[computerworks]

Cal Metal posted...

The 'Dragonsnake' made its first appearence in the fall of 1963. Its first racing debut was at the NHRA Indy Nationals of that same year. That car, CSX 2019, was a dual quad version driven by Motor Trend Editor, Jim Wright. It was tuned by Louis Unser of Shelby's Racing Dept.

The idea for this car originated with SAI employees who thought that the Cobra could be a formidable strip winner. SAI supplied the car and they supplied the time and effort. The 'DS' became a model, available as a complete car at $8.250 FOB Venice, Cal. The first 'DS', originally painted red and later painted blue was used to develop drag race and acceleration packages that were made available to drag strip enthusiasts.

Four stages of the 'DS' were developed running all the way to the 380 hp/289 cid full comp. engine. The rearend ratio was 4:89.

Interestingly, SAI saw fit to homologate the engine package with NHRA. This was the 289cid/289 hp. version which ran dual quads using either Holleys or Carter AFBs (the 380 hp Weber version was only permitted to be run in AHRA). Interestingly, the paper work was filed for the 289/289 and this engine is still in the master "Bible" called the "Official Stock Car Classification Guide" at NHRA. The homologation issue is kind of a joke since 100 cars were never produced, either by the factory or independents.

American mags were the original wheels used on CSX 2019. Cure ride drag racing 90/10 uplock and 50/50 downlock shocks were used. the front end was modified to produce more favorable results by de-arching and lengthening the fromt spring and lengthening the rear spring. A fiberglas hardtop, hood scoop, radiused wheel openings and a dash mounted Sun Tach were installed. They also employed Belanger headers. Rear slicks were 8.00X15s. AHRA would allow 8.5 wheels but not NHRA. The hardtop, incidentally, listed for $229.00

The Snake decal that was used on the '69 Torino came from the 'DS'.

There were only two or three 'DS' sold as complete cars; most of them being privately and independently built and campaigned. They dominated the Sports Car classes in NHRA and AHRA.

CSX 2093, is the Larson/Costilow car you were asking about. It was the NHRA record holder in A,B,& C Sports Production. It has a distinguished race history.

An interesting postscipt to CSX 2093, is that once it took the record away from the factory 'DS', the quality of parts purchased from SAI were never quite the good as before, according to Larson. As a result, it became more difficult to keep the car competitive, having to deal with various problems such as twisted half shafts and broken rearends. It was because of that, that a decision to sell the car was made, and it changed hands in l966.

Ed Hedrick, however, continued to campaign the car and set numerous NHRA records up until l969.