Here is the back story of these pictures. My Grandfather's friend, Chuck Potvin, was notorious for banging on my grandparent's bedroom window early in the morning (2am or later). He would have his newest camshaft in hand and wanted my Grandfather to run it at Santa Ana the next weekend. It was during one of these early morning camshaft changing sessions that Chuck asked my Grandfather if he wanted to run his car at Bonneville. Chuck told him he could put one of his Chrysler Hemi's in the car to use. After spending a few weeks redoing the White Owl, my Grandfather's race car, they shoe horned the Hemi in. They got to Bonneville with my Grandfather's car and Chuck's streamliner. My Grandfather ran his car first. The Hemi had a ton more torque than the flathead he used on the drag strip. At the start he stabbed the accelerator and the car spun out. At first my grandfather didn't realize he was spinning out. He said "I started her out and decided to open her up and get up to speed. Immediately I saw the mountains in front of me, then I saw the starting area. I realized I was out of control so I eased up on the pedal and brought the car back around. I slowly pressed the pedal down and got up to speed." He turned just over 200 mph on that pass. At the end of the run his back was blistering hot. The engine did not have any cooling. On a quarter mile that wasn't a big deal, but at Bonneville it was. Chuck's streamliner ran later driven by Otto Ryssman. During deceleration the streamliner blew a tire and flipped the car. Otto received only minor injuries, but Chuck was worried. Between my Grandfather spinning out and Otto rolling the streamliner Chuck decided that Bonneville 1954 was done for him. My Grandfather never got to run again to back up his 200 mph. They stayed and took these pictures.
These photos are absolutely fantastic. Thanks for posting them. As a suggestion, you might contact Richard Parks and The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians. Posting them in the society newsletter would get a huge response. Many respected and well known LSR historians and experts belong to this group and many of the cars and faces in these great and significant images could be identified. Ducumenting and preserving LSR history is what they are about. Also, post them in the forum at landracing.com. People there would just go nuts! Nuts! If there are more, please keep em flowing!
Oh Man! Great pictures. Just think of all the stuff that's still out there that some family member has that no one knows about. Thanks for sharing your treasure. What car club is on the plaque?? My eyes are going bad or it's to blurry to read.
I watched your Grandfather run the "Smoking White Owl" at Santa Ana. Ran straight and fast. That is a car one of the clone builders should replicate! Was there an earlier rear engine dragster?
Here is a link to the rebuilding of my Grandfather's car. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342695 Dan Marvin, Owner Exeter Auto Supply
Thanks for posting!! The blown roadster in the second picture is the one that Don Montgomery discussed in the thread on early hot rods, the coupe with the blister on the hood belonged to the legendary Tom Cobbs, and then Lee Chapel's streamliner with his own overhead valve heads and the Pearson bros. coupe..
Here's some cool '54 Bonneville photos from the Life archive. there's about 100 high resolution photos, too big for here http://images.google.com/images?hl=...q=bonneville+source:life&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20
Wow! ... how did I miss this thread? dmarv ... thanks for sharing your grandfather's '54 pics ... much appreciated! mudbus15 ... your father-in-laws '50 pics are cool ... anymore? ... if so, you should start a separate thread ... thanks! LowKat ... thanks for adding the J. R. Eyerman photos from '54 ... I'll have to admit that when I read the title of this thread, I fully expected it to be a re-posting of the LIFE archive pics.
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