![]() I didn’t want to get overtaken by parts of my own car.” The Holley fuel bowls and the rail that runs under the SUs maintains a constant supply of methanol to the carbs. “But I trusted the welding of the chrome-moly ’cage to the mild steel frame to a professional. He started off in the shed with a few lengths of mild steel tubing and some string line. “It’s all home-made and I’m hoping for big things out of it.” ![]() “I thought it would be great to race against Chris in Modified,” Joe says. Joe decided to get back into the game after going to the 6 Banger Nationals in Warwick with Chris. Chris reckons it’s no show car but the Lil Horny Devil livery has remained the same since the early 70s, when it was painted in the same green as the LC XU-1s of the timeīy comparison, Joe’s car is a lot newer built from the ground up in 2012. I like the nostalgic look of the Norman blower, and it’s all Australian, so I’m not going to go for another blower.” In the meantime, he’s looking to campaign the car with the old naturally aspirated set-up. “We’re looking to replace them with an aftermarket material with Teflon tips. “The vanes are made with Bakelite and that’s hard to get now,” Chris explains. MORE Alex Hogg’s 1967 427 cammer Ford dragsterĪt the moment they’ve gone a best of 6.3sec on the 1/8-mile, but the blower got damaged at a nostalgia meet earlier this year. I think it’s the oldest drag car continually running in Australia and it’s remained basically unchanged, other than ANDRA safety changes.” They used to race it using just second and third gear. “It’s still got the clutch pedal in it,” Chris says, “I can’t bring myself to cut it out with the history of the car. Nicknamed the Lil Horny Devil, the lightweight machine scooted down the track with a grey motor and three-speed manual up front. ![]() The rail itself is one of the oldest in Australia, having been built fresh in 1963. “But I sold it to him for a lot less than I paid.” “With four kids, it wouldn’t have been fair to just give Chris the car,” Joe says. Joe had Colin’s car parked up in the shed for one day when Chris approached him about driving it at Eastern Creek. He also dabbled with a Hemi six-powered rail at the old Eastern Creek track before it stopped running drags. Joe used to race a FED back at Castlereagh, but he sold it when the track closed in 1981. “I thought it was a good way to get into drag racing and get Dad back into the sport,” says Chris. Joe had gotten it from Colin Taylor, who’d been campaigning it for a decade or more. ![]() Both are quick and equally cool.Ĭhris bought his car from Dad back in 1995. His dad Joe’s ride is a modern repro with a naturally aspirated big-cube Hemi six powerplant. Chris Batey is the son, and his rail is the real deal, built in ’63 with Holden power and updated more recently with an old-school Norman blower. Owned by a father and son duo, these two rails may look similar but they’re just about as different as could be. The boys shared driving duties for a while, until Joe has finished his new ride When things go right, they are spectacularly crazy, and when they go wrong, they’re even crazier.įirst published in Street Machine’s Hot Rod 11 magazine, June 2013 The family that races together stays together. With wheels up, tyres smoking, fire-in-the-face action, they are the pointy end of the performance spectrum when it comes to classic drag racing. It takes a brave soul to punt a front-engined dragster down the quarter mile. ![]()
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