The last report on the Rollin' Stone days had
us dealing with Altered Roadsters. Those cars
took some serious gonads to hang on to and
NOT let your foot come off the gas pedal. It
was a crapshoot at best and the Stone Brothers
decided to move on to greener pastures.
Moving to the Funny Car field was not an
overnight decision. First of all we had to have
someone to supply us with fiberglass bodies and we
stole ideas on extending the chassis. Most of the
engine and driveline components were brought
over from the Altereds.
The Dodge and Chryslers were making big noise
in the 1960's and 70's with their Hemispherical
combustion engines (Hemi). Chevrolet had no
such engine and suffered badly on the drag strips.
My brother contacted a West Coast business that
made conversions for Chevrolet racers and they
supplied us with Donovan heads for Chevrolet
engines. Thus we had the hemispherical
combustion chambers, but without infringing on
the Dodge/Chrysler patent. Our cars immediately
went from around 400 horsepower to over 600 hp.
The photo is from our first attempt in the Funny Car
field of the NHRA. The body is a Chevrolet Vega and
it was about as aerodynamic as a shoebox. Too square
and too flat in the front end. It was a learning tool for
the Stone Boys and allowed us to get our foot in the
door of one of NHRA's most competitive divisions. At
its best the flying Vega ran in the low 9 second bracket
and about 210 miles per hour. You have to remember
this was the early 1970's and we thought we were
someone to be contended with. The shape of the
car was the problem,..BUT it was a problem that was
soon to be overcome.
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