History Bonneville Record Car / NEED HELP!

Josh (@Hyfire) -

You've been busy ... Very cool finds and some very promising leads! ... Thanks for sharing with us.

 

This is such a great thread! Really appreciate all your effort,Josh. This is what makes the HAMB so special. My dad had a '57 Chrysler 300 Conv.,but I don't know what letter designation it was. Then he got a '58 New Yorker,4dr after I was born. HAULED ASS!!!!!
I'll be following this,waiting for updates. Thanks again.

 

With the hand I've been dealt in life (a good hand), I can't chase down cars like this. It sure is enjoyable to read about someone else doing it though. What a fantastically cool car and a great job gathering bits of history on it. Hat's off to you, dude.

furyus

 

All I can say is wow, what determination and passion. cant wait to read more on this great find...congrats and good luck...this is what hot rodding is all about.

 

Bad Bob -

'55 C 300
'56 300 B
'57 300 C
'58 300 D
'59 300 E
'60 300 F
'61 300 G
'62 300 H
'63 300 J
'64 300 K
'65 300 L

 

one or two? post 'em all!

 

AWESOME!!!!

I wonder why the door and quarter are obviously a different color than the rest of the car. Is it still that way today?

And hell yes, post all of these. Where else are they going to be appreciated more than here?

 

Wow!! Great car & history!! Let's have a slide show!!

 

Josh (@Hyfire) - Wow! ... The color slides are simply amazing! ... Feel free to post more of them!

Jim (@IQ52) - Thanks for sending the "package" to Josh ... and allowing him to share your mother's old slides with us! ... Very CL!

 

Unrelated to the Chrysler, but...

That yellow/white '56 Ford was owned by Karol Miller and featured in the Jan 1958 HRM. At Bonneville '57, it ran 150.097mph, increasing the C/gas coupe sedan record by 12mph. It had a 292 bored to 302ci, 2x4s, and weird exhaust exiting out of the fenders which you can see in that pic. Cool to see it in color, I didn't picture it being yellow.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming!

 

Amazing story and history.... this is the kind of find we all live for!

I just wanted to add as a side note about the '39 indy 500.... My grandfather was there on the infield and took a few pictures of the Floyd Roberts crash. Just in case anyone was interested.

 

Well, it looks from the video that the #3 in my grandfather's picture is actually Chet Miller's car, and I'm assuming the smoke in the background is from Roberts' car.

 

The story just gets better and better! Those slides are amazing; Kodachrome's about as close as we're ever going to get to having a real time machine. I was also excited to see Karol Miller's '56 Ford in color; having only seen it b&w in the HR magazine I'd always assumed it was coral & white.

Keep it coming!

 

Man, I can't wait to hear it! BTW, I have a new Desktop background...

 

HARD ON! I'm going out to paint my wheels black. ha ha ha - That is an awesome picture along with the pictures of the gentlemen. Super cool stuff you've collected.

 

Just scrolled slowly down revealing this shot and got chills and goosebumps! Unbelievably beautiful picture!

The fact that this car survives in nearly this condition is the stuff that dreams are made of. Hyfire, you are a lucky, lucky man!

 

I'm curious, since the car was run on the salt flats, is there any salt damage to the car? Forgive me if this was asked earlier but I didn't notice anything written about it.
Any interior photos? I'd love to see how luxury deleted it is on the inside.

 

This is so awesome! Norm Thatcher was always one of my Bonneville heros. I know he was still at it in the early '70's because he was running a Superbird then.
Big, nasty stogie and all...

 

Josh (@Hyfire) -

Are you talking about all the Mobilegas Pegasus: decals?

If so, my best guess is that Mobilegas was the "Official Fuel" for the '58 Speed Week event ... and every time Norm needed to put some more gasoline in the tank, Mobilegas would just give it to him in return for some "free advertising" (i.e., slap another decal or two on the 300D).

 

Looking at the car, I would bet it's just at the end of a run. Look at all of the salt hanging off of the rockets.

Prob figuring out what they can do to get some more speed out of it.

 

Lou Bingham of the San Diego Roadster Club (owner of at least 11 Bonneville land speed records) was at Bonneville when Norm was there. I'll send him the link to this thread with the hope he can give you more information. He's at Bonneville right now with my husband supporting Fred Lobello's belly lakester (which will try for 2 records this week) along with all the other Roadster Club cars. Fred is there too - he's now 90 years old.

Chris

P.S. Check out this link to Lobello Racing on Garage Journal Free Parking:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112320

 

Josh,

Have you actually driven the car yet or is it waiting until you can go through it?

Would love to see a video of it moving under its own power, and hear it!

Fantastic find, both the car and the history.

P.

 

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing Hyfire. You are truly lucky to have that car.

 

Glad to see it go to a good home, where it will be appreciated....hope you were able to deal with him, his wife had a price in mind that was a bit higher...by a bunch

 

OK Josh - found the additional pictures...

 

Josh... Don't know if you are still looking for information on Norm Thatcher? My dad (Skeet High) worked on and off for Norm from the mid 50's and was his shop foreman during his racing after the '59 "300" ... I have some interesting pics if you are interested.
go to get info www.davehighink.net

 

Did you ever get any info from the Hot Rod magazine? I didn't have time to read the whole thread. I know my dad has some old Hot Rod mags from the 50s.

Also, is this Norm the same one that was referred to as Mr. Norm and ran the big Chrysler dealership in the late 60s? He did some performance packages on MoPars I think? My dad is a big MoPar man and I used to read his MoPar mags.

 

Norm Thatcher was not "Mr. Norm".

 

Just found this thread...what an awesome find!

 

Awesome....and it just keeps getting better!