Thread: Drag Racing Glory Days?

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I stumbled across this and thought some others would enjoy it! I loved it when the chutes are out and the cars are dancing!

Video: Mickey Thompson And His

That is some good footage of the Mickey Thompson car! Neat seeing the good old Cammer engine, too. Thanks for digging it up!

I've watched it 4 or 5 times !

Neat vid Mike.

Thompson was a study in intensity.........he knew how to get the job done, no matter the job.

Very cool video, Mike. Thanks for posting.

I don't remember exactly which Mickey car back then, but one of them was built with a LOTTTTTTT of titanium---

"....Thompson was a study in intensity.........he knew how to get the job done, no matter the job......"


Totally agree Bob. I read his book "Challenger" years ago (wish I could justify what they are getting for a copy of it now LOL). His innovations in Land Speed, Drag Racing, Indy 500 racing, HEMI head conversions for FE and Pontiac engines, tire development, and manufacturing and so mush other stuff puts him right up there as one of my heros.

It makes you wonder what else he would have given up if he had had more time.

All I remember was M/T got shot.Honestly that's all I remember.Was that mystery ever solved??.

The last, big business venture (at least known publicly) was stadium racing...........he's the one that made that work too. Speculation on his death centers around disgruntled business "associates"...............somebody must have believed they'd been screwed.....big time.

Wikipedia:

On January 4, 2007 a jury found Michael Goodwin guilty of two counts of murder in the death of Mickey Thompson and his wife. Goodwin was sentenced to two consecutive life-without-parole terms for the murders of Thompson and his wife.

Goodwin was Mickey's former business partner, who lost a $500k civil case for stealing funds from the partnership in the mid-80's.

He was an amazing man and there were amazing times! Technologies were jumping by leaps and bounds and he was pushing the envelope all the time. I read his book from/at the library years back. Imagine what racing might be if he wasn't stolen from us!

Is it just me ....or did they use a "gas burning, four-speed, sound track", when the Mustang was going downtrack??? {:-(

Wasn't the shooter an ex brother in law????
Mickey Thompson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

well wasn't a b n law but this is very informative artical

I was only involved once in the same building at the same time with Mickey, and we were discussing the front suspensions on one of the off road SCORE trucks--I asked him why he was only using ford 9 in when lots of off road guys were using the much bigger rears/fronts--He said "Jerry, when you have two of them doing the work , they don't have to be real big." of course we all know the Ford 9er is strongest rear out there---

I just watched it again and the soundtrack isn't much to start with and these little speakers on this laptop make it worse! Everytime I see it, I see something new! Like there's someone holding 2 monkeys! And it must've been windy maybe as the chute really lifts the rear axle fully off the ground in one shot and someone else loses their chute. YIKES! LOL.

This car came from my own favorite time... the late sixties! The changes that came in the next few years killed many of the things I loved so much.

Ohio George killed AA/Gas with his turboed Mustang...

Garlits brought an end to the slingshot fuelers...

Jenkins made the panel car the future form of Pro Stocks...

Funny cars abandoned using the corporate engines that matched the body, and all went to the same basic engine...

The automatics and slider clutches were removing the violent shifts and tire smoke from drag racing...

and the need for contingency money and sponsors turned the racers from show cars to billboards.

The Golden Age ended then.