in the world of drag racing
To go to earlier editions of "What's New" go to What's Old
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The latest update as of January 9, 2002 Hey, we promised to come back tonight with our very first millenial "Definitely From The Far Side" special. It's our first... and with any luck.... our last stab at rounding up all the oddball stuff that's been accumulating on the old hard drive over the past few years. There's no particular theme and I'll start throwing things on the page as they come out of the files. This first installment is being posted at 11:00 pm (PST) or 5:00 pm in Brisbane or 1893 in Kabul. We may even throw in a few of the latest cartoons we've collected recently. In advance we'd like to extend our apologies to all genders, creeds, ethnic groups and species that may or may not be offended or entertained by these pics and captions. Fire the first set! 
What better way to start than a pair of "wheelstanders"..... 
Which segues rather nicely into some more unorthodox race vehicles 
And the logical conclusion: Frank Gaffiero's Bandag Bullet from Australia It's a twin-engine, quadruple turbocharged, nitrous oxide injected, etc, etc, full-size Kenworth that specializes in destroying tracks doing burnouts, donuts, wallbangers, etc. It has run in the 12's, I think 
Another great Aussie entertainment is the ever popular burnout contest. Last guy with rubber on the drive wheels wins.... I think. Of course, to the delight of the spectators, sometimes things really go wrong (center pic) 
Moving right along, we come to the man who put the B into insanity (say what?)... the one, the only, Broadway Bob Metzler. Surprisingly enough he's not sanctioned by NHRA..... anymore. Go figure, eh? 
To kill some time while we're throwing together the second installment, here's a pair of explosive situations that were previewed last night 
A trio of automotive mayhem to finish up; a hard-landing for a Cadillac in the Mojave desert (left), a very abrupt stop for a Falcon wagon in Australia (right) and enough building supplies on the roof, in the trunk and the backseat to overload a 5-ton truck (center) Welcome back for part two. It's now well past midnight and we may not get all the captions in place tonight, but at least we've got the pics. Fire the next set! 
Sticking with the flame motif, we've got the winner of "Best Appearing Golf Cart" 
Here we go, with a nitrous backfire on the left and an auto trans explosion on the right 
Downunder infernos now: "Crazyman" John Taylor (gee, wonder where he got the nickname?) on the left, doing one of his patented fire burnouts and on the right, an un-named (to protect the guilty) Top Fuel car igniting another pile of banknotes 
Still more flames, from a nitro-burning frog to a plain old burning Ford 
More flames? Okay, here's some starting line dude getting a little too close to the action, while on the right we've got some serious barbecue fan ready to fire the next pair of burgers 
Let's turn off the flames for a moment and just have some good old fashioned "blowed up real good" pics. On the left is the "Liquidator" flopper at Santa Pod and on the right: some moron who figured he should leave the bottle heater turned on in his nitrous equipped hot rod. At home. In the garage. 
From the "if one is good, two must be better" department, is Sydney, Australia's "Wild" Bill Oakey with his twin supercharged dragster (sorry, but I couldn't find the pics of his twin-blown AND twin-turbo replacement for this car. On the right is one of the strangest wheelstanders ever: Bill Perry's "Hell On Wheels" 
Moving away from the dragstrip for a minute, we've got two examples of some unique automotive expressions from Eastern Europe 
Moving even further afield, we've got some really strange stuff from various parts of Asia. Not much horsepower here, but what do you expect from countries that annual GDP couldn't support a Super Comp car? 
Before we get back to the dragstrip, here's a few more automotive oddities: a zebra truck (spotted on the street outside my condo) and a Maverick that really wants to be a '59 Cadillac 
Of course we've got to poke a little fun at female drivers with these two gems. Remember ladies: I didn't make the captions that appear on the pics 
Where to now? How about the pits for a neat pic. "Team Donut" seems like an apt moniker for a cop car, doesn't it? Then we're off to the starting line for the "Nite Train" at Norwalk Raceway Park 
Another couple of shots from the pits, with contrasting messages. On the left, we've got some unhappy campers in the IHRA family, while on the right, Tacoma's favourite lawnmower mechanic (Jason Howell) becomes an official "Nitro Pirate" 
Finally, a group of miscellaneous drag racing pics, starting with a great looking nitrous purge; then a totally over-the-top jet/turbine/??? dragster; a rice-burner with an exhaust system on steroids; and finally, the first (and probably last) tug of war between two fuel cars (the King & Marshall team) 
Hang in there, we're in the home stretch now. Starting from the top left, we've got a crewman who's just trying too hard to get to the bottom of the low boost levels from the blower; then we're off to get away from it all at a Toyko waterpark; then it's on to what seemed like a good idea for a cactus planter.... and finally, here's why Aussies ALL carry a mobile phone (and a spare can of gas and a cooler of water when they hit the open road) 
Now for some well(?)-aimed personal attacks. On the left is the infamous Sharkman at Santa Pod, while your host occupies the center slot. On the right: hmm, we've been threatened with lawsuits if we reveal these two well-known Vancouver-area drag racing identities, so to avoid a "Heavenly" case of "Grapes", we'll keep their names a secret... still 
Here's a group that needs no introduction; in fact, we don't even want to sully the page with their names. We can only hope we never meet them 
Keeping with the personal attacks, here's some of my fellow longshoremen, posing in front of an idling (and they usually are...) "top-pick", while a typical Canadian hunter waits patiently for a Deer to leap out of the bush... precisely where the leaping deer sign is located 
In light of the events of last September, I'm rather hesitant to post any pics of aeronautical mishaps, but whenever have I shown good judgement in the past? (My sincere apologies to anyone who is offended by these images) 
Finally, some more pics that have a slightly more pointed (or twisted) message: A couple of air force pics (Canadian air force on the right), followed by pics of the "proud" Canadian Navy and Army |
