Gary Coes 57 drag car

[59meteor]

I am sure that most of you have seen photos of Gary Coes "Gunfighter" 57 Custom 300 drag car from the late 60s, early 70s, from Oregon. In later years, Coe ran Pro Stock with a Pinto station wagon, and the past several years has been racing late model factory Mustang Mustang Cobra Jet drag cars in NHRA Stock and Super Stock. He had also built some spectacular 57 Ford PU truck show vehicles. Anyhow, I was just looking thru the NHRA qualifying sheets for the Divisional race in Las Vegas this weekend, and I noticed that Gary Coe is shown as racing a 57 Ford Custom 300 this weekend, in the Top Sportsman class, and is currently qualified with a 7.62ET at 178 MPH! Pretty sure it ain`t sporting a 292 Y Block in this car! Any chance that anybody is in the Vegas area , and planning to attend this race this weekend, would love to see some pictures of Coes new 57 race car.

[rmk57]

 I wouldn't mind checking out some photos of his 57 also. I did see a small writeup on the progress of building the his 57. Supposed to be powered by a 302 Coyote, supercharged of coarse.

 Here's a pic I took at SIR, Fallnationals or Jolly Rancher nationals? 1985?

[57chero]

I heard he was building a 57, I actually sold him a few parts for it a grill half and some trim parts. I ran into him at a couple local cruise ins this summer he also has a restomod 56 bird that was finished a couple years ago.

[59meteor]

I wouldn't mind checking out some photos of his 57 also. I did see a small writeup on the progress of building the his 57. Supposed to be powered by a 302 Coyote, supercharged of coarse.

 Here's a pic I took at SIR, Fallnationals or Jolly Rancher nationals? 1985?

Randys, that is an interesting photo. I first saw the Coe and Larson Gunfighter Pinto wagon Pro Stocker at Mission, around 1 975 or 76, at that time, the car was mostly blue, with the earlier style nose. A buddy of mine, Ken Heard, owner of Oregon Cam Grinding, must have bought the Pinto wagon shortly after you took this photo, Ken painted it black, and ran it in Super Street and Super Stock,with a 427 Ford FE engine, and won the Seattle National event with the wagon , in I believe Super Street, in the late 80s or early 90s, and right after winning the final, a NHRA official ran into the fiberglass front end on Kens car with a pit scooter. Later on, Ken sold the Pinto, and bought a 85 Mustang that he still races in Super Gas, in fact he won Super Gas at Mission about a month ago with his Mustang.

[rmk57]

  Rory, you really need to write a history of racers in division 6...Ford racers anyways!

 In the photo I think That's Jim Waldos Fairlane behind the chevy 2 in the staging lanes.

[mustang6984]

If he wrote the book...I would line up to buy it! I missed all that stuff when I stepped out of the car world for 40 years. Yea...I would definitely buy it.

[59meteor]

Rory, you really need to write a history of racers in division 6...Ford racers anyways!

 In the photo I think That's Jim Waldos Fairlane behind the chevy 2 in the staging lanes.

Randy, you are correct, that is Jim Waldos green 67 427 A/S Fairlane in the background,  as for Ford racers in Division 6, unfortunately, that book wouldn`t be as thick as I would have liked, the GM and MoPar racers had us outnumbered quite badly.
I stayed up until 3.30 am watching the NHRA coverage of the Las Vegas LODRS Divisional race, and I was able to see Coes 57 make a pass. Car looks very cool, stock looking red and white 2 tone paint scheme, with the full length Custom 300 side trim. Compared to the majority of cars racing in Top Sportsman, which are generally aerodynamic late model cars, or if older cars, often have tapered, drooped front ends, rounded off edges, shaved off rain gutters, flush mounted glass, molded in bumpers, etc, Coes car looks almost stock by comparison. Too bad I live 4000 miles away from the West coast, unlikely I will ever get to see this car in person. The track announcer seemed really impressed with Garys 57, which is running 7 second ETs with a supercharged Ford Coyote engine with about 1/2 the displacement of most of his opponents cars. Pretty darn cool!