Drag-On-Lady

A Tribute to Shirley Shahan’s SS/AMX

- Bill Holder

The 1960s and 1970s were a great time to be drag racing. All the car companies were involved to some degree, and the state-of-the-art was evolving at an incredibly rapid pace. Engines were on a steady march forward in horsepower, while savvy builders kept making the cars lighter and lighter. Back then, drivers like Grumpy Jenkins, Dick Landy, Dick Brannon, and Shirley Shahan were national heroes.

Shirley was a gifted driver who started her racing career driving Chevy and Mopar before moving to the AMC stable in 1969. She quickly got up to speed driving a Super Stock/D SS/AMX to a number of records, and was immediately recognizable by her trademark “Drag-On-Lady” lettering on the car’s sides. She was a popular hero among both women and men, and would race with AMC until late 1971.

Move the clock forward some four and a half decades and her accomplishments are still celebrated by AMC fan Joe Brown of Xenia, Ohio. His attachment to American Motors came from the days he worked in an AMC dealership, and he always loved the macho AMX design.

Joe says, “I was quite spellbound that a friend of mine, Bob Reisinger, was building an exact replica of Shirley’s 1969 AMX. Due to medical issues, Bob had to give up on the project and sold it to me. He had done a lot of great work, that’s for sure. But there was still much to do, and I want to thank my wife for allowing me to take on this sizable project. She knew how much I wanted to do it and encouraged me.”

Joe wanted to do more than just show the car. He wanted to drive it on both the street and the dragstrip. For the drag activity, he built up the power train to closely replicate that of Shirley’s SS/AMX.