Quote:
In 1959-60, the Chet Herbert sponsored twin SBC motor FED of Lefty Mudersbach had Herbert's version of those upswept pipes, similar to the so called "zoomies" on the later model Hemi powered FEDs.
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In the early days before slipper clutches and wrinkle wall slicks the tire would produce so much smoke you often couldn't see the driver, and he couldn't see the track. The initial purpose was to blow smoke away from the driver and as a bonus if any fluid came out of the header(a bad thing) it wouldn't go down on the track in front of the tire like the weed burners.
For some reason I think it was Garlits who discovered the downforce effect but not sure.