Best Modified racer?

[76 RACER]

Harry Luzader was'nt too bad in that Opel. Had a sbc and the first one I saw with the dist. in the front of the engine. I am thinkin' 1973.

[bill dedman]

I think my choice might pre-date "Modified Eliminator." But, it was a Gasser, nonetheless, and would have run "Modified" at a later date.

Pittman/Edwards's B/GS and C/GS '41 Willys coupe was the car that showed Stone/Woods/Cook how to "do it."

They were among the first to make a supercharger work in a "door car" and surely one of the first teams to use an automatic transmission exclusively, in a blown car with serious horsepower.

Their Willys always had Oldsmobile power, and a Dual-Range '52 Olds HydraMatic transmission. The held the record in B/GS more often than not, and when they ran B, (which was most of the time) they were seldom outrun... and ran perilously close to the times being turned in "A", which carred two pounds less per cubic inch.

They were innovators and among the first to figure out that for a hydro car to e.t. like it should, it was critical not to have ~any~ wheelspin.

They once had a '41 Willys coupe that weighed 3,600 pounds....

ZERO wheelspin, with that kind of ballast, for sure.

Their cars were featured in the Engle Cam ads and the B & M Hydro ads so much that it got boring.... except that they were just so dominant in their class, you wondered who was going to be able to knock them off.

Stone/Woods/Cook took Pittman/Edwards "recipe" (Hilborn-injected 6:71 on top of a late model Olds, hooked to a hydro, in a Willys coupe) and ran amuck in A/GS for several years with only Ohio George Montgomery and Big John Mazmanian giving them much trouble.

Ultimately, Stone/Woods/Cook garnered all the publicity in the Drag News "Gasser Wars" ads, but personally, I don't think any of that would have happened if not for the trail-blazing efforts of Pittman/Edwards in the years before.

They just about "invented" Blown Gassers.... fast ones, anyway...

That all took place between 1958 and 1966, BTW.

Bill, in Conway, AR

[76 RACER]

Come on,if you want to talk GASSERS you have to put the little fat guy on top from Dayton,Ohio. Got to hang out there before I was even a teenager. A neighbor worked for George a few nites outta the week. The Willys with a Cadillac engine was before my days. Remember it well with the sbc and was at Kil-Kare the day he tested with the Ford SOHC engine. I remember the older guys there joking with him saying he needed to put the sbc back in it because the SOHC didnt have enough power to spin the tires. Thats why he was standing it on the bumper every pass.

[bill dedman]

You're right about Ohio GEORGE (Montgomery.) He showed Stone/Woods/Cook the way home nearly every time they got together.

But, the Pittman/Edwards B and sometimes C car was racing nearly every week (mostly at San Fernando and San Gabriel, and getting lots of coverage in Drag News, plus they raced the year 'round, something you just can't do in Ohio...

No doubt about it, Ohio George was a HUGE influence because of his unprecedented success and innovative ways. His cars were ALWAYS really, really fast (I remember the earlier Cadillac-powered car and its "Moon disks.")

I think that Pittman/Edwards were slightly ahead of him, chronoligically, but he (Ohio George) was VERY successful, having turned back the vaunted S/W/C car in most of their encounters, and with a small-block Chevy, to boot...

Maybe it was because Drag News was a West Coast (L-A area) publication, but Pittman/Edwards were in there constantly, with class winner results from San Gabe, San Fernando, Long Beach, and the many other L-A area drag strips in the period around 1960. They seemed to race every week, somwhere, and almost always won, so had many imitators. Such was their influence.

Thanks for bringing up Geroge Montgomery, though, His win/loss record is probably about the most formidable in Gasser history; he didn't get beat much; that's for sure!

The great bulk of the Supercharged Gassers from that era ran 4-speed Hydros, and I think Pittman/Edwards, and Ohio George (who both ran Dual-Range Hydramatics) wew probably responsible for a lot of those cars using the hydro drivetrain. There were a few exceptions, but the outrageous torque production in these blown cars would literally eat up a B/W T-10, and there weren't a lot of options, 'til the T-Flites and Turbo 400s came into vogue, later.

Before those cars (the supercharged gassers) showed that automatics could work in a high performace environment, nobody took them seriously. B & M, and some others like them (Vitar, Bee Line, and a place in Chicago, whose name escapes me right now) changed all that. And, it changed the sport.

[76 RACER]

If my memory is correct George had the very first spool in 1959. Look at the scoops the A/FD are running. The tall partially round narrow ones. George ran that style of scoop in the 60's. George also built all of his cars.

[bill dedman]

That's very interesting about the spool and the hood scoop.... I'll have to consult one of my textbooks and take a look at that.

Do you remember the turbocharged AA/MC Pinto he built? It was, as far as I know, a twin to the one that Buddy Ingersoll ended up with , that eventually ran in the high 9's.

I don't remember ever seeing an article about that car. Dunno why not...
Washington state's Butch Ball had the record, with a similar car...

Bill, in Conway, AR

[76 RACER]

I dont think George sold the Pinto to anyone. I wanted to buy it in 95 and he didnt really want to sell it. You can look back at georges Willys and see the scoop and I know he had the first spool.

[Jason Oldfield]

I'm surprised I haven't heard his name mentioned yet, but Don Carlton should certainly be considered. Another one of those guys that you have to wonder what he would have done had his life not been tragically cut short...