History Vintage Bonneville car pictures

And, indeed it is Toby. Thanks for the effort.

 

is that a 200mph club hat? i thought they were red in color? or is that something that was changed over the years?

 

PS. i dont know where you're getting all of these photos, but damn, keep em coming!!!


and thanks!!!

 

It pays to collect old magazines. Between this thread and a couple fruit crates full of old magazines I am in salt nirvana this weekend reading and looking.

 

I love this thread and this shot!! Is this the "famous" Von Dutch grill you see in all his books? And the car, it looks like his early flames (if you want to call them that). Who's car is or was it?

 

The first 200MPH club hats were dark blue. I believe they changed color when Grant was no longer the sponsor of the club, but I don't know what year that was.

 

that is a "real" 200 mph cap; when it really meant something to be in the 200 mph club; before the club board decided they were going to only accept records they recognize.

the only pieces of 200 mph club material i still have are a "grant 200 mph" cap and decal given to me by jack lufkin after i earned membership in 1978... before the politicians took over.

 

You received your hat from one of the best. At one time Jack held more records over 200 MPH than anyone else. He so dominated the modified sports classes that they finally changed the class and retired his records. Jerry Spotts would have been in the 3 club had Jack's Kurtis not decided to take flight at 300, like Frank told him it would.

 

that happened right in front of me.

we were towing our ranchero back to the pits after a run and heard on the cb that car #646 was on the starting line, so we stopped to wait.

spottsie got the 'chute and a panel ripped out of it and lifted the car up and turned it over. i jumped out of the truck, pulled the tow strap off of the ranchero and we headed over to the track. not only was this in the days of being able to do that, but the ol' man was president that year.

we got there the same time jack and some of the down-course crew got there. we flipped the car over and jerry popped out like a jack-in-the-box.

i don't remember what speed he clocked in the previous mile, but it was pretty close to 300.

i'm sure the car could have been rebuilt as it was a pretty gentle go-over.

guess we'll never know now.

 

Here's my favorite shot of Lufkins car before it's demise.

Greg, I alway's find it interesting how you bemoan what the 2 club has become involving politics yet your dad Elmo was a cog in the wheel too. Hell, if the 2 club stayed the way it originally was it would make guys like Costella real happy, run over two get a hat, end of story.
If it wasn't for all the new classes the need for minimums would not have come about. Yes I know your brother was blindsided on the deal.
Enough of that, great pictures here.

Post more!

 

The pictures and individual thoughts and backstory are interesting to those of us that were not there. It helps flesh out the details and add a human side to things.

 

I would not be surprised if that 35 Three Window did run - maybe not a world contender for the LSR - but a run to see just how fast he could run - so did he get that car on the salt??

 

I talked to Jack after he got home from Bonneville a week later, and he was still shook up over the accident. He cut up the car bcause he didn't want to hurt or kill someone in his car. Too bad, because that was the very last race car out of the Kurtis shop, and it sould have been placed in a museum for that reason alone.

 

If it was still the old way I would have a hat. In truth I hate wearing a hat. Would have liked the T shirt though. RF

 

So sad, it was a sexy car that defined an era, was just looking at fab pictures in another old HRM..........hey its 95 degrees and I had to listen to the football game in the shop!

 

the ol' man had nothing to do with the 2-club and the 2-club was never anything that resembled "run over 200 and you're in the club; if it were the same today as it was, it would not be anything like what costella wants. it was: set a record at over 200 mph and you gain entry. period.

my brother wan't blind sided; he was robbed, plain and simple. nobody from the 200 mph club said anything about minimums until the redhead was in impound. that is when the lattin & gillette team were notified that the club had established their own minimums.

you don't change the rules after the event as begun!

that shows a complete lack of integrity on the part of the 200 mph club's board of directors.

when i got in the club there were barely 2 1/2 pages of pics. how many are there now? and the club is worried about over-saturation?

 

As far as I know what Jack want's is, Set a record over 200. Your in. And no dues Ever. For anything. No 300 or 400 chapter.

 

he was sending me a multitude of emails a couple of years ago and he just sounded like a kook to me: "if you feel you went fast enough you should be in." but, maybe he's changed his song.

there needs to be rules, but the rules should never have been changed from the original rules.

 

Regarding the photo showing the dark blue 200 MPG club hat, someone asked about the date that photo was shot. I can't find that post now, but to answer that question, the photo (according to the caption that came with it) is dated 1962.

 

Here are some more photos I've run across that I think are interesting .....











A cool shot of the Peek Brothers roadster. I remembered seeing this car on a 1969 issue of Hot Rod .............



Here it is on the cover of Hot Rod .....

 

When I was a kid I used to eagerly look forward to the Nov. issue of HRM. And devour the Bonneville piece. Now its nothing more than a paragraph or two.

Loving the photos. Thanks for posting.

landspeedracingvideos.com has a two DVD set titled "The Good Old Days". Its a collection of Bob Higbee"s 8mm home movies from the 50s, 60s and some 70s. Bonneville, El Mirage and drag racing from Paradise Mesa and Riverside. Plus other venues. Best DVDs I ever bought!

 

Two other pretty good roadsters in the back ground. The Sadd, Teague & Bently flying brick, and Jerry Kugel's Ford SOHC powered T modified.

 

The photos of Goldenrod inside the Wendover hangar came from Alex Tremulis. There's a few more to come with Bob Summers looking over the Gyronaut outside the hangar. We took a trip over the summer to check out the inside of the hangar and recreate some of these angles:

Then:


...and now:


These pics are being donated to the future speed museum at Wendover. Go there, check out the hangars, make a donation, make a difference...

Here's another from 1965. The world's fastest man, Craig Breedlove, with the soon-to-be world's fastest man on two wheels, Bob Leppan, along with the world's fastest automobile/motorcycle stylist, Alex Tremulis. It would have been great just to hang out with this group...

 

gyronaut, do you have any more of those before and after pictures????

I love to see before and after comparison photos side by side of historic landmarks.

 

One of Dean's favorite makes of automobile .............

 

Here you go, Dean .......

 

Love these kind of shots!