TIME FOR AN AMERICAN LEGEND

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Amc Cross Country

From the Archives: That time we took a 3,000-mile road trip in an AMC Marlin.

❱Imagine being able to transport yourself back to early 1965 with the task of getting to take a new car, any new car, on a cross-country journey. Would an AMC Marlin be top of mind? Would the Marlin even be in your Top 20 list of cars to take a road trip in? Well, it was for HOT ROD, when staffer Eric Dahlquist hit the road in the brand-new, swoopy coupe from Kenosha. Starting in Milwaukee, he logged more than 3,000 miles on a combination of freeways and two-lane roads, including iconic Route 66, on his journey from Wisconsin to Los

Angeles. He loved the car, too, raving about the experience. Among the praise lavished upon the Marlin, Eric particularly liked the seating position and the overall comfort and high feature content of the cabin. This story has it all: road trip narrative, new car review, some maintenance and performance tuning, and more than a few fish puns for good measure!

❱Did you know every page of every issue of HOT ROD is available on the MotorTrend App?

That’s right, 900 issues (and counting) and more than 128,000 pages of HRM have been scanned, digitized, and are presented in an easy-to-read format. Scan the QR code and catch upon 75 years of HOT ROD history.

Marc Gewertz

A must-attend event for fans of vintage drag racing, the Nitro Revival is a tribute to the golden era of the sport.

& NOSTALGIA

Drag racing fans got to relive those memories at the 5th Annual Nitro Revival at Irwindale Speedway, where the pits were once again filled with the legendary cars of drivers and teams like Stone, Woods & Cook, Tommy Ivo, The Surfers, Kuhl & Olson, “Big John” Mazmanian, and many more. With their metalflake paint and chrome shining under the California sun, these frontengine dragsters, vintage Funny Cars, and Fuel Altereds that once dominated the quartermile were all brought to Nitro Revival to share their stories.

Nitro Revival is about drag racing history, and who better to tell it than those who lived it?

Drag racing legends Don Prudhomme, Roland Leong, Richard Tharp, Tommy Ivo, Vance Hunt, Kenny Logan, and Bob Muravez (aka Floyd Lippencott Jr.) were just a few of the legends who reminisced about the good ol’ days and talked about their biggest wins, rivalries, and shared crazy stories from their racing exploits.

Nitro Revival was created by Steve Gibbs and the late Ron Johnson, who shared a lifelong passion for drag racing and had the desire to create an event where they could honor the pioneers of the sport they loved so dearly. Gibbs has spent most of his life at the dragstrip. His career began at the old San Gabriel Drag Strip in 1961, when he was just 16 years old. One of his first jobs was writing numbers on race cars with white shoe polish, and he later became the track reporter, writing event coverage for DragNews. Gibbs did whatever the track needed and loved every minute of it.

He got his first full-time job at the original Irwindale Drag Strip, which opened in 1965. He became track manager there in 1968, and he’s been a fixture in the sport ever since. Call it fate, or maybe destiny, that Nitro Revival calls Irwindale Speedway home, bringing Gibbs full-circle to his start in drag racing 62 years ago.

“Nitro Revival is not about the racing or the cars; it’s about the people,” said Gibbs, and just about everyone in attendance would agree. “There are people here I haven’t seen in years,” said Carl Olson, who won Top Fuel Eliminator at the Last Drag Race at Lions. “That’s what makes Nitro Revival so special—the social aspect, and at Nitro Revival that it’s supercharged.” Event promoter Cindy Gibbs concurred. “It’s always been about the people,” she said. “There’s so much history here, we’re just trying to keep it alive.”

Racing royalty, including nearly 50 drag racing hallof-famers, participated in an autograph session on Saturday afternoon, the likes of which may never be seen again. Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, Roland Leong, Tommy Ivo, Ed Pink, Joe Schubeck, Al Bergler, Herm Petersen, Don Prieto, Bob “Bones” Balogh, Gary Beck, Danny Thompson, Linda Vaughn (who is still as sweet as ever), and 101-year-old Ed Iskenderian were just a few of the legends that fans couldn’t wait to meet. Sixteen-time NHRA Funny Car World Champion John Force showed up as a spectator, hoping to visit with some of the people he idolized growing up. “There are people here I haven’t seen in 20 years,” said Force, who pulled up a chair and joined the autograph session.

Each year, Nitro Revival honors several Southern California drag racing icons. This year’s recipients were Gas Ronda, Doc Conroy, Jim London, Stan Adams, Charlie Allen, Bill Schultz, as well as Don Ratican, Don Gaide, and Kenny Safford, the trio known as the “Sour Sisters.”

Nitro Revival reunited longlost friends and even a few drivers with their old cars. Richard Tharp was all smiles when he climbed back into the Creitz & Donovan Top Fueler (currently owned by John Neas) for the first time since he drove it back in 1970. Tharp was in the other lane in this car at Lions Drag Strip on March 8, 1970, when

Don Garlits had the clutch explosion that changed the sport forever. Saturday evening culminated with the “Line of Fire,” for which nearly 50 legendary race cars lined up on the track as the sun began to set and, on Steve Gibbs’ command, fired up one by one. Header flames lit up the California sky and nitro fumes filled the air. “We burned a lot of nitro this weekend with some really historic cars,” said Gibbs. “We’re trying to capture the spirit of the golden era of drag racing.” Drag racing fans around the world should appreciate that.

Though this was not a race, there was plenty of on-track action that included 48 gassers from the Outlaw Gassers SoCal group, dozens of AFX cars, and exhibition runs featuring Fuel Altereds, nostalgia Funny Cars, and Bob McClennan’s Champion Speed Shop nostalgia Top Fuel dragster, with Adam Sorokin behind the wheel. Off the track, more than 100 colorful hot rods filled the special parking area known as the “hot rod hangout”. Spectators wore their vintage racing jackets and their favorite drag racing T-shirts, adding to the flavor of the event.

Garlits once said, “Alcohol is for drinking, gas is for cleaning parts, and nitro is for racing.” Though not one of the nearly 80 hemi engines burning nitro all weekend long at Nitro Revival did any racing, the fans loved it all the same.

Sources

Gear Vendors; 800.999.9555; gearvendors.com

Wright Connection Speed & Gear; 661.304.1967; wrightconnection.net