in 1982 Prudhomme and crew chief Bob Brandt bolted up a fake nitrous bottle with a clearly plumbed line running from an nitrous bottle to the fuel pump– and the team made a great show of “turning on” the bottle on the starting line in front of everyone – the bottle was empty, the system a ruse

Even though there was a clearly plumbed line running from an nitrous bottle to the fuel pump – and the team made a great show of “turning on” the bottle on the starting line in front of everyone – and even though they had done basic experimentation with nitrous in testing, Prudhomme and crew chief Bob Brandt

The fake setup was a smoke screen to mask the new vane-style aircraft fuel pump – as opposed to a traditional gear pump -- that the team had begun running

https://www.nhra.com/news/2012/1982-indy-nitrous-nationals-or-not

Don Prudhomme, Mickey Thompson, Ed Iskenderian, Vic Edelbrock Sr. and CJ Pappy Hart are the first Lions Automobilia Hall of Fame inductees

 https://www.sema.org/news-media/enews/2022/48/racing-news-don-prudhomme-joins-first-lions-automobilia-class

the famous Greer-Black-Prudhomme dragster

 won 240 of 250 career races – and four of those losses were to jet cars

that's 96% winning record. 

https://www.fuelcurve.com/black-magic-keith-black/

The “fireball” race car, of Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, and how only one kid was able to get a photo of it, in the air, nothing touching the ground, around 200mph, ablaze

At that 1971 event at SIR was a young boy going to the drags with his father. They had heard about the Northwest Open on the radio with all the big-time racers and decided to check it out.

The father and son duo had spent the whole day at SIR taking in the sights and sounds of the drags and just having a great time. The pits were socked full of fuel dragsters and funny cars as they were readying their machines for the finals.

When the pair were ready to leave SIR back then, this young boy had asked his father to back down the convertible, with the top down, near the finish line so he could see Prudhomme making his run.

 Gene Beaver and the Condit Brothers in the L.A Hooker and Prudhomme were getting set for the final round of competition. This young boy was in the back seat of his father’s convertible and, as the two funny cars roared down the track, he took his little camera and snapped one final picture, the only one he had left.

 That photograph was of Prudhomme’s funny car exploding, and on fire, with the front wheels (and even the back wheels) completely off the ground. The “fireball” race car came roaring by dad’s convertible and the young son was standing on the back seat aiming his camera. One little click by this young boy and an amazing, one of a kind photo had taken place. What incredible timing!! It took about 5 seconds for the funny cars to travel the quarter mile back then. This one photo was taken when the both cars were directly in front of that young boy

Kenny Youngblood was commissioned to make that photo into a painting, and that painting was given to Don in 1994 as he retired from driving dragsters, and switched to owning a race car team

http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-3-of-5.htm
http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-4-of-5.htm
http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-5-of-5.htm

Hat tip to https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2015/05/fuel-leak.html

I gotta show some love for this unknown artist that spiced up a magazine page about ET rims with a drawing of Don Prudhomme, his top fueler, and the snake

found on the always awesome StiffSpeed facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=855273588155844&set=gm.1727341017412507&type=3&permPage=1&ifg=1

Glory days

http://cncenginedynamics.tumblr.com/

I heard the story, and now here's the photo, of Don Prudhomme and the rabbit he caught that was delaying racing. Do you know how damn fast you have to be to catch a rabbit?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/permalink/1604474039699206/

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2018/08/05/50-years-hasnt-slowed-don-the-snake-prudhomme

streamlined dragsters that were evolutionary dead ends

those are some strange front rims

http://georgeklass.net/dragsters.html
http://taylor3502.rssing.com/chan-67326881/all_p2.html

Funny car forensics

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/permalink/1595896023890341/

Did you hear... Don Prudhomme got tired of being retired, and went Baja racing a Polaris RZR in the Mexican 1000? 50 years after he raced as co-driver in the Baja 1000 in Steve McQueens buggy

In 1968, Prudhomme entered the Mexican 1000 Baja race in a Porsche-powered buggy built by racing innovator Tony Nancy and owned by actor Steve McQueen. Shortly before the race, McQueen had a movie conflict so Nancy reached out to Prudhomme to fill the seat as the co-driver.

That is 2018 Polaris RZR 1000 prepped by P.J. Jones (Parnelli's son) of PJ’s Performance in Mesa, Ariz., and will race in the Stock Turbo UTV class.

https://www.norra.com/release_2018_04_11.php
http://www.roadkill.com/the-time-don-prudhomme-filled-in-for-steve-mcqueen/

Murray Eliminator - Don the Snake Prudhomme "Snake Bite II" edition bike

http://www.rrcbicyclesuperstore.com/mueldonsnprt.html

'I told him, 'All I want to do is a burnout' and he built a fucking Rolex watch' : Don Prudhomme on the Ed Pink rebuild of the Shelby Super Snake dragster 427

This time when he chose a race car to restore from the many he’s owned and driven, Prudhomme picked the front-engine Shelby Super Snake that he drove in 1968 and ’69 (he also drove it in 1967 before the Shelby sponsorship as the Baney-Prudhomme dragster).

Shelby brought sponsorship to what had been called the Baney-Prudhomme dragster in 1967 and Prudhomme drove what then became the Shelby Super Snake during the 1968-69 seasons. With it he won races across the country. The team was the winningest team in the nation at that time. The car also won “Best Engineered” at both Bakersfield and at the Winternationals.

“Man, you should’ve seen the flames comin’ up outta this thing,” he said when we visited his shop recently, his hand reaching way up over his head as he stood next to the car. “Imagine sittin’ in there, way down there, and these towering columns of fire are blastin’ out of each pipe on both sides. Man.”

So Prudhomme set about getting it re-restored. But that took a longer time than he was used to. Don Long, the original builder, did the chassis. “Wild” Bill Carter painted the body.

“He’s in a walker, a f****** walker, and he insists on doing the painting himself,” said Prudhomme of Carter. “He does a few swipes, moves the walker, does a few more swipes…”

Ed Pink did the engine.

“Ed worked on it for at least a year and a half,” Prudhomme said. “My patience is not that great. I’m used to four f****** seconds.”

The process was very thorough.  “(Ed Pink Racing general manager) Frank (Honsowetz) said, ‘Well, we had to do special rollers, special this and special that.’ I said, ‘Frank, all I want to do is a burnout.”

But the result is a beautiful engine, one which could probably do a whole season of racing just as it sits in the restored car.

“This thing is a f****** Rolex watch,” Prudhomme said of the engine. “I told him, ‘All I want to do is a burnout’ and he built a f****** Rolex watch.”

http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/don-snake-prudhomme-brings-back-shelby-super-snake

testing the wheelie bars

https://www.facebook.com/If-It-Has-Wheels-Then-RACE-It-973755609342695/?fref=photo

70's original kit

Found on https://www.facebook.com/That70sPage?fref=photo

Snake's wedge... sold on ebay for $120

Found on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-Travelers-come-travel-back-in-time/284477301577152?ref=stream

Don Prudhomme is now tackling the restoration of the top fuel Super Snake, and can still count on Ed Pink and Don Long to do their magic on the engine and body. A trifecta of originals

image from my post of classic dragstrip funny cars and top fuelers of the golden age: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/some-of-coolest-dragsters-diggers.html

Prudhomme’s putting his old body shop skills to use removing the paint and filler on the aluminum skin. The dragster is all apart now, the chassis back with its father, Don Long, the engine being assembled by Ed Pink, just like in the old days. “I needed Pink and Long to do it,” Prudhomme says, “Because then it’s blessed. I might even be able to get the son of the original painter to paint it.”

 News from, and article at:
http://www.hotrod.com/features/don-prudhomme-restoring-the-1968-shelby-super-snake-dragster/?adbid=10152438549532540&adbpl=fb&adbpr=13601527539&sm_id=social_aumohotrodsshub_default_20141217_37466737

Hot Wheels Snake and Mongoose drag race set

Found on http://vandertorque.tumblr.com/

Don Prudhomme's amazing double duo didn't get over reserve at auction, but Rick Hendrick arranged a purchase anyhow

photo from http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/18/barrett-jackson-2014-snake-and-mongoose-video/

good stuff from Jim and Chester's Garage blog

Mercury stocker... wow, talk about a heavy car to get started with!

an original Hertz rental car from the golden days of rent-a-racer Shelbys

Playmate June Cochran in a Plymouth Sport Fury go cart. All the photos from this photo shoot are at https://www.facebook.com/pg/Jrcentraldotcom/photos/?tab=album&album_id=371851489609275

the whole Hurst line up... that is the first time I've ever seen all of these

just a sample of why I still like http://prova275.tumblr.com