The Dork-O-Motive Podcast

The Decade That Tried To Kill Nitro Drag Racing: The 1970s

Incredibly, nitro powered drag racing nearly didn't survive the 1970s. It is a story often lost to modern history but it's a harrowing tale of shortages, price escalation, racer intervention, and the survival instincts of racers in Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car.

In this podcast we examine the tumultuous decade that saw performances escalate, star power grow, and in the end, the sport brought to its very knees as its most famous lifeblood was nearly stolen from it.

Would you believe that many racers were advocating for its end in drag racing? They were and the proof is in here.

Drag racing history isn't all about the records set on the track, it's often about the survival of its cars, of its venues, and of its fuel off of it.

Sunken Hemi: The Chrysler Concept Car At The Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean

It was late 1956 and craftsmen in Turin were thrashing to complete the latest, mosrt beautiful, and most complex project they had ever done for Chrysler.

It was a concept car called The Norseman and it was both an exceptional design and a near impossible build.

After missing its first shipping date, the job was finished a month later and the car ewas hurriedly placed on the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria, one of the best known ships in the world, for its trip to New York City. No one outside of the factory in Turin that produced it had ever seen the car in person. It would be a grand reveal.

The Stockholm was a much smaller ocean liner, in fact the smallest to be sailing the high seas in that class of ship at the time. A little more dowdy than the Andrea Doria, it was a tough ship with an ice breaking prow that could smash its way through just about anything.

This is the story of the disaster that befell these two ships and sent one of the most beautfiul Detroit dream cars, concept cars, or idea cars ever created to the bottom of the sea forever.

Slicks: The Sticky History of the World's Fastest Racing Tires

The story of drag racing is typically seen as one defined by insane horsepower. The super fuels, the massive blowers, the acceleration that is unmatched by any wheel driven vehicle on Earth.

 

But that actually isn't the root of the story.

 

The real foundation of it all? Traction. And where did that come from? It came from tire shops at first. Taking old passenger car tires and gluing more rubber on them than they were ever supposed to hold.

 

Next it came from a genius of a man from a small town in Massacusetts who quite literally invented the scratch built drag slick. And it's only gotten faster from there. This is the story of the genesis of traction. Of the birth of the one thing that drag racing has relied on more than nitromethane, more than superchargers, and more than steel tubing.

 

Slicks.

 

The tires that make drag racing the incredible sport that it is today.

Glorious Failure: Mickey Thompson's Wild 1967 Wynn's Spitfire Indy 500 Car

f there is a story in American motorsports history more compelling than Micke Thompson versus the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I am not sure what it is. The man conquered everything in his path over the course of a titanic career, except Indy.

His ideas were wild, his concepts extreme, his timelines always stretched. In 1967 he would unveil a car so far out there that the media went crazy, the tech inspectors didn't know where to start, and engineers the country over scratched their heads.

Front engine, front wheel drive, four wheel steering, and a driver seated basically between the rear tires, it was incredible. It was also powered by a custom made 3-valve small block Chevy.

It was also doomed to fail. This is the story of the 1967 Wynn's Spitfire of Mickey Thompson.

War Boost: An Introductory Lesson In WWII Aircraft Engine Supercharging

There's nothing like upping the horsepower of an engine with boost. Multiple methods of supercharging exist today and have been brought to an incredible level of efficiency.

 

While these methods were not invented in WWII, their use was vastly studied, tweaked, and tested to their limits back then. This video is the next in a series about the history of centrifugal superchargers and their use on piston engines.

 

Consider this your 101 level course in WWII supercharging. Here we go over the various methods and systems used on aircraft from the USA, Germany, and Great Britain. Which countries did it best? Which country made a mistake in their method? Who ruled the horsepower roost and why?

It was a war of horsepower and boost was a huge factor in making more of it than the other guys 

 

Powerama 1955: When GM Ruled The Earth They Put On The Greatest Horsepower Show of All Time

In 1955 General Motors decided to put on a show, not just any show, a gathering of vehicles, horsepower, and entertainment the likes of which the world had never seen before and never saw again.

 

Powerama was a one million square foot fantasyland of every off-highway division of General Motors on display. Dubbed the "World's Fair of Power" it had locomotives, bulldozers, elephants, aircraft, tanks, a submarine, pleasure craft, a shrimp boat, the Motorama dream cars, an 85-ton cannon known as Atomic Annie, and more and more and more.

 

In this history we investigate the genesis of the event, the execution of the event, and the machines that made it one of the most unique gatherings in the gearhead history of Earth.

 

Seriously, this is wild.

The Birth of American Muscle: The Story of The Liberty V-12 Engine

This is the story of an engine. Not just any engine, but the engine that created the idea of "American Muscle".

It was the lightest, most powerful airplane engine in the world during WWI and it was designed by two guys in a hotel room during a five day marathon in Washington D.C.in 1917.

Making 450hp and being produced by multiple American car companies, this engine was a master class in simplicity, integration of existing ideas, and mass production.

While it can't really be said that it solved the war for the allies, what it did do was to introduce the idea of an America that stood as a colossus of industry among its peers in the world.

The Liberty V-12 has an awesome story and the engine itself is worthy of your admiration.

The History of Hydrazine In Drag Racing: The Liquid Boogey Man Explored

This is the in-depth history of Hydrazine in the sport of Drag Racing. It is one of the most mythic, misunderstood, and undocumented stories of the sport's past.

 

In this video we'll explore the origins of hydrazine, how it found its way into cars, how it enhances nitromethane and all of its associated dangers.

 

Hydrazine was by far the most dangerous chemical ever handled regularly by drag racers and perhaps the most destructive as well. In this exploration, we bust myths, dive deep into the players who ran "The H" successfully, and document the cars, people, and events that were effected by it most.

 

Using loads of period books, magazines, interviews, and history, the story is told in depth. Enjoy!

A History Of Nitromethane The Greatest Race Fuel On Earth: Part 1 - 1872-1960

Nitromethane is the world's most powerful racing fuel but it's history and how it came to be may actually be more fascinating than its chemistry.

 

Nitromethane was first made in a laboratory in Germany back in 1872 and as you'll find out, it's history goes far beyond the race track. In this multiple part series we'll explore the origins of nitromethane, why is it a miraculous chemical compound, how it found its way into race cars, its major uses around the world, and it's history that ranges from awesome to terrifying.

 

We'll explore the myths, confirm some, disprove others, and take you inside this truly unique substance. Where did it come from? How is it used? Why does it work in engines? Who banned it? Who failed it ban it and why it scared people very badly in 1958.

 

It's all here!

 

A history of nitromethane...part one!

War Wagon: The Story of The WWI Liberty Truck

While the Liberty V-12 airplane engine of WWI is widely celebrated, there was another Liberty machine that has been all but forgotten.

The WWI Liberty truck was designed and manufactured in great haste for an American Army that had all but forgotten to modernize itself before The Great War began. After chasing Pancho Villa around Mexico with a rag-tag fleet of hundreds of different vehicles in 1916 and early 1917, the US Army finally realized the need for standardized vehicles.

An incredible national effort of engineering and manufacturing was put out to produce an order of more than 40,000 trucks in 1917 and 1918. But did it come too late? Could the nation answer the call?

That's the crux of this story.

The story of the WWI Liberty Truck is about the can-do spirit of a country wholly unprepared for war, the chutzpah of it's leadership in industry, and the idea that when the entire might of a country is thrown behind an effort, magic can happen.

The lingering question though. Was it worth it?