The first “Funny Cars” were really modified NHRA Super Stockers.  In the early days of the Funny Car, the factory backed Super Stock racers either received vehicles directly from the factory already modified (like the Plymouth and Dodge altered wheelbase A/FX Super Stockers) or they modified the cars themselves.  This was 1964 and the beginning of what became known as “match race madness”.  It wasn’t that difficult to modify these Super Stock cars, even if you didn’t have factory support.  The typical modifications included moving the body and chassis rearward (which increased weight transfer) and adding individual runner fuel injection systems to the otherwise basic Super Stock engine.  Almost all of the well known Funny Car pilots in those days originally came through the Super Stock ranks.  

But one who didn’t was Jack Chrisman.  This is his story and the story of the first nitro Funny Car.

Jack was born in Grove, Oklahoma in 1928.  Jack’s parents moved to Southern California in 1953.  It didn’t take long before Jack discovered drag racing.  Almost immediately, Jack built a 1929 Model A Ford with a full race flathead engine.  A little later, a 354 inch Hemi Chrysler filled the engine compartment.  Jack’s nasty ride was a fixture at local SoCal drag strips such as Santa Ana, Saugus, Pomona, Lyons and San Fernando .  One of the things that made Jack’s sedan really stand out from the rest was that he frequently used nitromethane fuel.  Loud.

A few years later, Jack purchased one of the first true dragsters ever built, the Ed Lusinski Chrysler powered “Purple Car”.  This Hot Rod Magazine cover car was like every dragster of that era, a front engined digger with the driver sitting just in front of the rear end housing.  Jack earned many trophies with this car.

In 1959 Jack got behind the wheel of a dragster that was soon to become one of the most famous dragsters of all time, the “Sidewinder”.  You had to see it to believe it.  The supercharged Hemi Chrysler engine was mounted sideways just in front of the rear end and used a chain drive, with a sprocket behind the clutch housing and another sprocket on one side of the solid tube rear axle.  The wheelbase was less than 100 inches.  The driver actually had his feet over the front axle.  To say that the “Sidewinder” was a handful to get down the track was a major understatement.  This dragster (on gasoline) ran consistent 9.0’s at 160+ and won many of SoCal’s biggest events.  By the way, being the Top Eliminator in those days was no easy task.  A 32 car dragster field was not out of the ordinary at the local SoCal tracks.       

Jack eventually moved on to drive several other well known dragsters, including the Howard Cam “Twin Bear” (blown side by side Chevy’s) dragster, and a Hemi (yes, that’s right) Pontiac powered dragster owned by Mickey Thompson.  During this period Jack won pretty much everything there was to win, including the NHRA Winternationals, The NHRA U.S. Nationals and the Smokers Fuel / Gas Championship (the “March Meet”) in Bakersfield.  In those days the NHRA National Event Series consisted of only two races.  In 1961 he was crowned the NHRA World Champion. 

The 1963 season was the last year that Jack was in the seat of a dragster.  At Pomona , the Top Fuel dragster he was driving destroyed the differential during a run.  If you recall, the driver’s legs went over the top of the rear end housing in those days.  The rear end explosion put Jack in the hospital for 42 days.

While recuperating from his injuries, Jack went to work for NHRA’s National Dragster publication where, by chance, he met Fran Hernandez from the Ford Motor Company.  Fran was the key guy with Mercury’s drag race program.  His Super Stock and Factory Experimental drag team included Don Nicholson and Fast Eddie Shartman.  On a whim, Fran gave a 1964 Super Stock Mercury Comet (427 wedge) to Jack, hoping that he might want to run the match race circuit. 

Jack was interested all right, but coming from the dragster ranks rather than the Super Stock ranks, Jack had a different idea as to what the fans wanted to see.  Jack hauled the Comet over to Bill Stroppe’s shop in Long Beach, CA.  What happened there revolutionized the sport of drag racing forever. 

Unlike many of the match race Funny Cars, Jack’s car (known as Chrisman’s Comet) wasn’t quite so “funny”.         

At first glance, the Comet looked like every other Mercury Comet Super Stocker.  Painted refrigerator white with only a sponsor name on the doors (Sachs & Sons Lincoln-Mercury, Downey , California ), the wheelbase and body location were stock, just like it came from the factory.  The typical fiberglass bumpers, hood, front fenders and doors (all available for S/S and F/X competition), plus a gutted interior kept the weight down to about 2800 pounds.   The engine was the FE 427 Ford (Mercury?) wedge, cross-bolted, side oiler Super Stock combination, with a few of Jack’s “extra goodies”.  One of the goodies was a 6-71 GMC supercharger and Hilborn fuel injection (mechanical, not EFI back then).  Another goodie was what was in the small Moon fuel tank.  A 50/50 mixture of nitro and alcohol. 

Nitro was something that the Super Stock boys weren’t that familiar with.  The Super Stock and Factory Experimental racers were more accustom to gasoline.

When Jack fired up his Comet, there was that magnificent crackle that only comes from a big inch engine running on “pop”.  “We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto.”

Another little trick that Jack brought over from his dragster days was running “high gear” only.  No trans.  The rear end gear was a 3.90:1.  Of course, the tires in those days were much less efficient than what’s available today.  10 inch slicks were “big tires” back then.  Most gasoline powered dragsters could not even run that big a tire, but Jack’s Comet had over 1000 HP.  No problem. 

A run in the Comet was usually a tire burning pass clean through the quarter mile, smoking the hides all the way from one end to the other.  It’s no wonder why “Chrisman’s Comet” was so popular with the race fans.  The initial test pass was a  10.38 @ 148.27 ( July 12, 1964 ) and in short order, the Comet was in the 9’s at over 160 MPH. 

Where as today, a supercharged small block Mustang on gasoline (like a Renegade car)  may be able to outrun Chrisman’s Comet, a pass under 10 seconds was unheard of in a full bodied car in 1964.  And the sound coming out of the exhaust was too beautiful for words.  You had to be there to fully appreciate it (and I was there many, many times).

Jack made a mint on the drag race circuit running the Comet in exhibition (no one wanted to race him).  The fans all over the country lined up at the fences every time the big nitro engine fired up.  Jack eventually went on to run a tube framed Mercury Comet “flopper”, with a supercharged SOHC nitro engine.  Everyone can remember the “topless” all fiberglass bodied Merc storming around the country.  The new car was not much more than a dragster in disguise and eventually ran in the mid 8’s at over 188 MPH, but it’s Jack’s first Comet that I remember the most, and the car that changed the image of “door cars” forever . 

Jack went on to form “Jack Chrisman Enterprises” in Long Beach, CA and today JCE supplies rear end and driveline components to serious racers everywhere.  As famous as Jack Chrisman was in the 1960’s (probably the first paid dragster shoe), he was always ready with a smile and a willing offer of assistance to anyone in the  pits (including me) that needed some help.

Jack passed away in 1989 at age 61, and has been inducted into the Don Garlits Hall of Fame and is #23 on the All-Time Top 50 NHRA Drag Racer List.

For those of us old farts who think “nostalgia” is a dirty word, and for those of you who were “there” when Funny Cars had doors, this story about Jack Chrisman and his nitro Comet is for you.