In my home town of Yonkers N.Y. was a guy named Bert Melody who preceded the Coleman brothers with a home built FED of his own design. That must have been around 1958 or 1959. He raced and beat Don Garlits’ Number one Swamp Rat with it at the Montgomery airport back in the day. You may not find a lot of researtch on that, but we all knew about it in our home town. Ask them about it at the museum in Ocala and they will confirm that.
maso.