Deeper in the Goldmine: Bonneville in the 50s (Part II)

Don Palmer is man that obviously loves fast cars- He raced a hopped up Hudson at Bonneville, and participated in Sports Car, Go Kart and Drag Race events throughout the 50s and 60s. Hopefully you’ve checked out his Kodachrome gems posted last week, and now here’s the final b&w batch of Don’s pictures including his Hudson on the salt, along with a few more shots of the Chrisman Coupe. Check out the Chevy truck that did double duty flat-towing Don’s Hudson to Bonneville and playing push truck/parts hauler. The pictures of his friend Carl’s Banger-powered, channeled A Roadster appear to be from 1950, and I love this lil’ car. It’s a budget-conscious hot rod that obviously started life as a closed car, by the way the cowl meets the doors and the tonneau cover snaps over the body sides.

Don filled me a little on the Hud: “On the B&W photos, the Hudson #121D was a Pacemaker (smaller and lighter than the Hornet) with a Hornet 7X racing engine. It belonged to a friend of mine, Frank Miller, who drove it on the street daily for several years. We built up a McCullough supercharged engine which was number 120E but but it broke before we could get a time.

By the time the 7x was retired off the streets we had broken two transmissions, several u-joints, an axle, several differentials, stripped the center out of a coupe of clutches, twisted the rear axle out of it’s mounts. The combination of the lightweight body and high torque gave us many street racing adventures.”

(Additionally, I’ve included one more vintage color shot he called “Elmwood Dragster”, just as a bonus. Enjoy!)