Concours d'Elegance of America at St. John's to feature Slingshot dragsters

The 34th-annual Concours d'Elegance of America at St. John's, formerly known as the Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, will host a selection of Slingshot rail drag cars this year, in addition to the Duesenbergs, Pierce-Arrows and Cords.

The cars get their name from the rearward positioning of the driver seat behind the rear axle. These cars were at the top of their class in the 1960s and ran on 90 percent nitromethane and 10 percent methanol.

The long and narrow Slingshots have skinny tires up front with full drag slicks in the back. They are the precursor to today's Top Fuel cars, which produce about 7,000 hp and pull 5 g's of force off the line.

The Logghe Brothers will be featured this year at St. John's. Ron and Gene Logghe have built some of the fastest cars in the sport. They pioneered the first flip-top Funny Cars and worked with some of the best in the business, such as Connie Kalitta and Jim Marsh. The Logghe Brothers were inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

Another dragster-body builder, Al Bergler, will be featured. Bergler has worked on cars in both the Sportsman and Professional series. He is one of the highest regarded body-part fabricators in the world.

The Arfons Brothers will show their Green Monster No. 5 car. This dragster is powered by a 12-cylinder Allison aircraft engine. The Green Monster did its thing in the mid-to-late 1950s. It wears the same green paint and monster face as it did when it was breaking speed records.

The Concours d'Elegance of America is scheduled for July 29 at the Inn at St. John's. The show opens at 10 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. Visit www.concoursusa.org for more details.

By Jake Lingeman