Killer shows — has always been one of the most important components of any motorsport distsipliny.V Otherwise, the desire of men to measure the size of his ego with each other not be collected tens of thousands of fans at the event and the huge audience at their television screens.
With this component in drag racing, things could not be better: the smoke from his baggy slicks, nitromethane pillars of flame, rushing from the cylinders into the atmosphere, and acceleration, familiar only to pilots of fighter jets. Particularly pleased that this view is held almost non-stop, and the audience does not come through force unstick forever in the expectation that there will be something really exciting. And get used to the shock waves that generate mnogolitrovye motors are much more difficult than to the mournful howl of engines, «Formula 1».
By the mid-sixties, Bill Golden has already achieved considerable prestige in American drag racing and would be on a different account in Chrysler. That is why, deploying a full-scale campaign to promote the market of their pickups, Dodge bosses decided to turn to the services of the rider. And if the model D-100 had already become familiar on the Strip, the cabover A-100 used among fans of zero-speed popular.
How do I get to go quickly to the delight of the audience korotkobazny pickup having aerodynamics and weight distribution newsstand infinitely far from ideal, initially ideas, Bill had no absolutely no. But the solution came in the course of the play. At the Golden Chrysler engineers equipped the pensioner's car spatial tubular frame and the home row «Six» no regrets deleted in favor of the most powerful engine in the product line of the auto giant from Detroit, who placed behind the cockpit, with the redrawing thoroughly body. Further, in order to facilitate the entire door structure were replaced with fiberglass counterparts and are useless in odinnadtsatisekundnom journey attributes as a spare wheel, instrument panel, front bumper, headlights and rubber seals were ruthlessly removed.
In this configuration, the Little Red Wagon flew kvoter eleven seconds of the average speed of 120 mph with the finish. Due to the 90-dyumovoy wheelbase and mass distribution in favor of the rear axle, the pickup was very prone to tearing of the front wheels throughout the race, making it virtually unmanageable. The problem was solved with the help of the rear subframe tiltable. Later, for this purpose have been used all the usual wheelie bars. Well, until the pile was transferred engine with two four-barrel carburetor on vosmidrosselny inlet.
Initially dregster designed specifically for the results at the finish, but in 1965 AHRA Grand American all changed dramatically. Little Red Wagon demonstrated then quite ordinary performance, but Golden casually turned seven (!) Times during that fateful arrival to tear the front wheels from the surface of the strip, each time carving sparks steel subframe. To say that the audience was delighted with this presentation — to say nothing. It was necessary to have recourse to the police to somehow calm down the exultant crowd. And that's when inspiration overtook Bill: «I was put in the cockpit, to draw the attention of potential buyers is absurd bucket of nuts. I think I found the best way to do this. »
To start the driver rear axle equipped with powerful disc brakes, each of which had its own separate path and manage the property arm of the cockpit. This scheme was the only way to keep the car on a predetermined path through the braking one of the wheels when the front of a pickup billowed into the sky. In fact, Bill's hand on the steering wheel appeared only after tysyachefutovoy mark, and when the engine has got a mechanical supercharger, brake parachutes and all revealed when the front axle is not yet touched the asphalt, and the back has crossed the finish line.
Later, Golden rigged Willie bar, replaced the primitive frame, a complex mechanism, consisting of eight hydraulic elements, which allows for direct on arrival to adjust the height Willie depending on traction drive wheels to the track and weather conditions. And to heighten the understanding, which is to send Little Red Wagon, terms levers, the pilot's seat moved to the center of the cabin. Just try to imagine how difficult it was to manage this technique, relying only on the ability to regulate the freedom of rotation of each of the rear wheels separately though through the windshield could be seen only the sky and waving flags with logos of sponsors on masts along the strip.
In the entire history it was built four pickup. The first two have been broken back in the sixties, and later from what was left of both dregster collected third. Last Little Red Wagon was born in the seventies and up until retirement in 2003. Bill has always caused a flurry of emotions among the audience at numerous events under the auspices of various associations. Who is this, who became one of the most outstanding cars in the history of drag racing, you can take a look at Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing, where they found their last resting place dozens of legendary dregster, driven by the best drivers of his time once wrote a story stays on quarter mile, shaking the grandstand roar of giant engines.
And finally I want to say that the rain, hail or heavy wind speed of 30 mph in never getting to Golden big reason to cancel the races. «People come to the event to see the show. And I have no right to disappoint them „- so throughout his career approached its work the greatest, perhaps, showman, has ever seen the strips of America.
