That Will NEVER Work: Five Odd, Crazy, and Successful Cars From Drag Racing History
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- There are some ideas that just seem bad on paper, right? Drag racing is full of weird ideas that, in their day turned out to be genius. Stuff like racing a 70ci engine against V8s, using a turbine engine to run top fuel, a blown AND turbocharged alcohol engine in the 1970s and mixing an Olds and Cadillac engine in the same car during the 1950s. Oh, and then there is the rocket powered rear axle dragster that went...well you'll have to watch and see.
This video looks at five of the most odd-ball but successful cars in drag racing's colorful history. All five are totally and wildly different and only two of them have pistons! 
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Love the unique builds. In the early-mid 00s my dad and I decided to push the limits of a 97 bmw 328. We built Pontiacs before but nothing this wild. At the time everyone said it would handle 400 max. We ended up making 715whp with the stock engine. We realized the potential and decided to go fully built. Became the first to break the 1000whp barrier. Then it was the first to run 9s with a 9.92 @ 160 , it was a 4 door with the stock bmw gearbox, heated leather seats, full interior. Pretty much everything was factory besides the h n r lowering springs, cage and engine. Was told not to come back without a chute and haven't been back since. Had a tube chassis bmw built that was gonna get the engine but got into racing the old honda odyssey/pilot mini buggies and swapping in rotax snowmobile engines.
The buggies were fun and alot less stressful and expensive than the car. Drag racing a car that no one ever has comes with the constant fear of whats gonna break next. Luckily frank at the driveshaft shop liked and sponsored us and made us axles and driveshafts so that was one less worry. After the 9 we did put in a faceplated tremec and an e34 m5 differential and that's how the car has sat for the past 15 years. Opened a few vape shops 10 years ago and haven't touched the car or buggies since. But thanks to half my job description being "watching youtube" I've been getting the itch to get out to the garage.😂
Thanks for this story! Amazing, dude!
@@brianlohnes3079 no, thank you for the content.
People said the M52B28 would make 400hp max? Rubes. And I am not saying that from the benefit of hindsight. Anyone who has looked at those internals would know it’ll easily do 100hp per cylinder. They are beefy. Not M20 beefy, or Volvo B23FT beefy, but beefy and well designed
@@yucannthahvitt251 it was just a little more than what the max hp that had been made at the time. Low comp headgasket and stud combo was brand new at the time. Had to convert back to obd1 just to tune them. It was a different time.
BRIAN
as usual, another "NO LAG" video. You're the DUDE again
Thank you!!!
My grandfather who was an aerospace engineer was running a centrifugally blown hemi in the early fifties, it was quite the setup..
It ran 171 at Bonneville
Check the center of Hot Rod Nov. '55
That is awesome!!!
Big Daddy Don Garlits tried heli turbines in the late 70's and possibly early 80's, while the times and speeds were promising, he said the parts breakage was a bit much for his taste
That Mazda rotary guy was pitted next to us at an NHRA national event. It had the most obnoxious loud exhaust you've ever heard and he was incessantly revving it to the moon. We made him move somewhere else after the first day.
HAHAHA this rules
Rotary’s uncover the exhaust port early so the exhaust is still under pressure. Makes for an extremely loud exhaust if there’s no muffler.
Most rotary’s are turbo which helps act like a muffler.
My friend had an RX7 rally car that would spin to 11,000 and because it too was a peripheral port design, _It absolutely assailed_ your ears, but those engines don't really "idle" And most people that compete against them, hate them.
UUUUÄÄÄÄHH!!!
There is NOTHING more obnoxious sounding than a high powered rotary. They are actually more obnoxious than a Coyote powered Mustang with loud straight through “mufflers”.
What about the European 2.5 Daimler powered “ glacier grenade” that made a crazy 1200 hp and ran in a small displacement top fuel category??
You know what drag racing is missing? Driver nick names. Big Daddy, The Snake. We need that today in NHRA. Great video!
HELL YEAH
I’ve got to say that with your entertaining style of delivery you have made the biggest impact on drag racing and the history behind it to me and my family. Drag week just wouldn’t be the same without you to abuse David during the week 😊 thank you mr Lohnes
Wow! This is amazing to hear and it makes me really happy. Thank you!
The era of amazing ingenuity back in the old days!! Thanks for posting!
btw i also really like when your announcing race weeks, i'm totally blind and your descriptions of whats going on and the cars on track are seriously helpful to follow along
This is a fantastic note to receive. Thank you for following that stuff and thank you for your positive words. I'll make sure to stay descriptive!
That's quite a compliment@@brianlohnes3079
There are so many interesting stories in all forms of auto-racing. Thanks for bringing them to us.
Thank you for being a dork like me and checking them out!
Thanks Brian for highlighting the modified class and specifically the modified compacts.. so awesome. All these are epic cars
remember racing against him in the old modified days,,,quite the character
@@tomstiel7576 what did you used to run?
D/MP with Keener &Mercure@@chriscabe1736
Thanks again Brian! These stories are awesome !❤
Awesome video! Thanks and keep em coming
I’m starting to sound like a broken record….. but this is again one of my favorites! Thank you for all you do my friend
I love how much info you pack into short videos. Also, ridge route terrors. Thankyou lol
Very interesting indeed. I don't where you find these things , but please keep them coming. Ingenuity in action. Greatly appreciated and many thanks Brian.
Glad you are enjoying them!!
Incredible machines! Great job and thanks for the stories.
I found your channel recently and all your video's are amazing, i hope you never run out of topics!
Thank you Davon!
Yet another gem. Thanks, Brian Lohnes!
Thank you!!
Awesome video keep digging them up thanks
Thank you for watching it!
I love your Vids, I love your presentation and your passion shines through with your commentary.
I'm from the UK and grew up in the 80s, Drag racing wasn't really a thing, we new about it for sure, but there was nowhere we could watch it on the TV. Then along came satellite TV and a whole new world of American motor madness opened. Drag, Tractor Pulls, Monster Trucks, Swamp racing....to name a few. But while all great fun, they all demonstrate amazing Mechanical and Engineering skill, and that's what i love. Some of these older designs blow me away with the creativity and i can't wait to see the next Vid.
As someone outside the States, a brief history of Drag, would be very welcomed. The origins, the original founders, the people who progressed the designs and the technology would be a great vid. I hear the name Don Garlits but i've little idea what his impact was and what it was that he did to become a legend, Are there others?
I know about Art Arfons land speed work but his other work i know nothing about. Vids about these 2 would be very much appreciated
Wow amazing history! Love hearing these stories! Keep them coming!!
Appreciate you watching!
Knowledge possibly surpassed only by Bret Kepner. Another winner, thank you Brian.
Appreciate you watching this stuff and thank you for the kind words!
What a great video. Well done sir. Well done
Thank you!!
Damn what a cool video. The rotary did all that with a twin dizzy 12A - take that displacement! 🔥🔥🔥
great content good sir! appreciate all you do
I appreciate you checking this stuff out!
Found your channel from the luxury tractor video and haven’t missed an upload since! Keep up the good work
Thank you for stickin’ with me!
Love the videos and the history lessons. KEEP 'EM COMING!
Appreciate you taking the time to watch!
Hello Brian, thanks for creating and uploading those videos. I am the live voice at Germany´s Hockenheim NitrOlympX and have seen David Pertue driving the ex-Arfons "Jet Slingshot", awesome show and speed. I have spent some late late nights watching the BangShift nostalgia live streams years ago.You have a great way of commenting and explaining the tricky and weird machinery of those wild times.
I vividly remember the Samurai Warrior, I saw it at the NHRA event at Sanair outside Montreal Canada, that car idling in the pits was way louder than any fuel car on the property. thanks for the cool memory Brian!
I love the Mazda story, the compound looks like a cammer to me. Its the high rocker covers and tunneled plugs that give me the impression.
But the cake for the wildest goes to: (drumroll) Turbonique (confetti pop). That in itself is an awsome story I just recently stumbled upon.
Gladly some pictures taken made it into the digital age- must be hard to research today.
Good piece, I love those oddball speed freaks, keep em coming, if You can.
It is definitely a Chrysler hemi and I agree that US Turbine 1 is next level wild.
Loved it. I remember racing a RX2 with my 64 comet with a built 289. It took me to 3rd gear before I could pull ahead....
Good stuff, Brian!
So cool! Thanks Brian
Brian cannot miss. It's like he's bent on hunting down the wildest forgotten cars of hot rodding's gunslinger days and ensuring their legacy is cemented well into the 21st century.
Any chance you'd want to do a video on the best cheaters, uh I mean innovators from hot rodding/Nascar/world rally history? Mark Donohue's "The Unfair Advantage", Smokey Yunick's 3-part book series, and "Cheating" by Tom Jensen contain a wealth of stories, but I can't help but think you could dig deeper.
Man, that would have to be a multi-part program but it would be awesome. Thanks for the kind words and thank you for wathcing!
These videos are the best Brian.
Thank you for watching them!
Another GREAT vid!!!!!!! 🏁🏁
Great GREAT Flashback.. !!!! I do remember being at Pomona in the 80's seeing ( and HEARING ) The Samori Warier.. Another Great Story.. Keep them coming BL..
Thanks for digging it!
I love you man! Thanks for all the craziness.
Thank you for watching it!!!
Thank You Brian...YOU are taking this sport "to the next level"...Thank You.!!
Kev, thanks for the positivity and encouragement!
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Brian, more AWESOME stuff from the archives (I'm an old fart, aware of most of the stuff you're putting out, GREAT memories for sure). I really miss the total adventure going to the drags used to be (especially @ Fremont in it's AHRA days), every odd, weird attempt at quick/fast/scary came through there. Thanks!
Thanks Chuck!
I knew Hoard, and I remember his Mazda RX-3SP Modified Compact race car.
It didn't use a 9" Ford rear end, it used a Dana 60 rear end with a 7.17:1 ring & pinion in it.
The car was ALWAYS in C/MC. It was never in B/MC, A/MC, or AA/MC. You appear to have gotten your information from a bogus story by Bret Kepner.
It didn't rev to any 12,000 rpm. Bridgeport engines, even as highly-developed as his were, don't really make much power beyond about 10,000 rpm or so.
One of his former employees, Bill Burnham, was always a good guy to me. Bill built an incredibly accurate "tribute" replica of Hoard's car.
I have nothing good to say about Hoard himself, and a LOT of people have had run-ins with him. He was heavily involved in the Amway cult, and there was no conversation that he couldn't steer back to Amway. Hoard's day job was running a crappy little auto repair shop called Auto World at 8010 NE Sandy Boulevard in Portland Oregon. Hoard was convicted on federal charges in U.S. District Court 2002, for obstructing federal proceedings when he lied to the FAA about a plane he crashed.
Denny Aldridge built the original car, Gary Parham paid for it, and Terry Hoard drove it..
Brian, all I can say is you did it again! Well done. And as someone who saw the Samurai Warrior run there was absolutely nothing louder, even the top fuel cars of the time. So loud it made your ears bleed...
In road racing rotary engines are required to run mufflers at some tracks. You know you’re loud when big block drivers complain.
Great point!!
Your videos are great.when will we get another one????
I was a lil dude when i saw these cars run.
Never forgot it. It was back in the days when you could hang on the chain link fence 30' from the track.
When the jet car roared pass us at 250 m.p.h. the heat and sound were brutal.
well done technical video
i got to see the compound boosted dragster at the Garlits museum what a neat dragster! Thanks for the history on it.
Fantastic you saw it in person. Wild, right??
How wild the 60’s and 70’s must have been….. I was very young in the 70’s so I didn’t get to see much of this. I did see the Green monster tractor though….. mind blowing🏁
Thanks Brian!
Thanks, Brian. Pleased to see Al Lidert get some of the credit that he deserves. One minor detail, we didn't really go coast-to-coast, as we only ran once west of the Mississippi. That was at OMS for the 1977 World Finals (wheelstand photo), as we were the Division 2 Pro Comp division champion that year. Thanks for remembering.
I’m 72 and was a car nut. These names and cars bring back memories.
For your future top feul dragster generation/history video. I want to ask, why there were no longer any inovation in that class. Because if im not mistaken, Don Garlit did make a closs wheel top Fuel in 90s or 2000s( i dont really know). Why its stop?? So what I want to know in your future video is, how its start,the inovation and weird car, and how inovation stop in this class.
Well, there is innovation happening weekly, but it is of a very different kind. The streamliner of Gary Ormsby that covered the wheels, like every top fuel streamliner to date was too heavy to be successful. Garlits used the small aircraft wheels on his dragster where he enclosed the nose and it was discovered that they shortened the roll out and actually made the car slower because of it. Note the fact that virtually all the "innovative" stuff was scrapped due to exploration and failure over the course of time.
One cannot claim there is no innovation when the cars continue to go faster than they ever have before, like Mike Salinas breaking 300mph in the 1/8 mile this season.
@@brianlohnes3079 thanks for that answer sir. I thought today, it's just a setup and tune fight. Really appreciate it. I'm new, so alot I still need to learn 😉
Great post, Brian!! Love these wild freakazoid kind of cars! The RX3 was just the appetizer! The 'Fling Traylor' driven turbine was amazing! I never hears of a wheel driven turbine dragster! And then the Arfons family turbine jet car! Must of been kinda hot with that turbine exhaust in your face!!
Thanks again!
@@brianlohnes3079I agree there is still innovation but the rule books grow thicker every day and that is the reason the innovation is much less dramatic than while I was growing up.
erll said@@brianlohnes3079
Love the bustle bomb content! My Uncle Larry Taylor learned the exhaust trade from Lloyd Scott and made a life long career out of it!
Excellent stuff
Thank you!!
@@brianlohnes3079 I appreciate you taking the time to put these videos together and post them. Is it you doing the voicework?
@@ebinmaineyes it is
@@brianlohnes3079 You'll do. 😀. You have a good cadence and keep at the point while not rushing. Well done.
Another hit piece Brian
Surprised you didn't include TV Tommy, with his 4 Buick nail head engined behemoth, in the odd and weird category!
The idea was to include lesser known cars. But the Showboat was and is cool
A friend of mine in high school's dad was the service manager at a Mazda dealership and he autocrossed an RX2. It originally had a header and a straight pipe out the side under the door like a NASCAR system. It was so loud, the track wouldn't let him race it without a muffler. Sounded like a hundred chainsaws on nitro.
The NHRA still has a place for Mazda Rotaries as option in Super Street , the 10.90 common dial class. I believe the NHRA goofed when it came to Mazda Rotaries which they considered them as 4 cylinder equivalents whereas other drag racing and road racing sanctioning bodies overseas considered them as 6 cylinder equivalents.
The 9.90 Super Gas and 8.90 Super Comp rules do not exclude rotary engines.
Brian; As a Canadian, I would love to hear stories from the Great White North! You're an encyclopedia and we're lucky to have your sharing such great stories sir.
Lohnes you are the voice of drag racing no matter what Reinhart thinks great job this weekend at Bradenton.
Ha!! Thank you!!
I consider Mr. Lohnes to be a "Hometown Hero". My hometrack is New England Dragway even though I started at Connecticut Dragway and my favorite place to race was Atco(RIP).
I knew Cordova was the first 150mph track but didn’t know tge story.. now I do..
Arfonz was an awesome guy. Met him several times as a kid
More AMAZING stories!!!!!!!
Glad you liked it!
The rotary car was a surprise. Wonder how many other imports competed in sanctioned races back then.
Thank you for the education. 🧑🏼🎓
Very, very few! VWs battled in the very low gas classes, but other than that? Not much. Thank you for watching
@@brianlohnes3079 It’s a pity the old Auto-Union mid-engine supercharged V-16’s were never campaigned on the drag strip.
That twin engined car could've worked really well for a FWD design. Huge weighted traction and already designed in rear wheels as wheelie bar. Maybe even a FWD trike.
We ran in the stock classes at Fremont. We were at the track and saw Terry Hoard's "Samurai Warrior" RX2 in the pits. We chuckled at the fact that it had slicks on it. Then we saw it run. That car blew minds! We asked him what RPM he launched that thing at. He said 14,000! He wasn't kidding.
Hoard never raced an RX2, and it never revved to 14,000 rpm. He started with an R100, and them raced an RX-3SP, and his bridgeport engines didn't go much over 10,000 rpm.
Thank you.
Thanks Brian. Those were the fearless years where they truly believed in themselves.
You should do a piece on the California Flash built by Noel Black from B&N Automotive. The first monocoque dragster.
Everyone thought Ohio George Montgomery was crazy to twin turbo his BOSS 429 powered 69 Gasser. It would back half so much quicker than the supercharged competitors, NHRA banned the car in 1975. RIP Ohio
If that would have been a Chevy they would have changed the rules back then
Very interesting
Thanks for digging it.
Gud vid 💯💥
Unique, qnd truly bizarre hot rods.
U.s. turbine 1...... Green monster 1, these guys are unbelievably brilliant, but crazy to.
Why I love rotary’s. ❤️
had the plesure of seeing the green monster in hockenheim very intresting car
Subbed 👍😀
Thank you!
I wish you went deeper into the technicality. Like how did the turbine 1 work mechanically?
Check out my Dork-o-motive podcast for a very deep dive into Turbonique rocket drag axles and their history/tech
I love the old school mechanical monsters
would be cool if you could get video footage of these cars.
Seen 3 out of the 5, wonder whatever happened to little rotary car, was so fast and loud, seen Arfons , turbodrag axle car also
It was sold and went to Puerto Rico. Bill Burnham has built a "tribute" replica.
What about the Dragon Fire Tractor Puller with the Zvezda M503" 145 litre, 42 cylinder, inline radial diesel engine???
What about it? Hah
LOVE hearing about all the builds and such from before my time. wish i could be born again back then for the racing factors and builds.
Glad you did it!
That Mazda was too cool
Mean little piece!!
Legendary cars.
My fuel dragster design is going to rotate the Earth...! It will have a sidewinder mounted hemi behind the driver to eliminate chassis torque with two turbochargers, one off of each cylinder bank feeding a dual port intake manifold. It will have a rubber traction belt rotating between the drive wheel and to a forward mounted idler wheel to maximize traction contact area and also eliminate wheel stand. It will rotate the Earth...!!! You'll see...!!!
I remember Samurai Warrior it sounded like a swarm of angry wasps.
Thanks for the video, green Monster is giving one hell of a show every year at NitrOlympX at Hockenheim Germany.
The racing and night show is definitely worth a visit with a high variety of cars, bikes, truck and buses. Even ATV, helicopters and planes were used over the years at the night shows. Super atmosphere, good food and drinks!!!
We join that racing party every year!
At 2:20 you mention Al Leiter... is that the Al Leiter who pitched for the Florida Marlins and started for them in 1997 when the won the World Series against the Cleveland Indians...? (I was there...) The Arfons family has a long history in drag racing.
That would be Al Lidert, not Leiter.
Those are all WICKED!
Pretty neat collection, right!?
Got to find RX Tora Tora Tora!
Are there ANY "run what you brung" open classes in drag racing?
Sure, nitro chaos and funny car chaos series are like that for now. Drag racing has always worked the same way. Early period where all ideas and approaches are competitive and then someone gets it right for the class and naturally anyone who wants to be competitive goes the same way.
@@brianlohnes3079 Even those two classes are restricted to certain fuels or types of car. No anything-goes then?
All those mad machines built by the brainiest of engineers and then Tim comes along, putting a T58 turbine engine in his dads drag racer before he's 16. And drives it better than anyone when he is old enough to race it. What lad!
The Arfons family is built different.
@@brianlohnes3079 They are!
Brian WTF man? Why won't you make these video full screen? Great content but I can't see anything when it's a 2"X2" box!
Ummm, they are full screen when I watch them on my smart tv and they go full screen on my phone
I saw Terry Hoard's Mazda win at the 1980 NHRA Fallnationals. It sounded like a chainsaw that was about to explode ! You can see it run on the event's TV coverage (the first drag race to be covered by ESPN) on RUclips :
ruclips.net/video/qwlRUfDYgSs/видео.html at the time of 1:12:22
My son's grandfather bill minear. Was in the military with ardour fonts in Barri's custom cars. They were in the air force together. Needless to say i'm at all of this fellows. They painted cars builded the bat mobil And many others for Barris. I've been involved in this stuff on my life I live in south florida. Everything Bill learned from Barris. He taught me customer playing paint jobs. No wraps no stripes paint on everything aircraft mostly. I was very privileged to work with these People but adam's grandfather tend to be or asshole. Nonetheless I learned very much. And improved to it work for people associated with these people. Furthermore, after the guy wrecked the hemiunder glass man. My friend rebuilt to him engine the giant now. Ray, if you read this, I told you it would work.
I True note in history😅
I wonder why you haven't documented Art Arfon's brothers steam rocket dragster that held in exhibition the fastest quarter mile for years.
It did not ever hold that record and I have documented it on Instagram. You can check out my video about it there.
@@brianlohnes3079 my bad , I heard wrong saw the steam rocket at Orange County Raceway in the early seventies?
Brap brap things,, make them comply with 95decibels and no flames. Will not stop them but will slow them down.
great episode