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The Jim Nicoll Dragster
I have a customer that wanted to
recreate an old dragster. I told him I had permission
to recreate the Jim Nicoll Dragster that has been seen on TV since 1970.
This car
was on a run for the final round at Indianapolis Raceways 16 Annual National
Championship drags.
Jim was racing against Don Prudhomme for the final round at the traps they
were neck and neck, then
suddenly Jim's clutch let go and cut the car in half, sending the front
half with the engine intact spinning
in the front of Prudhomme. The chutes
had opened and the roll cage with Jim inside went over the
right side
guard rail and stopped rolling in the soft grass. Prudhomme wanted to quit
racing, thinking
that his friend was dead, but Jim was only shaken up and had a
swollen ankle.
Fast forward to 2010, A man comes into
my shop and says he has the cage that came off the Nicoll
car in the 1970 crash.
He brought it over and I purchased it. It has hung in the rafters of my shop
waiting for
just the right person to come in and want to recreate this car. Well, that has
happened and
the tubing and several parts are on order. As progress is made, updated photo
will be posted.
"Click On Images For A Larger View"
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I put some more time in on
the Nicoll car in the last few days. I think the last shots I put out was just
the rear end housing and line up bar on my shorty jig. The shoulder and butt
hoops are bent and fit to the rear upright the roll bar is fit and all is near
the old angles and spacing . The cage is wider and taller than the old cage so
we can fit the owner and Jim in (we're not 26 any more). On the old cage the
shoulder hoop runs at an upward angle away from the butt hoop . This line would
run through the cowl so I had to bend the top hoop legs down the intersect the
rear end upright and continue on to the fire wall. This all looks funny, but
the original car had been modified several times from the old Byron Blair
construction .
Next I will put the block on the bar and center
the rear housing and set the tubes up to go past the firewall.
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It's been a long
time since I posted progress on the Nicoll car. Below is a quick
catch up on where the cars status.
I moved the cage up on my long chassis table and added the front tubing
along with uprights and diagonals. The next order was to build the seat and fit
it into the cage. A look down into the office shows the brake lever, T Bar
throttle pedal and steering wheel locations. We ordered a new Browell clutch can
and attached to it is my drive shaft cover with a "safety Slider" decoupler
installed in it.
Next on to the body lots of detail shots not shown here, but the cowl is
finished and all flush offsets are rolled. Then on to the nose bent from .040
aluminum in two pieces. After some moving around and clamping in place the nose
cone was needed. It is hand formed from same metal as the body from two pieces.
lots of hammering, shrinking, hammering and wheeling to fit it to the nose top.
this Sunday I went and propped the nose up and bolted the steering rods back on
,then marked the slots and cut them out.
More later |
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Heads on block so Zoomie
headers can be mocked up and tack welded . |
Chassis is all painted gloss
black. |
I put the chassis on stands and snapped the body on
so Jim Nicoll could come over and get his first look at the recreation. |
Left to right Scott Nicoll, My self Don Ross and Jim Nicoll ,Superman him self.
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Jim and I discuss the oil filter adapter that
I still need to finish machining. Also I asked him what finish was on the clutch
can and several other parts. lots more aluminum to be polished. |
Finally the moment of truth, Jim gets his
first fitting in the seat. He is all smiles and said he saw nothing that was a
major problem on the look of the car. I will have a five inch pad made for Jim
as the owner is about a foot taller than Jim and the car has to fit him also. |
This is a candid shot of me my daughter took
that day . I was glad to see Jim but this shows my nerves were on edge waiting
for a comment from Jim. The next hour was all smiles |
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