Dragster (car)

The driver sits angled backward, over the top of the differential in a cockpit situated between the two rear tires, a design originating with Mickey Thompson's Panorama City Special in 1954, as a way of improving traction.

Among them were pioneering rear-engined dragsters (and funny cars, including Doug Thorley's and Dave Bowman's[5]) were Steve Swaja's AA/Gas Wedge I from 1963, Roger Lindwall's 1966 Top Fuel Re-Entry and Kent Fuller's fueller Sidewinder III, both in 1969.

[8] Driven by Foster, the Gilmore car ran just once, getting up on its single rear wheelie bar and breaking in two at around 220 mph (350 km/h), at Lions Drag Strip.

[8] Pawnbroker won the American Hot Rod Association Summernats in Long Island, New York, the first national event win for a rear-engined car, with a pass of 6.83 at 219 mph (352 km/h).

[8] On March 8, 1970, at Lions Drag Strip,[8] Garlits was driving Swamp Rat XIII, also called the Wynnscharger, a slingshot rail, when the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure, and the car broke in half in front of the cockpit.

Swamp Rat XIV turned in a pass of 6.80 right off the trailer,[8] and was so successful during 1971, Garlits won two of his next three Top Fuel Eliminator titles (the Winternats and Bakersfield), and was runner-up at Lions, all in the new car.