Hot Rods The Coupes and Sedans of Land Speed Racing

Great thread keep the photos coming

 

Hot Rod Magazine 1952

 

I copied this one from @elgringo71

 

Benny Garat full fendered '34 coupe in the January '58 issue of Hot Rod Magazine

 

Don't know if this is a repost. two of my favorites. Burkland's B210 and Benhams Crosle y.

 

I watched Ronnie build the Crosley down the street from our shop. It was a typical Benham quality piece. Ak Miller got in the Two club driving it. Too bad Wooden wadded it up.

 

Ron was the shop foreman at Blair's when I worked there, you're exactly right, he was a craftsman, plain and simple-- I learned a lot from him about fabricating-- he built the "tempest in a T-Pot" roadster with a Pontiac tempest 4 in it....neat car


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Ron also built his "Baby Whale" that used one of Mickey Thompson's blown Tempest engines to put Burke Lesage in the two club at 213mph. Burke went a lot faster years later with much higher horsepower cars. He told me the hardest car he ever drove was that short WB tank of Benham's. When he final got it up over 200, he had to put it in a 4 wheel drift, and look out the side window. I cannot imagine drifting at 200MPH for 5 miles! Burke was short at barely 5 foot tall, but he had the balls of a giant!

 

Anybody know anything about this one???

 

Great shots.//////

 

the team of Ron Benham and Earl Wooden ran this 300 cubic inch Merc. flathead powered '37 Willys in "C" Coupe in '54.

 

Great to see anything associated with Ronnie Benham. I had never seen the Willys before. I knew Ronnie for many years. He was a good guy, and a good friend.

 

This one is coming along in the shop,,,,,,

 

Very Nice.

 

I asked this on a different thread but why does the Benham and Wooden Willys that runs in "C" Coupe have a smaller 300 cubic inch engine than the Hartlet Willys that runs "E" Coupe with a 352 cubic engine? Doesn't the letter refer to cubic inches?

 

In the old days the letters went the other way. "A" was smallest "E" largest. Then they added "O" for even smaller than "A". Then they changed it so more smaller classes could be added. Now "A" was largest. Then they had to add "AA" fore even larger engines.

 

Thanks @RichFox I was just about too break out my Hot Rod issues from 1950 because i do recall seing an "O" class before the "A" class.

 

I went and dug out my Mar.'50 issue of HOT ROD and they are as fallows.
Cubic inches
O) 0-91
A) 91-183
B) 183-250
C) 250-350
D) 350-Unlimited
In '54 things had changed a littie bit.
H) 0-48
O) 49-91
A) 92-183
B) 184-260
C) 261-305
D) 306-488
E) 488-over
My Mar. '54 issue of HOT ROD also says In class 'A' Coupes and Sedans and Compition Coupes and Sedans will run in the same class.
There is a gap in my collection from Mar. and Sept.'51 and between Sept.'51 to Jan. '54 so i don't know when the "H" Class was added. Nowadays things have changed with AA being the biggest at 501 plus cubic inches down to "K" being the smallest with 30.5 cubic inches and under. Also no Coupe classes in 1950 so i don't know when the class was started.

 

And the book just keeps getting thicker.

 

My favorite

 

Found this in my buddy grandpas collection!!

 

Because Doug ran a blower the engine that would normally be in D class was automatically bumped to the higher class, this changed once they brought in blown and unblown classes.

 

This one is a little more 'modern', but would love to have won the lottery to add to my 'stable'

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1940-Ford-O...ash=item1a29e4e11c:g:lqYAAOSwTM5Y5p3h&vxp=mtr

 

The JaDo Coupe

 

Perfect, as i see it.

 

Puff, I came across this pic the other day looking at 36 images




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Great contribuition @Pufff! Of the cars I've seen before in this thread many are pictures of them I hadn't seen before. Keep them coming!

 

I have loved this thread for awhile. Even more now thanks to @Puff contributions. Just think of all the know-it-alls that tell me my Lakes inspired Tudor isn't traditional.


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The blown Chevy was in Tom Cobbs version of the Pierson Brothers coupe, ran 198 in '56. Both the car and the engine survive, the engine, unrestored, is in a collection in Oregon.