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Watch a '68 'Cuda run a quarter-mile on two wheels through power alone

Wheelstanding has a long tradition at America's drag strips, dating back to the 1960s when George Hurst discovered the instability of his rear-engined Hemi drag racers made for a heck of a show. Hurst's Hemi Under Glass eventually developed a few tricks — rear-brake steering, a slot to see through the floorboard — that made wheelstanding somewhat safe, although liability concerns eventually put a stop to his efforts.

More often than not today, wheelstands are an accident rather than an intended result; there's only a few competitions and builders fighting to see how far and fast they can take their car down the track on two wheels. Earlier this month, the wheelstanding crowd gathered for its annual Super Bowl at the Byron Dragways World Power Wheelstand Competition in Byron, Ill. The winner: A.J. Fiorelli, a wheelstander who races a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda with a 524-cu-in engine, setting a new track record with a run of 1,141 feet — nearly doubling the previous record at the track. Unlike the Hemi Under Glass and other exhibition racers, Fiorelli's bumper-buster relies entirely on horsepower rather than weight placement and rear-brake steering for its nose-lifting.

Fiorelli told the Rockville Register-Star that the Cuda had a little more left to give — he's done an entire quarter-mile before on two wheels — but wanted to keep his car, which his family has owned since new, in one piece. Here's second-place finisher Brian Ambrosini putting his AMC Gremiln aloft for 570 ft: