Forty-five years on, the Goodwood Festival of Speed featured Mooneyes in a celebration of drag racing’s general introduction to the British public. More than that, though, the diminutive Chevy gasser was joined by 10 more historic dragsters including the legendary #25, Art Chrisman’s beautiful 1953 car, and the “Glass Slipper,” Ed Cortopassi’s 1956 vintage fuel dragster and the first streamliner, along with a bunch of nitro burning fuelers. British ex-pat Tony Thacker, now Executive Director of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, put together a stunning team of men and machines which he said gave “a snapshot of the history of Top Fuel drag racing.” And he was right…
Better yet, they didn’t just come for us to stand and gawp at, a drag strip start line was recreated at Goodwood and these amazing cars literally blew fans away with some good ol’ nostalgia style nitro thunder - mind blowing, ground pounding cackle sessions twice daily throughout the three-day Festival of Speed held in July.
These historic drag racing machines, for me and many other straight line fans provided the most outrageous display ever seen at this prestigious event – cacklefest, the sound, the smell and the ground pounding fury of nitro power from the NHRA.
It was a thrill to see Art Chrisman working on the famous No. 25 at Goodwood.
From the driver’s seat, a face full of gauges. The two rusty dashboard nuts must have come from the sea crossing or our damp weather.
Hot Rod Magazine called Art Chrisman’s flathead Ford #25 car “the West’s most fabulous dragster” when it featured the beautiful 140-mph flathead-powered machine on the coverof its May 1953 issue. This iconic car had made the first pass at the NHRA’s first U.S.Nationals at Great Bend, Kansas, in 1955 [with hemi power], at the 25th annual U.S. Nat’s in 1979, and again at the recent 50th anniversary US Nat’s.