Drove a green 51 Dodge, 4-71 blown Hemi, to Bonneville and back, and set the speed record. Anyone got more info, old pictures, etc.?
The year/years that he went might help. Up until the late 60's at least they usually posted the new records at Bonneville with the Bonneville coverage that came out early the next year. 4 or 5 months after the fact but for me it was a big deal to see the coverage and see the records.
According to his obit, it was 1960; Roland Jack Roberts born April 26, 1917 in Waller, Texas to Helen Anne and Geno Maxwell Roberts passed away from this earth on April 2, 2012 to join his parents, wife, Lorraine, brother, Preston and sister Hazel Blanch. He will be missed by his childen; Barbara Lynn DuMesnil , Diane Roberts Taylor, and Duane Roland Roberts, and wife, Beverly, Mary Carolyn Ellis and husband, Danny(deceased) and Jack’s grandchildren; Peni Green married to Chris Green, Jon DuMesnil, Christi Craven married to John Craven, Anne Scharck married to Tim Scharck, Danna and Jim Arnett, Shawn Roberts, Shay Olinger married to Greg Olinger, Jenny married to Chad Grogan, and Will Roberts, Carolyn, and Jack’s great-grandchildren, Jon LaRochelle, Sadie, Lee and Katie Green, Jack and Jake Craven, Sterling DuMesnil, Luke, Sam, and Andrew Scharck, Riley Kane Briggs, Anna Kaye and Laura Lee Olinger, Zane and Emma Arnett, and Alec Grogan . Jack and Lorraine moved to Angleton in the early 1940’s where he began working at Dow Chemical for several years. He and his brother, Preston, began rice farming together in 1951-52 in Brazoria County, and Jack continued this work which he loved until his retirement in the 1980’s. His greatest passion began when he was a young boy building and racing Midgets with A.J. Foyt’s father, until his mom and dad raised their hands and said, “No more.” As an adult, continuing his passion for all things fast, he became a Legend in the area for his expertise in car, boat, and motorcycle engine re-building and racing. In 1960 he raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats in his 1951 green Dodge coup, setting a record in his class of 163.78 miles per hour. When he was 83 he and one of his closest friends took a road- trip on their motorcycles to and from the California Redwoods. After retiring Jack opened a small shop he called the R & L where he repaired guns, rods and reels, and made engine parts. His other pastimes included hunting, fishing and souping- up his lawn mower. He was loved by many including all those at the Hometown Café, Sunny Hearts, Dunc’s Hawg Shop, those at the Icehouse Bar and Grill that cooked his steaks and burgers, and, of course, his cats: Harry, Sister, Crissy, Widget “Kitchen cat”, Ginger, Sugar and Curly Girl
I have seen the car before, Jack used to drive it to a old car hangout spot in Lake Jackson. It was a businessmans coupe kind of a medium to dark green with a blown 392 hemi and it still had the Bonneville timing tag. He was a nice guy to talk to and the car sounded mean and looked period correct from its racing days.
Young guy who is manager at the McCoy's Lumber here in Galveston recently acquired the car. He showed me a few pictures, has an unusual looking roof line. He said it was a convertible with roof added to it. Baby moons and lake pipes on it now. I'd like to dig up more history and hopefully old photos for him.
I got pictures, but Photobucket is giving me problems. I can email them to someone if they would be kind enough to post them.
I met Jack back around 86 or 87 , in Angleton, when one of my friends (Wayne Rickman) was negotiating purchase of Jack's 68 or 69 Plymouth Roadrunner. Wayne wanted me to go look at the Roadrunner to help him decide if it was a good buy. At the time, i had never met Jack. Went over to Jack's house just off of Hwy 35 in Angleton, a small, modest white and green frame home, just off of the main drag. When we arrived, the Dodge was sitting in the garage with a cover on it along with the Roadrunner. Jack purchased the Roadrunner new and apparently he was downsizing and just needed some cash. Long story short, Wayne purchased the Roadrunner and drove it a few years then sold it...........But while i was at Jack's house, i engaged him asking about he Dodge. He volunteered the Dodge was originally a convertible but the first time he ran it through the traps, the top blossomed and the wind just about ripped the whole thing off. According to Jack, they went back to the pits and tried to tie every thing down for a second attempt but the top was even worse second time around and about wrecked him (guessing the safety crew may have had something to say about it too). He went home and hand-fabricated the steel top (he told me what he used for the top but i cant remember) and went back next year. You could look inside the car and see how the top was attached. The dash of the car had two timing plaques on it. At the time, he was running mechanical injection with the blower. He fired it up for us and shook the whole house. Cant remember what rear gears he said it had in it but they were ungodly. He said the Hemi barely had enough torque to get it rolling, even with a good push. Jack had a complete mini-machine shop adjacent to and behind the garage. You walk thru the garage to go into the machine shop. Lots of blower cases and rotors laying around, Several blocks and a dozen or two heads, mostly hemi. He said he tried a wedge motor but kept breaking them so went to the Hemi for strength. I didn't get any information about how he was building the engines........only what you could see from the outside. Back when i met him, he had a weathered face and hands, probably from working in the fields. His hair was very white, and he was very pleasant to talk to. Unfortunately, I was too young to know what i was a witness to. He really was a great guy!
Richard D, this isnt much but you may want to check this out............. http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,12625.0/prev_next,next.html#new
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...2/?temp_hash=92477e11692beba9ac7dea5b517f52f1 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...4/?temp_hash=92477e11692beba9ac7dea5b517f52f1 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachments/imagejpeg_0-jpg.2703910/
Damn. Sure has the sleek sleeper look down pat doesn't it(?).........until you get your ass stomped into road kill.........or a slick sided shit stain.....wow.
Yikes. Yes sir, ELGRINGO71 should get the credit for that though. He was the MAN on that link above...... Here are the other two from his hard work...... Engine....blown 392..... THANKS AGAIN to ELGRINGO71 sir.
Thanks for the help on the pictures, kidcampbell71. Hopefully the pictures will help bring some more information on Jack Roberts and his Bonneville car. My experience was like fordflambe, I was about 18 and although I was amazed by Jack and the history of the car and its mean sound (blown 392 hemi) I had never seen anything with that much history before and I couldn't really grasp the history that was there. This car even had the Bonneville timing tags on it. This was in the late 80s and there weren't many traditional cars in my area and this was the only traditional lakes car that I ever saw.
I'm in and out of McCoy's pretty much daily. The store manager's father recently acquired the car; I will continue pursuit of info on history and future of this vehicle.
That's just amazing. I am sure most may shirk the style of car......but what strikes me is his choice of car, and the substance of what he built it for. Chrome spears ?? Who needs those flying off at 163 mph ? Skirts gone ?? Well....duh, yeah......note the above. Top different ?? Well, all I had to throw the blown 392 in was this convertible....okay ! Hammered this out so I wouldn't get sucked out of my seatbelts.......when I go 164 or so.....dunno' with the speedo off and all. LOL. That's pretty crazy. Looks like there is a pretty substantial cage of sorts in there too. That just oozes F you, I'm fast.
When you get a chance see if you can get a picture of the inside of the car and of the Bonneville timing tags. That might provide some more clues.
In his Obituary it says "In 1960 he raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats in his 1951 green Dodge coup, setting a record in his class of 163.78 miles per hour". Anyone that has access to Bonneville archives should be able to quickly find this stat, including class......... I dont have access or I would look him up.
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