Remembering the Stone, Woods and Cook Dark Horse 2 Funny Car

In 1967, many drag racing fans were stunned to discover that the team of Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner ended up swapping their preferred AA/Gas Willys coupe for a Mustang amusing vehicle. The staff dominated the A/GS ranks with the Swindler A Willys, and many individuals expected them to continue competing in the gasser ranks.

Funny auto match racing was the place all the funds was, nevertheless, and the “Pebble, Pulp and Chef” gang was ready for a new challenge. So they set aside the Willys in favor of a blown Mustang they christened Dark Horse 2.

While the fiberglass flip-best design amusing cars were starting to occur into their possess, the SWC Mustang was not a flopper. Instead the group mounted a steel Mustang overall body shell on a mild pounds tubular chassis, with a extended fiberglass entrance clip. Driver Doug Cook entered the automobile via opening doors, while the clip could be eradicated to work on the engine.

Subsequent the same sample as their well known gassers, the SWC crew chosen a blown early Chrysler hemi for energy. For the reason that Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner had been so effective in the gas lessons, some individuals mistakenly refer to the Mustang as a gasser. At initial the vehicle ran liquor, with a splash of nitro. As time wore on, the group tipped-the-can and used an at any time larger percentages of nitromethane.

The Mustang funny car or truck immediately adopted in the footsteps of the Willys gassers, profitable the 2400 pound course at the famed Bakersfield March meet up with two times in a row. From there, the team established off on a blistering barnstorming tour that has seldom been equaled.

It appeared that just about every drag racing fan wanted to see the Stone, Woods and Cook dinner Mustang in action, and every single monitor operator preferred to fill the stands by reserving the match racer. Decide on up any copy of Drag Information from 1967, and you will most likely locate quite a few tales recounting the exploits Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner at unique tracks.

In addition to racing at most of the 5-star tracks, Dim Horse 2 also confirmed up at smaller gap-in-the-wall venues dragstrips with ragged asphalt, dim night time-lighting and insufficient shut down parts. The admirers wished to see Doug Cook dinner in action, and the team was far more than willing to grant their wish.

Racing several moments a week, SWC ran towards most of the famous amusing automobiles of the period, getting on the lighter pounds, injected flip-top autos as nicely as other steel-bodied blown entries. Prepare dinner wasn’t constantly victorious, but he racked up an remarkable get/reduction tally.

Just when the Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner team appeared to be on major of their game, tragedy intervened. A crash ruined Darkish Horse 2 at Alton, Illinois. Doug Prepare dinner, a single of the most common and revered drag racers of all time, sustained back again accidents that ended his racing profession.

Stone, Woods and Cook ended up not concluded, even so. They crafted a new Mustang that was a close to copy of the primary. The Ghost of Dark Horse 2 continued the torrid match-race pace, with a variety of employed drivers changing Cook dinner powering the wheel.

By 1969, even the SWC workforce could not continue being competitive with a metal bodied motor vehicle, and they constructed a Mustang flopper, assigning the driving chores to Dee Keaton. In the early ’70s, Tim Woods constructed the 1st Pinto humorous car or truck and ran it less than the Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner banner with Mike VanSant as the pilot. Still afterwards a Chrysler driven Corvette gasser toured under the Stone, Woods and Cooke banner. That is not a typo on the ‘Vette the identify Prepare dinner was spelled with an e on the finish. Reportedly, none of the first trio was actively included with the Corvette.

At some point, all 3 members of the vibrant staff retired from racing. Doug Cook dinner passed away in 1999.

The Darkish Horse 2 legacy carries on, nonetheless. Mike Cook dinner, son of the popular driver, is reconstructing Darkish Horse 2. Shots of the car’s development can be viewed on Cook’s website, as well as images of the absolutely restored Swindler A and Swindler B Willys coupes.

Four decades have passed because the Dark Horse 2 Mustang barnstormed its way into drag racing record. It is awesome to know that Mike Cook dinner won’t intend to permit the popular funny car be forgotten.