60s Funny Cars

Russell Liberman topped our poll as the number one funny car racer of the 1960s. There is not much more that could be said about Russell Liberman, the man. Liberman ranked number 17 on the list of top NHRA drivers, had two NHRA national events victories (one of those as an owner), and an infamous legacy rivaling that of a rock star. Russell began his funny car career in such cars as the “Hercules,” the “Gypsy” Corvette, and the “Brutus” GTO. Russell’s stardom skyrocketed when he built the first “Jungle Jim” Chevy II. By 1969, “Jungle Jim’s” long, smoking burnouts (some preceded by a fire burnout), high-speed backups, and long, twisting wheelstands had cemented his place as a popular racer with the fans.

The showmanship had previously been backed up with average finishes, but these stopped in 1969. Russell had two Chevrolet powered Novas in 1969 with Clare Sanders in the second car. The two started the year off with a bang with Sanders beating Jungle at Pomona for the Winternationals title. Liberman then went on the match race circuit to win countless races, running the best of 7.28, 198.64. By the end of 1969, Jungle had one of the most successful years in history for a Chevy powered funny car. Liberman knew that the day of the successful Chevy powered engine in AA/FC was limited. By the end of the next year, “Jungle “ had switched to the Hemi.
 

Gene Snow ranks second in our listing of top ‘60s funny car stars for his “Rambunctious” Dodges. Snow went through the ranks of Super Stocks, F/Xs, and flip-top funny cars. Even though Gene won the U.S. Nationals twice in a row in ‘66 and ‘67 with his Dodge, it was his ‘69 Mini-Charger that makes this list. The second Charger, the mini-version, replaced the full sized one he debuted at the end of ‘68. Snow had been working on the direct drive Crowerglide setup and perfected it with the ‘69 Charger. Snow has never been known to shy away from a new idea. The Mini-Charger ran a best E.T. of 7.13 at 213.27 M.P.H. The car would leave the line behind the automatic transmission funny cars of the day and charge by them on the big end. The car was one of first funny cars to top the 200 M.P.H. barrier and Snow did it on a regular basis.

When the Ford Motor Company commissioned Logghe Stamping Company to build four Mercury Comets, drag racing would change forever. The four Comets, raced by Don Nicholson, Ed Schartman, Jack Chrisman, and Kenz & Leslie, were far ahead of the competition in technology. They were even ahead of fellow FoMoCo racers who were racing Holman-Moody Mustangs. The three had everybody else catching up to them in 1966. The best known of these four funny cars was Don Nicholson’s “Eliminator I.” The Comet’s debut was less than graceful when the body came unlatched and flew off. Ford engineers burned the damaged body on the spot.

The car was fixed and the “Eliminator I” went on a tear, breaking into the sevens with a best of 7.89, 178 at Atco in early ‘67. In 1966, Nicholson was able to hold off the heavier stock bodied cars despite using an injected engine. The several hundred pound weight advantage clearly helped, but it having Earl Wade tuning for him did not hurt. By 1967, the competition caught up with a new generation of new flip top cars. By the end of the decade, Nicholson left funny car racing to help form the Pro Stock class.
 

The "Bronco Buster" was a loosely aligned Ford project for Doug Nash. Nash had previously raced an A/FX Comet for Mercury. The wild "Bronco Buster" featured a scary thin aluminum tube chassis that enabled the car and driver to weigh in the 1700-pound range. An injected 289 Ford small block was run at first in 1966. A supercharger was added by the end of 1966 season. The "Bronco Buster" was sometimes erratic, but it did run a few low 8-second runs. In fact Draglist.com records show that the car ran 8.68 with injectors, but 8.33 181.45 with the supercharger. In 1967, Doug Nash received a death notice for the "Bronco Buster" from NHRA, which outlawed both pickup truck funny cars and aluminum frames. Doug left the driver’s seat to build his famed 5-speed transmission used by many sportsman racers.
 

Dave Zachary dared to be different with his Cadillac Eldorado funny car. Zachary built the chassis for the car and transformed the heavy body into a one-piece flip top shell. The chassis was built out of square tubing. Zachary himself built an injected Chevrolet engine for the car. The Eldo was not a great winner nor did it put up big numbers. Draglist.com files show that the heavy car ran 9.71 at 144.51. Zachary was later killed when the car rolled and the cage failed.
 

Ron Pellegrini started off with an altered wheelbased 392 Chrysler Mustang, then built a couple of Buicks. The "Beware" Buick Rivera featured a wild narrowed body made by Pellegrini that lifted from the back. Romeo Palamides built the car’s chassis with several other tricks. It was a dragster style chassis, so it lacked connecting uprights. This problem led to excessive chassis flexing and made the steering basically useless! The "Beware" Buick met its end at the famed Rockford Dragway, but a few scant years later, all funny cars were built similar to the "Beware.” Ron Pellegrini did run 7.70 at 190 before the accident.
 

The "CKC" funny car team was the most well known fuel team to come out of San Antonio. "CKC" did not start in funny cars; they began in dragsters with Buddy Cortines driving the little small block Chevy powered dragster. J.E. Kristek did the tuning while Fritz Callier provided most of the money. The team jumped on the funny car wagon with a rare Bill Thomas built Nova in 1965 and Fritz Callier took over the driving. Cortines went on to drive other Texas Top Fuelers. The “CKC” machine became one of the best match racers in the Texas area. In 1967, they ordered a new Camaro from famed chassis builder Don Hardy. The team joined the AHRA tour as one of its feature performers, running a best of 7.66 under Chevy power. The team had great success on the match race trail, as well. "CKC" later switched to Hemis and raced into the mid seventies.

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