Jon White's #450 Streamliner back in the USA

[snake driver]

    Indeed,,,,,,, Jon's streamliner is now residing in Pennsylvania, it no longer has a Britten 1000cc engine onboard,,,,,,,, or any engine for that matter. Perhaps,,, a non Britten re-power is in the future,,,,, and #450 will return to the salt.....

    New owner is looking for Jon's contact information, and any input from the teams that helped Jon back in the mid-1990's,,,, while Jon was here, in the USA.....

    Anyone out there with good knowledge, and any history of Jon and his streamliner while he was active in LSR with the Britten power plant,,,,, both at Bonneville or Lake Gairdner?

                                                 Thank You 

[Cris Shearer]

Here is Jon Whites information:
e-mail:  Jonwhiteshouseofspeed.com

address:  60 Maunsell Street
Woolston, Christchurch
New Zealand

Tel #  00639811641

You can tell Jon Cris Shearer provided this information. 

[USFRAMONTE]

If I recall correctly, Jon and the bike had come over to run at Speedweek but it was rained out. I believe Ed & Chris Shearer had driven out to the salt to check conditions and found Jon sitting at the end of the access road with the bike and all his equimpent and not another soul in sight. As Ed & Chris are known to do, they loaded up him and all his gear and hauled it all back to Salt Lake. Jon stayed
with the Shearers until World of Speed.  He was able to run at WOS that year but I sure can't remember exactly what year it was.
Jon was very fun to talk with and was a genuinely nice guy.

[Freud]

Ed and Cris Shear are genuine nice people.

Too bad they got used up.

Their history of contributing is phenomenal.

FREUD

[maj]

Beautiful looking liner
Quick search gave me this in case anyone else is interested
http://motorcycleexhaust.webs.com/famouscustomers.htm

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UlQq2h1T6Lk/TWfl151daQI/AAAAAAAABh0/UqCcR-d1bw0/johnwhitesstreamlinerpoweredbybrittenv1000britten.jpg

[snake driver]

     "Thank you" to all for the quick reply's,,,,,,,,,

       Ed,, Cris and Monte,,,,,, I do remember all you folks from the era that our Studebaker Team ( Avanti #1963) ran on the salt during many USFRA events,,,,, and I would like to say "Thank You" for all of your time and dedication that you have devoted to the yearly competition on the Bonneville Salt Flats.......... With out your club (USFRA), and of course the SCTA,,,,,,,,,  to provide year after year the many volunteers to put each event together,,,,,,,, and run as smooth as it does...........

       Cris,,,,,,, thanks for the up to date contact information,,,,,,,,, Bob Robbins the new owner/caretaker of Jon White's streamliner #450 has sent Jon a letter, but doesn't have Jon's telephone number. I remember you and Ed as tireless folks,,,,, that were always on hand to lend a hand, and always in the right place at the right time.

       Monte,,,, I always enjoyed watching you run the starting line, and how easy you made it look (knowing it wasn't easy at all),,,,,,, I only get out to the BUB (Dennis) events once in a while, but I keep an eye out for the folks I met on the salt between 1988 and 1993 while Ron Hall's Avanti was working on a D/PS record....... I was the fellow with the yellow 1949 Studebaker push/tow truck during that era.......... I also worked with the Crosley Team out of New Mexico in 1994,,,,,, that is the year I met Jon White (great guy),,,,,,,,, I know that he spent some time that summer of 1994 at Terry Nish's shop, I'm also trying to put that info together for Bob Robbins ............ The Nish's had helped Jon with the use of their shop, so I'm trying to gather up some of that history also.

       Glenn,,,,,,,, I guess you are still with Marlow and Les,,,,,,, I haven't seen you folks since the 90's, all the best to you and the team in 2014,,,,,, hope to see you folks on the salt soon...........

       mag,,,,,,, thanks for the info from "down under",,,,,,, we did stumble on quite a lot of Jon's build information, and recovered some good history from that. Of course,,,,,, the fact that John Britten is no longer with us, leaves a big void on the Britten powerplant history, and also the tune-up that was used for LSR..........

                                             Thank you all again,     Ed Kneller     

[Cris Shearer]

As much as we would like to take credit for Jon White's "rained out" and "stranded" situation at the end of the salt, the Person who took Jon under his wing was TERRY NISH.  Terry brought him back to Salt Lake and provided him with accommodations until the next race.  It was at this time we and several other USFRA members took Jon around and showed him some of the sights.  A few years later when a group of us went to Australia to attend their race, Mary West and I flew to New Zealand and Jon and his family took us around and showed us the sights of New Zealand.  Cris Shearer

[USFRAMONTE]

Oh how the memories get all scrambled up over time.  By the way hello Chris!  I do remember that Jon was very appreciative of the
hospitality show to him by USFRA members.

Ed, I do remember you and Ron. Especially one early morning getting ready for a record return run, the Avante with the rear tires
jacked up off the salt, engine running, tires spinning, in an effort to get everything up to operating temp.  The salt conditions that
year were horrible.  We had been up most of the night dragging the course to try and smooth things out.  I was very happy to see
you guys run as well as you did considering the conditions.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Monte, your "up all night dragging" comment brought back a memory - of when Nancy and I spent a handful of hours driving one of the drag trucks in the dark, trying to make the course better.  The truck was the one without headlights (or much of anything else).  All I could do was follow the tail lights of the truck in front of us and keep going.  For hours. And more hours. At least there was a nice display of lightning from storms somewhere to the northeast.  Would this be the same time as you mention above - which would put it in the mid-2000s?  Or has such fun dragging duty happened more than just the once?  Okay - back to the original topic.

[USFRAMONTE]

Jon, those old drag trucks we had were about as worn out as you can get.  Somehow Chuck and the boys were able to get them running long enough each year to get the job done. More than once I felt like I was getting carbon monoxide poisoning.  I don't remember dragging with you and Nancy so it must have been someone else you were following.   
I feel like the pumping project has really helped the salt conditions. Before the pumping began the salt was
so loose the drags could build up a windrow the was impossible to make go away. More betterer now.

[Speed Limit 1000]

As much as we would like to take credit for Jon White's "rained out" and "stranded" situation at the end of the salt, the Person who took Jon under his wing was TERRY NISH.  Terry brought him back to Salt Lake and provided him with accommodations until the next race.  It was at this time we and several other USFRA members took Jon around and showed him some of the sights.  A few years later when a group of us went to Australia to attend their race, Mary West and I flew to New Zealand and Jon and his family took us around and showed us the sights of New Zealand.  Cris Shearer

Cris,

I sure wish you would come back to the salt. It is not the same without you

[Freud]

I agree about the Shearers.

They gave their all.

If they are coming I will make Kilo Klub tags for them.

FREUD

[Avanti Kid]

Ed Kneller, it was good hearing from you about when you helped Ron Hall race in the early days with Avanti #1963, when Ron ended his racing career I just started mine, I used to talk to Ron on the phone for hours getting his advice on how I should do my racing, 21 years later my Avanti #1963 still holds record for D/CPS at Bonneville, El Mirage and Muroc. I really appreciate what Ron and his team did at Bonneville, with his family permission my car races with his car number, we may race again for another record, its hard to stop racing at Bonneville, its called Salt Fever!  Dave 

[Vinsky]

Jon White's liner was in the John Britten movie. It was shown making a record runs in NZ and also shows the crash. The record run was in the high 190s. I wonder where the Britten motor is now.

[snake driver]

        That particular Britten engine that was used in Jon's liner for a few years is another part of this streamliner puzzle.

        Bob Robbins purchased the liner from a firm in Italy a few months ago,,,,,,, along with Andrew Stroud's Britten race bike (Daytona).  There wasn't any power plant onboard the liner when it was sent to Italy years ago,,,,,, and the previous owner had little history or knowledge of the #450 streamliner. The motorcycle on the other hand has lots of documented history, it's complete, and runs......... I could spend days just looking at the mechanical genius, that is this motorcycle............

        Bob has been slowly gathering history on both machines,,,,,, I hope to keep you all posted on the liner in the future.            Ed