FourFather Eddie Hill's Heritage GT

[FourFather]

Wow!! I absolutely have to share this story so guys and gals bear with me here.

Eddie, Ercie, do you remember? LOL

Many years ago shortly after Eddie went over backwards in his Top Fuel Dragster I had flown in from deployment overseas and was able to attend the Annual Super Shops Pre Gatornational event where Eddie and Ercie Hill signed autographs and hung out with us car guys and benched raced the day away..

During the Bench Racing I was alerted back to my sqoadron and had to fly out to go and track some bad guys (Russian Sub off the east coast) I just knew I was going to miss the Gatornationals but we did our job (Successfully I might add! LOL) and made it home just before 5pm the following day.

I went straight to the Exchange and picked up a set of Naval Aviator (Pilots) wings and made it to G-Ville Friday morning with the intention of presenting the wings to Eddie at the Gatornationals.

Now I didnt know Ercie or Eddie other than meeting them at the Super Shops event but as I stood there at the trailer in the Pits I asked Ercie if I she could give Eddie something from the US Navy that he had earned. LOL

Not only did she say yes, she asked me into their Rig and I presented them to Eddie myself!!

That was a few years before I retired but I still remember how they treated me and the fans at the races!!!

Eddie, Ercie, you two are top notch in my book!!

Glad to see you have a Heritage, Ercie has good taste!!

TonY G
USN Retired!!!

TonY G-


We both DO remember that, and we of course still have the wings!

Thank you, from both of us, for the kind words, and again for reminding us of a pleasant memory and for the wings, and for your service to our country!:thumbsup

Ercie DOES have good taste-(picked me!:lol) and the Heritage is a real joy-- maybe the most value received per dollar spent of anything I've ever owned--

Eddie and Ercie:biggrin

 

[Fast Freddy]

Eddie here are a few more pix of my jet boat that i sold last year to a young fella who lives in Lubbock, Texas. with all that yellow on the boat it kinda reminds me of a penzoil boat :cool anyway, i see that you live in Wichita. maybe someday you just might see this boat on a lake near you. it has a pretty fast hole shot but after the 1/8 mile your V-drive would smoke it. :cheers

 

[tpraceman]

When it comes to John's 61's it can vary on any given day.
But his orange starliner has a SOHC the wagon sports SOHC plate which should tell you something:eek and his black convertable well that bad boy might be a medium riser or high riser or SOHC on any given day.

Last I counted he had 48 427 motors in various stages of completions...He often is refered to as MR. FE........which I heard stands for F!@#$% Expensive:lol

 

[FourFather]

That looks like a 501?

Mine was/is (still have it) the large hydro, that I think was designated 500. Seems like Arlen Kurtis used the 500 name to honor his dad Frank Kurtis and Frank's winning Indy 500 cars.

I don't remember for sure, but I think the 501 was the little bit smaller hydro, for blown alky and blown gas--


Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

Eddie here are a few more pix of my jet boat that i sold last year to a young fella who lives in Lubbock, Texas. with all that yellow on the boat it kinda reminds me of a penzoil boat :cool anyway, i see that you live in Wichita. maybe someday you just might see this boat on a lake near you. it has a pretty fast hole shot but after the 1/8 mile your V-drive would smoke it. :cheers

It's really sitting up nice and free in that bottom pic---not much water drag on the hull there!!:thumbsup

Thanks for the Pics!

Eddie:biggrin

 

[Fast Freddy]

Eddie - here are a few pix of a runner bottom that i found on the net. i think this boat is a kurtis 500? it looks to be a 10 second 1/4 mile boat as a ME (modified eliminator) sticker is on the engine scoop. anyway, i have looked for pix of a sanger runner bottom on the net and can't find them. if you have any pix of what a sanger runner bottom looks like please do post them up for us. it looks to me like the bottom on this here boat makes for a good mix of straight line speed, cornering ability and stability in choppy water conditions. is a runner bottom similar to the tri hulled gullwing type bottom on a california performance?

 

[FourFather]

Eddie, what year did you take your last ride in a fuel boat. Also, I would love to see all your memorbilia and photo albums but that would take years. :thumbsup

I will share one of, if not my favorite, boat racing photos--circa 1983,or 1984.
That's my boat builder Arlen Kurtis, with the 500 T-shirt on, showing over wife Ercie's right shoulder. Pretty sure this is Irvine in Cal.

The last boat ride/crash was 1984 at Firebird Lake in Phoenix. I won the round, against the late Billy Todd, and with that round win, clinched the World Series Championship (again). I believe I'm the only one to have won Top Fuel on both sides of Firebird- water on the left, and asphalt/concrete on the right. Winning was GREAT!!:thumbsup :banana

CRASHING SUCKS!!!eek:ack

I'm blessed to still be here--and doubly blessed to be able to enjoy my GT during my "Golden Years"-- or is that "Olden Years?":lol

Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

Playboat pics

I took some shots of my playboat yesterday after an outing at Lake Arrowhead by Wichita Falls. I'll see if I can post them- as a slideshow--

Click on the pic-:wink-



Thanks for looking!

Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

All this conversation about Runnerbottoms got me all fired up--- I bought this one last weekend!

:thumbsup

Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

I'm going to see if my Photobucket slideshow will work on here--

Click on the pic--:thumbsup



Took these in my driveway this morning-

Thanks for looking!


Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

That's a couple of really cool rides! Thanks for posting. And what an awesome looking engine. I still remember how awesome those engines looked in a dragster! Seems that Kalitta had one for a while-

Eddie:biggrin

 

[FourFather]

Eddie - here are a few pix of a runner bottom that i found on the net. i think this boat is a kurtis 500? it looks to be a 10 second 1/4 mile boat as a ME (modified eliminator) sticker is on the engine scoop. anyway, i have looked for pix of a sanger runner bottom on the net and can't find them. if you have any pix of what a sanger runner bottom looks like please do post them up for us. it looks to me like the bottom on this here boat makes for a good mix of straight line speed, cornering ability and stability in choppy water conditions. is a runner bottom similar to the tri hulled gullwing type bottom on a california performance?

Fast Freddy-

What you posted is a runner bottom. The Sanger, Cole, Hondo, etc., are all very similar. At speed, it runs primarily on the center section, but just outboard of the two outer cavitation plates is a narrow section of hull(see the boat drains in it?) that just skims the water and stabilizes the boat to keep it from rocking side-to-side. As you said, good speed, cornering, and stability. What it does NOT have, is a good ride in rough water-it won't "cut through" any rollers or wakes, just bounces over them.

I'm not familiar with the California Performance you mentioned-- but the hull I have on my SleekCraft will give a good ride in fairly rough water, and it is still pretty fast. But since it is made to carry four folks and run through fairly rough water, it is made strong enough (heavy enough) to take it without cracking. I've run it through chop that would break the hull on a runner bottom.

So the 300-400-500 pound lighter two-seat runner bottom (race) boat accelerates a bunch better-:thumbsup- and that's what I miss!!:frown Even though the water is only calm enough three or four times a year where I go, to use it!:frown

Life's just full of compromises!:lol

Eddie:biggrin

 

[FlorIdaho Chris]

Eddie-

The slide show works fine. I just never tire of looking at photos of GTs.

How about an enlarged still of that front roundel decal?

 

[Chris A.]

Pretty slick

 

[B O N Y]

gotta find my box of pics and get them scanned.
fresno was one of the boat racing capitals... sanger, kindsfather, belmont etc.
rex hutchinson used to build my motors
great times where had on the lakes and delta water ways

 

[FourFather]

wow eddie that was faster than me or you :eek that boat was listed for sale as recently as last week when i copied the pix from that site to my computer. not only that, but the pix that i posted up earlier in this thread here of the kurtis runner bottom from texas was sold the week after i posted it as well :shrug seems like me and you both are a lil slow on the draw these days :lol

Snoozin' is losin':lol

Eddie:biggrin

 

[Fast Freddy]

nice pix eddie :thumbsup i know you don't race top fuel hydro's anymore but have you done anykind of recreational boating since then? i have a BIG poster sized framed picture on my wall of you making a 220+ mph pass at firebird lake in your old top fuel hydro :bow i know the twin propped capsule boats are doin 255+ mph in the 1/4 now but i still think your 229 mph pass still holds the record for no capsule right? anyway, i used to race my kachina jet boat in the river racer class with the IHBA at firebird. i got 2nd place at the 2001 world finals when i broke out with a 11.89 @ 86.9 mph. it was the first race ever held at night and the glare on the water from the lights was so bad i couldn't see the starting pin in the water or the finish line at the end. :skep
i sold my jet boat last year and now go to lake havasu mostly with my 25' nordic rage muscle boat that i put a whipple supercharger on. if you have any pix to share with us of you racing drag boats please do post them up :cheers

 

[B O N Y]

Congrats on the new toy for the toy box!! Enjoy your awsum addition. Looks like you will have all winter to wax it and fine tune it for the spring. Planning any changes?

 

[Fast Freddy]

i would luv to pull the trigger on that sleek craft you own there eddie :biggrin

you can drive any vehicle i own.......

my turbo kawi drag bike gives me that rush of speed like my old jet boat used too :cool but there is just something about the water that me and every girl i have ever known have been attracted to :cheers:club

 

[Empty Pockets]

We could never find a reason for the crash-- it just happened-- and that's one reason we never made another run in a Top Fuel boat.

Eddie[/quote]

I can hear God saying...............Man I finally got his attention.......
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:lol :cheers I heard Him say the same thing for much the same reason 4/2/00!:lol :cheers