UKDRN

Do you own or know the whereabouts of a piece of UK Drag Racing History or just want info on a particular machine.

Moderators: timetravel, ukdrn

 #36736  by ukdrn
 
There's quite a few pictures of these cars splattered over the forum.
This is one of my favorites from Brian Taylor with "Big" sitting in the seat.
Garlits in Dragonr.jpg
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 #36738  by timetravel
 
There were only two Dragons that made it to the strip, one was the yellow framed car that disappeared around 1969 when Alan Ing took the engine out to make a rear engined digger and the other appeared in various paint jobs over the years and is now run by Alan Smith.
 #36739  by ukdrn
 
timetravel wrote:There were only two Dragons that made it to the strip, one was the yellow framed car that disappeared around 1969 when Alan Ing took the engine out to make a rear engined digger and the other appeared in various paint jobs over the years and is now run by Alan Smith.
She's quite convinced it's a Dragon.
Brian Taylor says he thinks 3 were built?
 #36747  by timetravel
 
The Colin Glass Dragon was a Mk 2 version which looked completely different.
There was a chassis pictured in the Allard adverts at the time which may be still be around somewhere.
Someone told me they had a Dragon chassis in their garage some years ago and it didn't have the extra rollbar hoop like the one in the advert so that may be the one that's turned up now...
 #37998  by MrMotormind
 
Still these rare photographs miraculously turn up!

Two more recent eBay treasures have been acquired.
These are original press photographs from Silverstone on 8 April 1964 when Sydney Allard's Dragstar Dragon was introduced to the motoring press.
The typed caption on the back reads:
''Ford dealer Sydney Allard offers words of advice to Collett Engineering director Ian Smith before he drops the clutch of the Allard 'Dragon Dragstar' at Silverstone. Allard markets the supercharged 1 1/2 litre dragsters for less than £600 in construction kit form.''
Photograph by Douglas Armstrong, North Lodge, Shurlock Row, Berkshire, England.
Dragon Press pic 1.jpg
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Dragon Press pic 2.jpg
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There's an interesting conundrum here for Dragon fans and racing historians to consider. One which I haven't seen discussed before.
Looking closely at these two photographs it seems clear that the two cars are not identical. There appears to be a greater angle at the front of the frame on the Works Dragon than on the other one. The roll bar looks taller, the exhaust headers pass below the frame rail rather than above it, and the chassis tubing appears to be of a thicker gauge. Plus the steering pitman arm is positioned differently. These would all appear to be subtle improvements over the other design.

Edit: close examination of the works Dragon photo above reveals that a cropped version of the pic was used in the 'Motor Racing' magazine feature seen on the next page of this thread. Which means that the driver is journalist John Blunsden.
 #38001  by ukdrn
 
Very interesting. I would like more info if we can find out if we can.
Here's a great colour shot of the first car in your new pictures, chassis 2
Image from Nick Pettitt.
Image from Nick Pettitt.
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 #38002  by ukdrn
 
3rd April 1964 issue of Motor Cycle Magazine showing Alf Hagon and George Brown at Silverstone in a pair of Dragons.
Alan Smith believes his current car is the white one here.
image.jpg
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