TWO IN A ROW DIDN'T GO
Sidebar and Photos by Jeff Burk
6/8/06
Back when the rear engine funny cars were running and competitive, another unusual version of the funny car came on the scene…twin engine funny cars and more specifically funny cars with an engine in the stock location and one in the back seat. To our knowledge there were only two of these beasts John Smyser’s Terrifying Toranado and Joe Schubeck’s Hurst “Hairy” Olds. Both cars had a relatively short but spectacular career.
HURST “HAIRY” OLDS
(First we have to give the reader the caveat that this information comes from the fertile mind of DRO’s resident historian Chris Martin)
Joe Schubeck and his twin-engined Hurst-backed Oldsmobile 442 gave a whole new meaning to the definition of the 442 by adding twin engines was according to Martin’s memory the only one of these two cars that actually raced. Its demise was much more spectacular than any race it may have had though. According to Chris Martin, Joe Schubeck booked the car into the old Detroit Dragway and on the final pass had a malfunction resulting in the throttle for both engines hanging wide open. The car blazed down the track and unable to stop the 4000lb plus beast Shubeck jumped out the window breaking a leg. The car, now on fire, continued down track going off the Dragstrip onto a Farmer’s property that bordered the track where it ran over one of the farmer's animals. It then supposedly careened into the Farmer’s barn, burning the barn and the car to the ground and causing the Farmer to exit his home shotgun in hand. Great Story, huh? Unfortunately it’s apparently either a figment of Martin’s fevered imagination or just one of those drag racing legends.
The real end for the Olds according to Dennis Mothership in a copyrighted story he wrote a few years back in a Oldsmobile Club Magazine with Joe Schubeck. According to Mr. Mothership the lap for the “Hairy” Olds was at the now defunct Niagra Dragway. On that last pass a mag failure on the front engine put the four-wheel drive behemoth out of control and it ran off the track onto wet grass where it chased the spectators gathered on the fence line until a cable that ran the length of the fence brought the twin-engined car to a halt. Schubeck never drove the car again.
We liked Martin’s version of the last pass better.
THE TERRIBLE TORANADO
In doing research for this we couldn’t find much other than some photos of Smyser’s ill-handling twin-motored Toranado. Again, according to Mr. Martin’s memory, the Toranado was even more evil-handling than the Toranado powered Hurst Olds. He believes that the aptly named “Terrifying Toranado” crashed on its debut at the old Irwindale Dragway. Again according to Martin’s memory the last lap on the car was at Pomona when it got out of control with Smyser at the wheel. It jumped off the Pomona strip and rolled to a halt on E-Street. Smyser retired the car and became an opponent of Funny Cars penning several anti-Funny Car tirades in the drag mags of the day. 