Old Bonneville Pictures

[Glen]

The info I put down was out of the SCTA program. It wasn't like it was yesterday. Lots of the early day stuff is hard to find and I was lucky to have a couple of issues from that era. But it's still fun to look back in time and see what the hot rod world has given us to continue on today.

[mrweld]

Glen Stan this was Johns 27 which he went 201 mph with. Flathead Ardon. More thinks.. Photo by Bob Hardy. You might remember him. He shot for Hot Rod mag and others.

[Clay Pitkin]

I have these pics from my Dad when they went to speed week in 1955, I am sorry but i cont find the originals, I am thinking my dad has them. The story that he told me was he was about 14 or 15, they drove out in a 1954 Chev Station wagon, and they stayed at the base of the mountain in the back of the 54 just as you come into Wendover on the Utah side.

[Clay Pitkin]

More pics

[Clay Pitkin]

The last of them, again these are from 1955

[N72727]

N°888 on the trailer is the "Le Blanc Special" streamliner. In 1955, driver Glen Pengry was injured in the crash of the car.
Would be nice to have the originals of your interesting pictures.

[N72727]

N°671 is "Beast III".

[Clay Pitkin]

The Belly tank in the first pic the car number is 8G. I will try and find the pics at my parents home.

Clay

[theazoldcrow]

  Beautiful pictures, thanks for the look at history!

[protype]

RE: 1097&1098  Mel Hoy

I Met Mel at Bonneville in '76 and had dinner with him and his crew at the Hideaway a couple of nights.  He talked about having some help from an engineer buddy that worked at Mcdonnel Dougles.  They were working with getting downforce for traction and getting more air into the engine.  You can see the turbulators in front of the scoop and on the underside of the body.  His buddy wrote a computer program to optimize the toe and camber change for the rear swing axle to improve handling and traction.
 Mel also talked about not having both ends pitch and catch air.  "Tag down one end so it just handles the surface and let the
other wag only enough to get the job done"  Mel said he tagged the front.  The WWII style canopy was for vision as experiments with a bubble distorted the vision.
Although I can't verify it, Mel talked about going through the traps backwards at over 200 when a dirt bike appeared on the course and he flinched to miss it.
I was going to go out and check the car at his place but I heard he had died and got no response.  Anyone know what happened to the car or the real details of what happened to Mel?


We

[36hplandspeedracer]

Does anyone recall in the sixties or early seventies when someone went for a joy ride in the salt grader and the racers had to muscle it back onto hard salt ?

Burly

[deucemac]

Glen Stan this was Johns 27 which he went 201 mph with. Flathead Ardon. More thinks.. Photo by Bob Hardy. You might remember him. He shot for Hot Rod mag and others.

The car still exists, Bill Taylor (John's partner and and World famous Bonneville course starter) has it at home in Snow bound Minnesota.  If my memory serves me right, Bill told me that John ran 205+ in '70 on his down run only to have the engine grenade during the run. They couldn't fix it in time and Bill was the only one in the 2 club with the car as they never ran it again in that configuration.  It is resting comfortably now with a flathead in it.

[F104A]

Yes, I know about the roadgrader and the evil do'ers. I've been sworn to secrecy but suffice to say, they still
laugh about it like a couple kids who got away with something. Is there a statute of limitations on such an evil
crime? They could be extradited back to the US for trial.

[mrweld]

Here he is. Bill Taylor the man that gets us started in the right direction. Is that a bitchen picture or what?

[fastman614]

Does anyone recall in the sixties or early seventies when someone went for a joy ride in the salt grader and the racers had to muscle it back onto hard salt ?

Burly

This is a picture of which I have first had knowledge .... without admitting to anything in regards to how it got there, I know the story.... I just need to know if anyone in that picture is still alive and in a condition to do any of the "cuprits harm.....

What I will say is that either Hotrod or Car Craft started the article for the coverage of the 1972 Bonneville National Speed Trials with words that went something like this:

"Bonneville Speedweek started with a hoot and a hooler and the loudest hooting and hollering came from the road-boss of the Utah Department Of Highways. It seemed that someone had gotten his road grader stuck up it the axles in the salt and before anything took place on the slat flats, that grader had to be unstuck and returned to him."

From a verbal account later rendered by an officer of the Wendover Sherrif's Office, who also had first hand knowledge of the incident, I heard that there were 85 men who got pig dirty digging and pulling on that grader for 6 hours before it finally got pulled to solid ground and if any of those men ever find the person or personss responsible then they had better be ready to run for their lives.

I do know more .......