Thread: Another legend just passed away.

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Sad to hear that Art Arfons just died. Seems like these guys are leaving us at an alarming rate lately. For those not familiar with the man, he came out of the same era as Don Garlits and others of that time. I remember an article in a very old hot rod magazine where he brought his Green Monster dragster out to play with Don, and I think only traction kept him from winning that day. He bolted huge aircraft engines and jet engines behind him on his huge creations and blasted down the strip. He later went after land speed records.

Here is a site with more info on his life. Rest in Peace, Art.

http://www.speedace.info/art_arfons.htm

Don

R.I.P.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtUB1yI035g

That's sad; he was an interesting character.

I got to see him run once years ago at the Indiana State Fair tractor pull. All those multi-engined tractors would make a pull (most of them unsuccessfully), immediately kill the engines at the end of the run, and wait while their crew came out with a garden tractor to tow them back to the pits. When it was Art's turn, he calmly pulled the sled out the other end with the turbines screaming and pouring black smoke. When he stopped, the field crew unhooked the sled and he very smootly drove the Green Monster back to his pit with the turbines barely whistling. I was impressed both by the appearance of the tractor (it was beautiful) and the smoothness with which it operated.

He was truly a mechanical genius. R.I.P. Art...

That is sad to hear. I remember him most from his land-speed record attempts. He set the pace for all those who followed him. Just another sad sign that we are all aging, some of us faster than others.

no way!!! the green monster, had one of 1st jet cars ever to be on a drag strip....r.i.p. in case some of you guys didnt hear, evel knievel died the other day to

I lived in Indianapolis in the late 50's and got to see the Green Monster run at the Airport Strip .It was an awesome running machine and the sound would deaffen you.

RIP my friend

If memory serves me correctly, he showed up at US 30 Dragstrip in Gary, Ind one time with a jet powered go kart, after bringing it to the startingline, they decided not to let him run it. How cool would THAT have been!!!

US 30... That's another legend that has passed. For those that remember the place, here are a couple of websites.

http://www.geocities.com/grc46250/us30
http://www.lostindiana.net/html/us_30_drag_strip.html

Rip

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

US 30... That's another legend that has passed. For those that remember the place, here are a couple of wesites.

http://www.geocities.com/grc46250/us30
http://www.lostindiana.net/html/us_30_drag_strip.html

Thanks for the links... now I'm ready to cry Spent alot of time going there when I was young. They held the Funny Car Nats there in I think, 1971. My dad took me there, I was 5! Went there till probably 76 or 77 then the crowd got not so family friendly for a while. I was actually there my senior year of highschool in 84 a few times. Didn't know that was the last year it was open, I left for the Navy in june of that year. The "Good ole days" man... Thanks again for the memories!

In 1958 I was fortunate to watch the Arfons boys at the NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City. The rear end in our roadster sort of came un-glued during time trials so I had plenty of time to stand around their (Arfons') pit area gawking and rubber-necking like a dang goose. As far as I know, nobody laughed at me because everybody else was doing the same thing.

The Green monster didn't win because of transmission failure (putting the ponies generated by 1710 cubic inches on the ground seemed to have presented a bit of a problem). I have it in my head that they somehow adapted a clutch setup out of a tug boat to hold all that power.

Uncle Bob ....... can you bear me out on that? Or is that BS.

Arfons did have top speed at the meet. 161 MPH if I remember. Cyr and Hopper won top eliminator with their blown 392 powered slingshot.

The thing I remember most about the Allison powered cars (other than their appearance) was the way they sounded. Sort of gave everybody goose bumps.

Thanks for that memory, Mr. Arfons!

Jim