The combination of a new-car interior, a parachute ring, and a dragster pilot's firesuit was unprecedented. Fresh from campaigning Mopar Super Stockers, hired-driver Jimmy Johnson was right at home with the push-button Torqueflite.
[Chrysler publicity photo courtesy of HotRodNostalgia.com]
Based on the stroker motor in Dragmaster's successful Top Gas Dragster, engine-builder Jim Nelson used half-inch M/T arms to squeeze 480 cubes out of three '64-model wedges. The stock radiator was cooled by an electric fan. External cooling came from innovative ducting plumbed from the outboard headlight openings to respective aluminum housings above the headers. The most-exotic components were Weiand's blower manifold and drive, cast frommagnesium to slice a few pounds of
frontal weight. Even equipped with the factory's aluminum Super Stock body package (front fenders, hood and scoop), these 3320-pounders were obviously nose-heavy. At the time, no one suspected that the addition of Ted Cyr's top-mounted GMC 6-71 huffer and Hilborn's dragster injector would revolutionize drag racing, giving birth to the Funny Car — a term that would not be coined until the subsequent season. [Wayne Thoms photo courtesy of HotRodNostalgia.com]
Already an established Top Gas and Top Fuel Dragster winner, popular Jimmy Nix brought star quality to the party. The "Smilin' Okie" would also ruffle factory feathers by switching camshafts without permission (to gain an edge over teammate Jim Johnson), then attempting to transplant a nitro-burning 392 from his AA/Fueler — as we shall see next month, in Part Two. [Chrysler publicity photo courtesy of HotRodNostalgia.com]
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