Part 1 History I am going to describe as best as I can the history that I have found of The Scotty's Muffler Tank. I bought the tank from Seth Hammond in 1978 after he ran the car at Bonniville in 1978 and after I confirmed that I would fit in it (I'm 6' 2" and 245 lbs.). He told me that he had bought it in Santa Barbara, Ca. but I don't remember from who. It had not been run for a number of years before he bought it. Here is the earliest picture of it that I could find. It doesn't say anything about its build so I assume it was built in 1948-1949. 153.8 mph is pretty fast for the lakes in 1949. Larry Monreal when on to run very fast Volkswagen powered vehicles in the '60 and '70's. The next picture I found was from 1951 Scotty and Purdy ran it at Bonniville with a V8-60 but came in second to the So-Cal speed shop in class A by 4 mph. This next picture doesn't have a year with it but I think it was 1952 as it doesn't have number 38 on it and I couldn't find any other info for this picture. This is the most common picture from 1953 when it set the record at 201.015 mph for the first open wheel car to set a record over 200 mph.
Now for some pictures from 1953 thru 1958. These pictures are from 1953 at Bonniville. these pictures I think are from 1953 at Colton drag strip in southern California, and at Pomona, Ca.
The next pictures are of the next two owners of the tank . The only info I could get was what it captioned with the one picture. Anyone with more information please add.
Now for when I bought the tank in 1978. This it when Seth Hammond ran it with a V-6 Buick built by Bob Joehnck of Santa Barbara, Ca. This is a shot of me in the tank before my run on a wet short 3mile course at 200.061 mph in 1980 with the same Buick. Here is a picture from 1983 in Hamburg, Germany from a tour that Bob Summers set in Europe with6 other land speed cars. More to come.
Nice I had the pleasure of helping redo the Scotty's roadster over the last few years the car with the number 96. Cw and Billy ran it at El Mirage and Bonneville in the 80's. The Keith Black Hemi is out we put a blown on gas ARDUN in it as a tribute the Scotty's history and the ARDUN in the pictures above. Car has run over 200 here with the ARDUN on the East Coast took it to Speedweek in 2023 it passed tech but the salt was mush so it never ran. Great project you have with a lot of history. Ronnieroadster
"Scotty" was Charles Walter Scott. His friends called him Wally". His brother-in-law Chuck ran the Scotty's Auto Wrecking business a mile away from the Muffler Shop. I'm not sure that the three pictures you posted above are all at Colton. I believe the top one is Pomona, the middle one is unknown, but the third one is Colton with, I think Chuck. Scotty provided the "ambulance" at Colton for a number of years. I remember (not so well) that it was a 52 or 53 Ford Courier sedan delivery. Scotty was very generous in sponsoring us and other youngsters in many ways. Free headers on our drag roadster, ordering Chevy parts including a complete 327 at wholesale for my street roadster. Later at dealer cost for my Enderles -- all the time carrying the payments with no interest. For a time, he had a partner in the shop -- and that just drove him crazy. I don't know the setup, but he was gone after a few years. I'd go to the bank weekly and then go over and pay on whatever I could handle at Scotty's. One time I checked on the balance and it was below $100 -- so I bought an after-market steering wheel and threw away the Forty Ford one I had. I'm proud to have what might have been the last done by him is my '28 Mercury Torpedo Salon muffler system. After his death, the shop ran into lots of problems. I'll not go into details. But it's been running in fine shape today and I'll go out of my way to recommend it for special systems. Tom did the exhaust on my 54 Plymouth exactly like I wanted it.
Ronnie, that's an entirely different roadster. In fact, it was a cut-down 3-window 33-34 Coupe that Scotty built. It started in many ways -- first, I believe with a Cad with a 4-speed Hydro and was never finished for years. I ended up with the Hydro and they put first gear back in it when they converted it for my only transportation street roadster. The torque tube bolted right onto the trans. Later, when he and Billy ran it, it ran into trouble with some Roadster rules with the small changes that were made from the coupe. I don't remember which -- maybe with coupe interior room size.
Is the grill shell from that cut down coupe hanging up in Bill Careys shop.It was pinstriped by lil Louie?
Looking forward to seeing more of the history of the Scotty Lakester From my collection, happy to email you Hi-Res copies
Very cool! I own the Ardun from that car now and am just starting to recreate the Scotty’s T Roadster. My Dad ran it briefly in a dragster and the pulled it out and put it up Here’s a few pictures of it then in the Roadster and the dragster my Dad ran it in now
I have some pictures and info I’ve gathered through the years here are some of the ones I have that I didn’t see posted already.
Yes I know the ARDUN powered "T" is a different car. Scotty's 34 3 window coupe cut into a roadster is the car I'm referring to. It was never powered by the ARDUN. CW ran a 500 CI plus Keith Black Hemi blown on fuel. On the side panel of the hood they wrote late model ARDUN that's the reason we put a 600 HP gas burning ARDUN in the car. The Keith Black engine is still with the car but the idea was to just put in the ARDUN and run it that way. Dave Simard did own the car at one time it has not been restored. The changes we did to the car were so it would pass the current safety rules. The car is for sale it would include the Keith Black engine and related parts used to set the El Mirage record at 243 MPH. Here's a link to a short video showing what the car still looks like exactly as CW and family ran it at El Mirage and Bonneville except its has the ARDUN. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RQGIjuMBSQE Ronnieroadster
After I ran the tank at Bonniville in 1980 I went back in 1981 for speedweek and the full 5 mile course but being young and dumb I didn't get the fuel injection lines right and could only get up to 165mph. We were pitted close to Al Teague that year and one of his crew came over to see what we were doing and quickly saw what was wrong. He laughed a little and told us to switch the line at the barrel valve and run it again. We then went 197mph. Next we ran it at El Mirage in Oct. I don't remember the speed. Then the SCTA was changing the safety rules that would require a cage type roll bar so that winter changes were made to lower the driving position. That next year,1981, we ran at the lake two or three tines with speeds of 197 and 193 mph. during the last of these runs Tom Evans was driving and at over 190 mph the chute failed to come out and the '40 ford rear brakes failed . Tom did a great job missing a few sage bushes .He finely hit a small depression and did a flat spin and bent the rear end and rear frame section. He was ok but the tank was very hurt. That was the end of the running of the original chassis configuration. their were decision to be make, would we try to keep the original frame or try to up date it? It was decided to up date. the folling picture are of the change after the work. In this form it went to Germany on a tour with several other cars and bikes from Bonniville, this was set up by the Summer Brothers. It included their streamliner and Tom Evans bike , and the Stewart family roadster.
The next changes for the tank I don't have pictures for. It was loaned to my Freind Dave Teer. His goal was to get it running with a flat head Ford I had and change the roll cage to a better upright position. At this point he had a new frame built . He also was contacted by an outfit that wanted to make belly tank bodies out of fiberglass. At this point they used the aluminum body to pull their molds. Dave was given the first of these and here retired the original body. He was then contacted by our friend Drew Pietsch about using the body for building a lakester for El Mirage. Fast forward to 2023 and Drew contacted me and said I could get the body back. What a good guy. One fast trip from Idaho to the high desert and it was back home. the following pictures are of it when picked up.
Hello, Here is a story I was reading in an old file and it gives some background on the whole program developed back then in the 60s. Jnaki I enjoy reading those old files as they bring back stored memories in some part of my old brain. Stories like these, spark something, as it played right into a clear as day memory of our teenage journey to Riverside Raceway to watch some fabulous racers in a huge drag race event. This is where we saw the Scotty’s Muffler Roadster in the pits. YRMV
This picture I believe is Scotty and "Billy the Kid" Scott. "Billy the Kid's" driving fame came early with a 1/4 Midget championship. His most success as a driver was with the Beacon Auto Parts Gas dragster. He suffered injury in their record-setting dragster at Long Beach. The strip had an engine-powered set of rollers used to start the dragsters. You pushed the car onto the locked rollers, they unlocked them, and you started the car. Then the car would use its own brakes to bring the rollers to a stop, locked the rollers again, then driven off the rollers. The problem was two-sided that day. One, they'd overheated the drum brakes, and two, the strip had not raked the sand trap at the track's end following the previous week's use and the sand had a crust made from rain the previous week. The car couldn't stop in time and launched into the rough trap and Billy ended up in the hospital with back injuries due to the harsh landing.
The Jalopy Journal
