Big Don Garlits eh-hmm as you say Guido, those were the days.
I was still more into the bikes though-do you remember Alf Hagon and his 1100cc Jap engined drag bike(that is J.A.P as in vintage 'V' twin for you youngsters out there) he had a spring loaded stand on it and a single gear. Used to wind the back wheel up to 140mph and then trip the stand
.....
Fastest thing out there up to 220yards-then it generally holed a piston and coasted the rest-still set records though. From memory it was running on methanol.
And what about the Hobbit- John Hobbs 21ft long dragster rail, 2 850cc Weslake engines running on methanol, 2 speed gearbox. I saw that 4 years ago at the classic sprints at North Weald, he dragged it out of retirement, hadn't ridden it for about 15 years, blew the dust off, fired it up...........and set fastest time of the day-not bad eh!
John