History Vintage Bonneville car pictures

i have another thought on the person kneeling next to jack's engine: he's a tech with champion and that is a champion dyno. notice the champion logo on his shirt and the overly-large champion sticker on the dyno.

in the days when this pic was taken, there were very few cars outside of indy that sported a turbocharger, let alone two of them on a big block chevy, and this cat just wanted to get a picture of him with it.

in later years, jack lowered that plenum quite a bit and added an intercooler that, in its day was state-of-the-art, but would be sneered at today.

this looks like a modified hilborn; i think what he used later was self-constructed.

 

my whole life has been about experiencing as many things as i can/could.

land speed racing was just a small portion of those experiences.

that's not to say that i didn't enjoy it. on the contrary, it is one of the many high points of my life.

i would, however, enjoy it even more if i could share that with my brother, who did set (and still holds) a record in excess of 200 mph and did so when the rules did not state differently!

when one has no integrity, one is no better then a politician and the same is true for organizations.

 

That is one of Lufkin's engines for sure. The link to the Red Head is is that Jack used Bob McGrath's custom built overdrive unit from the Red Head with his bigger displacement engines. The genius behind Jack's turbos was Big Bill Edwards.

 

Now that I think about it, my 42 years have so far been similar. Including even some radio DJ time

 

i was hoping you might chime-in on this, dean.

so, is that, indeed, bob?

 

It's gotta be...

 

sho' 'nuff!

 

Yes, that is Bob, and the engine is on Isky's dyno. Jack and Isky were, and still are good friends. All of Jack's engines were run on that dyno prior to going to Bonneville. One reason why Jack was so successfull.

 

Would like to know more about this 5-window, blower is mounted top-to-bottom, Kent Endrele ran one like this on his blown Dodge powered roadster, guess someone else did also, maybe "Lee's Speed Shop" is the one in Santa Monica, but there were others...anybody know more about this car?

 

Here are a few that I have scanned from Fred Angelo an original Bean Bandit. Early fifties.

 

the most recent picture i've seen of jack is with ed that was taken at some reunion show or race.

jack is why we always ran isky cams in the small blocks and had the name painted on the car.

he certainly was one sharp cookie when it came to turbos. i'll never forget it when he finally got that ranchero of his finally running close to what it was capable of; i think it scared the hell out of him! that must have been around '74ish. i was with jerry spotts at around the 2 mile when he came by us and the thing sounded ungodly and really looked fast!

i don't know what kind of horsepower it put out, but every year he'd put more balls to the engine, but could never lay down a run.

 

And the Lufkin-Iskendarian relationahip began when my dad introduced Jack to Isky in 1962. It worked out well for both men. Jack got parts and dyno time from Isky, and Isky got to use all Jack's records in his advertising.

Bill was pulling over 1200 hp from his 302" SBC in it's final form. He wanted to run 200 in his Falcon Ranchero, and certainly had the potential to run well above that. problem was Bill always ran at 100%, and the little Chevy just couldn't take it for 5 miles. Jack pleaded wih Bill to dial it back a little so he could run his 200 and get a record in the books. Bill was adamant that he didn't build all that power in the motor to be chicken shit and baby it. If you knew Big Bill, that's how he lived his life. Go big, or go home. The 4-71 set up I ran on my old RPU was supposed to go on the chevy in Bill's Falcon. Before the car was finished, Bill hooked up with the people at Air Research, and fell in love with turbos. I bought the blower and drive that Bill had machined while he still worked at Bell Auto Parts. The hand machined drive pieces were pure jewelery.

 

mayor bill certainly was an interesting guy!

he'd take the ranchero to bonneville, break it, bring it home and put more horsepower to it the next year... and the next.

 

Thank you, guys, for figuring out the puzzle piece. These photos only make sense and come alive with your stories to go with them. It seems in all these vintage pics, there are the legends in the backgrounds of each of them, but 50 years from now, today will be the good ol' days, with today's unknowns becoming tomorrow's legends in their own right.

Here's another observation on Tremulis' photos of Bob Herda's streamliner: Not only are Burt Munro and Noel Black seen admiring the car, but that's Bill Summers in the 1963 pic wearing the same pants and hat as in Eric Rickman's 1963 photo of Bob Greene, Alex Tremulis, and Bob and Bill Summers' Polliwog...

 

i wonder why spottsie's hat is so high on his head?

 

How 'bout some Hot Rod magazine covers from the 1950s that have an obvious Bonneville connection?

 

I had a glance at the Nov. issue of HRM. Not a mention of Bonneville. Very sad.

 

^^^ That's pretty amazing (and sad) since Hot Rod owes most of it's existence to Bonneville and El Mirage land speed racing. Obviously, they haven't been catering to hot rodders in a long while. I haven't bought or even looked at a Hot Rod magazine in years.

 

Hot Rod covers from 1960s ........












That's it! Quite a change from the 1950s. The covers from 1960 deal more with drag racing and general street rodding.

It's interesting now to see the shifting emphasis and trends in hot rodding over the first decade or so as indicated by the subject matter on the covers.

 

i think they now cover the nationals in december or january issues.

well, not sure if a page or two of the cruisers and a couple of pics of race cars constitutes coverage.

 

I have had a continuous subscription to Hot Rod since 1958. When it runs out this time, I won't be renewing. They should change the name to Muscle Car Monthly. Now, Hot Rod Deluxe is a different story. One of the best magazines out there now.

 

I agree Dean. My HRM sub will not be renewed. Getting a sub to one of the hunting and fishing magazines so my young son can get a proper upbringing, guns, cars and fishing!

 

Some of the best cover shots on Hot Rod magazine in 1948 and 49 ..........

 

Thank you Dean for starting this thread way back when (08-16-2008)! And thanks to all who have shared this very important info. Thanks to Toby Denham for adding these covers. This should be required reading. Slim

 

Agreeeeeeed Slim! This thread just keeps getting better. It's great to see Bonneville get it's earned respect, being the origin of HotRodding!!!

 

This is a great thread.
I have an old poster of Ermie Immererso's Stremliner. It is too big to copy so I took a picture of it, I hope it shows OK. I believe he ran it in the mid to late 70's

Hooley

 

That car was running back at least in '63.