Hot Rods Harper Dry Lake ~ A pre war video

There are much worse ways to spend the next 5 minutes of your life! HRP

 

Spectacular, Hot Rods and Customs and even a Bugatti

 

Awesome! I escaped the daily grind and went back in time for 5 minutes. Thanks, I needed that.

 

Neat-O! Not questioning the validity at all, but is that a drop tank car in there? Someone had connections to get that at that time. Or could have been total home built, just making assumptions. Someone had a bad day in that likely new '40 ford too..Ouch! Looking at how close things were to the cars running for time, I guess if safety was on the list somewhere then it's all good. Can you imagine being that close to the track/lane in this day and age... Looks like everyone was having a great time to boot.

 

Traced that one and found out it is now in Europe Vintage Racing. Bob

 

Kinda what I was thinking.
2 Carson padded tops, a belly tanker and a '40?
I'd be willing to bet that was right after the war, '46-'48.
I doubt you'd see any brand new vehicles there with production just ramping up.
Splitting hairs, I know, but isn't that what we do here?
Awesome video, non the less!

 

Are you thinking the Bob Rufi car was a drop tank? As far as I know that was scratch built. Photos from Veda Orr's Lakes History these are Post WWII photos. Bob

 

Thank you.

 

Tough crowd,pre or post war really shouldn't be the point here,the fact that the video even exist and we can get a glimpse of vintage racing is what's important. HRP

 

What I like is all he safety nets in play.......
The cars racing on the track are just a few feet from a bunch of people should it go out of control!

 

Harper is still there. Runs east/west on the west side of Edwards AFB. The west side entrance road is beside it on the north. Google it. It is not inside the gates like when the SCTA ran in the late 90's. Folks say it would have remained a great place to still run if they G'vt. had not used it as a bombing practice range in WW ll. I went and looked at it in 96, but did not drive on it since it's still under the control of Edwards...

 

Nope Pre-war, and as Bob said above the car in the vid is Bob Rufi's streamliner, fastest car prewar. Car was hand formed, the cross section is shaped like a tuna where the belly tanks are round.

 

No, I was expressing my ignorance in my comments. I did say "Or could have been total home built" and my statement is actually a question. I wasn't questioning validity or date really at all. I figured it was true pre-war as nothing newer than '40 was shown. Due to my ignorance I did learn something. Thanks for presenting info on that car.

 

Thanks Danny, great stuff. Good look at the Tommy Lee roadster.

 

That's the best five minutes I've spent all month. .
Thanks Danny. Unbelievable film.
Who made that music?

 

The 40' Ford with the filled quarter windows I believe is Earl Bruce's car..He bought it brand new and had the custom work done right away, big flat motor too.. Don't dig the tail lights though...

 

This isn't being posted in any way negative..........this video has been posted before, and just about every car has been ID'd, a HAMB search should turn up the thread that has the list. Quite a few of the cars are restored and with us today. Bob

 

Hi HRP.Thanks for posting.Great stuff.
Good luck.have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

The music is fine in itself, but wrong for the film.
I'm willing to bet no one there on the lakes in that footage in So Cal was listening to music like that.

It's a common enough historical error.

 

That's what I love about this Forum. It's such a wealth of information.
Every time I log on, I learn something!
I'll admit, I'm not as learned about significant pre-war cars as I should be, and I didn't know there was a pre-war streamliner.
I also had to Wikipedia Carson tops, and found out they came about in '35, not post-war like I had originally thought.
Thanks for the correction!

 

I get chills watching this clip, no matter how many times I've seen it

 

Great video, especially since no tats, tikis or crap rods......just real cars and guys running them..........thanks, andyd

 

Me too, always think about those guys going off to win WWII a few years later. Bob

 

And the sad reality that some did not make it back. HRP

 

Great find, and yes! Best 5 minutes I've spent in the last 2 weeks...
barely topping the re-installation of the Toyo 4 X 4 P/S box in my F100...elongating 2 frame holes, doing an 'overhead lift' on a creeper that kept rolling away...LOL, satire...

 

Great to see it again. Probably a lot of newer members have never seen it at all. Thanks for posting it.

 

Doesn't get much better than that.
Those were the days.
Thank goodness someone had a camera.

 

Many of us didn't see it before - thank you, HRP !
This is why we're here ...

 

Indeed!

 

Ry Cooder, Cherry Ball Blues.


Or a later version with vocals by Sonny Landreth.