Vintage shots from days gone by!

Ercoupe airplane with a new paint job. The back of the picture states that the picture was printed the "Week of Nov 19, 1951

 

Trivia
http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2013/12/remembering_mt_hoods_twin-engi.html

 

My dad said the Skiway broke down all the time and was a slow and cold ride to Timberline - when they first started building the towers up the hill they got partway and then realized it was headed in the wrong direction, had to rip a bunch out and reroute. The Thunderhead Lodge in Government Camp is the old lower terminal.

 

I am curious about this Studebaker from a preceding post. I believe it to be the fastest Studebaker that has ever made a pass at Bonneville. I would like more information about the car.

 

"Citizens are transfixed by the latest scientific advancement in automated plumbing technology!"

 

Too soon to be thinking about winter?
(original snow mobiles...)

 

If all to go on is the number on the side, maybe this one? (Probably a long history of changes)
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1953-studebaker-coupe/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bonneville-studebaker-info.801774/#post-8903927

 

At WZ JUNK: Found a thread with your name it it, sporting the attached image.

I think you are trying to slip a fast one past me!

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=57007

 

I am still trying to find more information on the 400 car. I was hoping for something new. Thank you for posting your links. It is difficult to find accurate historical information on a particular car and its speeds at Bonneville. I believe the 400 car is the fastest but there is conflicting data on its speeds and records.

John

 

Well, all I'm saying is I'm just a puddle jumper compared to what you and others know.

But it kinda makes this stuff fun!

For myself, its interesting seeing the progression of the car through the years.

 

As far as I know Joe Locasto is still living in San Mateo or Burlingame. I saw him about a year ago and he seemed fine. He has an amazing series of photos from when he rolled the car at Bonneville. Maybe you could look him up somehow. He likes to talk. RF

 

Yes it is

 

Alfa 8C. Possibly being driven by Phil Hill.

 

The Sutdebaker belonged and built by the late Neil Thompson and is currently owned by his son Neil Jr. Whether believed or not I have seen a time of over 300 at bonneville but not for a complete timed mile. At one time it had every comp coupe record from AA to E engine classes. His highest speed was attained by a Blown Chrysler on alcohol. He gained entrance into the 200 mile per hour club at 268 in 1966. He was a good friend with more knowledge than I will ever know. He also owned a Harley Davidson dealership in Elko Nevada many years ago. I miss him.

 

Got a bunch today while suffering from the "got the duty on the weekend blues".





Dan Gurney




Don Prudhomme at the 1967 NHRA Springnationals




Nationals 1964




Drag Racing THEN, 1964
It’s 1964 and Chrysler has un-corked their legendary 426 Hemi motor on a drag-rabid public. Quarter mile strips of asphalt have been paved into country real estate from coast to coast. Even Hollywood has groped drag culture, releasing countless, mostly B, movies set around hot rod racing and drag strip locations. The Beatles would soon alter youth culture for the rest of the decade, but for now drag racing dreams held the minds of a million adolescents. In '64, drag racing is everywhere and the new Hemi is leading the way. Professional level drags are still mainly a few guys in a garage building and refining cars without large organizations backing them. Even the top race teams are fielding loosely finished cars, and up close most of them are roadworn and rough. Super Stock coupes with names like “Outlawed” “Locomotion” and “Tasmanian Devil” shake the stands and look a lot like the cars lining the dirt parking lots. Top Fuel dragsters are called “Rails” because most of them still have no bodywork and they look like a big motor sitting on rails between two axles.






National Hot Rod Associations drag racing at the old Santa Ana Drag Strip





Kahoka, Mo. 1963 “Fall Festival of Drag Racing” Don Garlits captured the annual Tri State Dragway event with a win over John Kranenberg driving the “Bud, Don, & John” machine from Chicago.

 

The next batch are all unknown to me but are from the very earliest days of drag racing. Let's see if our resident historians can put names to them











More modern just a beauty shot of a front end




Early Santa Maria track




A bit of Wally Parks history

Early 1930s: The dry lakebeds of Southern California were wide-open and available to hot rodders to drive as fast as they dared. Parks starts the Road Runners Club in 1937.

1947: The Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) is formed, meant to organize this growing band of speed fiends. Wally Parks again helped create the group.

1951: The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is created to “create order from chaos”; the new sanctioning body would also introduce safety and performance standards to legitimize drag racing. Parks would run both the NHRA and HOT ROD magazine for the duration of the 1950s.

Its first sanctioned race, at Pomona, is held April 1953.

 

Adult-sized go-kart....



..and please Daddy can I have one, huh, huh, pretty please?

 

SCTA was formed in 1937 for the 1938 season.

 

He & his car are in a class all their own.

I landed in Carlin Nevada around 1972-1973, riding a XL 1200 Harley. I'd beaten that thing to death by the time I got it there. The HD dealer in Elko got me a new chain & rear tire for my bike.

While in Carlin, I landed a gig with an outfit called C.B. Reynolds & Associates -the guy was trying to develop the first multi-track seismic ground imaging technology (pre-computer). Idea was to be able to identify structures & geophysical formations - pools of oil, water - even rat tunnels like the VC used in 'Nam.

Anyway (this story seemed short in my head) the first rig was a powder blue Ford 1/2 ton. way overloaded with the doghouse & boom & other gear. They were laid up with busted rear axle bearings and no clue how to fix the housing or install the bearings. That was my cue to shine! I talked that HD dealership into letting me use their welder to fix up the outboard housing.

I got it fixed, CB Reynolds offered me a job - the first gig was in Beowawe Valley - which 2 years later became the first working geothermal well in Nevada- until the Native Americans got pissed over the shabby way Uncle Sam was abusing all the tribes - and blew the well-head clean off with some dynamite.

True story - look up "Four Corners Indian confluict" or such - can't remember now.

Anyway, CB Reynolds was under contract to Sandia Labs, and I got paid the most money I have ever earned in my entire life to go to a little place called "Chu Chi" to figure out how to map those tunnels. Which was just an mazing miracle, becsause my Mom back home in Michigan had terminal cancer, and I had no money or insurance left.

Oh, almost forgot: In Elko was two places I'l never forget - "The Cattlemens" best freaking steakhouse in all the world - and "Jack & Jills" - best little house of ill repute in Elko. Mmmmm....

Elko also used to hold something about "The Cowboys poetry Thing" on account of Elko being like the largest cattle rail head in the state - also famous, but I did not go.

And, Carlin is the site of the worlds largest open pit gold mining operation - but you'd never know it driving thru.

Oh, also saw a 1928 Graham Paige Truck abandoned on the trail to Beowawe Valley - it is likely still there.

Apologies for the hijack!!