Hot Rod Museum
NRHA Motorsports MuseumCalifornia has one of the richest racing heritages in the world. For devotees, there is no finer place to pay homage than the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. Here’s why...
Text: Nigel Grimshaw / Photos: Matthew Howell
| January 2011 |
Motor sport, by its very nature, attracts men of passion, commitment and drive. Drag racing is no different. As the founding editor of Hot Rod magazine, Wally Parks, alongside publishers Bob Petersen and Bob Lindsay, helped create one of the world’s best-selling car magazines.
Then, in 1951, Parks went on to establish the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). Parks’ passion was to create a body that would organise hot rodders, and it worked. The NHRA initially set up speed trials on dry lake beds, but it also began getting illegal street racers to abandon the two-lane blacktop and move their racing onto drag strips: the NHRA’s first major drag race was held in April 1953 in the car park of the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, Pomona, California.
Fast-forward 45 years to April 4, 1998, and the opening of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. Fittingly, it too was built at the Pomona Fairgrounds. Housed in an impressive 28,500 square foot building, the new facility set out to celebrate hot rods, customs, racing cars and speed records. If you want to learn about the role that West Coast America played in motor sport and car culture (or how car culture shaped West Coast America!), then this museum is the place to visit.
At its core are the cars themselves: an impressive array of vintage and historic racing machinery rolling out into every corner of the single-storey exhibition space. Special feature displays mean fresh metal is regularly put on show. Period photographs, trophies, helmets, racing overalls, artefacts, paintings and memorabilia complement the vehicles. Pomona is a fitting location for a museum that bears the name of Wally Parks, and the museum itself is a fabulous reflection of the man and his work. |
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1. 1927 Ford Roadster racing special In 1953 Ak Miller (the NHRA’s first vice president) decided to take on the high-priced European sports cars with an all-American hot rod. He entered the ‘Iron Horse’ (el Caballo de Hierro, foreground) in the Carrera Panamericana and drove 3300 miles from Whittier, California, to Mexico, where he finished eighth in the large sports car class and 14th overall. |
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2. Challenger 1 Bonneville streamliner, c1960 Designed, built and driven by Mickey Thompson, Challenger 1 was the very first American-made car to break 400mph. Thompson used four 415ci supercharged Pontiac engines linked to four 1937 Cadillac transmissions, and four-wheel drive. Challenger 1’s best recorded speed was 406.60mph. |
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3. Plymouth Savoy Suddenly, c1957 Like many other auto magazines, Hot Rod built project cars. This is a replica of one such model Wally Parks himself drove to a record of 166mph on Daytona Beach, Florida, during the NASCAR Speed Trials. Powering the car was a 392ci fuel-injected Chrysler Hemi. |
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4. 1923 Ford Model T street roadster, c1948 This backyard-built roadster is typical of the cars at the root of hot rodding. Powered by a 1932 Ford V8 with overhead-exhaust valve conversion, it is in absolutely original condition and looks just as it did when it appeared on the cover of Hot Rod magazine in 1948. |
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5. Melrose Missile Super Stock, c1963 Even Detroit manufacturers got in on the drag act. This was the third in a series sponsored by Plymouth dealer Melrose Motors of Oakland, California, and raced in Super Stock, running its best quarter-mile in 12sec at 118.26mph. Behind sits a recreation of Chevy 2 Much, a 1962 Nova Funny Car. |
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6. Attempt 1 streamliner, c1961 Driven by Mickey Thompson, this set acceleration records at March Air Force Base in California. Using a Dragmaster chassis and 180ci supercharged Pontiac Tempest four-cylinder, its best two-way average for the standing kilometre was 112.088mph. |
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7. 1929 Ford Bonneville roadster, c1957 The brainchild of Howard Leever, Fred Esser and Don Ruter, this set new standards of construction before it even saw Bonneville salt. The bare chassis on its own won the Competition Class at the 1956 Oakland Roadster Show; the complete car took the Best Constructed trophy the next year. It ran a best of 169.17mph using a 335ci
fuel-injected Oldsmobile engine.
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8. Barney Navarro dry lakes/track roadster, c1951 Navarro made tuning accessories and raced his 1927 Model T at the dry lakes and Bonneville. Its de-stroked 176ci flathead V8 was one of the first to use a GMC 3-71 blower and 180-degree crankshaft. The car’s first Bonneville runs ended when the engine caught fire as it was running at about 135mph. |
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9. City of Industry Special, c1965 Built by Frank Kurtis, raced by city councilman SamParriott, and powered by a blown Ford 427ci, this car retired undefeated following wins at the 1963, ’64 and ’65 Winternationals in Pomona, and the 1964 US Nationals at Indianapolis. The ‘pontoon fenders’ were detachable for racing. |
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