Fred Sibley Sr. Bio

Fred Sibley Sr. started working on cars when he was around fourteen years old, not to go racing but simply to repair them. He attended the local drag strip the first year the NHRA Safety Safari came to Indiana and was hooked on the sport. His first race car was a set of rails powered by a modified 4-cylinder Model A Ford engine. His next move was to replace the 4-banger with a stout GMC 6-cylinder power plant. That was ok but like every racer he believed he needed more power to go faster so in 1951 he built a new “sling shot” dragster that was powered by a 12-cylinder Ranger Aircraft engine. By this time Fred was working with Art and Walt Arfons at their shop so was exposed to the jet powered vehicles they were racing and in 1951 he followed the Ranger powered dragster with his first jet car.   

In 1964, Fred took over some of the driving chores in Arfons Jet powered Green Monster dragster but preferred to build and drive his own cars. In fact, Fred debuted the first jet powered Funny Car which boasted a sleek Plymouth Barracuda body wrapped around a J-46 jet power plant. After the Cuda Fred built a Dodge Dart jet powered Funny car that was followed by a Mercury Cyclone bodied car. In 1968 Fred switched from Funny cars back to dragsters when he built his famous “Quarter Horse” J-46 powered dragster. After the Quarter Horse, Fred produced a string of jet powered dragster that carried names that are still legends in this arena, names like “The Hugger, the J-33 powered “Fat Albert”, “Gypsy Moth” and “US-1” a car that was formerly owned by Bill Fredrickson and re-build by Fred.

Always looking to introduce something different and unique, Fred introduced his first jet powered truck, the Maxi Taxi in 1980 which he still drives at exhibition and nostalgia events today. Fred hasn’t confined his driving to just drag racing, he also set a class record of 353 mph at Bonneville and later made a run in the Goodyear Wingfoot streamliner of 421 mph.

Fred’s contribution to the sport extends beyond just building and driving classy, exotic race cars, he and Jim Hollinger teamed up to design and build the first “roller starter”, a Chevy powered set of rollers that was installed at the starting line and eliminated the old push starting process. Fred also worked with Jim Deist in developing different parachute designs and other pieces of safety equipment, many of which Fred still produces today.

At 76 years old Fred still actively participates at various events, driving his jet powered truck and the US-1 at nostalgia events. He also still has the original V-12 Ranger powered dragster that is in mint condition and which Fred will give a demonstration run with it if asked to do so.