In 1967, lots of drag racing lovers had been shocked to master that the staff of Stone, Woods and Cook were swapping their common AA/Fuel Willys coupe for a Mustang funny motor vehicle. The staff dominated the A/GS ranks with the Swindler A Willys, and numerous individuals envisioned them to continue competing in the gasser ranks.
Humorous auto match racing was the place all the funds was, on the other hand, and the “Pebble, Pulp and Chef” gang was completely ready for a new problem. So they established aside the Willys in favor of a blown Mustang they christened Dark Horse 2.
Despite the fact that the fiberglass flip-major design and style humorous autos were commencing to come into their possess, the SWC Mustang was not a flopper. Rather the group mounted a steel Mustang human body shell on a mild pounds tubular chassis, with a long fiberglass entrance clip. Driver Doug Cook dinner entered the car by way of opening doorways, when the clip could be taken out to function on the engine.
Next the identical pattern as their famous gassers, the SWC group selected a blown early Chrysler hemi for power. Because Stone, Woods and Cook dinner ended up so prosperous in the gasoline courses, some people today mistakenly refer to the Mustang as a gasser. At first the vehicle ran alcohol, with a splash of nitro. As time wore on, the crew tipped-the-can and made use of an ever greater percentages of nitromethane.
The Mustang humorous car straight away followed in the footsteps of the Willys gassers, profitable the 2400 pound class at the famed Bakersfield March meet up with two times in a row. From there, the workforce established off on a blistering barnstorming tour that has rarely been equaled.
It seemed that every single drag racing lover preferred to see the Stone, Woods and Cook Mustang in action, and each and every monitor operator wanted to fill the stands by reserving the match racer. Decide up any duplicate of Drag Information from 1967, and you will most likely come across many stories recounting the exploits Stone, Woods and Cook at diverse tracks.
In addition to racing at most of the five-star tracks, Dark Horse 2 also confirmed up at compact hole-in-the-wall venues dragstrips with ragged asphalt, dim evening-lighting and insufficient shut down areas. The fans needed to see Doug Cook dinner in action, and the group was much more than keen to grant their wish.
Racing many periods a 7 days, SWC ran against most of the famous amusing cars and trucks of the era, having on the lighter body weight, injected flip-major automobiles as perfectly as other metal-bodied blown entries. Cook dinner wasn’t usually victorious, but he racked up an remarkable get/loss tally.
Just when the Stone, Woods and Cook dinner staff appeared to be on top of their activity, tragedy intervened. A crash destroyed Darkish Horse 2 at Alton, Illinois. Doug Cook, one of the most well-liked and highly regarded drag racers of all time, sustained back injuries that ended his racing occupation.
Stone, Woods and Prepare dinner were being not completed, however. They built a new Mustang that was a in the vicinity of duplicate of the primary. The Ghost of Dim Horse 2 continued the torrid match-race pace, with a amount of hired motorists changing Cook powering the wheel.
By 1969, even the SWC group could not continue to be aggressive with a metal bodied automobile, and they created a Mustang flopper, assigning the driving chores to Dee Keaton. In the early ’70s, Tim Woods constructed the initially Pinto humorous automobile and ran it underneath the Stone, Woods and Cook dinner banner with Mike VanSant as the pilot. Continue to afterwards a Chrysler driven Corvette gasser toured below the Stone, Woods and Cooke banner. That is not a typo on the ‘Vette the name Cook was spelled with an e on the conclude. Reportedly, none of the authentic trio was actively associated with the Corvette.
At some point, all three members of the colorful team retired from racing. Doug Cook dinner passed absent in 1999.
The Dark Horse 2 legacy proceeds, however. Mike Prepare dinner, son of the popular driver, is reconstructing Darkish Horse 2. Photos of the car’s building can be witnessed on Cook’s web page, as nicely as pictures of the entirely 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 good to know that Mike Cook dinner would not intend to enable the famed humorous car or truck be forgotten.