The photo above is one of my favorite shots of Harold, notice the claw hammer he has ready for use? Below is a write up that I stole from: https://www.hotrodhotline.com/land-speed-record-holder-harold-johansen-jr-still-active-his-80’s About Harold Johansen Jr. Harold Johansen Jr began racing on the dry lakes of Southern California in 1946 and at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1950 (one year after its inception). Considered to have the longest-running career as a vintage land speed driver, he raced through 2008 and into his early 80’s. Harold is still active in the sport today as a car owner and builder and holds eight world records as well as 60 other records. He was inducted in the “El Mirage Hall of Fame” for his dry lake racing achievements and dedication to designing, building, and racing vintage cars. He entered the “Bonneville 200 MPH Club” in 1974 in a C/Gas Roadster. He later set records in gas and fuel modified roadsters in both C, D and Lakester classes. Harold’s other race cars: * 70s Lakester (V4 Gas and Fuel) – Held the record speed of 175 mph, for two years. * 1929 Ford Roadster (V4 Fuel Blown Gas) – Presently holds six records and held a record for D class Roadster for over 20 years at 194 mph. * 1927 Ford Roadster (V4 Fuel) – Held more than seven records.
uuhhhh, that appears to be a ball pein he has in his claw..... Putting all seriousness aside, well deserved recognition and nice write up for an accomplished man....R.I.P., Sir Ray
He was the very definition of a legend. I'm thankful for the brief time we had with him on the salt and the stories he was always more than willing to share with us. I don't think there was or is another land speed racer with as much history or miles under his belt as Harold. From what I remember, he told me that he had only missed one Bonneville Speed Week, having not attended the first year in 1949. Rest in peace, Harold.
Harold was a great guy. Hung out with Marty and him a lot when I still lived in LA. The wall of timing tags and his collection of cars was amazing. How many guys in their 90,s still had their first car He will be missed
Sad news. I met Harold when he purchased that green modified from me. Got to see him once in a while at events and get togethers. RIP Harold...
I met Harold in 1975,,, a cantankerous old wonderful guy. I never missed going up to see and talk with him when I was at El Mirage in these last few years.... I will miss my friend..JD
Can somebody clue me into the engine in the 32 car please. Appears to be a very close angled SOHC V8 of some sort. Edit...or maybe a Frontenac stagger valve 4 cyl. Banger? 2nd Edit...I've convinced myself he's injected a Fronty
28Dreyer; Homebuilt version of a Fronty Stagger Valve? Anyone have any more info on this mill? TIA. Rather unfortunately, I won't ever meet any of these guys in this life. At least I was able to read about them, & admire them n their work. So;... probably a rather stupid Q: Since a lot of the old guys have/are passing, how much info is lost? Or maybe I should ask, how much(tech stuff/how-to-do-it-info/patterns/etc) has/is being saved, for those who wern't there, but still have the interest? I get that when they were in business, such stuff was "business-trade-secret(s)", but since most of this was obsolete(d) a long time ago, what now? Or has most of it been discarded, sold to collectors so it'll never see the light of day, or end up where it cannot be accessed - like SpeedyBills' museum. BTW; viewing from 20' is not accessing info. Just because I don't have deep pockets(in this life), doesn't mean I've no interest in how it works, the tech, even for building a model of it. Marcus...
Condolences to the the Johansen family and friends on the passing of Harold. This fella achieved so many realities we only dream of. Fast guy...in quieter times now. Thanks for the notice of Harolds passing and sharing info on this accomplished man @typo41 Regards, Stogy
I too am sad to hear of Harold Johansens passing.......and I too would be interested in having more info about # 32's engine..........I also thought it may have been a Frontenac Stagger Valve, or something similar............andyd
Obit in Hemmings this morning https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/...ctive-dry-lakes-racers-dies-at-94/?refer=news
I Asked the question to Rich Fox and he may have the answer. Copying and pasting his replies … The engine I remember most was his own home made 4 valve pushrod Ford B. He fought it out with that motor for several years. I really don't know what it looked like with rocker covers on it. But that would be my best guess. Rich Rich Fox OK. I looked at the picture. It looks like he either converted the head to DOHC or cast another. Harold could be crotchety when he felt like it. RF
That is a stagger-valve, made from something that I can't remember. Seems it was a foreign engine of some kind. He did build his own 16-valve rocker-arm engine but had a lot of trouble with the valve train. Harold was quite an innovator but seemed to need a good partner to help with the details. He was a great guy!!!
I met a couple of older guys at the Portland Swap Meet in the late 70's, they came to my shop to look at a 34 pickup I had for sale. I got a quick education on the correct parts that were missing, one of the guys was Harold. At that time I wasn't following land speed racing, and didn't know of his accomplishments. We had a great visit, he was a gentleman. RIP Harold.
Here's a HOT ROD DELUXE article about Mr. Johansen: Seven Decades Of Speed Written by Drew Hardin on October 31, 2014 Tim (@notrod13) Sutton - photographer Land-speed racers aren’t the only vehicles of interest you’ll find parked in the several buildings on Harold Johansen's acreage in the desert. On October 18, 1946, Harold Johansen drove from his Southern California suburban home in Sherman Oaks to the high desert to compete in his first dry lakes meet. Nearly seven decades later, Harold remains a fixture on the lakes and at Bonneville. He’s known as a master of making power from just four cylinders, though he has held more than 60 records in both four-cylinder and V-8 classes. One, in D Gas Roadster, stood for more than 20 years. He is a member of the Bonneville 200 MPH Club, an inductee in the El Mirage Hall of Fame, and at age 87 is the oldest active participant in land-speed racing. No one has been doing it longer. A one-two punch of macular degeneration and glaucoma has robbed him of most of his eyesight over the past few years, so these days others are driving his race cars. But his desire to set records still burns, as does his passion for wringing power and speed out of his lakesters. As of this writing, he’s planning to take two roadsters to Bonneville this summer. He dreams of having the first four-cylinder roadster to go 200 mph. The closest he’s gotten, with an OHV banger in his ’32 modified roadster, was 164. Land-speed racers aren’t the only vehicles of interest you’ll find parked in the several buildings on Harold’s acreage in the desert. Over the years, he has gathered a remarkable collection of cars, about 27 of them, mostly Fords, none newer than 1934. His favorite is his high school car, a Model A roadster. While walking home from school one day, he spotted the hop-up in a police impound yard. Fenderless, it commanded a closer look, which is when he spotted the Riley two-port conversion. He figured the cops would chase him away, but he had to ask: Was it for sale? How much? As it happened, the police would hold cars in impound for 29 days, and on the 30th day, if no one claimed the car, it was available for sale. Harold showed up on day 30 and could have the hot roadster for just the impound fees: $37.50. He laughs, still, after all those years. “The motor was worth more than that.” He ran home, talked his father into loaning him the money, bought the car, and drove it home—too young to have a license at this point, by the way. Harold was a Valley kid—his grandfather used to own the Porter Ranch and farmed 640 acres of wheat there—and he street raced down Kester (near where Van Nuys High School is located now), on Balboa, and along Sepulveda by the dam, “the main race place,” he remembers. “We would race there four or five times a week.” He didn’t tell us about any run-ins with the law over his racing, but he did collect several tickets for driving the A without fenders. “I’d get a ticket, and then borrow some fenders to stay out of trouble for a while. But then I’d take them off and get a ticket again.” Today’s version of the A runs fenders from a ’29 roadster pickup. He drove the Model A at the lakes just once. Turned a respectable 101 mph, but he realized that if something happened to this, his only car, he’d be on foot or hitchhiking. So Harold decided to build the first of what would become many dedicated lakes race cars. This one was a Model T, with a cut-down ’32 grille, powered by a Riley OHV flathead. “They only made four or five Riley OHV conversions,” Harold tells us. “They had two valves per cylinder and smaller valve covers than the Ardun.” The Riley was fast, but not record-setting fast, and so Harold traded the motor for a Merc flathead. Harold does not have that T anymore, but he has built a replica, this one housing a Super Winfield flathead four-banger. Then (as now), you had to be a member of a club to run an SCTA event. Harold was one of the original members of the Outriders club in 1946 and still has an Outriders plaque from those early years. “There was a guy in the club who ran a Riley V-8 and I wanted to learn more about them,” he says of his choice. After the Outriders disbanded in 1949, he formed his own club of lakes racers, the Roadmasters, borrowing Buick’s logo for their own. When that club disbanded in the mid-’60s, Harold joined the famous Sidewinders, and then started a club for four-banger racers, the Super 4s, in the mid-’70s. “I was president for 14 years but dropped out and went back to the Sidewinders when they started letting V-8s into the Super 4s,” he says. His most recent project is also a T roadster, a car he put together “using spare parts I’ve been saving for years.” As you might imagine, there are very few reproduction parts on Harold’s cars. Almost everything is original or N.O.S. True to Harold’s banger roots, this T has a Model B engine with an Acme racing head, “a copy of a Winfield head,” he explains. This one’s not a race car, though. It’s a cruiser, having made the scene at Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake, with Harold’s friend Rey Solis doing the driving. Rey is often at Harold’s compound, younger eyes helping Harold move projects along. There’s always something to do. “I work every day,” Harold says, whether it’s on the land-speed racers or among the cars in the collection. “People ask me, ‘Why do you need all these cars?’ I tell them it’s like having too much money,” Harold laughs. “I will enjoy them and keep them until I die.” He pauses, and then, “Racing is keeping me alive, I think.” A firefighter for 32 years, Harold talks about friends who retired from the department with little to do and died soon after. “You need interests to survive.” He’s frustrated by his eyesight—“I set records when I could build and drive; since I can’t drive, there have been no records”—but he will keep trying, shooting for that elusive 200-mph mark in a banger roadster. Here's the photos from the article: Bookends of Harold’s collection: in the foreground is the Model A he bought in high school. behind it is his latest project, a Model T he assembled using parts that he’d been collecting over the years. The Riley Two Port in his high school car sounds purposeful when fired up. “I always liked the sound of these,” Harold says of the Banger motors. “That’s mostly why I ran them.” This is how Harold’s Model A looked when he bought it in the mid ’40s—unpainted, fenderless, but with a Riley Two Port conversion on the Banger mill. Harold was among the original members of the Outriders Car Club, several of whom appear in this photo from '52 or '53. Harold and his A are second from right. Harold put several different engines in the A, seen here in about 1952, including an ARDUN. See the fireman’s helmet badge between the taillight and license plate? Harold was a career Firefighter in the Hollywood area. Harold’s latest T project, a car he put together using parts from his vast collection. The Model B engine in the T is fitted with an ACME Racing head, a Burns intake mounting a lone Stromberg 97, and an exhaust of Harold’s making. A virtual twin to #32, the number 3032 Lakes Roadster has a blown Banger with custom fabricated intake plenums and ducting. Harold brings a lot of experience to bear on these engines, and he’s always testing new setups. Wait, how did that Chevy get in there? Before the Model A, Harold bought a ’25 Chevy—well, a chassis, no body —from a neighbor. “I learned to be a mechanic with that car, built my own body. My dad had 20 acres and I learned to drive on the property.” When he saw this ’27 Chevy two door for sale six years ago he bought it, figuring it would be “something different.” Car is absolutely stock and very well preserved. The ’28 Coupe is running a Four Banger with a Winfield head, while the ’33 Pickup is fitted with Cragar Speed Equipment. See the big Stake Bed next to it? Harold’s father bought that ‘34 Commercial Truck new to use on his farm. It was bright red back then. When His father sold the farm, the truck stayed behind, but made its way over the years to a collector in Buellton. That’s where Harold found it, in a wrecking yard, its engine frozen. “I knew it was dad’s truck, not too many red ‘34 trucks around.” He bought the truck, painted it blue, and transplanted a SBC in place of the frozen Flattie. He used the truck to tow to Bonneville back in the ‘70s, but he found that the weight of the trailer, plus the spare engines in the bed, were just too much for the truck’s brakes. The Model A would undergo several engine swaps over the years, from banger to Flathead (seen here in the early ’50s), to small block Chevy. But about 10 years ago, He put the original Riley motor back in it. Harold’s first dedicated Lakes Race Car was this T Roadster. Power originally came from a Riley OHV V 8, though Harold would swap it for a Merc Flathead when he realized it wasn’t competitive. Recognize the Niekamp Roadster in the upper right? The Model T’s Riley V 8. Harold says just four or five of these Overhead Valve Conversions were done, making these rare pieces. Harold’s signature number 32 Lakes Roadster in his shop. He built the car from scratch in 1965 and has set a number of records with it, running various engines. It was in this car that he entered the 200 MPH Club at Bonneville, turning 217 using small block Chevy power. The last time he took #32 to Bonneville, Harold used Holley carbs to feed the vintage four cylinder. Now he’s experimenting with fuel injection. Open the door to any of Harold’s garages and this is what greets you: well perserved Ts, As, ’32s, and Model 40s, some bone stock, others mildly hopped up. It’s a Ford guy’s dream. Harold Johansen, 87 years young, at home in his shop.
@28dreyer, from what I remember it was a dual overhead cam head on a Ford Model B block. You'll notice in this photo that there is intake and exhaust ports on both sides of the head. Its been a few years, but I believe I remember Harold telling us he built the head himself. He was pretty well known for being an innovator a experimenter. It sounded gnarly! The class he was competing in that year was V4 (as you see on the side of the Model T) - which is pre 1935 motors based on a 4-cylinder flathead block, in which specialty heads are allowed.
Here's great hour long interview with Harold via the American Hot Rod Foundation(AHRF) podcast that's worth a listen. https://ahrf.com/blogs/the-rodcast/posts/harold-johansen-ep-11 https://soundcloud.com/user-213833783/harold-johansen-rodcast-final
This A roadster now resides in Brisbane Queensland Australia. And this Winfield headed B Diamond engine now resides in my garage. Shown here are two of the 4 ex-Harold Johansen cars in Australia. There are 2 32's out here - a coupe and a panel delivery.
Not mentioned but Harold was a Fireman and I believe a Captain when he retired. He kept his hand and mind in it after retirement by being the needed fire rep on sets for the movie studios. I know he was doing this up in his 70’s. He also rented out vehicles he owned to the studios when they needed them for old movies. Harold lived a remarkable full life also bringing along some unhappy “friends” he made along the way..
What a Man.I met him at Sema in the parking lot many years ago.We spent over an hour talking about everything.I walked away thinking"There is a very Special man.." Little did I know..
The Jalopy Journal
