20 November 2010
by John Connolly, "The Australian"
THE great part about visiting Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is all the nearby murder, Korean food and tequila. But of course the real reason we are here is the National Hot Rod Association Sixty Years of Thunder exhibition that opened last week.
Drag racing has always been looked down on in Australia by people who have never been out to the track to see a 5000kW top-fuel dragster cover a quarter-mile (400m) in 4.4 seconds at more than 530km/h. By comparison, the world’s greatest car, the Mercedes SLS AMG, is only slightly slower at 11.6 seconds over the same distance.
In case you have never been, a drag race is an acceleration contest from a standing start over a measured distance between two vehicles on a track, or drag strip. The two best things about drag racing are being able to talk to the drivers and pit crew, and the smell (not of the pit crew, and I wouldn’t get too close to the ones with beards).
The biggest names in US drag racing are Don “the Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen. One writer has described them as “men who lived without limits, or fear”. This was particularly true in the early days of racing, when the drivers had the very explosive engine between their legs.
Of the two, Prudhomme remains the real legend. Not only did he have a 30-plus year winning career, but he still owns a very successful racing team.
Don looked super sharp last Wednesday when he opened Sixty Years of Thunder. This was in stark contrast to your correspondent.
You see, the day started with a panel discussion between the Snake and the Mongoose about how they used to travel from town to town, doing local talk shows to pump up their contests in the same style as professional wrestlers. They then went into business together as WildLife Racing and did a very smart marketing deal with Mattel’s Hot Wheels toys.
After the panel discussion I slipped out for some tapas and Spanish wine at Cobras and Matadors (you’ll get the point of this in a minute).
The tapas were fine but because the restaurant is unlicensed, every time you wanted a drink you had to buy it from the liquor store next door. Naturally I went around the corner to El Carmen, where they serve 270 different kinds of tequila, from Patron to Chichicapa. I had only got to No 134 when I had to go back to the museum for the pre-buffet cocktails with an all-star cast including Don, Tom and Carroll Shelby.
In 1968 the Snake and Shelby, the Cobra’s creator (get it?), teamed up. Don drove Shelby’s Super Snake at the Winternationals. Of course, Don won the race and drove the rest of the season under the Shelby banner.
Last year Don and Shelby launched the 2010 Shelby GT500 Super Snake. Don says if you are a nancy boy you can buy the 450kW version that keeps the Ford warranty, but real men will go for the over-600kW (on race fuel) model. Carroll, who is now 87 but looks 100, said that when he went for a ride with his car boss Amy Boylan on Highway 13 in California he asked how fast they were doing. Amy said: “265km/h . . . can’t you see the speedo?” “See the speedo? At my age I can’t even see the highway,” said Carroll.
If you already have a Shelby GT, Carroll says he will upgrade it for you for slightly under $100,000 USD or sell you a new car for $150,000 USD. Don reckons the best part about the car is that it’s just like the old days “when you could race and win at the track and drive it home after”. Catch the exhibition until May 29 next year.