History Tom Cobbs: Bonneville, 1958 Part 1

Thank You Ryan.
Another great collection of seven decades old shots.
They had the term 'slippery' perfected. ( except the TR2 )
Love how healthy the salt looked, a great stimulant.

 

It's cool to see new pictures of Mickey Thompson's 555 car. From Wikipedia:

Mickey Thompson collaborated with Fritz Voight in building the dragster, which had a fully enclosed body (except the steel front wheels), including a closed canopy. It was powered by a pair of 392 cu in (6,420 cc) Chrysler hemis, one facing forward to drive the rear wheels, the other facing backward to drive the front ones.

Wearing number 555, the car debuted in 1958 at Bonneville, after "an impromptu stop", where it achieved 242 mph (389 km/h) on its very first run.

The next week, the car turned in a best speed of 294.117 mph (473.335 km/h), but broke a connecting rod, leaving Thompson unable to back up his speed to make it official.

While a reasonable success in land speed racing, the car proved too slow for drag racing, never able to top high-9 second passes or 149.50 mph (240.60 km/h) (even with its body removed), when contemporary slingshot fuelers were routinely hitting mid-9s.

 

From @HEMI32 1950's Bonneville post.

 

hey boss,
I think 2 of those picture are from El Mirage and if I'm not mistaken ?? Also I'm pretty sure one of the lady's in front of Mickey's 555 is Judy Thompson, Danny's mom

 

Isky should bring back those 5 Cycle Cam T-shirts.

 

Love the history ..So cool..pictures are priceless.

 

Great as always. Thanks for the pictures

 

For sure.......here's a color pic of it in it's Cramer-Taylor version.

 

Nice.

 

I taped my 2 quarters to some cardboard and sent it to Isky for a big orange fireball Isky Cams iron on for my tshirt and when it came I ironed it on by myself. Wore it to P.E. all through my high school years. Only one other hot rod thinking kid knew about Isky Cams. Grew out of it and tossed it out. Still have the stickers though!

 

Appears to be the il fated "city of salt lake" before paint, never seen it like that before.

 

Man. So cool.

 

The insert on that track nose has a Nash vibe