Hot Rods Official hot rod's of the dry lake's thread

I have been thinking of this for a while to start a thread like this. Post pic's or ask questions about cars or there drivers. I would like to keep this thread to pre war till post war 1948 el mirage , harpers, muroc, russetta. You can list your favorite car or driver or both. Pics and facts would be great. If you know or have known someone give the info. I think it would be great for people to share there knowledge of the subject. As some of you know i'm doing the jack calori roadster. My journey started over seven years ago with just a glance of a picture hangging on a wall while working for my old boss. I never thought i would become very good friends with jack. He changed my life when it came to hot rods. I learned a lot from him and how a hot rod should be. I have pic's of his timing tags but i have to figure out how to scan them and post them. I'll post the pic that started it all for me. So with that here we go. Billy

 

What ever became of chuck potvin and his bitchin 32 roadster. He was in the lancers with jack and made jacks duel coil lincoln ignition on his roadster. Randy shinn of the road runners was also jacks very good friend and also one of his biggest competitor at the lakes. Fyi billy

 

btt

 

There are several great books on pre and post war dry lakes racing. I'm only a young'un. Only been going to El Mirage since '97.

 

i have the books i started this for people to share storys. billy

 

Arnold Birner Circa 1942. This pic is inspiring me to build a similar modified.

 

Great post, and Billy- you have done a fantastic job of recreating the Calori Roadster.

 

Billy,

I was able to locate one of the members of the South Gate Gaters recently. As you may recall, my roadster belonged to the same SCTA car club back in the mid to late 40's. Chuck Hersom and his brother, Eugene, drove a belly tanker. He'd briefly told me a story about running at the 1st Bonneville race.

I need to get back in touch with him and hopefully do as you have done and preserve some of the experiences these guys had back in the day.

Here's mine as a refresher.

Chris

 

Great idea Bill, do you have a copy of CT News with the Calori roadster sketch on the cover? This is the October 1947 issue, the car ran 1st or 2nd all year at over 124MPH

 

Hi Billy

This is a post I hope can live and develope. Good idea.
My heart lies with the pre and post WW2 dual purpose cars.

On all time favorite is the roadster buildt by the Betes brothers 1938/39.


There are some info on it in an issue of American rodder from the early nineties, but I would love to learn more.
I have seen pics of it from several Antique nats over the last years.
A lovely car.
I hope Many Betes is still going. Would be cool if anyone could have him tell us some stories.

If someone buys this car to overrestore it I will row accros the Atlantic to debate against that with a LARGE Norwegian stick of wood.
It's a genuine artifact of history.

Please post some more pics if you have.




Paul

 

great thread Billy,

Paul, I've tried to call Manny on a few occasions but not had much luck. The answering machine sounds like an awfully old person so im guessing i have the correct number.
I'll keep trying

Zach

 

AV8-Rider I love that car. Good thread idea.

 

This thread has a lot of potential. Let's keep it going.

 

mannys roadster rules true history . let's keep this going

 

Here is and image that I picked up from the HAMB. I have made it a habit to copy these photos to my Photobucket account so that I can use them for reference.



More located herehttp://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk105/Sugar-City/Blast%20From%20The%20Past/

 

Over restoration, or in some cases any restoration, is a nasty epidemic that needs to stop!

 

There has been a strong rumor for many years that the Deuce Roadster owned by our very own "Pickle" is the Chuck Potvin Roadster,... The first time I was told this was in the 1980's before the big interest in Historical Hot Rods got rolling,... the old man that had the car back then was really proud of the "fact" it was Potvin's car and swore it belonged to Chuck Potvin, He had owned it for a lot of years before that,..... And I don't know of any reason why he would lie about it.

I have pictures of the body before the body work was done and the holes for the tonneu (sp?) cover snaps were still there,.....

 

awesome thread... I dont have anything to share but im gonna learn as much as possible for sure. thanks for startin this, ive been waiting for a thread like this.

 

I am working on a late 40's dry lakes car for a friend of mine right now, The chassis will be done by spring, My friend Bill got it from from Bruce Meyer about 10 years ago, and it was the Louie Shell Deuce Roadster,.... Louie was a member of the "Gophers",.... And I believe it ran post and pre-war.

Here are a couple pictures of the body on just a stock rolling frame,....

 

When Bullington posted a pic of Arnold Birners modified it got my mind spinning.
Remembered a pic in "Flat Out" of Birners Low 29 on Deuce bones.

Does anyone have any info/stories on Birner. Seames to have been a guy with an eye for stance and cool loking rides. I've seen his name mentioned a few times in the papers we have available but info is scarse.
This 29 is low for it's time. Would be interesting to know what had been done to the chassie/frame.
Is Arnold Birner still amongs us perhaps.

Sorry for the shitty pic. Used a digicam since I have no Scanner at home.

Paul

 

That is OUTSTANDING! Do you have any details as far as power plant? Her lines are perfect!

 

This is what i'm talking about. Guys comning out of the wood work. I love it. Let get mr pickel on here. More on chucks car.and how about him? There's car's around that people own and probly dont know the history on it and someone might. Lets keep this post going for all the hard core tradional hot rod guys. Billy

 

i dont have that copybut i would like to. Jack had that one i belive.billy

 

Hey Billy I hope I can jump in here and see if I can get any help with our tank, I'm assuming it was a pretty early run car since it was a v8-60 car and had an awful lot of dirt laying in the cracks down in the belly, the body is untouched as well as the number and decals it left the west coast in 1958 and was not run again. Billy are the timing tags still around?

 

man thats a good one maybe the old grow speed shop might have info on belly tanks that ran then. Calling bobby green calling bobby green you have a call on the yellow phone. Thank you YES ALL THE TAGS ARE STILL ARIUND I HAVE THE SECOND TTHE LAST ON MY CAR. 128.38. BILLY

 

Billy, from your books on dry lakes racing history, can you approximate when the coupes (in addition to the roadsters and belly tanks) started racing the dry lakes? Were there many/any before 1949? I've got a old deuce coupe in my stable that I would like to get the racing history on. It came out of California many years ago and was said to be a lakes racer --- and it definately looks the part. Maybe from the 50s, if not the 40s, so perhaps not in the era you are focusing on, though.

 

this question would be better for don montgomery rockerhead on the hamb he's the most knowlage on this subject.

 

I'm a youngster in the time frame of dry lakes racing but I have heard the old timers saying that the SCTA would only allow roadsters until sometime in the 50s. I think thats the reason the Russeta timing association came into being. I'm sure there are people on this forum that would have the exact facts.

If sixcarb contacts J.D.Tone at the SCTA he might be able to help you with finding old timing tags for his lakester.

 

Brings back a whole bunch of post war memories of guys at hi school that ran the lakes (1946-1950) Pierson--McKinnley--Torvick--Rickson--From Inglewood, Ca.
Wish I knew who ran my 32 roadster at the lakes back then, as I bought it in so many pieces. I purchased this roadster(all grey primered parts) from a guy in Orange,Ca. (1962) The body was originally Ford green, it had top layers of yellow,copper color,red, that I counted when stripping down to bare metal in 1962. Identifying body items were: Filled in cowl, side cowl lights, drivers side radio ant. holes, both door handles, rear '39 tailights, centered license plate holes, roll bar mounts welded to frame, floorboard torched out (probably for auto trans(?)), dashboard torched out leaving just a mounting rim, no seat period! Also all around the cowl were fastener holes for a toneau cover. I built my roadster while living in Torrance,Ca.(1958--1968)
I have checked all Don Montgomery's books showing many pages of lakes 32 roadsters during that period & saw some cars that MIGHT be mine, but nothing for sure!!-----So, I continue to search.--Any help out there identifying my roadster????
----------Don