Whahooo. Thank You Ryan. I can recall breakfast with the cereal box proclaiming the champion of speed. Wheaties no doubt. Your shots show an Olympiad, with Pontiac(s). The locale seemed so remote then. Not today.
Interesting technical wrinkle: up to this point, Tom Cobbs has been a die-hard Kodachrome man—loyal to that rich, fine-grained glory. But for this shoot? Something changed. It looks like Mickey pushed the session into the evening, and Tom, ever the prepared bastard, came loaded with faster film. The grain jumps out right away—coarser, moodier. I’m no film stock savant, but I’d put my money on Ektachrome. He needed the speed, and this looks like the right kind of compromise—less perfection, more grit. Exactly what the moment called for.
This collection of photographs has to rank up there as some of it not the most important collection of early hot rod history! Please keep them coming, they are amazing, he sure had a talent to capture the moment. Thank you Ryan
The colors / angles are truly phenomenal. The 2 mountain pics (with out the Challenger in them) are like another planet of another lifetime.
Did Mickey make a run with an open cockpit? I had an LP album called the sound of speed, on it was his 406 MPH run. The sound that machine made gave you goose bumps. In these photos, the salt looks like a lake on a windy day, how could he run on something like that?
Thanks, Ryan, for sharing all your photos and knowledge. I hope you have something in your will that all these will go to some automotive history museum to be preserved for many years to come.
I think that “wave” shot was taken on the salt right after you exit the highway, pass the famous sign, and drive on the salt. Also, they seemed to set up their pit very close to this area as well (note telephone polls). Now days, I think the pit area is a good mile to the east. Regardless, I’ve read that ‘59 was one of the first bad years for salt conditions. We’d consider it mint by today’s standards.
Included in the will with one very clear disclaimer: If you slap a watermark on these photos, I will haunt you—loud, aggressive, and in the most diabolical ways imaginable.
Photo #1, Photo #6, Photo #21 Are my picks out of this batch of Cobbs excellent compositions ! Simply magnificent, captured frozen moments of time!
Can never get enough Mickey Thompson and Challenger I! I'm betting Ektachrome as well. It looks to have that signature blue tint of Ekta. Typically when viewed through a slide projector the color of the bulb balances out the blue and the colors warm up.
The Chevy wagon and plane WOW! I feel as though I was there, maybe in a dream.Unbelievable photos. Thank you Dan
I remember reading Mickey Thompson’s book in the early or mid 60s, and the pictures of the Challenger in the book didn’t really capture the moment like these photos do. Such an incredible genius. And these photos, stunning.
It's great stuff to see and experience. Most people have just seen the glamor or success of a record run. I know I did. After witnessing running on the Salt several times, I still can't get over what an extreme effort it is to try to accomplish this kind of feat. Cobb was just one of the participants in this event to shoot photos, but from his perspective. An interested fellow hotrodder. Obviously the press was there too, because sponsorship and organization put this all together. I can't imagine the kind of wherewithal it would take to say, "OK, let pull the tansmission out and change out this and that to. accomplish what we need to, right here, on a plastic sheet in the middle of nowhere." That's what I love about Salt Flats racing and this certainly captures it..
I'm not 100% sure of this... cuz, well lack of context of any kind... but, I believe this was a little test and tune BEFORE speed week. The lack of cars, spectators, accoutrement on the car, etc... makes me think they weren't quite going all out. That said, we do know the Challenger I ended up running 362mph the year these photos were taken. A year later, Mickey added the blowers, additional body work, etc... and went over 400mph for the record.
See the plane.... Bill Shipler Photo. Know anything about him Ryan ? I'd be cool to see any car pic history from this fella from the sky.
This is time travel. Those photos are nothing but phenomenal! They make me feel like I’m standing right there. You can almost hear and smell the action. Thanks for sharing them with us!
Bill Shipler… The man came from one of the founding bloodlines of film photography in North America. Not exactly a hot rod pioneer—but when it comes to photography? An absolute trailblazer. Bill picked up the family torch in the 1930s, running a studio out of Utah, and took over the whole operation in the mid-’50s after his old man punched out. He had a lab, did some commercial gigs, but most of his bread came from government contracts—mapping, archiving, that kind of thing. He was, for all intents and purposes, the official eye of Salt Lake City and, at times, the entire damn state of Utah. And because of that role, he ended up shooting a fair amount during Speed Week—especially when the big names rolled into town or the events got too big to ignore. Not a hot rodder, but definitely one of the guys who helped frame the scene—literally.
More cool photos. In around 1967 or 1968 I discovered my school library had a book about Mickey Thompson. It mostly covered the Challenger, as well as the other record setting Pontiac race cars and passenger cars from the early 1960s. Since I was already a Pontiac fan (my dad had a '61 Catalina) I checked that book out and read it multiple times.
Mickey was like a champion prize fighter. The one picture of him sitting on the bucket wearing those lace up boxing shoes is epic. I'm sure that is what they are.
The Jalopy Journal
