Racing in England with the US Drag Race Team in 1964 - Ivo got the idea (!) for glass sides in his trailer from this tour bus they used for transport. At that time, Grayhound buses in the states only had small portholes for windows.

 

 



 

THE GLASS SIDED TRAILER WAS BORN...!!! Amazingly, when the trailer was restored 50 years later, it still had the original, plain old store front glass in it (later on, most copycat ones by others used the distortable Lexan). He built the steel frame for these windows, emulating the then-popular ridged bridge construction.

 

 



 

A big plus with the glass sides was the fact that the car didn't have to be unloaded to exhibit it. And it had electric lighting, which made it resemble a jeweled show case. This was a TV Tommy Ivo Tribute staged in Florida.

 

 



 

Tommy was always ahead of his time in his thinking. Shown here, he made supports for his loading ramps so he could work on the top and bottom of the engine at the same time. Of course, all teams copy this currently. This was especially valuable "back then" - they were often DIRT PITS...!!!

 

 



 

This trailer was used for two seasons. Then, the dragsters got longer, plus Tommy was now racing so many dates that he could no longer carry enough parts. Of course, TV Tommy's ahead-of-the-curve answer was to carry TWO (2) cars, so the glass sided trailer had to go.

 

 
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