Mystery of Stu Hilborn streamliner continues...

Hope I didn't confuse this. I only know of the one wreck. I can't say I've seen any photos from the 50's. I was really asking for some detail regarding its disposition after 1949.

 

Is this the car that was drag racing in the "1953" video that was posted here recently?

 

interesting as this is and I for one would love to see the car out in public again. it may be the case of the laborer's broom, you know the one he's had and used for 40 years, 8 handles and 6 heads but stil the same broom. A guy in the UK sold his historic "Number one" Bentley the buyer then disputed the authenticity and it transpired only part of the frame and possably one axle was actually from the original car........does this make it the real deal. Well the UK courts said yes it did
As far as the streamliner goes the guy who owns it don't want to show it or do anything to it...it's his car theres nowt we can do about it. eventualy it will come to light (think about the Schlumph Collection fucking hundereds of Bugatti's and rare cars hidden in a private museum for years, it caused the Schlumph Brothers to go bankrupt) That's if it actually exists as no one else seems to have seen it.
PS I hope it does exist and it's not just the original gas cap with a car built around it!!

 

It would be nice if a third party could actually verify the car. No one needs to know who the owner is, just verify that the car or the remains of it are actually still around.
This whole cat and mouse game seems like someone having a little "mind intercourse" with all of us that care about the car and the history.

 

And on legal ownership...this thing was never a street car. In its day it was an assemblage of junkyard bits and hand-fabricated wizardry, and I think it is very highly unlikely it ever had any sort of registration or title at all. It was an implement with no legal provenance at all...owning it now would be about like having Stu Hilborn's own ratchet wrench, not like owning a car at all.
The fact that it indubitably HAS a past would likely be something of a puzzler if you had to register it now for legal and insurance purposes...
Does a modern fuel dragster have a title?? I would doubt it.

 

Fuckin' A Bubba!

That car stopped being 'private property' when it hit 150. It's a piece of history. It's cool that someone may have saved it from the crusher and took care of it all these years, but it sounds like the current caretaker doesn't have the resources to bring it back to the public.

There are other caretakers stepping up. It's time to give it back to the world if you can't.

 

This intake on this car? This "T" has some rare wheels on it also. I think that he is from the mid-west.







I heard that someone found the original tooling to make those wheel covers.......

 

What is the significance of the car hitting 150 when it did? The Land Speed Record at the time was WAY faster wasn't it?

 

LSR went past 150 about 1924, from very cursory research. This was the first HOTROD past 150, significance being that it was the creation of a non-rich individual from common stuff. Real LSR was by this time the province of rich people or people with lots of backing, often national backing, and access to stuff like military aircraft engine tech way beyond the unconnected.
It was a sort of announcement that fairly ordinary people were becoming a force in the world of speed, the beginning of the lakes and Bonneville world becoming significant and starting the route leading to international/FIA recognition later.
And--compare either the displacement or the cost of this contraption with over 150 MPH LSR cars to see more significance to the moment.
edit:
(Campbell car that took LSR over 150 had 18 litre aircraft engine; Hilborn used around 4 litre engine from a car that had cost $500 new...)

 

He'll die eventually, so until then why bother if he doesn't want it to be known? The sad part is that the people who can identify the car are also dying off.

I agree whole heartedly about merely being caretakers, not owners.

 

I hope it`s safe, and still out there. whats wrong with a few anonymous pictures ?

 

In '81 there were these 2 brothers that lived up the road from me. In their field was a '56 Chev tudor post. Complete. Straight. With a TREE growing up through the engine compartment. They used to love it when guys would drive by and try to get them to sell it. They said they were never going to fix it up, it was theirs and fuck you. We all watched it rot off the frame into junk. They thought it was funny.

Right now, there's a !@#$ing '55 post sitting behind my metal shop here in town. The guys that own it have a business across from me. Original PAINT. Complete body and frame and all original. They won't sell it and won't work on it. I've watched it rot for over 3 years...My point is, I think these guys are a separate species of human. They get all the glory they need from this desirable junk sitting near them. I have friends that have tons of bitchin' un-finished bikes and cars they never work on. Sometimes they trade "mocked up" projects back and forth...I think they just like it this way.

One of these days, (if this car actually exists) the guy will just up and off the thing. Or he'll die and some dickhead might get it. Welcome to old vehicle world! Too funny.

 

Bass just nailed the whole deal on this post.

 

Technically, I think he nailed it about 2 years ago.