"Schartman's Cyclone" Ed Schartman'S Flip-top Mercury.... Drag Racing Art

Limited-Edition Print of 350 (13x19) prints Signed and numbered by the Artist.  In 1966 the Ford Motor Company did reinvent the mousetrap, by building a 1-piece all fiberglass Mercury Comet Cyclone body. Obviously, these were the original " Floppers," and by 1968, the 1-piece flip-top body became the standard for Funny Cars. Now Don Nicholson was the lead car for this Ford effort, and usually gets the credit for the first flip-top Funny Car, but the number two car in this project, driven by 25 year old Ed Schartman, was every bit the contender the leader was.  At the 66 "Super Stock Magazine" Nationals Ed's car was the fastest and quickest of the weekend running a best of 8.41 at 172.74mph. Ed was the heads-on favorite to win the race, and probably should have, but an minor oil leak got the car out-of-shape at the start, giving the win to "Rookie" Pete Gates. Gates now owned and was driving Nicholson's 65 Comet. Pete fitted the 65 car with injectors and ran almos