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Post Info TOPIC: Hurst Hairy Olds
MC


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Hurst Hairy Olds


This is the first time I've seen a video of it in action.  Now I see how it got its name...



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Cool. I've heard about these Toros. Front and back wheel drive simultaneously and 2 supercharged engines. shocked.gifI guess they were a handful!



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'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.



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I remember this car back in the late 60's when i was a punk kid looking at HOT ROD magazine. This looked too easy to wreck, you would think the driver would have know better. If the track surface sucked for traction, you would think this driver would have known that ahead of time. I look at this video and it tells me that they just assumed the track could handle this brute. 



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this was the 2nd of 2 toronados, the 1st '66 car is in the olds museum in lansing michigan

this video is the last run made by the '67 car, it was dismantled after this wreck



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2drpost wrote:

this was the 2nd of 2 toronados, the 1st '66 car is in the olds museum in lansing michigan

this video is the last run made by the '67 car, it was dismantled after this wreck


 Dave, some interesting history there. Thanks for sharing.



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MC


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The body was a 442 Cutlass, the chassis was custom built, the drivetrains were Toronado.  I believe there was only one car, starting with a '66 body and just rebodied for '67.

In defense of the driver, he was an experienced top fuel driver and was able to get 185 mph trap speeds out of it with all 4 wheels spinning.  Remember, there would be little to no steering response with all 4 wheels spinning - add in the instability should one wheel grab and let go and you have one handful to drive!  Also of note is that unlike a conventional 4 wheel drive, the front and rear wheels were powered by 2 independent powertrains.  Watch the video and it looks like the left front started smoking first then grabbed - then the rears started smoking and it looked like he was trying to power out of it with the front wheels hooking up.  who knows what else might have been going on but I'm glad it wasn't me behind the wheel...

 

Lots of info at the following links:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2010/10/retrospective_gt_gt_the_hurst_hairy_olds/

http://www.carguychronicles.com/2010/10/hurst-hairy-oldsmobile-ultimate.html

http://www.supercarsunlimited.com/info/photos/funstuff/67hho/67hho.htm



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2drpost wrote:

this was the 2nd of 2 toronados, the 1st '66 car is in the olds museum in lansing michigan

this video is the last run made by the '67 car, it was dismantled after this wreck


 yup, they were both cutlass bodies, i had the 'terrifying toronado' on the brain, which also wrecked



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MC wrote:

The body was a 442 Cutlass, the chassis was custom built, the drivetrains were Toronado.  I believe there was only one car, starting with a '66 body and just rebodied for '67.

In defense of the driver, he was an experienced top fuel driver and was able to get 185 mph trap speeds out of it with all 4 wheels spinning.  Remember, there would be little to no steering response with all 4 wheels spinning - add in the instability should one wheel grab and let go and you have one handful to drive!  Also of note is that unlike a conventional 4 wheel drive, the front and rear wheels were powered by 2 independent powertrains.  Watch the video and it looks like the left front started smoking first then grabbed - then the rears started smoking and it looked like he was trying to power out of it with the front wheels hooking up.  who knows what else might have been going on but I'm glad it wasn't me behind the wheel...

 

Lots of info at the following links:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2010/10/retrospective_gt_gt_the_hurst_hairy_olds/

http://www.carguychronicles.com/2010/10/hurst-hairy-oldsmobile-ultimate.html

http://www.supercarsunlimited.com/info/photos/funstuff/67hho/67hho.htm


 Mark, thanks for sharing all those great links for that amazing drag car. Also there is clarification in the last link, as to why the car crashed in that video. Amazing stuff.



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MC


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long stroke wrote:
MC wrote:

The body was a 442 Cutlass, the chassis was custom built, the drivetrains were Toronado.  I believe there was only one car, starting with a '66 body and just rebodied for '67.

In defense of the driver, he was an experienced top fuel driver and was able to get 185 mph trap speeds out of it with all 4 wheels spinning.  Remember, there would be little to no steering response with all 4 wheels spinning - add in the instability should one wheel grab and let go and you have one handful to drive!  Also of note is that unlike a conventional 4 wheel drive, the front and rear wheels were powered by 2 independent powertrains.  Watch the video and it looks like the left front started smoking first then grabbed - then the rears started smoking and it looked like he was trying to power out of it with the front wheels hooking up.  who knows what else might have been going on but I'm glad it wasn't me behind the wheel...

 

Lots of info at the following links:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2010/10/retrospective_gt_gt_the_hurst_hairy_olds/

http://www.carguychronicles.com/2010/10/hurst-hairy-oldsmobile-ultimate.html

http://www.supercarsunlimited.com/info/photos/funstuff/67hho/67hho.htm


 Mark, thanks for sharing all those great links for that amazing drag car. Also there is clarification in the last link, as to why the car crashed in that video. Amazing stuff.


 Thanks George, I hadn't read through all the websites completely before I posted them.  The video shows exactly the evidence of that explanation.

I miss the days when cool stuff like that was done.



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MC


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2drpost wrote:
2drpost wrote:

this was the 2nd of 2 toronados, the 1st '66 car is in the olds museum in lansing michigan

this video is the last run made by the '67 car, it was dismantled after this wreck


 yup, they were both cutlass bodies, i had the 'terrifying toronado' on the brain, which also wrecked


 Ah yes, another aptly named 4-wheel-drive drag car...

toronado-400x267.jpeg



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MC wrote:
2drpost wrote:
2drpost wrote:

this was the 2nd of 2 toronados, the 1st '66 car is in the olds museum in lansing michigan

this video is the last run made by the '67 car, it was dismantled after this wreck


 yup, they were both cutlass bodies, i had the 'terrifying toronado' on the brain, which also wrecked


 Ah yes, another aptly named 4-wheel-drive drag car...

toronado-400x267.jpeg


 Other than some of today's NOSTALGIA drag racing, today's drag racing really is lame. Compared to drag racing back in the 1960's and early 1970's. What i would give to go back in time and witness some of those amazing drag machines of the past. Today's drag racing really is mostly a big yawn. It is more a controlled science today than guts and brawn, like in the past. Over the years i have lost track of all the many people i have met, that have said that very same thing. I only watch NOSTALGIA drag racing today but even that pales to the glorious past. The cars and the drivers then seem to have such an incredible aura surrounding them. Sadly at the age of 56 i missed the golden era, although i did grow up reading Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, Super Stock and Drag Illustrated and magazines like them as a kid. Still it would have been sweet to be at the track and witnessed those amazing machines. George.



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MC


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On the subject of interesting drag cars from the sixties, is Tommy Stringfield's Triple Trouble.http://www.dragzine.com/news/flashback-friday-tommy-stringfields-1128ci-triple-engine-nova/

Flashback Friday: Tommy Stringfields 1128ci Triple Engine Nova

Yknow, this Nova..its a really nice carI dig it and all, but it just seems to be missing something. Hmm, wait a minute, Ive got it! How about a pair of injected fuel burning small blocks in the back seat! Yeah, thats the ticket! And to keep the front end down, Ill just leave the original motornah, screw that Ill stick another injected fuel burner under the hood too. Im goin Funny Car racing dangit!

And at some point early in 1966, these were the very thoughts that went through a young Tommy Stringfields mind. But, unlike the rest of us, who would normally dismiss such ideas as being too radical given the practical limitations placed on us Earthlings, Stringfield actually went ahead and pulled the trigger.

The result was the Triple Trouble Nova. An exercise in extreme backyard engineering, the little Chevy sported a whopping 1128 cubic inches24 cylinders worth of very angry mouse motor wrapped up in an otherwise stock, steel production car.

How did it all work, you ask. This is beautiful. Under the hood, in the stock location was engine number one. It fed through a three speed auto, regular drive shaft, and on to the rear (more on that in a second). Engines two and three resided in the back seatfully exposed!  In the otherwise fully upholstered interior and fed through clutches and direct drive couplers, also to the rear.

Now, the rear is where things get really wild. The rear consisted of three, count em, three Early Olds units that were grafted together in line to form the most amazing axle in the history of man.

It was all so beautifully wrong that it HAD to be right, right? Well, not exactly. Tipping the scales at an ungodly 4000 pounds, and with enough torque on tap to turn concrete into confetti, the Triple Trouble Nove was a freewheeling slow motion projectile. In the only account we could find of the car in actual competition, it lost a best two of three match race to Fast Eddie Schartmans conventional Merc Fueler with an ET somewhere down in the low 11s.

Ok, so the plan didnt work out quite the way Stringfield had hoped. But, do you think such an enterprising individual was going to let this turn of events dissuade him from chasing his dream of fame and fortune on the Drag Strips of America? Of course not! Over the Winter of 66, Stringfield attacked the hind quarters of his beast with every destructive implement .at his disposal, hacked out the two rear mounted engines and stuffed a single diff axle in their place, turning Triple Trouble into a radical altered wheelbase wheelie car! And thats where the path drifts off into eternal obscurity. A couple of shots of this contraption exist, but no record of its performance in this configuration can be found.

Tommy Stringfield: Man, mechanic, visionary. The only real question now, is where is this man today, when Drag Racing needs him the most.



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Holy Guacamole, Triple Trouble, triple insanity, triple the fun. Mark, where did you come up with that thing of beauty. It is like i am staring into the headlights just before i get hit and killed. I can not stop looking at that Nova and its three Chevy small blocks. WOW that is just amazing insanity. What i would give to hear that beast start up, run and make a pass down the strip. I LOVE IT. Thanks for sharing. George.



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MC


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George, I read a reference to it on another forum and had to google it.  I too was stunned by its coolness.

Glad you enjoy!  smile



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The 60's & 70's were very entertaining on Sunday afternoon at the drag strip. I remember going to the old Maitland Air Force base where they had a flagman and arm drop drags on the old concrete runway. Real wild stuff going on. When they opened Drag City in Sackville the wheelstanders came. One was the Hemi Bug (name might be wrong) a VW pickup with a Hemi in the back doing full 1/4 passes on the rears only until it flipped over coming back up the track. One of my buddys got a Hilborn injector stack off the engine as it ended up in the grass.
Another great one was the Art Afron's Green Monster Jet Car that blew down the Chrondek timing lights but the wildest was E.J. Potter. The Michigan Madman on his Fuelie 327 Harley. They actually took down the NHRA Sanctioned Signs that weekend as he was banned form NHRA due to safety concerns. Guys mixing Nitro Methane & Alky, no masks ,gloves, just a T shirt on, people drinkin beer in the pits then getting in their car and racing.
Sunday mornings in the summer were hard to take as I had to go to church (altar boy, but thats' another story) and you could hear the Fuelers and stuff doing preliminary test and tune passes on a clear day with the wind in the right direction. The out of town racers that drove their cars to the track would be goin thru the gears past the church just after mass started. It was agony for the next hour for me!!

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MC


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Great stories Earl.

I went to Drag City a few times as a kid, if I could convince Dad to take me - more often though I'd bug him to take us to the stock car track in Lucasville (Atlantic Speedway).  Seems the Sackville stock car oval only lasted for a year or so.

Didn't get to Maitland the first time around, but went there quite a bit in the late eighties when it was reopened for awhile.  Made a few passes there myself but mostly hung out in the pits with the guys I knew who raced on a regular basis.

Good times, they were.  The late sixties early seventies had to be the most interesting for drag cars IMHO.



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TT started out as an L79 chevy II....

ttt.jpg

tttt.jpg

tripletrouble.jpg



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downloadaaaa.png



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MC wrote:

Great stories Earl.

I went to Drag City a few times as a kid, if I could convince Dad to take me - more often though I'd bug him to take us to the stock car track in Lucasville (Atlantic Speedway).  Seems the Sackville stock car oval only lasted for a year or so.

Didn't get to Maitland the first time around, but went there quite a bit in the late eighties when it was reopened for awhile.  Made a few passes there myself but mostly hung out in the pits with the guys I knew who raced on a regular basis.

Good times, they were.  The late sixties early seventies had to be the most interesting for drag cars IMHO.


 Yes, the stock car track lasted 2maybe 3 yrs. at most. Atlantic opened as the Drag City oval was going strong, but only one could survive, and Drag City was in dire straights financially. Didn't know Maitland reopened!

 I was gone by 75 and started recing at St. Thomas Dragway in Sparta Ontario. I had a 70 Cobra Torino 429 SCJ with the factory Drag Pac. There was some big hitters there back then from Detroit as Grand Bend was closed.



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i am assuming that when it became an altered wheel base funny car, it lost two of its motors. How could you fit three motors in there, with the rear diff being that far forward. Interesting never the less but i prefer the Nova the way it was initially with the three small blocks. What a wild hairy ride that must have been. All of the crazy drag cars that have been mentioned here, i remember because of the car magazines i got as a kid growing up back then. I also remember a Corvair pickup called the  "Back Up Pick Up" it was a wheel stander that went down the track backwards. Also a 64 or 65 Chevelle that had a V-12 Allison aircraft engine in it. Another wild ride i remember was a 1955 Chevy Nomad that was a beautiful looking wheel stander. Art Arfons of course was a automotive genius that built many interesting and amazing drag and land speed cars. This has been an amazing topic so far and it is real sweet seeing and reading about some of these great drag cars from the past. We should keep this going. Cheers. George.



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eeluddy wrote:
MC wrote:

Great stories Earl.

I went to Drag City a few times as a kid, if I could convince Dad to take me - more often though I'd bug him to take us to the stock car track in Lucasville (Atlantic Speedway).  Seems the Sackville stock car oval only lasted for a year or so.

Didn't get to Maitland the first time around, but went there quite a bit in the late eighties when it was reopened for awhile.  Made a few passes there myself but mostly hung out in the pits with the guys I knew who raced on a regular basis.

Good times, they were.  The late sixties early seventies had to be the most interesting for drag cars IMHO.


 Yes, the stock car track lasted 2maybe 3 yrs. at most. Atlantic opened as the Drag City oval was going strong, but only one could survive, and Drag City was in dire straights financially. Didn't know Maitland reopened!

 I was gone by 75 and started recing at St. Thomas Dragway in Sparta Ontario. I had a 70 Cobra Torino 429 SCJ with the factory Drag Pac. There was some big hitters there back then from Detroit as Grand Bend was closed.


 Yep, here's a few pics I found online from Maitland in the '80s.  I have a bunch that I took somewhere but have never scanned them.  If I ever find them amongst all my junk (ha ha) I'll post them here.

http://s331.photobucket.com/user/spencerforhire_photo/library/Maitland%20Dragway?sort=3&page=1

Here's a video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJiPY1IFHHc

Sackville reopened very briefly in the early '80s as well.  Unfortunately there is very little left of the track now.  It has been encroached upon by a subdivision.

http://www.maritimedragracing.com/id8.htm

http://maritimeracers.proboards.com/thread/6049/sackville-dragway-video

 



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MC


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long stroke wrote:

i am assuming that when it became an altered wheel base funny car, it lost two of its motors. How could you fit three motors in there, with the rear diff being that far forward. Interesting never the less but i prefer the Nova the way it was initially with the three small blocks. What a wild hairy ride that must have been. All of the crazy drag cars that have been mentioned here, i remember because of the car magazines i got as a kid growing up back then. I also remember a Corvair pickup called the  "Back Up Pick Up" it was a wheel stander that went down the track backwards. Also a 64 or 65 Chevelle that had a V-12 Allison aircraft engine in it. Another wild ride i remember was a 1955 Chevy Nomad that was a beautiful looking wheel stander. Art Arfons of course was a automotive genius that built many interesting and amazing drag and land speed cars. This has been an amazing topic so far and it is real sweet seeing and reading about some of these great drag cars from the past. We should keep this going. Cheers. George.


 Ok, here's a page about E J Potter.  Not only did he have the motorcycle with the small block Chevy, but he built a couple of frightening Allison-powered cars as well.

http://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/2013/04/30/remembering-ej-potter/

 

E.J.-Potter-first-Chevy-bike.jpg

 

EJ-Potter-out-of-shape-.jpg

 

EJ-Potter-Widowmaker-6.jpg

 

Allison-Dart-under-construction-.jpg

 

E.J.-Potter-3000-HP-Dodge-Dart-station-wagon-.jpg

 

Nightmare-Allison-powered-1959-Plymouth.jpg



-- Edited by MC on Friday 27th of March 2015 06:28:27 PM

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WILD WILD WILD. It is interesting that E.J. Potter chose Chevy small blocks for his wild two wheeler's and GM Allison V-12 aircraft engines but used Mopar bodies for the big brutes. Cast iron balls. Mark, thanks for sharing all this great drag racing stuff. Cheers. George.



-- Edited by long stroke on Friday 27th of March 2015 08:25:50 PM

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eeluddy wrote:

The 60's & 70's were very entertaining on Sunday afternoon at the drag strip. I remember going to the old Maitland Air Force base where they had a flagman and arm drop drags on the old concrete runway. Real wild stuff going on.

When they opened Drag City in Sackville the wheelstanders came.

One was the Hemi Bug (name might be wrong) a VW pickup with a Hemi in the back doing full 1/4 passes on the rears only until it flipped over coming back up the track. One of my buddys got a Hilborn injector stack off the engine as it ended up in the grass.


         I saw the Hemi Bug    

 

JUNE 1967 SCOUDOUC.jpg

5956855642_7d5c815f63_m.jpg

5956854316_dedf843019_m.jpg

5956841424_b1da7f59ce_m.jpg

5956300729_954a697bd4_m.jpg

 



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NOS


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saw this car run at Niagara Falls or should I say try to make a run. After messing around for some time and not really going anywhere it caught FIRE. A little scary for a few minutes till put out. Any way it was towed back to the pits

 

Dale 2 NOS   a poncho supporter



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