Front engine rails...

[Track-T]

Here's why they went to rear engines....

 

[RPM]

Is that where Garlits lost his foot?

 

[Rick]

If my OLD mind remembers right he lost part of or mangled his foot when the clutch let loose and blew up the bellhousing.I THINK.

 

[RPM]

If my OLD mind remembers right he lost part of or mangled his foot when the clutch let loose and blew up the bellhousing.I THINK.

I think you are right and if I remember right it cut the car in half. Which that pics shows it broke or cut in half.

 

[RPM]

From the Competionplus we site
"
Just before the axe fell Lions was the setting for one of the most dramatic series of runs in the sport's history, when Don Garlits, the front-engine dragster "king", came to the line in the finals on March 8, 1970 during a meet under the track's then-AHRA sanction (and management of C.J. Hart). At the flash of green the transmission exploded in his "Wynn's Charger" and cut the car completely in half from his feet forward. Garlits was sent tumbling
just past the staring line, minus a portion of his right foot above the arch, plus a spectator also lost an arm in the incident."

 

[Rick]

I had it half right he didnt loose his whole foot.hehe

 

[fluidfloyd]

While laying in the hospital he sketched up a design to move the engine to the rear. They actually just cut up the damaged car and rearranged everything and welded it back up. It was pretty rough looking up close. Although Gartlis was credited with the invention or concept of the rear engine dragster there were several other cars already in use. The Peek Brothers of Colorado and Mark Williams (the axle manufacturer) were already running a rear engine car. My old friend Ed Mabry of Arlington, Texas had built one ealier but it hadn't hit the track yet. No other customer would step up until they saw how it would work. When Gartlis demostrated his new car Ed couldn't give away the two front engine chassis he had sitting on the jig. Everyone wanted a rear engine model. Now thanks to the return of vintage racing programs there are more front engined cars being built then rear engined ones.

George