Remembering the Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner Dark Horse 2 Amusing Vehicle

In 1967, several drag racing followers had been surprised to study that the workforce of Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner had been swapping their popular AA/Gas Willys coupe for a Mustang amusing car or truck. The group dominated the A/GS ranks with the Swindler A Willys, and many people envisioned them to proceed competing in the gasser ranks.

Humorous auto match racing was exactly where all the income was, having said that, and the “Pebble, Pulp and Chef” gang was all set for a new obstacle. So they set aside the Willys in favor of a blown Mustang they christened Dim Horse 2.

Even though the fiberglass flip-top fashion humorous automobiles had been commencing to occur into their very own, the SWC Mustang was not a flopper. Alternatively the team mounted a steel Mustang entire body shell on a gentle excess weight tubular chassis, with a long fiberglass front clip. Driver Doug Cook dinner entered the car by opening doorways, though the clip could be taken out to do the job on the engine.

Next the very same pattern as their well known gassers, the SWC group chosen a blown early Chrysler hemi for electrical power. For the reason that Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner have been so profitable in the gas lessons, some men and women mistakenly refer to the Mustang as a gasser. At to start with the vehicle ran alcohol, with a splash of nitro. As time wore on, the group tipped-the-can and applied an ever better percentages of nitromethane.

The Mustang amusing car quickly adopted in the footsteps of the Willys gassers, successful the 2400 pound course at the famed Bakersfield March meet up with two days in a row. From there, the group established off on a blistering barnstorming tour that has seldom been equaled.

It appeared that each and every drag racing enthusiast preferred to see the Stone, Woods and Cook dinner Mustang in action, and every monitor proprietor desired to fill the stands by booking the match racer. Decide up any duplicate of Drag News from 1967, and you will most likely obtain quite a few tales recounting the exploits Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner at distinctive tracks.

In addition to racing at most of the 5-star tracks, Darkish Horse 2 also showed up at compact hole-in-the-wall venues dragstrips with ragged asphalt, dim night time-lighting and insufficient shut down locations. The lovers wanted to see Doug Cook in motion, and the group was a lot more than ready to grant their would like.

Racing a number of situations a 7 days, SWC ran in opposition to most of the popular amusing vehicles of the period, having on the lighter fat, injected flip-top autos as perfectly as other metal-bodied blown entries. Cook was not normally victorious, but he racked up an spectacular win/decline tally.

Just when the Stone, Woods and Cook workforce appeared to be on prime of their video game, tragedy intervened. A crash destroyed Darkish Horse 2 at Alton, Illinois. Doug Prepare dinner, one particular of the most well known and respected drag racers of all time, sustained again accidents that ended his racing profession.

Stone, Woods and Cook were not finished, however. They crafted a new Mustang that was a close to duplicate of the primary. The Ghost of Dark Horse 2 continued the torrid match-race speed, with a amount of hired motorists replacing Cook guiding the wheel.

By 1969, even the SWC team could not stay aggressive with a metal bodied vehicle, and they crafted a Mustang flopper, assigning the driving chores to Dee Keaton. In the early ’70s, Tim Woods designed the initially Pinto amusing vehicle and ran it underneath the Stone, Woods and Cook banner with Mike VanSant as the pilot. Nevertheless later a Chrysler driven Corvette gasser toured underneath the Stone, Woods and Cooke banner. That is not a typo on the ‘Vette the title Prepare dinner was spelled with an e on the stop. Reportedly, none of the original trio was actively concerned with the Corvette.

Ultimately, all 3 customers of the colorful crew retired from racing. Doug Cook dinner handed absent in 1999.

The Dim Horse 2 legacy carries on, on the other hand. Mike Prepare dinner, son of the famous driver, is reconstructing Dim Horse 2. Images of the car’s construction can be witnessed on Cook’s web-site, as perfectly as photos of the entirely restored Swindler A and Swindler B Willys coupes.

Four a long time have passed considering that the Dark Horse 2 Mustang barnstormed its way into drag racing historical past. It is nice to know that Mike Prepare dinner isn’t going to intend to allow the well known funny vehicle be neglected.