Drag Racing At Castlereagh. Australian Diary 130

From the Film Australia Collection of the National Film and Sound Archive.
Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit 1968. A look at the sport of drag racing through driver Bob Hamilton.

[@ltipst2962]

This is AWESOME brilliant videography but also overall awesome. Love to you and all. Thanks for sharing.

[@olivei2484]

Crazy! Old school, great to see.

[@davidwright4654]

Good old days! Gone but never forgotten

[@davechristian7543]

They will be soon when those who know n remember still' are all gone sadly my boy, n humans will have evolved again n forgotten more of the old ways, they say in 2050 most people will be sleeping with any sex n will just think its normal n they wont even be called gay n so on anymore by then bc it'll just be looked at as normal. 'crazy .. Oh n robots According to the UK futurists, in 2050 sexual contact between a person and an electronic device or a robot will occur more frequently than between two people. Futurologist Ian Pearson predicts

[@crimsontiger6]

My Dad was into that scene in the 60's. He had a hot FJ Holden. Then later on he raced an American Rambler. He had a mate who had a Beatle with a porsche engine in it.

[@ltipst2962]

FYI your dad was well cool and him and his mate will be cool until the sun vanishes.

[@doctorbohr1585]

"Beetle". Beatle refers to a member of the well known Liverpudlian quartet.

[@106Doug]

I won the 1966 Winter nationals in the FMS class which was up to 1500cc sports racing closed. I was driving my Austin A40 Farina originally 998cc but I fitted an 1100cc Austin Healy Sprite motor which I fitted Hepolite pistons from England and the cylinder head was done at Scientific Gas Flow Cylinder heads in Garden street Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches. A true story Colin Bond worked there and we discussed what I wanted from the cylinder head work. I fitted a watson cam and originally the two inch and a quarter S U's but then fitted a 45mm doce side draught Weber which I still have 58 years later . I then took it to Oran Park but had a roll over at the end of the main straight fortunately not injured and very little damage to the Farina. Whilst the car being repaired at Brookvale I got called up in nasho so Vietnam etc so that was the end of my hobby which I loved so much. I forgot to mention that all my machining like cylinder boring,cranksharft grinding etc was done at Alder engineering in between Balgowlah and Manly. When Neville Alder took over when his dad retired he named it Alder Performance Engineering and he built the Combi with the Corvette engine that did wheel stands the entire length of the strip and it was called the mechanical APE for Alder performance Engineering.

[@garyspeed8961]

remember being taken out there from Newport... 12 years old to see Don Garlicks rail.. loudest thing I have ever heard in my life... 70 now.. still nothing has topped it

[@VileFemboy]

Cool memory, oldtimer!

[@marktubeie07]

Fantastic! Interesting how the library music chosen was modeled on the group 'The Doors' & others from that era.

[@danrobinson572]

Thanks NFSA now my Monday morning is awesome 👏

[@returnofthenative]

Hands up if you scored 100% on the names of every car you saw. I so miss the 60s, & 70s too.

[@jamesgovett3225]

Interesting the young bloke speaking said that there is another drag strip at Riverside in Melbourne which was the ok d Airstrip at Fisherman’s Bend near Port Melbourne, but I notice the film was made in 1968, Riverside was shut by then and Bob Janes Calder Drags was well and truly operating by then

[@barrymartin3813]

Excellent, great footage. I am curious. What was the best time on the day

[@billyhong5071]

So cool. ❤

[@fuzzjunky]

no music copyright pings. some of that sounds doorsy. did they really make the soundtrack for this?? that's crazy. i love it. and the footage looks pristine. thanks for the upload

[@H3avyHaul3r]

great to see some old pop culture movies….

[@josefbuckland]

Great to see a video where the comments where switch on now if only I had something to type

[@doctorbohr1585]

They used some high quality b&W stock for sure.

[@letsnotargue]

Classic

[@tangiers365]

the mono that vw was doing was nuts how did it get back on its axel

[@James_Bowie]

A: gravity

[@Shawnsteroz]

just get off the throttle and it drops down on 4 wheels? I wonder if it is just the torque of the motor, possibly a V8 in a VW.

[@crimsontiger6]

It was probably a purpose custom-made wheelie car. It's balanced to wheelie when the driver is on the gas. When the driver backs off the throttle the front comes down. These days you see more jet cars with afterburners at the drags.

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

😎

[@danrobinson572]

Did he ever become a professional drag racer?

[@crunchytheclown9694]

That toe lol

[@redplanet7163]

The camel one Yeah, I saw that!