What was going through your head during that race? Glidden drove the aforementioned big-block Fairlane in NHRA Division 3 Stock and Super Stock competition, but switched to a 428 Cobra Jet Mustang in 1968. Most built their own stuff and tuned it, and raced with only one or two volunteer helpers. They barely have full felds in Pro Stock today because people can't aford it. While researching materials to use as an exordium for an English assignment, the humor literature section caught my eye. They are still doing it the old way, they go to work long hours and then go out and win races. Hemi-headed Ford engine. Brent. This car was a serious player in UDRA and the Chicagoland Pro Stock class. Next stop on the tour, was National Trail Raceway, June 11, 1978, Bob lost to Richie Zul. Hajek's current engine came in a roundabout way after Bob Glidden sold off his Cleveland parts to John Healy when Glidden switched to Boss 429s. BG] When I was a kid, a lot of adver-tisements on television were for Ed Martin Ford: "Home of the Fast Fords." If it's warm enough, I play golf. The mains were the same clearance. Information found on the website is presented as advance information for the auction lot. It was just a big old boxcar. A Pinto. Bob drove Fords almost exclusively throughout his career, at times carrying the banner virtually on his own. We worked hard at it and we had a lot of good luck. He didn't like me and I didn't like him. The Old One - Energy Dynamics : BOSS 429 That was one I did not walk away from, but I healed quickly. He fought like you wouldnt believe, his son Billy confirmed. 79 Bob Glidden Small Block Pro Stock - For A Bodies Only Mopar Forum The former ATS Diesel race truck is now owned by Justin Lyons of RG Diesel, complete with an engine rebuild and ready to debut next month at the Thoroughbred Diesel Throwdown. When I was 12 years old, our main tractor broke down in the middle of the busiest season, and no one could get to it to work on it, so I ended up overhauling the tractor myself. He would use the next national event, the prestigious 1976 NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis as We won $10,400 at that race and we had about $18,000 invested in everything: our car, spare engines, spare parts, our truck. There was a lot to look forward to for the next season, but that Fairmont sure did make racing fun in 1978. Some recruited their wives or did it alone at times. He quickly went to work on a program that was based on the Boss 429 block since it was impossible to bore his faithful 351 Cleveland to 500 inches. Community for the 351 Cleveland Ford engine enthusiasts world wide. Most of it I didn't have any control over. Glidden ran Ford engines displacing as few as 332 inches and as large as 340. It was ugly but looks never won races, Glidden admitted. His '78 had the swoopy red, white, and blue paint scheme. Glidden rode the train of good fortunes as long as he could without question. Drag racing fans saw the engine used in all sorts of applications. He swept 5 of the first 7 events and 7 out of the first 11. In 78, IHRA went to unlimited CI with a set weight. Warren was one, Johnson. 4,531. Glidden, of Whiteland, Indiana, was one of the most prolific builders and drivers the sport of drag racing has ever seen. We need to win this race', John Force gunning for third straight Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals win, Jacob McNeal is living out a childhood dream with Charlotte Top Fuel debut, Are you ready for a Cuadra quad? This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our, http://www.nhra.com/museum/features/feature16.html, http://www.dragracingonline.com/special/top5_1.html. Tunnel rams were allowed. Ford's sales literature said the Laser Stripes were so wild that "some people think they should have a switch to turn them off." Engine Machine Shop | Steve Schmidt Racing Engines To get an edge some of us even tried pistons in the small blocks with only two ring slots. Even when his nurse believed he wasnt going to make it long into today, he once again defied the odds. Rest in peace Bob Glidden. HRM] Did you prefer one engine over another? They kind of had a rule for me and then a rule for everyone else. Vintage Drag Car Garage - This Guy's Garage - MotorTrend But maximum horsepower was still the main ingredient. Pro Stock Legend Bob Glidden Passes Away At 73 - Dragzine Takes the place of Clevor. Early Pro Stock engines were primarily warmed up Super Stock engines, the bigger the better. Some say the short field problem is due to the cost to conform to the new 2016 mandated rules. The car was acquired from its second owner in restored but unlettered shape. Cleveland dimensions? Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NHRA Classic 1988 Bob Glidden Motorcraft #1 Ford Probe P/S Drag Racing Hat Pin at the best online prices at eBay! However, roller rockers and Jomar girdles had become vogue by then. Bob Glidden's Undefeated 351C Powered Pro Stock Fairmont Cylinder walls were honed to a mirror finish. I forget now who prepared those heads but it was certainly NOT Glidden. Service Network for Medium Speed Engines (Marine/Industrial) We were just battling the NHRA with the rule deals. Like the idea, but the devil is in the details. The car was raced only a couple times, running a known best of 8.93 at 145 mph. And, there are several Blair's tribute cars. Bob 's car was sleek and very trick using all the tricks of the day. The Boss 429 engine featured a semi-hemispherical combustion chamber head fit over a massive 4.900-inch bore-spacing block that allowed for huge pistons and plenty of room for valves. While this reduced NOx output for emissions, this loss of compression really hurts power. In the world of tomatoes, there are countless varieties that offer unique flavors, textures, and growth habits. At the recent Houston event there were only 13 Pro Stocks. We just raced and had a lot of great luck, that's really the truth. BG] John Force. My first attempt at Pro Stock was in June 1975. The following season in just his second full-time campaign he won three times and set both ends of the national record on the path to his first Winston championship, in come-from-behind fashion over Gapp and Wally Booth. [Bob] conceded that many of his competitors knew far more about the internal-combustion engine than he did, but none of them had his will to win. Bob Glidden's pro stock C heads - Cleveland's Forever The Ford was destroyed but Glidden climbed out unscathed. People forget how successful Bob Glidden and Bill Elliott were with this engine." He won three more champion-ships in the 1970s, despite losing factory sponsorship twice during that decade and having to build a completely new program with a totally different manufacturer in 1979. Perhaps you can come up with some categories to make this more than an exercise in "who's is bigger or badder". We were in a situation where we either won or we couldn't continue. In what is unquestionably one of the greatest losses the sport has ever endured, drag racing legend and 10-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Bob Glidden passed away today at the age of 73 following a brief illness. Obviously, multiple factors affect bearing performance in an engine, and the experts agree the first step is knowing what the end use of the engine will be. -I had heard that Larry Widmar (theoldone.com) was THE reason for Gliddens big Ford head success. What drives Pro Stock's lone Mopar man, Alan Prusiensky? Over the years, weve gotten asked numerous times about connecting rod length and the impact that has on an engines horsepower and durability. THere was no engine size limit, but it had to be the same brand as the car. BG] All I will tell you is that it wasn't me. HRM] So what did you do when the rules changed? They innovated a lot of things, between them and W.J., they were tough competitors. Glidden won eight more times between 1990 and 93 and captured his 85th and final NHRA Pro Stock victory at Englishtown in 1995 after having missed the first half of the season following a heart attack in December of 1994. BG] None of those. Overall he won 9 times that season, ending the 1980s with 49 wins. At the time I had no access to a flow bench. Glidden began his career in the late 1960s behind the wheel of a series of 427 Ford Fairlanes in the Stock and Super Stock ranks and later a 482 Cobra Jet, becoming one of the winningest competitors in the NHRAs Division 3. They had run a points meet earlier that year in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and they blew the engine up. 2023 Power Automedia. by SBC Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:20 pm, Post There are enough fanglers out here that aren't totally locked to strictly cleveland block and heads. BG] I guess it would have been the, oh what was it, I called it the frog, it was so uglyI can't even remember what the car was called. The UDRA had no weight or cubic inch rules. Neither of which are perfect (not bad though) parts to build off of. Not only has technology advanced in leaps and bounds, but so has the cost. We worked probably a lot harder back in those days than most people. Offering top notch Aluminum Cylinder Head Porting and Cylinder Block Machining Services for High Performance Racing Engines by Race Engine Builder Steve Schmidt. They would break like popcorn with the bigger camshafts, especially with roller cams. We made all of our manifold runners by hand. But it has always made me wonder what it was about or was it a ploy or did maybe something else use to be in there. It's neat to see he once raced an FE. There's Jeg [Coughlin] and [Dave] Connolly. Credit for pics goes to Petersen Museum, all pics found on the net. Things just happened that way. Glidden had a handle on the longer-wheelbase Thunderbird, and the 500-inch Shotgun engine and that allowed him dominate the 1985 season. The NHRA did not appreciate the lesson. He's as competitive today as he's ever been. Racing bearings are different from those recommended for street use, and theres a lot to consider. Glidden dominated the scene in the 1970s and 1980s, winning back-to-back NHRA Pro Stock championships in 1974-1975, followed by three in a row from 1978-1980, and then five straight championships from 1985-1989. 0 dealers found. After a semifinals round win at the Southern Nationals in April, his Thunderbird got crossed up and he shot to the left-side guardrail. Along the way there have been myriad rule changes. Glidden retired from full-time driving in 1997, after an accumulated 85 NHRA national event wins, the most in NHRA at the time, which has been only surpassed by John Force and Warren Johnson. I have heard that they are going to get Pro Stock back to more stock parts, and if they do that, that could help. If I had written my story before it happened, it would have never turned out nearly as good. BG] When I looked up through what was left of the car, the top of the manifold, the carburetors, everything was gone. Sadly, it turned out that last day was the end of the Chicagoland Pro Stock at US 30 and Oswego forever! In the 1980s, Glidden added six more championships to his name, including a 1980 win over Lee Shepherd that remains one of the most dramatic last-minute turnarounds in drag-racing his-tory. [Editor's note: Glidden is referring to the 1982 rule change that mandated all Pro Stock engines be 500 ci and all cars have a minimum weight.]. If they did that, even if they still maintained the chassis like today, a lot more people would get involved. It would take three days and nights, nearly round the clock to make one. Bob Glidden didn't have one iota of 500-inch engine technology when the edict was handed down. Many early Pro Stock racers still used flat tappet cams. I leaned early that exhibition promoters watch who brought the fans to their feet. AHRA had gone the IHRA route in mid-1980, except by 81 had a nitrous option for small blocks only. Some racers used Mallory Magnetos. Halfway into the Fairmonts existence, Glidden secured a deal with Chrysler to run a factory-backed effort in 1979. I could win, as I remember it, was if Lee went out second round, and we won the race and set one end of the record [mph or e.t.]. Gildan Bob Glidden NHRA Fan Apparel and Souvenirs, Vintage Drag Racing Souvenir, Not Authenticated NHRA Original Autographed Items, John Force NHRA Original Autographed Items, Gliddens two-season streak finally ended at the 1988 Gatornationals with 22 straight top qualifiers. . After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010. BG] It's hard to get young people into building cars because the engines are totally diferent [from a stock car]. FORUMS. BG] That was what they called the Shotgun (Boss 429), the uh, hemi engine. Gaige Herrera extended the perfect start to his breakout rookie season by delivering the Vance & Hines/Mission Suzuki team its second consecutive Pro Stock Motorcycle class win Sunday onboard his Gen III Suzuki Hayabusa at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC. On the first hard run, the Detroit Locker locked in Detroit, but not at Oswego, IL. That car got a little bit of a weight break. Not really, the Fairmont served its purpose, Glidden said. Pro Stock engines then were built from stock castings. 70 gram, conduit-looking wrist pins were tool steel held with double spiral locks. We promise not to use your email address for anything but exclusive updates from the Power Automedia Network. BG] Nothing constructive. Whatever our best-running engine was would be our base engine, and we wouldn't change anything on it until we found something better. Front brakes, headlights and side mirrors werent required. He was really just being an asshole. Was he trying to get the SSR to be more effective or flow around the 11/32 valve stem or creating tumble? Why Ford? Bob Glidden. NHRA Classic 1988 Bob Glidden Motorcraft #1 Ford Probe P/S Drag - eBay Discover the Best Heirloom Tomato Varieties Comparable to Big Beef, Title: Discovering Heirloom Tomato Varieties Close to Big Beef MCE Engines | Los Angeles CA - Facebook A career so full of hard work, miraculous wins, and pain-ful controversy deserves to be celebrated, so we took on the legendarily private Bob Glidden and tried to get him to spill some secrets. NOTE: Established in 1945, and still operated by Phil Lukens Blair's is the oldest continuously operated speed shop in the world. They put weight on me and took weight of the Chevrolets. Do to the factored rules, most Pro Stock engines were small blocks, and usually de-stroked. Do you know if the valve angles were changed? Engine stand - Don Terrill's Speed-Talk How about any sub 400 cid Ford with canted valve heads? That was the first major event it ran. Drag Racing List - Pro Stock's Old Cars Make a Comeback And he completed the season with five straight wins and his eighth Pro Stock championship. Bob Glidden - Wikipedia In what is unquestionably one of the greatest losses the sport has ever endured, drag racing legend and 10-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Bob Glidden passed away today at the age of 73 following a brief illness. BG] When I was 14, I traded an old toolbox for a 1949 Ford that wouldn't run, and I got it to where it would run, and I then drove it to school until the police made me stop.