The Wright and Berg roadster went to Bonneville in 1950. Here is Bob proving that they made it to Bonneville. Bob's album had a bunch of 1950 Bonneville time trial photos. They included some of the Pasadena area hot rodders who were competing there.
This photo is of the Dahm Bros.' 1927 T roadster at the 1950 Bonneville meet. Jimmy and Tommy Dahm (Pasadena Pacers club) set the class B Modified Roadster record there and later Hot Rod magazine toured the roadster as part of the promotion of what would become the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association). I had met them when I joined with the guys keeping our racecars at a garage in Pasadena that we called "The Fair Oaks Speed Shop". It was not a speed shop, it was just where we kept our cars and worked on them; but it was on Fair Oaks Ave. in Pasadena. I did use this photo before but please forgive me as I liked the roadster.
Another Pasadena hot rodder at the 1950 Bonneville meet was George DuNah. George was in the Glendale Sidewinders. I knew George when we shared our learning efforts about hot rods when we were at Eliot Jr. High School together. George's 1929 roadster was unique in that it had a flathead Cadillac V-8 engine which moved it up into the D Roadster class. The roadster set the record at 143.31 mph and later would go over 150 mph at an SCTA meet on El Mirage. Harold Nicholson (Don's brother) was helping George run the roadster.
Another Pasadena area hot rodder (he lived in Arcadia) was Don Waite (Glendale Sidewinders and also the Coupes club in the RTA). Don's terrifically neat rear engine '27 T roadster had caused a total rethinking of the modified roadster class. In 1949 he had rewritten the record books in both the SCTA and the RTA. Don was an engineer for Western Gear who I would run into at Blair's Speed Shop on occasion. My impression was that his racecars were always very well done. He had some Edlebrock help in the early days and would help them after he retired. Again, this is photo from Bob Wright. ot
You're not alone, it was often mistaken for a T even when it was running at the lakes. HRM called it a T and Gus Maanum drawing on the May '49 SCTA program depicts the roadster as a '27 T. Using the way back machine, MARCH 1949 HOT ROD, SPURGIN-GIOVANINE '25 CHEV ROADSTER.
I was a regular customer at Berg Hardware during the '60s and '70s for nuts, bolts and screws of all descriptions. As my dad once said; "if you can't get it at Berg Hardware, you can't get it!" It should have been declared a California Historic site. Great memories.
I am not sure where this car was located. I have a stack of pictures and they have the name of Bill Bonner on the envelope. He has a REVS car club plaque on his car. I find the background interesting. Looks like an old wild west town to me. Did he store his car in there? Did he work on his car in one of the garage stalls? Were the 32 chassis and the stock model a roadster body the same one he used to build his car? Would be great to know more about Bill Bonner. One thing for sure is he had a cool hot rod and he probably built it.
Don (@Rockerhead) Montgomery - Fantastic pics! Thanks to @Pete Eastwood & others for loaning the photo albums to you ... and to you for sharing these historic photographs with the H.A.M.B. community! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
John Ryan was another Gopher club member who loaned me pictures from the old days. John worked for and with Earl Evans before starting in the engine building business with fellow Gopher member Nelson Taylor- Taylor & Ryan Engines. They were successful building engines, including many for drag racing and lakes (land speed) racing. The interesting thing I found was that John had a lot of the same photos that Dan O'Regan and Don Blair had. I believe that many of these were pictures that Dan had taken and then given copies to fellow club members. Here is a shot of John Ryan's '32 roadster in front of Earl Evans' shop. This is similar to the cover photo on my book "Hot Rods In The Forties". I know I did use it before but I wanted to show a picture of John's roadster which I consider an excellent example of the traditional hot rod style. It is my way to credit John for his help.
Here is one of John Ryan's pictures that show the roadsters of two other Gophers club members. Roadster no. 139 B was Roland Mays while no. 147C was Nelson Taylor's deuce roadster. These roadsters are shown in the lineup leading up to the starting line. As a side note Roland also loaned me some photos and helped with some history information.
Hey don thank you for posting all these pictures. I wasn't one of the lucky guys to buy your book series so any and all photos you post of the dry lake days are greatly appreciated. Thank you. Keep on keepin on.
More from John Ryan - Here is a nice picture of Jack Mickelson's (Gophers club) neat '32 roadster. Note the car number (1). Jack had run at Russetta meets before Russetta became a club oriented association. Thus, believe that this photo was taken at a Russetta meet since this is not Jack's SCTA number. If you are interested in what the traditional roadster style was in 1947, just look at this photo.
I had some trouble identifying some of the photos. Some had numbers that led to a name, but often I could not verify that I had it right. Here is a photo of a '27 T roadster - no. 339 B. It seems to belong to Tom Nicklin of the Glendale Sidewinders. Tom's best time in 1947 was 114.64 mph. Note the covered frame.
Here is another roadster that I was not sure of the owner. Roadster no. 430 C was listed as run by Al Vaughn of the Throttlers club. Although the roadster was entered in several meets in 1947 it did not get any times recorded in the meet results.
This interesting '27 T roadster, according to the no. 419 C, appeared to be entered by Pat O'Brien of the Throttlers club. Note the interesting header setup and the small, low profile of the car. This style of roadster with the small frontal area caused the rules to be changed for the next year. The guys with "big" deuce roadsters felt that they were at a major disadvantage trying to compete with thewe small T roadsters. This is one of John Ryan's photos.
Here is a 1951 Bonneville photo of the neat modified '34 coupe owned by Doug Hartlett of the Lancers club. Doug had been co-champion for the 1947 SCTA season with his T. This coupe was first raced with a six cylinder GMC that Doug and Chuck Potvin built. However, Doug apparently was not happy with the "jimmy" engine's performances which caused him to replace the GMC engine with a Ford flathead V-8 engine. This photo show the coupe with the flathead engine as evidenced by the 3 exhaust pipes grouped in the lower cowl area. Photo credit: John Ryan
Don, @Rockerhead sorry to hijack this thread, but I am trying to gather some information on this 32 3 window - I know it is not yours, but cannot find anything out about it. Do you (or anyone else) have any knowledge of it, who and when it was run, and any details of the running gear? its a little hard to make out, but I believe the names on the door, are Winfield-Fisher Entry Thanks in advance for any help I can get in this matter.
No problem on hijack - We all want to see info about early hot rods. The '32 3 window coupe (no. 61) you asked about was owned and built by Dick Winfield. He lived in Burbank and was a member of the Glendale Coupe and Roadster Club (GCRC) as I was. The coupe was built to run the Lakes and drags. Dick had a flathead engine for it. However, a fellow GCRC member, Bill Fisher, had built a 6 cylinder GMC engine with more potential than the flathead. The Winfield - Fisher coupe with the "jimmy" engine ran very well, especially at the drags where it blasted "out of the hole" quicker than most of similar coupes. My memory is that the team recorded a 138 mph speed at the Lakes. It won numerous drag racing events. Bill Fisher (aka California Bill) wrote/published some How to Hop Up books and at the time had a speed shop in Eagle Rock. He was involved mostly with GMC engines and owned the Horning 12 Port GMC head business. Later, Bill formed the successful HP Books to produce lots of automotive books. His family has reprinted the old How To Hop Up The GMC Engines and also the Ford flathead how to. The no. 61 was Dick's Russetta (Lakes) competition number. The top photo shown was a photo taken and used in the small Hop Up magazine. Dick was a good driver. When I debuted my '32 coupe I was having trouble getting a good start. Dick got in the car and showed me how to do better. Here is a photo of the coupe racing at Saugus. The 2 stripped coupes are shown about a quarter of the way down the strip.
This is heart pounding stuff!! I have all your books and autographed too. Special thanks for all you have done preserving the stories...
Here is another photo of Dick Winfield's '32 coupe taken at Saugus. The photo was given me by Chuck Hobby. Chuck was also a member of the GCRC club. Dick Winfield is on the right of the photo and Tom "Acmo" McLaughlin in in the center while Bill Coleman is shown on the left. All of us were in the GCRC club.
Thank you again for your contributions to all of us. Rocker I am not a huge book guy but I do love the pics and the short stories accompanying them. Perhaps I will keep my eyes peeled for some of your books as they do contain material I most enjoy. I am curious what did you cruise around in...hell with all these rumble rods you must have had your share of Hotrods. If you didn't have Hotrods per say what were your dailys? What is your most desired of the vintage rides?
32 Ford tudor being built in the mid-60's near Vancouver, British Columbia. This photo was sent to me by the owner when I was a teenager and I have always kept it. Sure would like to find out what happened to that car.
The Jalopy Journal
