"Dandy" Dick Landy......66 Portrait.... Drag Racing Art

The Art Of David Carl Peters


$ 25.00




Limited-Edition Print of 350 (13x19)
Signed and numbered by the Artist.
When I was a kid my first real Hero was "Dandy" Dick Landy. 
My first introduction to him is when he was campaigning his 65 (Altered Wheelbase) Dodge. To me, there was not a more exotic car on the planet at that time, that is until he built his 66 Fuel Injected Dart. I followed the exploits and development of that Dart throughout the year. It started as a stock wheelbase car running on Injected Gas, then the front end got stretched, then the rear wheels were moved forward. He than started running the car on Nitro, and by the end of the year he mounted a Supercharger on the car as a test bed for his new 67 Dart the following year. The car went from running 140mph at the beginning of the year, to just under 200mph by years end.
Soon after that I also experienced my first heart break, as Dick stepped out of Funny Cars and into the Super Stock ranks. I was truly devastated by this turn of events, and couldn't understand why anyone would want to go slower?
I was much to young at the time to understand business matters and why adults did what they did, I was only concerned with hero worship.
I even went to one of Dick's Performance Clinics being held at the Dealership just down the street from our house. This was my chance to get up close and personal with my Hero, but where was the Funny Car, where was my Mythological Beast of a Dodge Dart? What I found was a Stock Bodied Dodge Coronet, which made my heart sink to depths I didn't know existed for me. My Nitro Charging hero had given up the fight for a car that looked our family car and I just couldn't understand this tragic turn of events. 
There was a raffle that night and I won a Red Dick Landy Performance windbreaker. As my  number was called, I pushed my way through the crowd of adults me being the only little kid at the event. As I squeezed through crowd (of giants to me) surrounded Dick, I shouted, "Here I am!" Dick chomping on his signature cigar turned around to greet me, he looked a bit startled not being able to find who it was that spoke up, then looked down to see me standing next to him. He chuckled and said, "Well here son, I don't think this is going to fit but it's yours."
Being the only Jacket raffled off, the crowd groaned at my winning it and some guy yelled out, "Hey kid I'll give you 20 bucks for it?"
That was no-brainer to me, no one was going to get my hero's jacket, even if it was as tall as I was...
Sadly, I have no idea what ever happened to that jacket, more than likely my Mom gave it to the "Salvation Army." I sure wish I had that Jacket today...
In this scene we see Dick and his 66 Dart in the staging lanes at Lions getting ready for a run. I always found it interesting that the guys would wear firesuits, but no gloves or goggles, leading me to believe the suit was more for show than actual safety. And yes, that's a push-button Automatic Trans shifter hanging off the front of the role-cage...

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