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The other rear-engine car was one of the wildest Funny Cars ever built … The AMT “Piranha”, a 120-inch chassied, 144-inch long ultralight carbon thermoplastic-bodied, 392-cid Chrysler-powered sports car. It debuted in June of ’66, and immediately ran an 8.71, 187-mph blast at Irwindale Raceway. The Joe Anahory-tuned, Walt Stevens-driven car flat hauled ass. Garlits’ ace welder and driver Connie Swingle later took the wheel and in October of that year ran as quick as an 8.29 at 196.92-mph.
From 1966 through 1973, the sinister profiles of the rear-engine Funny Cars occasionally popped up infrequently in the pits. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t Jim Dunn who won the first national event with one of these guns. In April of 1968, Eddie Pauling wheeled the rear-motored “Whinemaker” Dodge Dart to the AHRA Springnationals Funny Car title at Odessa, Texas, outlasting a decent field that included Gene Snow, Dan Biggers, and Al Van Der Woude.
I won’t go through all of the cars, but will say that it wasn’t until 1972 that they showed up again. Between 1968 and 1972, the conventional front-motor set-up utterly dominated the scene. By January of 1972, Bill Leavitt's “Quickie Too” Mustang had run as quick as a 6.48, with at least a dozen other cars deep in the 220s of speed.
In ’72, Dunn’s Woody Gilmore-built Barracuda debuted in January. On May 28, Dave Bowman’s “California Stud” Vega wagon made its debut and Robert Contorelli’s Frank Huszar-built Contorelli & Fisher Mustang appeared in July, but with no success. Dunn stayed with the rear-engine ‘Cuda through the 1973 season and then switched to the Plymouth Satellite for the 1974 campaign.
Only a few diehards remained after that. In ’73, Massachusetts racer Ken Riehle built a Camaro that frankly didn’t have much success, a few years later Bert Berniker crashed his Pants Galore-backed Duster at the 1975 Winternationals.
There is one footnote that’s worth considering during this ’73 through ’75 period. There was a rear-engine Funny Car driver that ran a Mustang in 1974 with zero success, yet he went on to become one of the most famous racers ever … that was young John Force at the wheel of the “Nightstalker” Mustang.