In this short film, we get a look inside the all-conquering Mickey Thompson funny car team of 1969. It’s one of the great stories in drag racing—check it out.
Mickey Thompson was more than the greatest hot rodder who ever lived. He was a force of nature. In our years working at Hot Rod magazine, one of our favorite feature story projects was an in-depth biography of Mickey, “Life at 400 MPH,” that appeared in the December 2008 issue. Studying Mickey’s life was better than any motivational seminar. M/T could do more in one of his absurd 20-hour workdays than most racers could accomplish in a month. “He went through life like a guy escaping a bank robbery,” wrote Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times.
It’s impossible to list all of Thompson’s exploits, from Bonneville to Indianapolis, in a single story. Today we’re going to focus on one: his 1969 drag racing team, which featured a pair of unbelievably quick Mustang funny cars. Ford Motor Co. provided the funding and the SOHC 427 engines (read about the legendary Cammer engine here), Pat Foster and John Buttera built the chassis, Foster and Danny Ongais drove the cars, and Thompson assembled and managed the operation—and often also drove the ramp truck, mixed the nitro, and tuned the motors, as this short video illustrates.
Across the world of motorsports, every so often a race car comes along that is so dominant, so superior, that it seems to be running in a different class. The blue ’69 Mustang driven by Danny Ongais was one such car. Many regard the package to be the first modern funny car. But in our eyes, the star of this little film is Mickey Thompson, a true American original.
Cool footage, but the 1st “Funny Car” distinction goes to “Dyno” Don Nicholson in 1966 with his “Eliminator I” Mercury Comet Cyclone. It was the 1st flip top body and there’s a celebration, of sorts, this year for 50 years of Funny Cars. I believe Dyno Don also brought the top roof hatch to light. The term “Funny Cars” goes back to cars like
Landy’s Dodge and “Ramchargers” among others, for their funny looking appearance. Connie Kalitta also did a lot of work with the 427 Ford, but the Chrysler style Hemi won out and is still used today. Anybody that’s never been to a modern drag race event should go. It’s a day you’ll not soon forget. ( don’t forget the earplugs)
The M/T Mustangs are called the first modern funny cars due to their lightweight, dragster-type frame design with dragster-style roll cage by John Buttera. The 1966 Logghe Comets, usually credited as the first flip-top funny cars, had a wider and heavier chassis. They were designed by Ron Logghe and four were built, including the first one which went to Dyno Don.
This was my favorite HO scale slot car. It was a riot watching a Funny Car running around the track with everyone’s Porsches and Corvettes.