I am thinking more like digger of the era. As much as it pains me to say it, the digger of the "Century" would be Garlits’ copy of the Kaiser Bros. rear engine dragster. Don’t hit me, Mark... That single car began and ended the respective eras, along with bringing extreme notoriety to the sport as a whole.

BUT, to the mission at hand....

Digger of the century/era. Tough call. Process of elimination; that might help. First off would be the "Bug," after all, it’s where all dragster DNA comes from. On the other hand, although it gave it life, the Bug didn’t define or refine the mark. For me and most of you, I would say Fuller's first three-point round cage car would do that. Where Kraft gave us DNA, Fuller gave us a soul and a skeleton that countless others formed into their own idea of four wheeled nirvana. 

Sorrell, Hanna, and Stuckey were the aluminum surgeons that gave the mark its beauty and filled out the mental imagery that has haunted us all. In those terms, we now have the S&H, the Crietz, the Magicar/ Vagabond/ Starlite, the (don’t bitch, it’s art) Fang, Ivo's stormers and wagon -- the list there is truly endless. With all this beauty and engineering, it would really just be sculpture without power, and for that we have countless garage wizards and a few grand wizards (no Klan remarks, even if they are both colored names) – Ed Pink and Keith Black. 

Finally, we have the front men, the personalities... the drivers. With guys like (don’t have enough time to type them all) where do you start? The Hampshire Bros. surely have a place alongside a Prudhomme, no matter the win/loss records. There’s no shortage of talent or bravado, not even mentioning those who have passed on or are just out there in "where are they now"-ville. A very broad field for a very narrow choice... but there can only be one, eh?

Combining all the areas that make a great "car" mentioned above, I would have to say by elimination (kind of a neat drag tie-in, eh?) the title goes to the Greer-Black-Prudhomme car in all its incarnations and with all those affiliated with it. Call it a metal blarney stone if you will, to have come from the hand and mind of Fuller, powered by Black, and wheeled by Prudhomme (fill in the rest of the characters, but these are the biggest reasons for the vote) it went through the California Southland like a White Castle through a rookie trucker. Sometimes, everything comes together in one shining moment, and this was it.

Honorable mention and a damn close second for digger of the century would be the Surfers. Throwing out all the rules above seems fitting for the guys who threw out all the rules to devastate the world of drag racing in a way never seen before or since. Like I said above, sometimes things just come together in a right place and a right time to leave a mark on everyone and everything around them. The Surfers did just that.

Even if the field was expanded to include a top 10, I don’t think it would be much easier. Top 25, 50, or 100 maybe. With characters like a Greek or a Zookeeper, the car didn’t matter much. With cars like the S&H, would it really have mattered who drove it for it to have been a very special car? No. Did Sneaky Pete's Fords fly with or without him behind the butterfly? Oh yeah. 

It’s beyond comprehension, really, when you think about it ... how much talent and genius came through this sport in such a short period. Seems everything stopped once Garlits made popular that infernal Kaiser/Williams design. Even the last attempts like Hanna's wedges went by so fast, it was as if to say to those who had a new idea, "Last one out, turn off the lights," and they did.

God save Bonneville, the last outpost for freethinkers, individuals, and innovators.

Robb Lowe