One of the most beautiful dragsters ever built was also one of the most successful. In an era when “function” took precedence over “form,” the legendary Greer, Black & Prudhomme dragster combined the best of both worlds, that is, it looked great and ran even better. With a combination of the money from Tommy Greer, the engine and clutch science of Keith Black and the raw driving skills of a young car painter by the name of Don Prudhomme, the “GB&P” car literally struck fear in the hearts of its competitors. As good as this trio was, the one thing that they never did with the car was win a major national event. They didn’t win Bakersfield or an NHRA race, but they did tear it up on the match race circuit in and around Southern California. Whether it’s fact or fiction it has been reported that over a two-year period of time the car had a won-loss record of a staggering 236-7. And just where did those amazing numbers come from? Well, how about an ad in the “Drag News” newspaper on May 18, 1963? The Schiefer Manufacturing Company of Monterey Park, California, was busy promoting their new line of products and the ad featured testimonials from Prudhomme on the Schiefer magneto, Greer on the Schiefer clutch and Black on the Schiefer roller cam. It also stated that the car “ran an average of three weekends a month,” which means they would have had to run for about two years straight to get the number of rounds needed for that ad. Never the less, and regardless of what the real numbers were, this was a devastating race car and the team did beat just about anyone who got in their way, including the great teams of Safford-Ratican-Gaide, the “Spaghetti Benders,” the “Scotty’s Muffler” car and Tommy Ivo among others. With its spectacular yellow body, chassis by Kent Fuller and a 392 Chrysler engine from the mind of Keith Black, the Greer, Black & Prudhomme dragster cranked out some of the best times of the era, including an unbelievable 7.77 second elapsed time at over 191 miles per hour. Then, at the end of their remarkable two year run, the team basically disbanded, with Tommy Greer sinking back into drag racing anonymity, while Keith Black became “just an engine builder” and not a car owner and Prudhomme, well, he went on to have a moderately successful career in the sport of drag racing as both a driver and a car owner and that’s not too bad for a kid who started out as a car painter in Southern California, huh? And, coincidentally, one of the first cars that he painted just happened to be the Greer, Black and Prudhomme yellow dragster. – Bob Frey