Question? What type of car do you think of when you think about Don Prudhomme? The answer probably depends on your age, although a lot, maybe most of the drag racing fans remember him for his tremendously successful days behind the wheel of the "Army" Funny Car. More recent converts to the sport may thing of him as the driver of the "Skoal" Top Fuel Car, the last one he drove before retiring. The hard core fans, which is another way of saying the older ones among us, may think of the legendary "Greer, Black and Prudhomme" yellow car, the short wheelbase, front-engine car that terrorized drag strips in the early and mid-sixties. And while it would be almost impossible to list all of the cars that Don drove, there is one that has to be included among the best that the "Snake" ever drove, and that's the revolutionary "Wynn's Winder" Top Fuel car. In 1969 Don Prudhomme teamed up with his longtime friend Keith Black to field one of the most beautiful cars ever campaigned, the "Wynn's Winder." The full-bodied, yellow car made its debut at the 1969 NHRA Winternationals where it promptly earned runner-up honors (losing in the final to John Mulligan). In addition to a powerful KB engine and a spectacular paint job, the car featured one thing that set it apart from most of the other contemporary dragsters…a two-speed transmission. With all of the power these cars were making, the key to winning seemed to be a getting all of that muscle to the ground. Prudhomme and Black, who were always on the cutting edge of technology, installed a new two-speed Lenco transmission in an effort to harness all of that power. And, while he didn't win the Winternationals, Don did make four runs in the six-second zone during eliminations, something that no other driver accomplished at the meet. After Pomona, Don added wins in Las Vegas and Fremont early in 1969 before going deep into the eliminations at Bakersfield. But, as we all know, the key to success in drag racing is change and keeping up with or ahead of the competition, and with that in mind, Don took the full body off the car before going to Indianapolis and the U.S. Nationals, a meet which he promptly won. Don's stint behind the wheel of the "Wynn's Winder" may have been one of the briefest of his career, but to real drag racing fans, it was also one of his most successful and a lot of fans remember this car one of the best that the "Snake" ever drove. - Bob Frey
Only 3500 pieces of the "Snake's" Wynn's Winder were made. Model priced at £49-99, now in stock..
