A New Discovery!

February 6, 2012

After getting our fill of modern machines at last weekend’s Grand National Roadster Show lets turn back the clock and look at the way cars were built and run in the good old days. I’m not saying that today’s cars aren’t cool, there’s just something about old fashion home-builts made from junk yard parts.

Lets jump in the deep end of the pool that just happens to be dry and was called El Mirage. Our first shot that shows an oldie comes from the collection of Nick Arias and was shot back in 1946 (ARI_086). We see Conrad Weidell inching up to the starting line on April 28 of that year before he let it all hang out and cruise through the traps at a respectable 125.000 mph. He had one of those monstrous Cad V8 flatheads under the hood that had the exhaust coming out of the top of the block. There were no after market go-fast parts for this beasts so adding dual carbs and filling the heads was his only option. To set the record straight the record at that time was was 123.71 mph so connie had it dialed. Only problem was he couldn’t pull off a return run in the opposite direction to grab the record. Check out TDC_006 in the Tom Davis Collection to see Con and his wife on the streets with the car back in ‘42 being looked over by L.A.’s finest.

Lets have a look at another great looking custom rod that ran at the lakes in 1947 and belonged to Charles Scott (ARI_050). Look close and you’ll see that the rear quarter panel belt line doesn’t exist any more and the rear wheel wells have been flushed out with the body for one great look. The powerplant in the roadster was initially a Merc flattie with Meyer heads, Edelbrock intake manifold and Harmon cam but was later switched to a Ford. At the first meet in May with the Merc he ran 121.13 mph for a 9th in class. At the second meet in July he only managed 115.38 mph and then switched to the Ford. As a note he didn’t bring the car back because that guy Randy Shinn kept pushing the speeds up and by the end of the year it was around 135. If the name sounds familiar it should be, he had a little business in San Berdo called Scotty’s Muffler. On the right we see the tail of Charles Dimmett’s Lincoln Zepher with Patrol painted on the back of it. He was in charge of the rovers who policed the lakebed.  At the same time he was president of the Autocrats Club. In the background you can see the hi-tech wooden timing tower that was built by carpenter Bob Rufi. Check out BMC_017 in the archives for a good rear shot of the car.

In the good old days if you couldn’t afford a roadster or racecar the next best thing to do was drive your street car (HMC_074). That’s exactly what happened with this Ford Pickup that ran in the Coupe and Sedan class at Bonneville in 1954. The entry was called Woody’s Wagon and was powered by a Mercury flathead. I don’t know about you but traveling across the salt at 120.32 mph for a 19th place finish in class of of 30 entrants without a rollbar or any safety equipment seems a little insane to me. But back then, we’d have to fight over who got to drive.

While on the subject of B-ville how about this great little 40 page booklet published back in 1967 (JMC_3591). Inside it said it was done up for the Wendover Lions Club by the University of Utah and covered a little history on Lake Bonneville, the reason Wendover became a spot on the map and naturally the racing on the flats. This was the fourth edition and even listed all the records from ‘66 in it. Not bad for a 50 cent investment back then.

In the same box that I rediscovered the above booklet there was also an envelope with 20 color Poloroids in it that I had gotten from Jerry Silberstein. Most of them were shots of street rods with black of blue California plates that got us in the ballpark date wise. With them were also a couple of special shots like SIL-017 that shows us yet another special cylinder head for the old faithful Model A-B. This one is not your normal one as it has four intake and four exhaust ports that are monsters. A little Sherlock Holmesing revealed Bonneville racer and pattern maker Jerry and his Buddy, and also a pattern maker, Arnold (Donovan blocks) Birner concocted this kick butt head. A note said 5 or 6 were cast but we don’t know if any were ever run. We also had to spend some time on trying to date the roid from a multi-didget number printed on its back. We came up with the film being made in November 1974. Next up it so see if any are still in existence.

We are constantly revisiting images stored on our hard drives to update captions and see if we can now ID shots that were unknown to us in the past. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t. One still in the can’t side that is so cool looking that somebody’s got to remember it is our next image (BAR_100). Joe Barnett took the shot and he lived in the California Central Valley. The plates are from 1953 and the panel delivery has a Arden Ice Cream sign on it with no other ID. The only other thing we have in the background is a ‘51 Buick, a ‘48 Poncho and a 51 Nash but they don’t help with a location. Anybody have any clues?

We deal with a lot of old stuff but we also try and keep up with the new especially at the lakes so we have to thank Stuart Harnick for our next shot (SHC_004). This 1955 chop-top Studebaker Coupe was entered as the Terry Coe & Tom ride at El Mirage for the July 2010 S.C.T.A. event at El Mirage. Terry Coe of the San Diego Roadster Club drove the Class B Fuel Competition Coupe through the lights at a speed of 179.451 mph on a 239.223 mph record. He picked up 150 points for his club. There is so much happening so fast at the lakes that one can’t keep up so it’s great to be able to sit down and look at shots of cars running and analyze them. The big rear spoiler on this one creates downforce for traction but it also creates a lot of aerodynamic drag (and a big trail of dirt) to slow it down. Would adding weight and trimming the spoiler add up to a faster speed? Every car is different so one has to do a lot of experimenting to find that perfect balance.

Early early lakes history is hard to come by so when you run across something new it’s time to celebrate. It also makes you realize that there is a bunch of stuff still waiting to be discovered. Our next shot is a good example (JMC_3585). A caption on the back only said Lone Pine. Our biggest mystery is the graphics on the side of one of 17,000 1935 Ford Cabriolet 48-760′s produced that year. Looks like some research is in order to find out something about a Pennzoil sponsored time trial at Muroc. We know there were AAA runs in April with a Hudson driven by Wilbur Shaw, Babe Stapp and Al Gordon but as far as we knew nothing with a Ford. We’re lost on the driver in the Ford but we’ve hit paydirt with the midget driver. It Bill Betteridge, the West Coast Champion for the year 1934 who ended up perishing in a race at Atlantic Speedway on June 8, 1937 at the age of 23. In the background there is what looks like a track so maybe he was there for a demo run or a race that we don’t know about. A ‘35 Ford Tudor Sedan Model 48-700 is on a stand in the background and has the word Free written on the side window. How does one sign up for it all these years later?