Front Engine Dragsters Dot Org

Hailing from Summerville, South Carolina, Ed and Tammy (aka Shirley Muldowney) Fargo of E&T Racing light up the strip at Ware Shoals, S.C.

Ed and Tammy's super sano digger started life as a 200" rolling chassis.

Ed and Tammy hand formed the aluminum body themselves--true metal masters indeed!

Tammy takes the wheel as the Fargos visualize the next stage of completion.

Ed throws the slicks up on crown with a tire scorching burnout.

Ed and Tammy's ride relies upon SBC power force fed alcohol by a Weiand 6-71 blower and an Enderle Bugcatcher. Power is transfered to the pavement via a 1.82 Powerglide, a 4000 rpm stall converter and a Ford 9 inch.

Ed and Tammy spend their weekends in the office--of their beatiful front engine dragster, that is! "Tammy has the faster time so far," Admits Ed.

Robert Armstrong sent in these pictures of his first blown FED. Robert bought the car in three pieces after someone had tried to make a rear engine car out of her. With new pipe and an updated cage, a 7.50 cert tag was handily acquired. Robert's rail features a 350 SBC built from parts scavenged from friends and swap meets. A scalded crank turned down to small journal dimensions swings aluminum rods and pistons donated from a used cup car for 10.5 to 1 compression. Robert's motor breathes deeply thanks to a blower setup from a friend and good flowing bowtie heads. Block fill in the heads and block provide added stability.

Robert's little angel guards the gold mined at the local car show where Robert scored "Best Race Car Trophy."

Robert bakes the baloneys in a hard charging burn out at Virginia Motorsports Park. Best time for his car is 7.52 at 195 mph. Flying!

One of Robert's earlier slingshots featured an injected .030 over 302 Ford with a 289 crank. The car ran 9.44 at 150 mph. A lifted head caused a breather tube to blow and spill oil under the slicks in the lights. Robert reports seeing angels in the outfield holding his digger off the guardrails as it spun four complete 360's while he grabbed for the chute. The timeslip showed 148 mph!! Robert credits Grand Master G upstairs for saving his life and delivering his digger to complete stop without so much as a scratch. Halleluiah!

1964

With 41 years of digger driving experience under his belt, FED fanatic Lloyd "Butch" Hamilton has memories galore. Check out this shot of Lloyd's early Ivo-style small block digger complete with "thumbprint" hardwall slicks, aircraft yoke steering wheel, and chain driven blower. Powered by a 2 bolt 327 Chevy with M/T aluminum rods, Crower cam, Enderle bug catcher, and scratch built blower manifold, this baby covered the quarter in just over 9 seconds at around 150mph.

1965

Lloyd's second car was built primarily by his brother-in-law, Paul Boehler, in 1965. This car featured a 122" wheelbase and a blown gas 331 SBC. Lloyd ran a direct drive "in and out" gear box, double disc clutch and 80 pound flywheel. Inertia from the heavy flywheel kept the 9'' M&H Racemasters burning til half track. Best run ever was 8.65 @ 170mph. She ran at McMinnville, Madras and Woodburn, Oregon and at Arlington and Bremerton, Washington. Not to be mistaken for the creature from the black lagoon, that's our man Lloyd stylin' in his aluminized fire suit and grabbin a full five fingers worth of handbrake. Nostalgia in the making!

In clear violation of Woodburn's pitside non-smoking ordinance, Lloyd heats the hides with equal parts eager relish and mindless abandon.

2003

33 years later, Lloyd tortures tread with his 184" Jerry Hill chassis sporting a 383 stroker SBC coupled to a shorty Glide, 9 inch Ford rearend, and 12" Goodyears on the rear. A 10% overspun 671 huffer makes her scream.

With his race face on and bristling with full-on Front Engine glory, Lloyd pops the hoops over the beams with another wheelstanding launch.

Creating an awsome blossom of his own, Lloyd hangs out the laundry after another 7 second love affair. Best to date 7.502 @ 185 mph. The McMinnville, OR and Arlington, WA tracks have long since closed, but Butch terrorizes Woodburn, Madras, Medford and Seattle on a regular basis.

Dave Maset hales from West Virginia.. A 60 year old grandfather of 4, Dave has a portfolio of drag racing experience that compares to anything we've ever seen . From stockers in the 50's to his first digger, a twin flathead powered front engine dragster in the 60's, to Altereds, and slingshots galore, Dave Maset has done it all. In 1969 Dave gave up racing to raise a family. But Dave and drag racing had too much history between them to part ways forever, and in 1995 Dave and his brother Win scored a 170 inch '64 Kent Fuller from a friend at basement bargain prices. Dave soon discovered why the price was so good. A frame shortening job to help it accommodate a shorter trailer had severely effected handling characteristics.

At first, Dave was tempted to pawn his unruly beast on some unsuspecting neophyte. But Dave and Win are men who love a good challenge, so they lengthened the car and reworked the suspension, transforming "Strange Brew" into the awesome performer you now see. Boiling those skins faster than crawdads in hell is a small block 406 Chevy swinging a cast crank and cast pistons. The Brew's motor gets its fire from a Holley Pro Strip Anihilator ignition. A Holley 650 double pumper sitting atop a 2 inch spacer funnels juice down the runners of an Edlebrock Victor Junior Manifold. The lift specs on the cam in this torque monster are so stratospheric that the cam card came embedded in a shuttle tile.. Yes, FED friends, this cam is so hush-hush that the US government and CIA both deny its very existence and Area 51 UFO scientists have repeatedly failed in their attempts to back engineer it. And no, neither Dave nor Joe Lunati are telling! So don't ask! Strange Brew is a consistent 5 second 1/8 th mile performer that wins races wherever it goes and gathers trophies galore thanks to its 1.76 'Glide driving a 9 inch Ford sporting a Strange spool, Richmond gears and Moser axles.

Dave gives ample credit to his now deceased brother "Win" whose memory is found inscribed on the scoop. Strange Brew's sponsors are Brian Miller and Mike Farrabee of Barton Auto Parts. So next time you hit the lanes at a Drag Strip in West Virginia, look out for Dave Maset and the Strange Brew front engine dragster. Take our advice and go find yourself someone with far less experience or you're sure to get a mouthful of dirt and blossomed parachute. Keep it up Dave, you're an inspiration to us all!

Pictured are the Strange Brew team: Georg Kelley, Dave Maset, Ernie Funk (standing) Brian Miller, and Dave Ploughman (kneeling).
Photos by: Rob Glass

Texas tire shredder Clint Dobbs built this 180" nostalgia slingshot in the hangar where he works using Mark Williams plans, a Miller Econo Tig welder, a truck load of chromoly tubing and inspiration gleaned from featured rides. Clint's rail features a flame belching, alcohol guzzling, Enderle injected 454 big-block Chevy with rectangular port heads sporting Manley severe duty stainless steel valves and Comp Cam roller tip rockers. A solid lifter General Kinetics cam of .710 lift mixes hot and humid Texas ambient with atomized methanol. TRW forged 12.5:1 slugs squish the juice while flame front propagation is initiated by a Mallory Unilite distributor and Accel "Old Yeller" coil.

Clint calls his ride, "Rev-Elation" from the thrills that he gets from peeling out on the taxiways where he works and the local strip, North Texas Dragway, a mere 5 miles from his house. REV utilizes a Dave's Racing Automatics Turbo 400 tranny hooked to a Ford 9" rear stuffed with 4:56 cogs via a M/W coupler. Clint loves running his other FEDHEAD buddies in their rails and wowing local residents by driving around town with trailer in tow and "Inflato" the stunt dummy in Rev's seat. A spring mechanism in Inflato's hand has him waving merrily to onlookers and local heat alike.

Clint and Rev attend numerous car shows where requests for mini cacklefests are politely indulged and many lies are swapped while Ol timers relieve their glory days and FED projects are discussed. Clint likes to write articles for this site and eagerly awaits pics and bios from visitors members to submit on the website. If you have any questions about membership, Clintilleous Maximus is da man wit da plan. So fly him a kite or floorboard him an email up the onramp of the information super highway. He'd love to hear from you and get fresh input on the progress of your front engine dragster projects.

Our hero "DiggerMan" poses for the camera wearing his favorite shirt
By: FEDhead Clint, contributing editor

This month's loyal enthusiast goes by the name "Animal" and for good reason. A mild mannered vocal impersonator by day, Evert "The Animal" Jones becomes a raging sabertooth tire-grrr! at night, menacing the backroads of Nevada in his '62 Dragmaster Slingshot. Animal found this crouching tiger/hidden draggin' clandestinely esconced in the rafters of his friend's barn and convinced his wife that a rainy day project was in order. But, as we all know, when it rains, it pours and Animal soon found himself immersed in his newfound labor of love.

Animal affectionately refers to his car as "Mid Life Crisis". MLC's windowed Jr fuel motor donated its 12.5 to 1 slugs and blower bumpstick to a pristine 283 block that Animal just happened to have laying around. To give his tacky tiger a little more bite, Animal topped the motor off with a "Big Gulp" Holley 650 double flusher on a Weiand tunnel ram. The chore of converting distillate of dead dinosaur into pure adrenaline befell the Mallory Unilite distributor and Promaster coil with the fumes being ejected through a set of homemade zoomies. The claws on Animal's feral feline are Hoosiers front and back--its tail a 12ft crossform Simpson Parachute.

Since Animal lives about 100 miles from the nearest track, he's had to treat his terminal case of cat scratch fever with impromptu burnouts on the boulevards of his hometown Pahrump, Nevada, much to the delight of power-craving locals and sceptics alike. "I can't wait to see what she'll do in the 1320," says Animal. Neither can we. So grab the tiger by the tail and spank her one time for your friends, Satchmo.
By: FEDhead Clint, contributing editor

Photos by Jim Marlett Photography

This is none other than Ed Henning's 195" Woody car out of Augusta, Kansas. The car sports a genuine Hanna body and was built sometime between 1967 and '69. Ed has been working on this beautiful ride for 9 years and made it to the track for the first time this last April. So far, Ed's driver Bill Holtz Jr. has been making partial passes in the car at Wichita International Raceway while they get a handle on the fuel system.

Ed's FED is powered by a 353 inch powerplant achieved by utilizing a 4.155" bore and 3.25" stroke. A 2.500" Pete Jackson injector feeds it alcohol while a Schneider cam and Dart 230 heads round out the package. The power makes it through a Neil Chance prepared Powerglide and converter on its way to a 4.88 geared Chrysler 8 3/4" open rear end.

Ed and his driver Bill are assisted by crewman Bill Holtz Sr.and Ryland Henning. Ed has drag racing experience from his days of running street/strip cars, but hasn't run or tuned a front motored dragster before. Ed wishes to thank Perry Gorman from Spokane, Washington who supplied a great deal of guidance as the car was being built up.

So far, a few sizeable wheelstands and a 10,000 RPM tire hazing at 300' have kept Ed and the crowd on their toes as they shake things down. Future plans include Nostalgia events in the Kansas/Missouri/Oklahoma area later this year.

Owner/Crew Chief Ed Henning (left) and driver Bill Holtz Jr.

After a lengthy search, Mike Patterson picked up this '67 Woody car last year in Rhode Island. He gave up racing an 8-second Suzuki to start running the 180" dragster. Power is supplied by a '62 Corvette 283 that has been bored and stroked, bumped up to 12.5:1, and topped with Iron 2.02 heads off a '68 Z-28. A Powerglide, a 6000 RPM stall converter, and a 5.13 geared Chrysler 8 3/4" complete the drivetrain.

The Brunswick, Maine digger pilot did really well his first season with the car. He missed the first four events of 2002 waiting to license, but still finished 4th in the points at his home track in Oxford, Maine. He won an event and finished at the top of the heap consistently. The season is short there, only running from May to September, and he can't wait to get back out there!

Mike says the car is a ball to drive, goes straight every pass, and has given him no trouble. Other than carb and valve adjustments it has been maintenance free. He is presently running the car on 112 octane gas, but plans to change it over to alcohol and mechanical fuel injection. So far, his best 1/8th is a 6.08 @ 127 MPH and his best 1/4 is 9.31 @ 151 MPH.

This season will see new tires on front and back, a new chute, new brakes and a different launch RPM to coax more out of it. One of Mike's goals is to get it running fives in the 1/8th this year. If some sponsorship can be found, he and his wife would also like to do some traveling with the car.

Good luck in 2003 Mike!

Scott Anderson from Loleta, CA is finishing up this 198" digger that he built from scratch over the last two years. The only piece he didn't bend himself was the front axle!
The .060 over 327 Chevy is put together with a stout bottom-end and drinks alcohol through a 2 3/16" Hilborn injector. A Vertex mag lights the 15:1 roller cammed motor and a Powerglide sends multiplied-muscle to a floating Ford 9". Scott narrowed and built the nodular iron unit with 4.11 gears. Alumastars, Akront wires, and Goodyear Eagles make it roll.

Although the chassis will be painted black shortly, Scott plans to leave all of his aluminum handy-work bare and shiney. He has a few pieces to finish, but plans to make the first test-n-tune dates at the first of April 2003 at Somoa Dragstrip in Eureka, CA. The track is only a few hundred yards from the ocean and is right at sea level.

Good luck Scott! Hopefully, we'll be treated to some action shots of him this Spring.

Bob Walter loves to put air under the hoops of his Chevy powered FED. The GM Technician from Medina, Ohio currently runs this sharp looking car at Dragway 42, but he plans to hit all the local tracks in 2003. Travel to nostalgia meets like Indy are planned next season as well.

Before he owned the car, it ran in Pennsylvania in the late 80's and early 90's under the name "Sharkey's Machine". While on a trip to the Bahamas years ago, Bob caught a shark that earned him the nickname "Sharkey". "The rail and I were destined to meet!" The car sat in Illinois for 6 years with no powerplant, until he came along. He spent all last summer updating the 185" chassis with helmet, kidney, and seat bars, among other things. The front axle was replaced because of internal rust and too many previous repairs.

The .060 overbored 350 Chevy sports 2.02 heads, a .574 lift solid cam, stock steel crank, powdered-metal rods, and 12.5:1 TRW pistons. An 850 Holley carb, Holley intake, and 2" upswept headers top it off. A 5000 RPM stall converter, Powerglide, and 4.10 Chrysler 8 3/4" twist the hides on Sharkey's Machine. His best performance so far in just a few passes at the end of the 2002 season is a 9.54 at 134 MPH.
Upgrades to the car this winter will include a switch to alcohol, Hilborn fuel injection, and some zoomies. Although the wheelies are a lot of fun, he plans to get serious and tone them down a bit next season when he starts to compete.

"I really have to thank MJM Construction out of Medina, Ohio. Without them, this digger would not be possible at this point in my life."

Here is a shot taken by Troy Coker at a Nostalgia event last October at Mason County Raceway located in Havana, IL. This is the "Family Affair 3" Jr. Fueler currently owned and driven by Jim Gravitt.
Pictured are the four owners this car has had in its 31 year life. From left to right, current owner/driver Jim Gravitt, owner/driver #3 Jon Caudle, #2 owner/driver Dale Gerber, and the original owner/driver who had the car built by Jerry Dawson in 1970, Mike Coker, all originally from Illinois. Jim runs a 406 SBC w/ a glide and is from Bloomington, IL.
The photo below is the same car when it was brand new in 1971.

Here's an awesome shot of Drew Mraz's 190" digger leav'in hard. The frame was originally built about 1979 or 80 by Mark Niver in Phoenix with a 172" base. It was extended to 190" several years later when repairing the front half after damage from a big wheelstand.
When the car had a 301cid engine, it was an IHRA and AHRA record holder in C/GD. In the early 90's the car won 14 races in one season. The second owner ran a 347 cid injected SBC. The car went 7.50 at 186 mph with a mix of pop and alky in it. Since Drew acquired the car in 2000, the back half was entirely redesigned. It wound up with the car extended 7" longer (from the rear axle back), 1" wider and a new seat and roll cage. The upper cowl and windshield were redesigned and the body was painted by Tom Morris.

Drew now runs a 355" S/B. The World block is topped by Brodix heads and intake manifold, and spins an all Crower bottom end and valve train except for the JE pistons. The 950 CFM Holley carb squirts C12 VP gas down it's gullet. The engine was built by G.E.S. Engineering in Drew's home town of San Diego. It has a modified two speed powerglide tranny and a 8-1/2" Chrysler rear with 3:54's.
So far in just one season, Drew has run Good Guys N/E2, Pro-Nitro Partners and ANRA's one and only race at Palmdale and made it to the final round of N/E2. The car's best to date is 8.64 at 156 mph.

Here's a shot of Paul Spott's digger whupp'in up on all the electronics laden entries at Maple Grove Raceway. For more photos of Paul's fine ride, see Photos page 3. Paul was the only non-electronic competitor and qualified 2nd for the quick-16 field with a stout 7.68.
The temperatures were in the high 90's and the humidity was close to 100%. A .512 reaction time and sticking close to his dial-in kept Paul going rounds as his opponents either broke out, or just plain didn't get to the stripe first.
Ya gotta love it when an "old school" entry beats all the whizzy new stuff.
Congratulations Paul!

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