Drag Racing's Quarter-Mile Warriors II & Early Funny Cars 1964-1975 2 Book Set

Drag racing fans have a fondness for the drag cars that competed during the sport’s golden era (from the late 1950s through the 1970s). The cars were simpler to understand and, in many classes, were similar to cars that people saw on the street. A Pro Stock car in the early 1970s resembled a street car with big slicks and a massive engine. Today’s Pro Stock cars look more like fighter jets than street cars. The newer cars just aren’t as relatable as those from the past.

With the evolution of technology and the sanctioning bodies constantly changes class rules, drag cars often don’t last very long before they are no longer competitive or a sanctioning body has outlawed the tech that the car features. So, what happens to all of these old race cars? Some sit in a shed, some are dismantled and parted out, and some still race in small events or vintage events across the country.

In Drag Racing’s Quarter-Mile Warriors: Volume II, prolific veteran drag racing author Dog Boyce chronicles even more of the most popular cars from the sport’s golden era. Rail cars, Funny Cars, Altereds, Junior Stocks, and Super Stocks are all covered here―more than 80 of them in a “then and now” format. A blend of vintage and modern photos tell the story of the racing lives of these cars.

Blast through the evolving early years of Funny Car drag racing when door slammers morphed into flip-top rail monsters. The era features historic mounts from Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick, Al “the Flying Dutchman” Vanderwoude, "Jungle" Jim Liberman, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, and many more!

The metamorphosis from door slammers to fiberglass flip-top dragsters wasn’t ever a cut and dry plan. As drag racers pushed the envelope for more speed, a series of innovations quickly evolved and refined the genre.

Funny Cars cut their teeth in the A/Factory Experimental (A/FX) and Experimental Stock (X/S) classes in 1964 with the 2-percent Mopars that looked funny with their axles moved forward. However, it was Jack Chrisman’s supercharged, nitro-fueled 427 Supercharged Factory Experimental (S/FX) Comet Caliente that trailblazed the class on which the NHRA turned its back and the AHRA fully accepted. Showmanship became the draw in the dawn of Funny Car with half-track burnouts and flame-throwing headers that packed fans five deep at the fence.

By 1969, the NHRA had no choice but to create a class for these nitro-breathing, flip-top-sporting rail bruisers, indoctrinating the Funny Car (F/C) class at the Winternationals with 40 cars vying for 16 places in the field. The rest, as they say, is history!

• This is the most comprehensive book ever on the early
years of Funny Car
• Funny Cars are the most popular variation of drag cars
• Tens of millions of fans have seen Funny Cars race