rathistory

In 1975 it was appearing as a high back streamliner, very reminiscent of those early diggers at Lions Drag strip in SoCal. Performance was in the mid 8 second bracket. There is a great photo of it in this form racing at Aintree on page 31 of the book 'Quarter Mile' by Steven Myatt, and also on page 34 of the book Drive IT, The Complete Book of British Drag Racing by David Hardcastle and Peter Jones.

In '76 a beautiful Topolino body was fitted. The body was produced by Pat Cuss and was a real trick piece of work as the body flipped up funny car style. In addition an aluminium rear wing was fitted high above the roll cage giving it a real fuel altered style. A full feature on the car can be found in the May '76 issue of Custom Car. The Hemi had been rebuilt and internals consisted of all the right parts from Milodon, Jahns, Donovan, Isky and Engle. A full set of Hilborn Injectors supplied the 90% nitro mix.

Incidentally, the beautiful Topolino body was around until very recently. However from what I understand it ended up being burnt in a skip, and despite efforts to rescue it, it was damaged beyond repair and is now gone. It would have been fantastic to put this body back on.

In '76 the car seems to have moved on from Cuss and Ashley. The Topolino body is still in use, but the injected hemi is gone and replaced with a Chevy. The slingshot now goes by the name of Stinker, and is run by the all-female team of Shellie and Sonia Billinton. There is a good picture in the 'Drive It' book on page 40 of Stinker racing at Santa Pod.

Following on from the Billintons, the next owners were the Draper brothers, seen here with team members including a young Bill Felstead.

Next were Rob Loaring (ICE Automotive) and Kev Perkins who named the car The Trip. By this time we're into the '80's, and the slingshot was running a screaming small block Chevy built by Rob. Bill Felstead has passed on a few good stories about this period, but whether they should go into print is a different matter. With the small block the slingshot was running consistent 10's with a dip into the 9's on occasions.

While at Shakespeare County Raceway Paul & Beth came to chat to me and sent me this fantastic photo of the slingshot participating in a flamed burnout. Glad I’m not in the driving seat!!

From there it moved into the hands of Dave and Steph Milam and became She Devil. This was around the late '80's into the early '90's. As ‘She Devil’, the slingshot ran a 390 Ford big block, eventually running a methanol injection set up. The slingshot was campaigned in this guise for quite a number of years achieving 9 second runs on a regular basis. Check the She Devil racing web site for more information and 'photos.

The chassis had now been out and about for getting on for 20 years, and was sold on by the Milams as they began work on a new She Devil. It seems to have changed hands a few times before appearing for sale on the Wild Bunch web site. With my rose tinted glasses on I went to have a look and couldn't resist.

I bought it in 2003 with the remains of the injected 390 Ford and still sporting the She Devil colour scheme complete with crew names and logos. Most of the rest of the running gear was missing or had been dismantled for refurbishment. Still there it was in the garage and the strip down began.

Once down to the naked chassis a call was made to B&J nostalgia, and Bill popped over for a look hardly believing that it was still around. Anyway, the chassis made its way over to the B&J Skunk Works and work began by cutting the back half off after carefully setting up on the jig. A new safety cell was constructed with 5-point cage, and B&J have made a really good job of bringing the chassis up to date but retaining the original look.

New mounts for the engine, box and back axle were then made up, along with general improvements to the chassis. New side panels were constructed along with a beautiful aluminium seat. It was now beginning to take shape, and returned to my garage. I set about installing the replacement 390cu in Ford engine, new TCI Powerglide, shafts, brakes etc etc, along with all the fuel and hydraulic lines and electrics.

Everything was assembled and a test fire-up commenced on Wimbledon finals day (apologies to the neighbours but tennis ain't that exciting). Success, we were up and running, but everything now needed stripping apart for detailing and painting.

All the panels were rubbed down and repaired, and shipped of to the paint shop for prep and paint, along with the chassis. In September of 2005 it all began to return and the final assembly commenced. We'd already missed the NSRA Hot Rod drags, but aimed for the Halloween showdown, but were let
down by a leaking oil seal.

No worries, that left us the winter to get the logo sorted and display boards ready for the debut at the Extreme Wheels Exhibition in February 2006. This was a really good event and there was a lot of positive feedback regarding the rebuild.

All we needed to do now was make a run down the strip. This took place at a freezing cold Shakespeare County Raceway in March 2006. After a few slow shakedown runs I was pleased that we ran straight and didn’t break.

Our 2006 season then commenced with The Wild Bunch Nostalgia Drag Racing club. We took part in 4 events before blowing the engine up at the Open Sports Nationals in August. That was the end of our first season, but we managed to finish mid table, won Best Newcomer for the season, and the main thing is we had a great time!

Winter engine rebuild is now underway at Valley Gas Speed Shop, so all being well we’ll be out there in 2007.

Ratcatcher is resurrected!

Thanks to;
Bill and Johnny at B&J Racecars
Dave Milam at She Devil Racing
Alan Currans at Acceleration Archive
Jerry Cookson at Shakespeare County Raceway
All at the Wild Bunch for the help and advice
All at Victory Wheelers Rod and Custom for endless encouragement

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		Ratcatcher Resurrection - The Story You'll have a very good memory if you can remember the Ratcatcher slingshot the first time around. In fact it's difficult to pin down exactly when it appeared on the dragstips of the UK. I'm not sure of the first date that this famous piece of UK drag racing history first appeared, but from what I can gather it was around 1971/'72. Now if you know any different let me know, but it has to be said that it must be one the best looking slingshots ever to appear. Built by Pat Cuss in the mid 1970’s and raced by the Cuss and Ashley team as Ratcatcher at all the Drags strips of the time including Blackbushe, Long Marston, Santa Pod and I believe Snetterton. It went through a number of different guises in those early years while with Pat Cuss and Bob Ashley, running as a plain slingshot, streamliner and as a competition coupe with a modified Fiat Topolino bodyshell. It was also one of the first UK based dragsters to run an injected 392 Chrysler Hemi. In 1975 it was appearing as a high back streamliner, very reminiscent of those early diggers at Lions Drag strip in SoCal. Performance was in the mid 8 second bracket. There is a great photo of it in this form racing at Aintree on page 31 of the book 'Quarter Mile' by Steven Myatt, and also on page 34 of the book Drive IT, The Complete Book of British Drag Racing by David Hardcastle and Peter Jones. In '76 a beautiful Topolino body was fitted. The body was produced by Pat Cuss and was a real trick piece of work as the body flipped up funny car style. In addition an aluminium rear wing was fitted high above the roll cage giving it a real fuel altered style. A full feature on the car can be found in the May '76 issue of Custom Car. The Hemi had been rebuilt and internals consisted of all the right parts from Milodon, Jahns, Donovan, Isky and Engle. A full set of Hilborn Injectors supplied the 90% nitro mix. Incidentally, the beautiful Topolino body was around until very recently. However from what I understand it ended up being burnt in a skip, and despite efforts to rescue it, it was damaged beyond repair and is now gone. It would have been fantastic to put this body back on. In '76 the car seems to have moved on from Cuss and Ashley. The Topolino body is still in use, but the injected hemi is gone and replaced with a Chevy. The slingshot now goes by the name of Stinker, and is run by the all-female team of Shellie and Sonia Billinton. There is a good picture in the 'Drive It' book on page 40 of Stinker racing at Santa Pod. Following on from the Billintons, the next owners were the Draper brothers, seen here with team members including a young Bill Felstead. Next were Rob Loaring (ICE Automotive) and Kev Perkins who named the car The Trip. By this time we're into the '80's, and the slingshot was running a screaming small block Chevy built by Rob. Bill Felstead has passed on a few good stories about this period, but whether they should go into print is a different matter. With the small block the slingshot was running consistent 10's with a dip into the 9's on occasions. While at Shakespeare County Raceway Paul & Beth came to chat to me and sent me this fantastic photo of the slingshot participating in a flamed burnout. Glad I’m not in the driving seat!! From there it moved into the hands of Dave and Steph Milam and became She Devil. This was around the late '80's into the early '90's. As ‘She Devil’, the slingshot ran a 390 Ford big block, eventually running a methanol injection set up. The slingshot was campaigned in this guise for quite a number of years achieving 9 second runs on a regular basis. Check the She Devil racing web site for more information and 'photos. The chassis had now been out and about for getting on for 20 years, and was sold on by the Milams as they began work on a new She Devil. It seems to have changed hands a few times before appearing for sale on the Wild Bunch web site. With my rose tinted glasses on I went to have a look and couldn't resist. I bought it in 2003 with the remains of the injected 390 Ford and still sporting the She Devil colour scheme complete with crew names and logos. Most of the rest of the running gear was missing or had been dismantled for refurbishment. Still there it was in the garage and the strip down began. Once down to the naked chassis a call was made to B&J nostalgia, and Bill popped over for a look hardly believing that it was still around. Anyway, the chassis made its way over to the B&J Skunk Works and work began by cutting the back half off after carefully setting up on the jig. A new safety cell was constructed with 5-point cage, and B&J have made a really good job of bringing the chassis up to date but retaining the original look. New mounts for the engine, box and back axle were then made up, along with general improvements to the chassis. New side panels were constructed along with a beautiful aluminium seat. It was now beginning to take shape, and returned to my garage. I set about installing the replacement 390cu in Ford engine, new TCI Powerglide, shafts, brakes etc etc, along with all the fuel and hydraulic lines and electrics. Everything was assembled and a test fire-up commenced on Wimbledon finals day (apologies to the neighbours but tennis ain't that exciting). Success, we were up and running, but everything now needed stripping apart for detailing and painting. All the panels were rubbed down and repaired, and shipped of to the paint shop for prep and paint, along with the chassis. In September of 2005 it all began to return and the final assembly commenced. We'd already missed the NSRA Hot Rod drags, but aimed for the Halloween showdown, but were let down by a leaking oil seal. No worries, that left us the winter to get the logo sorted and display boards ready for the debut at the Extreme Wheels Exhibition in February 2006. This was a really good event and there was a lot of positive feedback regarding the rebuild. All we needed to do now was make a run down the strip. This took place at a freezing cold Shakespeare County Raceway in March 2006. After a few slow shakedown runs I was pleased that we ran straight and didn’t break. Our 2006 season then commenced with The Wild Bunch Nostalgia Drag Racing club. We took part in 4 events before blowing the engine up at the Open Sports Nationals in August. That was the end of our first season, but we managed to finish mid table, won Best Newcomer for the season, and the main thing is we had a great time! Winter engine rebuild is now underway at Valley Gas Speed Shop, so all being well we’ll be out there in 2007. Ratcatcher is resurrected! Thanks to; Bill and Johnny at B&J Racecars Dave Milam at She Devil Racing Alan Currans at Acceleration Archive Jerry Cookson at Shakespeare County Raceway All at the Wild Bunch for the help and advice All at Victory Wheelers Rod and Custom for endless encouragement Back to top Home
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