Dusty corners of the NHRA Classification Guide

[Mike Schwartz]

What are some cars that are tucked away in the NHRA Classification Guide that no one seems to race any more, if they ever were? Some are holdovers from decades ago that are now too expensive or rare to build. Some are weakly powered economy cars or barges that were largely ignored. There are also a few unexpected foreign imports.

Here is one that I was surprised to find in the guide. Feel free to add more of your own.


1956 Cadillac El Dorado Barritz Convertible

365/305hp 2x4bbl - Manual: N-O-P/S, Auto: O-P-Q/SA
365/285hp 1x4bbl - Manual: O-P-Q/S, Auto: P-Q-R/SA

(Reference: Stock-SS Class Tool at classracerinfo.com)

[Billy Nees]

Cool car! Even IF you could find one and even IF you could afford to buy it why would you cut it up?
There's lots of cool combos in the "dusty corners" of the guide. Most of them have moved on to collectible status though.

[Race Clean]

” Tons a fun”
Got me interested to look for the blueprint specs....where are they by the way?

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by Race Clean

” Tons a fun”
Got me interested to look for the blueprint specs....where are they by the way?

http://www.classracerinfo.com

[Wayne Scraba]

Hey.... there's even a couple of Caddy Limosines in the guide too. I see the '57 Cadillac "Imperal Limosine" 4 door would have to weigh a paltry 5,695 (Yikes!) to run in Q/SA.... I can just hear a crew cab dually groan when one one of those things gets loaded in the extra long trailer (heavy duty tri-axle I'm guessing)....L-O-L You'd need an axle concession at the least.

[Jack McCarthy]

that caddy convert is worth $30-50,000 to start and cut it up oops

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Cool car! Even IF you could find one and even IF you could afford to buy it why would you cut it up?
There's lots of cool combos in the "dusty corners" of the guide. Most of them have moved on to collectible status though.

That Caddy is just waiting for a roll bar to be welded in ;-)

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

That Caddy is just waiting for a roll bar to be welded in ;-)

Here you go Mark!

https://classics.autotrader.com/clas...ille/100824728

This looks cool!

[Larry Hill]

I have a Buick fireball 8, air cleaner to pan, if they want to put the car in GT.

[oldskool]

We only ran across one Caddy drag car.

It was at the div 4 bracket finals race, which was held at the old Green Valley track, in either '77 or '78.

It was long & red. Besides being a drag car, what I thought was interesting was that it was a 2-door. I didn't remember seeing many 2-door Cads, before that.

It was powered by a 500 inch Caddy engine. I think it had two 4's on it. Not positive. I remember thinking that a 500 Cad engine should have lots of torque. IIRC, that Cad ran mid 11's.

From lookin at some online pics, it had to be a '69 model because of the tail lights. So, I suppose it was a '69 2-door Coupe DeVille. Didn't find any pics of a red one. But I'll post 3 pics of a black one. Wish we'd have taken a pic of the red drag Caddy back then.

Never saw an old Caddy running Stock or SS. Just looked up the '69 Caddy. It shows a 375hp 472 engine, but no specs are listed. I know the 472 had plenty of torque. In '73, I pulled my GTO to the tracks with a '68 model 472 powered 4-door Caddy, & tow bar. No power problems at all.

It did use quite a bit of gas. I drove it from North Louisiana to the NHRA Finals race in Amarillo, in '73. There was a gas shortage of some sort. Lots of stations were either out, or only operated a few hours per day. Thought I was gonna have to stop & wait for daylight, when the stations opened. But, I finally came to a big all-night truck stop that had plenty of gas. I won't charge ya'll for that little glimpse of history.