History The "De ARMOND & MARKLEY Special" ROADSTER: A Pictorial History

Me to. great stuff. Some of the pictures showing telephone polls were taken on the old one mile warm up track. Now long gone. It was a good place for tuning.

 

SIDE NOTE:

In 1958, the Markley's returned to the salt with a Belly Tank Lakester "borrowed" from Don Colvin:

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Charlie Markley set a two-way average record of 207.16 MPH in this tank ... which garnered him entry into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club!

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In 1959, the Markley's brought their own P-38 Belly Tank Lakester (with a DeSoto HEMI engine borrowed from Dick Flynn's "Thrifty Auto Supply" dragster) to Bonneville:

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This famous belly tank is chronicled in my The Markley Bros BELLY TANK: A Pictorial History thread.​

 

what excellent historic images, so cool to see all these. Thanx for sharing this iconic story.

 

Great pictures! Love the push truck, the trailer, camping scenes, etc. Simpler and maybe better times!

 

Wow those photos are fantastic, skilled camera operators. Love the lettering on the car. Hell, love everything about the car.

Thanks!

 

Hey Post, where 'ya been? Thought you had died.

 

*checks pulse* Yup, still here it would seem haha. I've been around, as big a slacker as ever I'm afraid. How've you been?

 

Just as fucked up as always. How's the coupe? Still driving it?

 

Negative, hasn't been on the road since I blew it apart after that last summer :/

Been working on it though, it'll be back on the road next summer if I can keep motivated / focused on it. Lately I've really been thinking about a banger powered T though ha.

 

Great history and a fantastic array of photos. It would have been terrific to have been involved in that deal BITD, it was just a simple, low key time.
A super thread, thanks.

 

Great pictures of a great and simpler time.Thanks for posting.
Good luck.have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Soooo cool!

Any idea what the color scheme was? In post #25, it looks to have been repainted with different style numbers.

 

I believe it was painted a pale blue ... but I'll confirm with Charlie Markley.

UPDATE: Charlie says it was "light blue".

Yep ... Good eye! ... They changed the lettering for the second year on the salt:

1956:

1957:
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Fantastic. Amazing pics and History. Thanks for taking the time to post these! Awesome!!

 

And it turns out that these are old pictures. But still a really nice car and person.
Jerry Larry Lafavor pictures
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@RichFox - I could be wrong ... but I somewhat recall Charlie telling me that the #106 DeArmond & Markley '29 Model A Roadster on Deuce rails wasn't/isn't the same car used to build the #360 Markley Bros. Fuel Roadster.

 

Great pics of a quality car, from back in the day when guys spent hours just to fit one part.....

 

I believe that. But it's still Markley's roadster. And still DeSoto powered and fast.I watched some of the building of this car at Harry Hoffman's shop in Belmont. That would have been around 1980.

 

Great stuff Hemi32, this is why I love this place. Every so often one of these gems pops up. Were these from the REVS Institute? I know there is a bunch of the Hewitt stuff on there.

 

Since @RichFox mentioned the #360 Markley-Hoffman Fuel Roadster, I thought I might as well share some of my photos of the multiple record setting Bonneville Roadster ...

Bones & Charlie showed the car at the 1980 Grand National Roadster Show ... in the Oakland Coliseum "basement":

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On the salt at the 36th Bonneville National Speed Trials (held September 16-22 1984):

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In the pits at the 37th Bonneville Nats (held August 18-24 1985):

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At the 40th Bonneville Nationals (held August 14-20 1988):

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At the 41st Bonneville Speed Week (held August 20-26 1989):

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A couple of (poor quality) scans of my father's B&W prints:

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What an absolutely perfect roadster. Thanks you for the photos.

 

Thanks for the ride down Memory Lane @HEMI32

 

@Jeff Norwell - You gotta love that Baby HEMI (Dodge / DeSoto) eye candy!