IT’S HARD TO imagine, but Ivan Thompson has a drag racing machine he won’t drive.
Long one of the top drag racers in the area, Thompson has driven roadsters, fuel dragsters and other fast cars, but he is content to do the work on his latest machine and leave the driving to someone else.
Just about a year ago, Thompson, who with his brother Gary operates Thompson Auto Service at 2118 Meriden Rd., bought a funny car. It was in pieces after the clutch blew during a run at the nationals at Indianapolis, and the flying debris cut the frame in two, besides wrecking the fiberglass body.
Thompson had it rebuilt and has run it three times this year without a great deal of success.
“I took it to Dallas twice and to Kansas City once,” he said of the Chevrolet-powered machine. “On one trip to Dallas we coughed the blower off just like happened at Indianapolis the other day when that photographer got killed,” he said.
THE DRIVER HE had for that trip quit on the spot. It was his first run in a funny car, and he decided it would be his last.
A funny car is powered by the same type engine that powers a AA/Fuel dragster, only the funny car has a body that resembles a compact car, so is much shorter than a dragster. A funny car’s wheelbase can be no longer than 125 inches, and most are 118 inches. A dragster has a 225-inch wheelbase, thus giving it more stability and better steerability.
“At 41, I’m just to old for these things,” Thompson said nodding toward his funny car resting on stands without its body. “I doubt that I could have driven on when I was at my best.”
Thompson can describe what it’s like in the cockpit, though and it is no wonder a funny car driver must pass a rigid test to get a license and then take an airline pilot-type physical every two years to keep the license.
“THE FIRST THING you do is make a couple of burn-out runs,” Thompson relates. “These are not just to make some smoke. They are to lay down two tracks of rubber to start on. When you back the car up for the start, your crew makes sure both back tires are on those rubber tracks.
“That’s what keeps on going straight for the first 100 yards before you can begin steering the car. Then besides making sure you are on the rubber, your crew has to make sure you are aimed straight down the strip. Just a few degrees off and you can be in big trouble when you come off the line.
“When you get staged (on the line ready to go) you rev up until you just feel the car trying to override the brakes. When the green comes on you release the brake, grab the steering wheel and push the throttle all the way down.
“As soon as you can, you reach down and pull the shift lever back so you are in second gear. The quicker you get in second, the faster you will go. But you have to make sure you have control of the car enough so you can steer with one hand for that split second you are shifting.”
THE REST IS just like a ride, eh? Not quite. For one thing the driver must keep the throttle wide open until the run is completed, or he’s likely to windup second. Then at the end, besides popping the drag chute to slow the car, the fuel must be switched off, so the engine stops from lack of fuel.
“If you cut the magneto, you probably will get a backfire, and that will cough off the blower,” Thompson says.
The engine is so powerful; a backfire usually tears something loose, and more times than not it’s the super-charger.
How powerful is the engine? “They say from 1,500 to 1,800 horsepower.” Thompson says. “No one has an engine dyno that will go that high and besides, you can’t run this engine long enough to get a reading.”
That’s one drawback of owning such a machine. The whole rig will run $25,000 to $28,00 new and much of that is in the engine. Thompson’s has a solid aluminum block. It runs on nitro methane fuel and holds eight quarts of oil.
“After two runs, that’s 12 seconds of running, you’ve got to tear the engine down and check the pistons,” Thompson says. “Go much longer than that and you’re going to burn a piston for sure.”
AFTER EACH run, the oil must be changed. “While idling so much unburned fuel runs down into the oil that it is diluted quite a bit,” Thompson explains.
Couple this with the cost of fuel, now $22,50 per gallon, the price of parts and it is understandable why Thompson doesn’t race his car more often. Each quarter-mile run burns six gallons of fuel, by the way.
“The only ones making any money are those with big sponsors,” Thompson says. “You can have some fun and come out okay with match races around your home area, but otherwise it’s strictly a hobby.
“The reason I got into it was I just wanted to put one together and make it go. I’m just getting my feet wet in this business, so I’m taking it easy right now.
“I suppose I’ll run it next season. There are about eight meets I could go to within 500 miles of here. It takes about all my spare time for a week to get it ready for a meet, so that is enough racing. I know a fellow down in Arkansas who wanted to drive it and I think he can do a pretty good job.”
It’s hard to imagine Ivan Thompson at a drag meet and not running his own car, but time does go by.
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