Author Topic: Anyone recognize this older lakester??  (Read 18833 times)

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Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« on: April 01, 2011, 11:42:33 PM »
For sale at the Portland Swap Meet

Front torsion bar suspension:



Rear is "built by the Summers Brothers" (with a tag!):





"Rear suspension levels out at 80 mph.  The front goes down too."

Ran originally with a Chrysler hemi with a quoted speed that seems incredible (300+).  Then they attempted unsuccessfully with a "12-cylinder Corvair", then with a regular Corvair which had a potential speed of 228-229 (queue up the Prof. Dolan quote).

I think that I woke the older gentleman (Glen) up to ask questions, so some of what he said is suspect.

TIA.

Mike
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2011, 11:24:41 AM »
I am sure these same pictures are here in the picture thread but this is copied off the HAMB.

Looks similar scroll down to post #279 Thats yer car.



http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=287039&highlight=bonneville+pictures&page=14
« Last Edit: April 02, 2011, 11:27:56 AM by Tman »

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2011, 12:00:20 PM »

Offline 38flattie

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2011, 12:06:14 PM »
Pretty cool Mike!

Can I ask how much he was asking for it?
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead. -- RFC 1925

You can't make a race horse out of a pig. But if you work hard enough at it you can make a mighty fast pig. - Bob Akin

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Offline mvwolfe

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2011, 02:37:28 PM »

 Mel Hoy's lakester driven by the late Howard Johnson.

Monte
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Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2011, 09:34:25 PM »
Sorry to be slow in answering, but the site was down for a while this morning ???

I got a PM from Tom Burkland, posted last night:

Mike,This appears to be the former Hoy brothers belly tank that was frequently driven by the late Howard Johnson. Not sure if it ever recorded a 300mph time slip, but I watched Howard go 291 in it with iron Chrysler power, 6-71 blower, Vertex magneto, and plenty of fuel in the tank. The swing axle rear was common in many of the early Bonneville cars using early Ford closed driveline parts grafted onto the V-8 quick change side bells. All of this stuff seems incredibly small and fragile compared to the driveline parts of today. Was it for sale in the photos you posted? Probably a very difficult car to meet the safety rules of today with, but surely plenty of history. One of Howard's engines was transferred from this car into the B&N Motion I streamliner in 1969 after a failure left Bert Peterson with only one live player. Howard was the shop foreman at Summers Brothers at the time so everybody was buying custom drive parts from him.Tom Burkland

The car is owned by an old gentleman named Glenn Vaughn, he knew none of the information from Tom Burkland.  The information passed to him when he bought the car said it had gone 347 with the blown hemi on fuel.

Glenn has a number of people interested in the car but has had no firm offers.  He wants to sell it and told me it was ok to publish his contact info (that's area code 360):



He's had a long day at the swap meet today PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME  :-P  and will be in church in the morning.

If I had the money and the place to put it, I would have grabbed  it.  IMO, it's in really good shape (not enough knowledge to make a judgement on the rear end/swing arm suspension, though).  It's missing the little nose piece in the front center covering the seam, missing the cockpit canopy.  The upper structure covering the engine compartment is bent/flimsy but fixable.  The upper tube, each side, of the frame between the cockpit and the rear suspension has a portion cut out, which I thought at first was done to put the flat Corvair engine in, but it may have been there all along for header clearance.  Anyway it didn't seem to sag.

It's really a neat old race car, especially at the asking price.  I'd sure like to see it be restored or ($$$$) raced again.

More from Tom Burkland on the subject:

Mike,

   The attached photo is actually one of the ones you referenced from the landracing old photo thread. If I had remebered that last night I could have forwarded you to the two posts on page 73 of that thread. If the vintage Firestone Bonneville tires are in decent shape, the four of them may well be worth the asking price. The rear axle will likely have a very high ratio, but the V-8 change gears are readily available in large ranges of ratios. The parachute single cannister and very high attach point would need some work if you were going to run the car today. The primary structure and cockpit cage would probably need lots of work to meet todays much improved safety standards. Many of these early tanks had two large main frame rails with nothing under the seat area to enclose the bottom of the cockpit. There were no arm restraints or helmet movement limits so these features would need to be added.

   Do you happen to know who owns the car now? It would be fun to know how it got to the Portland swap meet.

   Is there any transmission or clutch housing equipment included? Have you got any specific plans for a car like this?

   My Dad had the majority of a P-38 based tank similar to the original Markley car gathered with intent to license some of our crew members that worked so hard over the years to make our cars succesful. The chassis layout drawings and all of the materials are in the shop, but one of us is going to have to finish the project now that he has gone on to the great salt flats above. Let me know if you need any help getting your project together.

   Thanks

   Tom Burkland


Thanks to all that responded

Mike

Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline Jonny Hotnuts

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2011, 10:26:59 PM »
Mike, we also seen this lakester and wondered many of the usual questions that you and TB answered.
My pop and one of our crew, ran also into some gents that run a purple roadster from the Salem area.

Funny the things a guy will see and who you'll meet at the PIR swap.

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Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2011, 10:40:32 PM »
Wouldn't it be fun!!  Unfortunately, I don't have the expertise to do it myself or the cash to pay someone else.

If you were at PIR, what did you think of the X1/9 trailer/bar-b-q-er (or whatever it was)?   :mrgreen:

Mike
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2011, 09:25:25 PM »
Our swaps NEVER have anything so cool. Thanks forthe pictures. And thanks to Tom for some detail!

Offline jimmy six

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2011, 12:22:04 AM »
As I remember the tank was painted yellow and the vortec generators are missing from between the 2 fins on the top. I wish I could remember the Corvair guy who bought it.

With the selling of it, a really low 29 roadster was being built but family squabbles and the untimely death of Mel stopped it's construction. I always wanted that roadster. Juris Mindenburg bought it and I helped Don Hoy load it. Juris was injured in his Corvette and I do not know where the roadster is today.

I was with Mel in 1976 when the tank was at Bonneville. A Leggitt engine a someones car broke a rocker arm and Mel volunteered one from the engine in the tank. Many did not like the tank because of its unusual rear body work........

JD............................ Many of us were in the "Orange County Bonneville Racers" at the time.

First GMC 6 powered Fuel roadster over 200, with 2 red hats. Pit crew for Patrick Tone's Super Stock #49 Camaro

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #10 on: April 04, 2011, 10:55:08 AM »
JD, the rear bodywork is what draws me to it!

Offline jimmy six

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2011, 01:54:38 PM »
T- guys who like tanks want them to look like tanks...Mel was a guy who wanted to go fast..and did.
First GMC 6 powered Fuel roadster over 200, with 2 red hats. Pit crew for Patrick Tone's Super Stock #49 Camaro

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2011, 02:41:04 PM »
T- guys who like tanks want them to look like tanks...Mel was a guy who wanted to go fast..and did.

Guess I am going to dissapoint a few belly tank guys then ;)  Thanks

Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2011, 02:57:10 PM »
T- guys who like tanks want them to look like tanks...Mel was a guy who wanted to go fast..and did.

Guess I am going to dissapoint a few belly tank guys then ;)  Thanks

You talking about the one you're building or are you buying this one ???

Mike
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline Tman

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Re: Anyone recognize this older lakester??
« Reply #14 on: April 04, 2011, 03:28:01 PM »
T- guys who like tanks want them to look like tanks...Mel was a guy who wanted to go fast..and did.

Guess I am going to dissapoint a few belly tank guys then ;)  Thanks

You talking about the one you're building or are you buying this one ???

Mike

The car I am building Mike. I would love to be able to restore this car tho!