|
|
||
|
Drag Racings Innovations |
||
|
Jocko Johnson Streamliner As with all the articles on this website I am looking for more info and photos to make this article more complete. If you have anything you are willing to share, PLEASE contact me at 1320history@charter.net
Robert "Jocko" Johnson's involvement in drag racing goes back to the very early days, when he supported himself by first relieving and polishing flat head blocks and then on into the porting and polishing of cylinder heads for the overhead valve engines. Before the days of "CNC Ported" heads this took great skill and finesse to match the combustion chambers. Jocko became very skilled at this painstaking process and did work for a number of drag racing and lakes cars, with his services in great demand. This however did not not fulfill his artistic needs so he sold the porting business, moved to the desert and began carving wood sculptures. This led to a passion for streamlining and the building of his first streamlined dragster. In 1956 he started planning his car and designing a fiberglass body that would cover the entire car, tires and all. Taking a cue from the Bonneville cars of tha time he started the two year process of hand laying the fiberglass body to fit over the mid-engine machine which used an aircraft type canopy to enclose the driver. When he first brought his creation into public view in July 1958 it was driven by Jim "Jazzy" Nelson and didn't show to be a contender among the top cars of the time. However Jazzy built a new 450 cu. in. Chrysler "Hemi" complete with a GMC blower and six Stromberg's adapted to run on nitro and amazed the crowd at Riverside the Memorial Day weekend in 1959 with an 8.35 @ 178 MPH pass. While this was among the fastest and quickest times logged by the current fuelers before it could be shown to not be a fluke, the body cracked on a run and disintegrated. Jocko then set out too build an aluminum body for the car. When completed the car debuted At Lions in 1964 with an Allison aircraft engine for power but the added weight made the car uncompetitive and it was never ran in competition again. Emory Cook did take the car on the highly popular exhibition circuit across the country running under the name "Thundercar" as can be seen in the Jim Kelly photos below. In 1971 Don Garlits
called Jocko to discuss him building a streamlined body for a new car he and
Connie Swingle was building. This
set off a series of events that resulted in the Garlits-liner and the end to
the Jocko-Garlits relationship. Go to the
Jocko/Garlits Streamliner story for more details and photos.
All Jim Kelly Photos
courtesy of Dick Towers
|
