Take a look at this, The Dust Bowl Survivor Who Invented the Funny Car!
For decades, fans have watched modern Funny Cars rocket down the quarter-mile with flip-top fiberglass bodies, tube chassis, and engines thunderously burning nitromethane on their way to 300+ mph. But few know that the Funny Car revolution didn’t happen slowly, and it didn’t happen by accident.
It began with one driver, one radical idea, and one car that changed drag racing forever: Jack Chrisman’s 1964 Mercury Comet.
A Dust Bowl Survivor Turned Hot-Rod Pioneer
Jack Chrisman’s story reads like something out of a John Steinbeck novel. Born in Oklahoma in 1928 as the youngest of 13 children, his family fled the Dust Bowl and resettled in the booming streets of Southern California. There, the post-war hot-rod culture was exploding — a perfect playground for a young gearhead with vision.
Hot-rodding wasn’t just a hobby; it was rebellion, freedom, and a chance to build something powerful with nothing more than used parts and raw ingenuity. Chrisman thrived in that world.
From Humble Beginnings to Drag Racing Stardom
Chrisman didn’t reach a dragstrip until 1953, when he was already 25 years old. He started with a simple 1929 Ford Model A running a flathead engine on gas or nitro. Within just a few years, he became one of the most respected drivers in Southern California.
His early career highlights included:
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Racing at legendary tracks like Pomona, Lions, Santa Ana, San Fernando
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Piloting Ed Lusinski’s blown Chrysler front-engine dragster
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Driving for major teams such as Pat Akins, Masters & Richter, and Chuck Jones
But his breakthrough came with the wild and innovative dragsters of the early 1960s.
The Twin Bears Dragster – A New Kind of Innovator
In 1960, Chrisman moved to the Howard Cams team and began driving the now-iconic Twin Bears dragster, featuring two Chevrolet engines tilted outward. Strange? Yes. Fast? Absolutely.
At the 1961 NHRA Winter Nationals, Chrisman ran 8.90 seconds — the first 8-second NHRA national-event pass in history. Later that year he clocked an incredible 8.78 at Caddo Mills, Texas, making him one of the top racers in America.
By 1962, Chrisman had:
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Won Top Eliminator at the U.S. Nationals
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Set a blazing speed record of 176.60 mph
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Been crowned NHRA World Champion
He was on top of the drag-racing world — until disaster struck.
The Crash That Ended One Career… and Started Another
In 1963, a catastrophic rear-end failure caused a serious crash that left Chrisman hospitalized and unable to return to fuel dragsters full-time. But legends don’t fade — they evolve.
Even while recovering, Chrisman stayed heavily involved in racing and began thinking bigger than anyone else in the sport. What he created next would reshape drag racing forever.
The Birth of the First True Funny Car – The 1964 Mercury Comet
While working with Mercury on their exhibition racing program, Chrisman made a decision that shocked everyone:
He took a complete fuel dragster drivetrain — nitromethane, supercharger, direct drive, everything — and stuffed it into a stock-appearing 1964 Mercury Comet.
Under the hood was a monster:
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427 ci Ford high-riser V8
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GMC 6–71 supercharger
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Hilborn injection
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3-gallon Moon tank
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Stock steel body hiding a pure dragster underneath
This was not just an altered stocker. This was the first nitro-burning, supercharged, dragster-powered stock-appearing car in history.
A Sensation From the First Pass
The Comet debuted on July 12, 1964 at Fremont, California. It ran in the 10s at 148 mph while smoking the tires the entire quarter-mile — and the crowd went insane.
But its real breakthrough moment came at the 1964 NHRA U.S. Nationals. Although placed in B/Fuel Dragster due to its nitro use, the Comet recorded:
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10.25 seconds
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156.31 mph
In a car that looked like something you could drive off a dealership lot.
Fans had never seen anything like it. Neither had NHRA.
Where the Term ‘Funny Car’ Came From
At the 1965 AHRA Winter Nationals, a group of radically altered-wheelbase Mopars debuted with their axles moved dramatically forward. They looked… well, funny. And that’s where the announcer coined the term.
But if we define a Funny Car as:
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A stock-appearing body
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A nitromethane-burning, supercharged engine
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A dragster-style drivetrain
…then Jack Chrisman’s Comet was the first true Funny Car ever built.
1966: The Flip-Top Revolution
Following Chrisman’s success, Mercury and Ford went all-in on the idea. For 1966 they introduced the first one-piece fiberglass flip-top bodies on tube-frame chassis — exactly like modern Funny Cars.
Drivers included:
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Don Nicholson (“Eliminator I”)
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Eddie Schartman
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Ken & Leslie team
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Jack Chrisman himself
Nicholson even ran a 7.98 at the 1966 World Finals — the first Funny Car 7-second pass.
In just two years, the class had transformed drag racing forever.
Jack Chrisman’s Legacy
Chrisman retired from driving and founded Jack Chrisman Enterprises, supplying bulletproof rear ends and driveline parts to the biggest names in the sport. Until his death in 1989, he remained one of drag racing’s most respected innovators.
The original 1964 Comet was later restored and survives today as one of the most important cars in drag-racing history.
Every time a modern Funny Car twists its carbon-fiber body and blasts to 330 mph, it traces its DNA back to one man:
Jack Chrisman — the visionary who risked everything to create something new.
