Hot Rods Harper Dry Lake ~ A pre war video

Awsome speed weather salt or east cost sand,;

 

Land speed trials were not dangerous back then so you could stand up close. It something happened the drivers didn't have seat belts and were thrown in the clear...

 

That's a good one Dana,thanks for posting. HRP

 

Great Film! Thanks HRP now I can go get some work done. Amazing the guy in the Bugatti was even dressed like he was from Greenwich CT. The guys in the Fords had tee shirts or no shirts.
Oh well time for tea and crumpets.

 

I forget all the details but Tommy Lee's father had a Cadillac dealership in the early days in California. There was some deal he had with Cadillac were every Caddy sold in California produced a commission to him. Few bucks here few bucks there and your son can have some really nice cars. Bob

UPDATE: I love Google!
https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2011/03/Don-Lee/3696611.html


Also ran some more checks and Bugatti Type 51 chassis #51154 was later owned by Ralph Lauren, it is in Europe now Vintage Racing.

 

Hi Dana.Very nice film clip.Thanks for posting.Pretty neat sound track too.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Just found this piece about Don Lee, he passed away in 1934 so son Tommy Lee was running everything after that. No wonder he had such a nice fleet of cars, wonder if he helped fund some of the early dry lakes races? Bob https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lee_(broadcaster)

 

Love that music!

 

Just an FYI ...

This video was originally posted on December 13th 2011 by Dave Welles (@Detonator on the H.A.M.B.) on the Seabright Hot Rods website ... and has since been posted on the H.A.M.B. 22 times (and counting):

• Pre War Lake racing w/Customs 8mm Film (by @hotrd32 on December 14th 2011)
  
  
• Pre War Lake racing w/Customs 8mm Film (by @HEMI32 on December 18th 2011)
  
  
• Vintage dry lake racing (by @mctim64 on December 21st 2011)
  
  
• Memorial Day (by @Detonator on May 12th 2012)
  
  
• Prewar Dry Lakes Hot Rod Racing in 8mm (by @edwardlloyd on July 7th 2012)
  
  
• Actor Robert Stack / Eliot Ness Gow Job 1938 (by @Elrod on September 24th 2012)
  
  
• Fathers Day - Was Your Dad A Car Guy? (by @Detonator on June 14th 2013)
  
  
• FIRST Channeled 1932 Ford Roadster? (by @slddnmatt on August 13th 2013)
  
  
• The First Belly Tank (by @Mike Chiavetta on October 3rd 2013)
  
  
• Who wants to be the lucky guy??? (by @tfeverfred on January 8th 2014)
  
  
• SCTA 1946 video (by @tub in da dirt on February 26th 2014)
  
  
• Posting photos to a thread from our album (by @gwhite on May 16th 2014)
  
  
• Pre War Lake racing w/Customs 8mm Film (by @3wLarry on October 7th 2014)
  
  
• Lakes pictures. P.R.C. (by @firingorder1 on May 13th 2015)
  
  
• Pre War dry lakes racing in 8mm (by @HOTRODPRIMER on September 7th 2015)
  
  
• The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread... (by @tfeverfred on May 23rd 2016)
  
  
• Just a day at the lake....... (by @tfeverfred on July 16th 2016)
  
  
• I can't stop watching this (by @The37Kid on December 23, 2016)
  
  
• The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread... (by @tfeverfred on January 5th 2017)
  
  
• What's a freakin' Hot Rod? (by @tfeverfred on January 25th 2017)
  
  
• A High School Kid's Dream Car -- 1939 (by @The37Kid on February 16th 2017)
  
  
• Harper Dry Lake ~ A pre war video (i.e., this thread by @HOTRODPRIMER on August 29th 2017)

 

and the point is ..... ?

 

Some people on here could win a million dollars in $100 bills and than bitch because it wasn't in $20's.
Just sit back and enjoy the show.

 

I'm getting older and realize that the HAMB is getting a lot bigger, EASY for new guys to miss stuff that is REALLY important historical stuff. I just click on the movie and watch it again..................I really need to fix the sound option on my computer, that music is great. Bob

 

Dana,
thanks for resurrecting this video.
Every time I see it I notice something different, like the Miller fwd conversion....

 

Think that was a Tommy Lee car as well, later owned by Andy Granatelli. He had a second one and advertised them in the December 1948 issue of California Timing News.

 

I don't understand someone taking the time to dig through all the old threads and post a link to all 22 of them other than to complain about what is posted.

There is probably nothing that hasn't been posted multiple times,remember the Hamb has been around since 1995 and if you want to flex your research prowess to reflect the fact, fine but I fail to see where it adds anything to the conversation.

With the most recent addition the Hamb is now 1075046 members strong and obviously many of our current members never saw any of these threads.

I've been a member for years and have seen many subjects rehashed and I will see many more,most likely this very video will pop up again in the future,I can assure you I won't dismiss it.

Heck I'll probably forget I posted it and enjoys it again! HRP

 

That's OK Danny, I never seen it before, but then, I'm still a pup. However, as much as I like the HAMB, I do have more important things in life to do than be on the HAMB 24-7...

I did enjoy the ride though! Oh, and that music was great!

 

This car was cool, anyone have more pictures of it,

 

I have absolutely no issue with @HOTRODPRIMER (Danny) reposting this fantastic piece of Hot Rodding history ... the more visibility the video gets, the better!

My "point" was/is that there are several other H.A.M.B. threads / posts about this video (filmed by @Detonator's "uncle" Tommy) that provided answers to a bunch of the same questions posed in this thread.

For those folks that actually want to learn more about the content in the video, they can just click on some of the links I provided.

NOTE: The H.A.M.B. search feature works great for finding existing threads about a specific topic. In this case, I simply entered the YouTube video ID (i.e., z5ENn_hxv64 ) as the search criteria ... and in less than 1 second, those 22 posts were listed in a search result window. I then spent a few minutes "cutting & pasting" those 22 search results into my "controversial reply". Admittedly, this was "the easy way out" as it would have taken me at least an hour to "pluck" the info/pics out of these 22 posts to reply to each of the questions posed in this thread.

Personally, I prefer to just bump old threads rather than start a new thread with the same video, pics, and/or questions. Of course there are some drawbacks to bumping old threads ... as you most likely will have to endure snarky comments from the H.A.M.B. peanut gallery

Danny, I apologize for derailing your thread ... I was just trying to help.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming ...

Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

At the risk of being chastised further, I'll post a link to the January 13th 2010 TJJ Blog and the resultant H.A.M.B. thread that provide some great info about the owner of the car (i.e., Tommy Lee) ... and includes several pics of the car (i.e., the "1937 Kurtis Tommy Lee Special") in both street & race trim:

• The Story Of Tommy Lee (TJJ Blog by @Ron Kellogg)
• The Story Of Tommy Lee (resultant H.A.M.B. thread)

 

The problem with ALL the older threads,this one and thousands of the others that the information remains but many of the photo's no longer exist,thanks to photobuckets hijacking their members accounts and holding them for ransom.

Seeing the occasional rare photo's of the Thomas hot rod Cord inspired car without fenders was a treat. HRP

 

Same car with street exhaust. It is restored today, won Hershey, was up in Mass. don't know who the current caretaker is. Bob

 

But it looked so damn good without fenders. HRP

 

It's not a Cord, but a custom built body on a 36 Ford Chassis and an Offenhauser engine.

 

Tommy Lee had some nice cars, in the book about Isky he talks about one of the Bugatti's that Tommy had flipped on the lake bed. Not to mention the Talbot's the custom Cadillac's and even a '32 Ford roadster with a supercharger. I think it was in the Kurtis car that he was hit badly in road accident that had him hooked on pain killers that led to his untimely death.

 

THANK YOU! Yes, I took the easy way and hit the "Like" button, but you need to know that your work in listing all the related threads allowed me to find the Tommy Lee owned Don Lee INDY 500 car. David Uihlein bought that car shortly after it last ran INDY without the engine. He spent the next 50 years trying to buy the engine, outlived the owner, and finally was able to reunite the two. Never got to read the Kellog post on the Speedster before either. Keep up the good work. Bob

 

Thanks Bob. HRP

 

what might those be? - Ha!

 

Driving the wheels off that sweet '54 Ford of yours for one thing. HRP

 

There`s always the "Bed Sheet Boogie"to pass the time.That`s always fun.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Thank you this is the first time I have seen this video