thumb|right|Early [[Jack Chrisman Funny Car from 1965]]

thumb|right|1971 [[Mickey Thompson-owned Funny Car]]

thumb|right|1975 [[Gene Snow Funny Car]]

A Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny Cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.

Funny Car bodies typically reflect the models of newly available cars in the time period that the Funny Car was built. For example, in the 1970s, then current models such as the Chevrolet Vega or Plymouth Barracuda were often represented as Funny Cars, and the bodies represented the Big Three of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. Currently, four manufacturers are represented in National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car: Chevrolet with the Camaro, Dodge with the Charger, Ford with the Mustang, and Toyota with the Supra. Worldwide, however, many different body styles are used. These "fake" body shells are not just cosmetic: they serve an important aerodynamic purpose.

Modern Funny Cars can rival or surpass Top Fuel dragsters.

In 2016, fielding a Funny Car team could cost between US$2.6 and US$3 million. A single carbon fiber body can cost US$70,000.

Guidelines

The NHRA has strict guidelines for Funny Cars. Most of the rules relate to the engine. In short, the engines can only be V8s displacing no more than . The most popular design is a Donovan, loosely based on the second generation Chrysler 426 Hemi.

Crankshafts are CNC machine carved from steel billet, then nitrided in an oven to increase surface hardness. Intake valves are titanium and of diameter, while exhaust valves are diameter, made from Inconel. Every Funny Car has ballistic blankets covering the supercharger because this part of the engine is prone to explosion.

Funny Car fuel systems are key to their immense power. During a single run (starting, burnout, backing up, staging, 1/4 mile) cars can burn as much as of fuel. The fuel mixture is usually 85–90% nitromethane (nitro, "fuel") and 10–15% methanol (alcohol, "alky"). The ratio of fuel to air can be as high as 1:1. Compression ratios vary from 6:1 to 7:1. The engines in Funny Cars commonly exhibit varying piston heights and ratios that are determined by the piston's proximity to the air intake. Funny Cars have a fixed gear ratio of 3.20:1 and have a reversing gear; power is transmitted from engine to final drive through a multiple staged clutch which provides progressive incremental lockup as the run proceeds. The rate/degree of lockup is mechanically/pneumatically controlled and preset before each run according to various conditions, in particular, the track surface. Wheelbases are between . The car must maintain a ground clearance.

Horsepower claims vary widely from 10,000 to 11,000 HP (7.5–8 MW). Supercharged, nitromethane-fueled motors of this type have a very high torque, estimated at . They routinely achieve a 6-G acceleration from a standing start.

Safety

Many safety rules are in place to protect the driver and fans. The more visible safety devices are the twin parachutes to help stabilize and decelerate the car after crossing the finish line. Less visible precautions include roll cages and fire extinguishers.

During safety evaluations in the wake of the fatal crash of Scott Kalitta on June 21, 2008, in Englishtown, N.J., the NHRA reduced the distance of Top Fuel and Funny Car races to 1,000 feet (304 meters) effective July 2, 2008, as later did the National Drag Racing Championship in Australia. Pro Stock and sportsman classes still race to 1⁄4 mile (1,320 feet, 402 meters).

History

Origins

In drag racing in the mid-1960s, Top Fuel horsepower began to be combined with bodied cars with altered wheelbases to produce the first Funny Cars. The term "funny car" is attributed to Mercury's chief of racing, Fran Hernandez, as in "We need to beat those 'funny' cars." The first Funny Cars were built in the early to mid-1960s. Funny Car as a class traces its roots to Super Stock, through "the intriguingly named Optional Super Stock class", to A/Factory Experimental (A/FX), which NHRA introduced in 1962, and ultimately XS (experimental stock). At the start, the rear tires ("slicks") were made with a bias-ply construction ("wrinklewall" slicks had not been invented yet), which meant that grip upon launching was poor. Racers who performed these altered wheelbase modifications found it shifted the center of gravity rearward, which placed more weight on the rear wheels, enhancing traction from these bias-ply slicks. Because of these many obvious modifications they did not look stock, hence the name "funny". The wheelbases were changed to assist traction for the narrow (-wide) slicks (required by NHRA rules), while keeping the mandatory factory distance between axle centers.

First Funny Cars (1964–1965)

The first of the "funny-looking cars" were a trio of 1964 Dodge 330 Max Wedges which were named the "Dodge Chargers". They debuted in March 1964 at San Diego Raceway. Funny Cars started as stockers, and were, at first, pure exhibition cars, in the Super/Factory Experimental (S/FX) class; NHRA treated them like a passing fad, and tried to "legislate them out of existence" by placing them in first gas and then fuel dragster classes, with cars of half the weight and twice the horsepower. The precursor of the Funny Car, appearing almost a decade earlier, was John Bandimere's blown '55 Chevy. Among the Modified Sport racers to challenge early Funny Cars were Roger Hardcastle and Les Beattie with the Stinger, sporting a blown, fuel injected Chrysler hemi in an Astra J-5.

The first Funny Cars were Super Stock 1964 Dodge 330 Max Wedges, named the "Dodge Chargers", prepared, at the behest of Don Beebe, by Dragmaster's Jim Nelson and Dode Martin. (Thus, they were technically "funny gassers", not fuel cars, unlike the later examples. For 1965, Plymouth Belvederes and Dodge Coronets were treated to the altered wheelbase configuration for their factory drivers. Only twelve were built.

The three Chargers, wearing a color scheme of red body sides and white roof, hood, and trunk, with two blue longitudinal stripes, (Nix tried to persuade Chrisman to get Mercury Racing Director Fran Hernandez to allow him to run his Comet's 427 on nitro, as a way to gain leverage on NHRA, so Nix could use nitro himself). Driven by Jack Chrisman, and entered in B/FD, the Comet created a sensation. Two of the Dodge trio would return in 1965 as the Guzler Chargers team, powered by supercharged, nitro-fuelled hemis, with direct drive; both crashed the same year. It would inspire "every flopper body ever formed." probably better known for land speed racing, in the Beach City Chevrolet-sponsored Sting Ray. an odd classification, since they were bodied cars, not dragsters. In 1965, Ford produced Holman and Moody-built fiberglass-bodied Mustangs for (among others) Gas Ronda, who was the most successful Ford racer. The car was built by Logghe Bros. (based in Detroit) (with bodies by Fiberglass Trends), weighing in around , making it heavier than most contemporary top fuel dragsters. (It would be the first Funny Car on the cover of Hot Rod, in April 1966.) Similar cars went to Chrisman, "Fast Eddie" Schartman, and Kenz and Leslie. These cars had the first coilover suspension in Funny Car, and were powered by Hilborn-injected 427 SOHCs producing on 80% nitro. Schartman (working with Roy Steffey, on the "Flip-Top Fueler") would beat Chrisman for Top Funny Car at the NHRA World Finals in 1966 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a pass of 8.28 at . (The success of the Top Fuel-engined Comets would eventually prompt both Ford and Chrysler to drop Funny Car sponsorship.) In 1967, Doug Thorley would record the first (unofficial) Funny Car pass in his Corvair at Lions.

Of the privateers in this era, Bruce Larson's USA-1 (a '66 Chevelle with a Hilborn-injected 427 and four-speed) was the most successful.

Logghe proved unable to keep up with the demand for their chassis, leading to the creation of a Funny Car chassis-building industry, which was soon joined by Dick Fletcher, Don Hardy, Ronnie Scrima, and a number of others. Late in 1969, Pat Foster and John Buttera would devise a Top Fuel dragster-style chassis to replace the "dune buggy" design common at the time. This would go under the Mustang Mach Is of Danny Ongais and Mickey Thompson. Similar chassis would be built by Logghe, Scrima, Buttera, Woody Gilmore, Don Long, and Steve Plueger, among others; this design remains the standard in TF/FC. (This engine would later be replaced by a 392 Hemi prepared by John Hoven and Glenn Okazaki.) That same year, Leal would sell his 'cuda to Don Schumacher. Tragedy struck the same year, with the death of Jerry Schwartz in the ex-Foster Mach I. One of the most famous (and popular) Funny Cars in NHRA history would appear in 1969: Chi-Town Hustler, a Charger prepared by Fakonas and Coil (driven by Pat Minnick). By November, Jake Johnson in the hemi-powered Blue Max (driving for Harry Schmidt) turned in a 6.72 at , at OCIR. The Funny Car Eliminator title at the 1971 Winternats would go to Roland Leong's Charger, Hawaiian. At the 1972 Supernationals, Jim Dunn recorded a historic win in his Barracuda, the first and only, won by a mid-engined Funny Car. In 1973, Shirley Muldowney teamed up with Connie Kalitta as the Bounty Hunter and Bounty Huntress in a pair of Ford Mustangs, hers a Buttera chassis, his a Logghe. He would suffer severe burns in the final after an engine exploded.), in 1984 did something no other driver has: he won both the NHRA and IHRA world championships. The team took four IHRA titles between 1983 and 1987, including two in a row, 1986 and 1987, as well as beating John Force in the 1986 Big Bud Shootout (losing to him the next year). In 1996, with Austin Coil tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the best records ever in Funny Car history. Force's domination in 1989 would only really be challenged by Bruce Larson, a long-time East Coast match racer, with Outlaw sprint car driver Maynard Yingst as his tuner, winning six events and taking the runner-up spot five times, in an Oldsmobile sponsored by Sentry. In 1992, the honor of putting Force on the trailer would go to Cruz Pedregon, driving the Larry Minor McDonald's-sponsored Olds to the championship. This car would be dubbed the "Batmobile". It would profoundly change Funny Car aerodynamics. Sponsored by Blower Drive Service and later Sears, Roebuck, & Co., during the 1990s, Hoffman earned eleven national event wins, as well as the 1991 Winston Invitational and the U. S. Nationals non-championship money race in 1991, 1994, and 1995. Major corporate sponsorship money came to Funny Car starting in 1997, leading to significant changes in the sport. Multi-car teams, with several tuners each, became commonplace, and single car teams "had a very slim chance of winning an NHRA World Championship". Force's domination would continue, with ten NHRA FC World Championship wins from 1993 to 2002, including six straight 1997–2002; his success was so amazing he was accused of cheating (and was willing to strip off his firesuit to prove he was not). Between 1997 and 2006, Force went to the final in 105 of 228 events and took sixty-one tour wins,

  • 2014 – Matt Hagan
  • 2015 – Del Worsham
  • 2016 – Ron Capps
  • 2017 – Robert Hight
  • 2018 – JR Todd
  • 2019 – Robert Hight
  • 2020 – Matt Hagan
  • 2021 – Ron Capps
  • 2022 – Ron Capps
  • 2023 – Matt Hagan
  • 2024 – Austin Prock
  • 2025 – Austin Prock

Currently, John Force is the driver in the Funny Car class with the most wins, having 16 championships, more than 1,000 round wins and also 157 career wins. He is also the owner with the most Funny Car championships with 21, since Tony Pedregon (2003), Robert Hight (2009, 2017 and 2019), and Austin Prock (2024) have won five titles while on his team. Force's former crew chief, Austin Coil, also has logged the highest number of wins in that position.

Most NHRA Funny Car wins

{| class="wikitable"

|+

! colspan="2" |Key

|-

|**

|Denotes active driver

|}

{| class="wikitable"

! Driver !! Wins

|-

| John Force || 157

|-

| Ron Capps** || 79

|-

| Robert Hight || 65

|-

| Matt Hagan** || 55

|-

| Tony Pedregon || 43

|-

| Cruz Pedregon** || 40

|-

| Jack Beckman** || 37

|-

| Don Prudhomme || 35

|-

| Del Worsham || 31

|-

| Kenny Bernstein || 30

|-

| Tim Wilkerson || 24

|-

| Austin Prock** || 22

|-

| Tommy Johnson Jr || 21

|-

| Whit Bazemore || 20

|-

| Mark Oswald || 18

|-

| Ed McCulloch || 18

|-

| Bob Tasca III || 18

|-

| Al Hofmann|| 15

|-

| Chuck Etchells || 13

|-

| Raymond Beadle || 13

|-

| J.R. Todd**|| 13

|-

| Gary Scelzi|| 12

|-

| Courtney Force|| 12

|-

| Billy Meyer|| 11

|-

| Mike Neff|| 10

|-

| Mike Dunn|| 10

|-

| Gordie Bonin|| 9

|-

| Gary Densham|| 8

|-

| Johnny Gray || 7

|-

| Frank Hawley || 7

|-

| Bruce Larson || 7

|-

| Alexis DeJoria** || 6

|-

| Eric Medlen || 6

|-

| Dale Pulde || 6

|-

| Jerry Toliver || 5

|-

| Tom Hoover || 5

|-

| Tom McEwen || 4

|-

| Jim White || 4

|-

| Ashley Force Hood || 4

|-

| Jeff Arend || 4

|-

| Phil Burkart Jr || 4

|-

| Frank Pedregon Jr || 4

|-

| Jim Epler || 4

|-

| Jim Head || 3

|-

| Mike Ashley || 3

|-

|Chad Green** || 3

|-

| Shawn Langdon** || 2

|-

| Blake Alexander** || 2

|-

| K.C. Spurlock || 2

|-

| Dean Skuza || 2

|-

| Bruce Sarver || 2

|-

| Tripp Shumake || 2

|-

| Tim Grose || 2

|-

| Al Segrini || 2

|-

| John Lombardo || 2

|-

| Jordan Vandergriff** || 1

|-

| Paul Lee** || 1

|-

| Melanie Troxel || 1

|-

| Bob Gilbertson || 1

|-

| Gary Clapshaw || 1

|-

| Tony Bartone || 1

|-

| Bob Bode || 1

|-

| Kenji Okazaki || 1

|-

| Scott Kalitta || 1

|-

| Rick Johnson || 1

|-

| John Collins || 1

|-

| Sherm Gunn || 1

|-

| Craig Epperly || 1

|-

| Denny Savage || 1

|-

| Johnny White || 1

|-

| Jim Liberman || 1

|-

| Dave Condit || 1

|-

| Shirl Greer || 1

|-

| Frank Hall || 1

|-

| Pat Foster || 1

|-

| Dave Beebe || 1

|-

| Larry Fullerton || 1

|-

| Larry Arnold || 1

|-

| Sam Miller || 1

|-

| Butch Maas || 1

|-

| Phil Castronovo || 1

|-

| Larry Reyes || 1

|-

| Clare Sanders || 1

|-

| Doug Thorley || 1

|-

| Tom Grove || 1

|-

| Ed Schartman || 1

|}

References

Sources

  • Burk, Jeff. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 3" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 52–64.
  • McClurg, Bob. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 2" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 35–50.
  • Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 30–43.
  • Wallace, Dave. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 1" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 21–32.
  • NHRA National Hot Rod Association Website
  • IHRA International Hot Rod Association Website
  • Drag Race Central
  • Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit