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California may have had a lot
of fuel altereds, but they didn't have a lock on 'em.
On these pages, they come from everywhere! From Arizona to Australia,
New England to Jolly Old England!
And if you've already been here,
  
Bob Dunn was already an old hand
at altereds, having previously run a big-block Fiat. When he debuted
this blown Hemi-powered low slung T-bucket, it was considered an instant
knockout. Running from 1973 to 1974, its run ended with a top-end fire
at Surfers Paradise, when Dunn had his hands severly burned. But Bob
Dunn went on to become one of Australia's Funny Car greats in the late
70's.
 
UK's Shutdown AA/FA circa 1971/72. note
Fred Whittle's head protection - or lack of it! Story I seem to remember
was Fred built the car in his front room and then had to knock down
the front of his house to get the car out, probably built it from just
studying photos in Hot Rod. I know very well why the right side of the
photo is missing tho' - I'd cut the pic out of a magazine to stick on
my bedroom wall. Wasn't allowed posters, so had to stick it in a picture
frame, so had to crop the pic to get it to fit in the picture frame.
If only I'd known then how long this obsession with Fuel Altereds would
last.
As for "AC/2"...well back then British
drag racing had ("competition") altereds broken down into four classe,
"A" to "C" - blown nitro down to 6 cylinder gas burners. This later
changed to "Top" down to "Junior". But whether A/CA or T/CA, they
were Fuel Altereds by any other name...And like their American cousins,
they were wild, they were wooly...and the fans and photographers loved
them.
"Shutdown" returns to pits after run, note
ET ticket in driver Mike Hall's mouth. Santa Pod England circe 1974.
Fuel Altereds were known as Top Cometition Altereds (T/CA) in English
drag racing, blown and injected on nitro. Shutdown ran a 392 and was
the biggest (or should that be 'only"?) rival to the Stones' Tee Rat
who, needless to say ran a blown 427 Chevy. We had three, sometimes
four fuel altereds in the UK in early to mid 70's. But just like the
states they all deserted to funny cars.
AB Photo
UK's Shutdown, 1974, new paint scheme,
new owner Mike Hall. Note wheelbase, engine setback, rollcage (is that
a 3 point...or one point?)- missing any radiator shell, but otherwise
classic Fuel Altered look, albeit not up on three wheels or going sideways
- then again, Tee Rat stole all the show when it came to handling...
"Shutdown"
vs "Tee Rat" at Silverstone 1974. No, they weren't about to do a lap
around the circuit - drag racing was held here at this famous track
for a couple years back in the 70's. Great venue, great races, good
ol' days.
Cliff Kiss at Adelaide International.
Cliff was a promising Queensland dragster driver, and teamed up with
Col Neaton to run this wild, tall, blown big block altered, complete
with automatic transmission. The extra punch off the line with the auto
was enough to make this car a favorite with its wild wheels-up launches.
span class="bodytext">Before
they bolted on a blower and ran in Pro Comp, the Page Bros "Panic" looked
like this in 1976...
The
UK's "Panic" running as an AA/A in Pro Comp. The Page Bros had called
all their altereds Panic (dating back to the early 70's and a low budget
Fiat Topolino they ran then) but it was this one that closely resembled
their namesake. Well, imitation is a form of flattery, and I hope Hazen
and Velebil would've been flattered by how far their influence traveled.
Peter Harwood Photo
The
Blown Altered scene in Australia came alive when a young truck driver
from Sydney, converted from racing his street rod, and brought out a new
altered. Graeme Cowin blown small-block T-bucket, dubbed 'Psycho II',
complete with Willie Borsch-style wing, set a trend in Australia. After
a couple months sorting-out, Cowin ran a 9.82/161.57 at Sydney's Castlereagh
track in February of 1971, becoming the first blown altered into the 9's,
and fanning the flames of the altered movement.
Graeme later built 'Psycho III',
a blown, nitro-burning Hemi T-bucket which made its first appearance
in the first half of '73, with 8.3 second, 186 mph runs. Cowin continually
improved upon these times, running into the 7's and over 200 mph in
1974, setting a national speed record. 'Psycho III' had a best of
7.5 seconds at 207 mph, but suffered horrendous breakage in the process.
Late in 1974, Graeme Cowin made the move into Funny Cars, which is
where most of you probably remember him from, and his son Andrew,
currently running a limited schedule in Top Fuel.
John 'Crazyman' Taylor ran true
to name in a a car out-dated from its debut in 1971. The Fiat ran a
blown 331 Chrysler in a chassis originally designed for a carbureted
Y-block Ford, and was barely up to the punishment of the overweight
Hemi, resulting in regular rewelding of chassis bits which had broken
over the previous month or two...
Taylor followed Graeme Cowin into
the 9 second bracket with this car, and developed a reputation as the
nearest thing Australia had to 'Wild Willie'. One night at Castlereagh,
the announcer called out over the PA, "And here comes that crazy man
again!" Taylor thought that was so funny, he had "The Crazyman" lettered
on his Fiat, and toured the country, north to south, east to west making
fire burnouts his specialty.
'Tee
Rat' gets pushed back to pits after run at Santa Pod circa 1974.
See Shutdown...for explanation of class letters on car...you called 'em
AA/FA we called 'em A/CA and then later T/CA
Fuel
Altereds handled the same the world over. Dave Stone in Tee Rat Santa
Pod Raceway England 1974
David G Watts photo
Nice startline shot of Tee
Rat burning out at Santa Pad in the early 70's. Nearly 30 years later
that 'shed' in the background is still the same at SPR. There's some
hardcore fans who wouldn't watch the drags from anywhere else-great
atmosphere under that old tin roof, and I just don't mean from all the
burnt rubber and nitro...also the only place to go at SPR when it rains,
which happens a lot.
Dave Stone in his new Tee Rat 1975.
Car had to run against the funnies, but could still beat them. Sadly,
the Stones soon joined the funnies when they swopped TeeRat for Stardust
- Don Schumacher's funny that Santa Pod Raceway had bought a couple
of years earlier. And so ended 'fuel altereds' in England. Later we
too had a 'transformer' (funny by day - AA/FA by night...so to speak)
and more recently we've had a few guys running so-called fuel altereds.
Georgett
Brothers...a Chrysler wedge with an automatic didn't make this Fiat the
fastest, but it was as squirrley as any other Altered...
Sneaky
T
UK's 'other fuel altered' Sneaky
T of Phil Elson (yellow car- 1972) (psych car- 1974) Never a threat
to Tee Rat or Shutdown though, maybe got into the eights before turning
to Funny Cars...
Jim Walton had no idea that he would
become one of the legends of Australian drag racing when he started
racing in 1971. Here, Jim figures he can afford to smile, in spite of
a shattered blower.
Kerry
Johnson in 1978...
Phil
Olive demonstrates it was still possible to run on a shoe-string budget
in the early 80's.
Jim
Reed oils down the track, with what was usually a very reliable car...
 this
way to home, that way, to International 2!
Jim Sorenson
global@mysterion.net
Awful
Awful Fuel Altereds © 1999-2007 Jim Sorenson
all rights reserved.
Images are used by permission of copyright holders,
and may not be reproduced in any form, without express written permission.
All
text is either copyright 1999-2007, Jim Sorenson or used by permission.
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