I have been after this picture for some time, as this may be one of Canada's first rear engine dragsters built by a couple young fella's in their early 20's in the late 1950's / early 1960's in a small town just west of Kingston, Ontario name Odessa. Instead of repeating everything I know about the dragster, which is very little, here are the writtings by Ross Bab****, as follows : (sorry **** are automatically entered for the surname)
Our 1960 D Dragster
Built by Ross Bab**** and Ken Gilmour
Back in 1959, Bob Beazer, one of the Peacful Pacers, involved in
running the Mohawk Drag Strip at the old Deseronto airport asked
Ken & me if we would be interested in building a class dragster.
This class used either a 6 cylinder or flat head V-8 engine and
there were none running at the time at the drag strip.
We talked it over and decided to have a go at it.
We built the dragster at the
J. H. Bab**** & Sons truck body
plant in Odessa. I welded up the frame from 2-1/8" x 1/8" wall
square steel tubing and 1-1/2" pipe for the upper frame and roll
bar.
We used the flat head VB engine from Ken's 1950 Ford. The
centre door post was rusted and Ken had been wiring the door
shut to keep it from flying open in a corner.
We got a 1948 Ford Transmission and Rear End from Nile
Rogers. We used the 48 because it had an enclosed drive shaft.
An enclosed drive shaft has a pipe bolted between the
transmission and rear end and the drive shaft runs inside this
pipe. We cut off and re-welded the pipe so that it was about 6"
long, just long enough to cover one universal joint, and used this
to close couple the transmission to the rear end.
The rear axle and front motor mounts were fastened to the frame
to support the engine, transmission and rear axle. The radiator
was right behind the drivers seat.
We wanted an "I beam" front axle and found an old Prefect car
that we bought for $15.00. That was our biggest purchase as the
frame materials were donated by the Truck Body Plant.
All of the dragsters back then were "Sling Shot" style where the
driver sat behind the rear wheels. We pondered how to use the
Prefect axle and couple it to steering in the "Sling Shot" style and
decided that would not be worth the effort. We used the steering
just as it came from the Prefect which meant that we would be
sitting ahead of the engine. We were a bit ahead of our time with
this design, as now, most top fuel dragsters are built this way.
-- Edited by Candy-Man on Thursday 18th of April 2013 01:26:45 PM
-- Edited by Candy-Man on Thursday 18th of April 2013 01:34:41 PM
Amazing more people were not hurt. Bias Ply Tires and Poor Traction probably saved many lives.... Interesting how a few young guys from outside Kingston Ontario were ahead of their time, with design elements for dragsters.
That thing would be scarey to drive, that short wheelbase, bias ply tires, and i would think probably little safety equipment, other than a fire extinguisher, helmet, and some padding taped onto the so called cage.
