Post by Bernard Kron on Mar 28, 2021 19:30:42 GMT -5
While I build mostly hot rods, customs and straightline racers, I’ve gone since the end of 2019 without build a drag competition subject, instead building a couple of sporty cars, a Ferrari 250 LM and a Lotus Seven, in 2020. So this project is kind of going back to my roots. The inspiration was a chute pack rear body offered on eBay by Joe Curtis at Fremont Racing Specialties. My favorite length chassis front engine digger is on either side of 150 inches for the wheelbase. So, because Joe also offers a variety of different length dragster nose shells I ordered a short length to match. I’ll still need to remove a bit of it for it to fit. My idea is to build a fairly fancy full bodied fuel dragster of the sort seen at the various dragstrips around the 
.A. and Orange County area in the mid-sixties – fast, loud with lots of chrome and polish and slick paint and lettering.
I started with the late 60’s very long (210 inches) chassis found in the various AMT digger kits such as the Tommy Ivo FED, the Too Much, the Young American and the Garlits Wynnscharger. My usual approach to shortening it is to remove 2 bays just aft of the nose, resulting in about a 150” wheelbase depending on which front axle setup I choose. The Fremont chute pack body, however, is designed to fit the MPC Ramchargers legs-under (driver’s legs pass under the rear axle) chassis instead of the legs-over design of the AMT frame. To get the body to sit right I needed to relocate the rear axle forward of the vertical frame tube instead of behind it (yellow circle vs. red “v” in panel A of the composite photo below). The result is the 145” chassis I’ve got here.
The motor is the 392 Hemi from the AMT Bantam Blast kit with an Enderle Injector from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit which also offered up its front axle. The injector scoop is from Altered States Models. The whole project will be a sort of “greatest hits” of my favorite dragster parts.
The photos below are a mockup held together with white glue. The bodywork is pretty far along although the cowl area stills need some massaging to fit right. The chassis, too, is well along, and the motor half built, so, except for the (I hope) fancy paint job and decals, this project should move pretty quickly.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
.A. and Orange County area in the mid-sixties – fast, loud with lots of chrome and polish and slick paint and lettering.I started with the late 60’s very long (210 inches) chassis found in the various AMT digger kits such as the Tommy Ivo FED, the Too Much, the Young American and the Garlits Wynnscharger. My usual approach to shortening it is to remove 2 bays just aft of the nose, resulting in about a 150” wheelbase depending on which front axle setup I choose. The Fremont chute pack body, however, is designed to fit the MPC Ramchargers legs-under (driver’s legs pass under the rear axle) chassis instead of the legs-over design of the AMT frame. To get the body to sit right I needed to relocate the rear axle forward of the vertical frame tube instead of behind it (yellow circle vs. red “v” in panel A of the composite photo below). The result is the 145” chassis I’ve got here.
The motor is the 392 Hemi from the AMT Bantam Blast kit with an Enderle Injector from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit which also offered up its front axle. The injector scoop is from Altered States Models. The whole project will be a sort of “greatest hits” of my favorite dragster parts.
The photos below are a mockup held together with white glue. The bodywork is pretty far along although the cowl area stills need some massaging to fit right. The chassis, too, is well along, and the motor half built, so, except for the (I hope) fancy paint job and decals, this project should move pretty quickly.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
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