GOODWOOD Festival of Speed 2008 MOONEYES Dragster at GOODWOOD, UK
MOON NOOZ Friday July 18, 2008
As many know from posts on MOON NOOZ and elsewhere on the net, the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum arranged the shipment of 11 historic dragsters to the U.K.’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, and in that eleven was the MOONEYES Dragster. With the invite, Mooneyes USA headed abroad to the United Kingdom to take part in the festivities as part of the 2008 United States Drag Racing Team. In a two-part MOON NOOZ Exclusive report, Shige shares the journey and event with heaps of photos and insight!
MOONEYES AT GOODWOOD Part I
We arrived in the U.K. and the first thing to do was head over to MOONEYES Dealer .
That is to say, I asked for their assistance during the three-day show. NAMCO owner, Miles, got two friends to help out as well so we headed to their shop, JUAREZ Traditional Fabrication, a Hot Rod Shop operated by owner Marco and Andy who met us there.
After a quick greeting, introduction, of course a tour of their excellent shop, that was all for the day.
The following day we went to the Goodwood Estate to check-in on the MOONEYES Dragster, sent over from LA at the end of May, that was patiently waiting for us. There was heavy rain the days before but when we got to see the MOONEYES Dragster, the weather was clear -
and look at the wheels! What had been Magnesium wheels polished to a bright shine, was exposed to the salt-air and turned to this current state (image on right).
In the past, the MOONEYES Dragster has traveled to far away places like Sweden, several times to Japan and crossing the ocean many times but this is the first time I've seen the wheels like this. Looking carefully at the other dragsters with Mag-wheels, it was the same situation.
I couldn't take it! They had to get polished up to a bright shine again before FoS! But in this current state, it won't be easy to get that shine. There were other dragsters with Mag-wheels that were painted gray and looked good but the MOONEYES Dragster doesn't match without the polished wheels so there was no other option.
After a whole day's worth of work, in Europe the sun sets about 10PM so it was about 12 full hours of labor, this was the result (right).
That was polished by hand too!
The display "Drag Strip" at the exhibition for the dragsters featured all sorts of different logos along the walls. I was pleased to see a MOON logo too! However, if you look real close, you can see the inside of the first "O" in MOON, the black of the eyeball shouldn't be there as well as the black outline of MOON touching the black outline of the eyes.
Interestingly enough, this was the same design as the MOON decal we saw being sold at Bug-In 2 in Belgium. I bet it is caused by enlarging the initial design.
In Europe and Australia, there was an alarming amount of MOON-Copies. This is concerning.
The day ended with only enough time for wheel polishing.
The weather in the U.K. is cloudy, sunny and rainy, constantly changing in those three parts making for some unstable weather. The show was for 3 days, Friday through Sunday and I'd heard at least one day would rain. However, those three days had all three parts of U.K. weather but there wasn't a full day of rain so it didn't crash the show crowd.
The exhibition space at GOODWOOD was a Drag Strip display on the cricket playing field.
The 11 Dragsters transported here from the US had a Cacklefest of sorts. At the Festival of Speed, the number for US vehicles has increased year after year. To have this many Nitro Dragsters together is one thing but to have them produce the thunderous sounds and flame blowing exhausts all at the same time sure set off the audience - which many have never had the chance of seeing a Cacklefest or even a Nitro-Dragster. The MOONEYES Dragster is run on gasoline so to be among these other dragsters, you couldn't hear anything.
Here, a young man is shown how to properly perform an official Flag Start by a old time racer.
After the lesson and some practice, he added a pretty good jumping start to it.
All the Nitro-burning dragsters came prepared with their gas masks (shown on left) for the Cacklefest. Nitro-burners produce a strong smell and causes eye and throat irritation to people nearby. However the MOONEYES Dragster runs on gasoline, so a mask is normally not needed.
However, being among Nitro-burners enjoying the moment and really revving things up for the crowd, well, at least the pain isn't permanent.
Oh! The smell! Ah! The burn!
The shirt on the right is an original from 1963 when the MOONEYES Dragster came to the U.K. with Revell. It was one just like Dean Moon and crew had. It's in good shape for such vintage!
Here are some photos of the people who helped out at the Drag Strip exhibition. The brown jackets and white trousers were people hired for the exhibition by Goodwood. We brought along a new Dean Moon T-shirt featuring the MOONEYES Dragster from 1962, and gave them out as gifts to everyone that helped out.
Initially, Chico and I decided on wearing white pants and a white Moon Equipped T-shirt as our uniform. We also brought with us from the USA a set for Miles, Marco and Andy. This setup was chosen as that was what Dean Moon and team wore when they first came to the United Kingdom 40+ years ago.
However, the second day we noticed a slight change, as the people hired by Goodwood seemed to become part of MOON. The first day, there was one other person besides us that had a MOON logo decal on his baseball hat. The second day there were three boys with the MOON decal on their caps and two of them were wearing the shirt we gave them with the MOONEYES Dragster on it! I really didn't expect them to wear it at the event and was pleasantly surprised.
The last day (center photo above), several of them were all out MOON and had a MOON decal on their hat and wore the T-shirt with the '62 MOONEYES Dragster.
Miles, Marco and Andy were all decked out too, MOON Style and standing together looked just like MOON members from that first visit long ago. All three of them were really into it too. Isn't that a great feeling?!
Thanks guys!
Here's a nice group picture (left) of the 2008 United States Drag Racing Team and the US Drag Team jacket (shown on te right). This is a Dickies jacket with inner-liner but even though it's summer, once the sun goes down it's cold enough to need one.
Lastly, people got the chance to sit in the Dragsters. Yes, that there is the GOODWOOD Festival of Speed host and owner of the estate, Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March, or Lord March as he is known in the U.K.
The whole event was truly an experience to remember.
Initially, Chico and I decided on wearing white pants and a white Moon Equipped T-shirt as our uniform. We also brought with us from the USA a set for Miles, Marco and Andy. This setup was chosen as that was what Dean Moon and team wore when they first came to the United Kingdom 40+ years ago.
