Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Vintage Bonneville News Reels Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Great footage! As the years went by (in the different clips) one can see the quality of the footage increase. It is hard to imagine that a current iphone has better lens' and image quality than the then current Ariflex cameras. In the third movie (it was film you know) a lot of the 'action' appears to be shot at the air base and one of the hangers. Back in those days there were few gas station, no parts houses, one small store, no major casinos, and just a few hotels. So the best place to work on the very large land speed cars was at the Wendover Air Base, once you brought every thing with you
Magnificent footage. Looking at the salt back in those days it is hard to believe that we may be close to not having enough salt to race on anymore.
Exactly! My goal this year is to post more on Bonneville than usual, just to keep it front of mind to save the salt!
Was it just me or did the guy in the cowboy hat who was leaning over the engine of the Mustang at the 4:33 mark look familiar? Was that Smokey Yunick? Or was it just some other guy with a hat?
Ah yes Bonneville, the seemingly red headed step child of Hot Rod history. Isn't this were so many of the greats got their start, began developing and selling early speed equipment which is now a multi-million dollar industry. Where aerodynamics and streamlining was further developed in the early 1950's. So why is the history relegated to second class status with hardly any coverage (history) in magazines? Plenty of drag coverage, just check the last 15 issues of Hot Rod Deluxe. Gentlemen we're losing the salt and also the old timers that made that history. We need to gather it, relish it and document it. There needs to be more people out there like Jimmy Barter who really take this to heart! My rant is done, carry on!
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