedan and Bruce was running his '56 wagon at that time.


Jimmy Parker

I had the same thing once. Set both ends of the N/S record with my '56, tore down for Red Anderson (I was just a kid, and scared to death of him.), the Ronca Bros set both ends
the same weekend in div 1. I got the points, nothing else. I set the ET record two more times. I never could run the MPH those guys ran.