Vintage shots from days gone by!

<center>Ken Wylie In Action Brisbane 1946.</center>
To sweeten the deal with the Claremont promotion Ken offered them a special attraction with a rocket powered midget. Ken’s idea came from Frank Arthur who had the rocket powered novelty at the Exhibition on Ray Revell’s midget ( which incidently was Arthur Wylies old # 8 Ford A .) with ex-army rockets attached to the tail. Problems galore confronted Ken and Lew in obtaining the military surplus rockets. First the Army was loathe to freight them across country from Sydney to Perth considering the multi handling rail problems.So they approached the Navy who said they were nuts and didn’t want to know about it. In the end Ken and Lew decided to construct their own when they were told they could get some mining blasting powder. Manufacturing the 15 inch steel tubes with the ends welded up was a breeze, but when the blasting material arrived it was in chunks instead of powder form so Ken had to granulate it with a wooden mallet. Then trying to get the correct mix of powder and sawdust for the right effect took hours of experimenting, exploding tubes and frightening the daylights out of themselves and everyone else around. Testing was done by tying the rockets to a tree which soon was ringbarked. Finally they were told to get the show on the road or no rocket car – no return fares home. Hoping they had it right at last Ken padded himself with as much extra clothing as would fit under his leather jacket – just in case. Praying he’d remember to keep his arms inside the cockpit in case of a rocket mishap Ken and # 5 shoved off. Firing the 32 rockets from a switch inside the cockpit required careful timing.With 8 ignitions to the circuit the 4 lap event went without a hitch – but spectacular. Much to Ken’s relief .
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<center>Ken Wylie & Rocket Car Perth 1947.</center>

 

This is a scene from The Long Long Trailer with Lucy & Desi(1953). You can see the yellow Mercury convertible pulling it. It's actually a pretty funny movie.

 

Yes, all the above pics are from movies and TV.
As far as Lucy and Desi go, I probably haven't watched that movie for 35 years.

They used 2 cars for that movie. A mercury Monterey -most of the time:




And for the steep mountain pulling, a 205 hp Lincoln with mercury hood and painted on silver trim etc. to make it look like the Monterey:





32-foot long 1953 New Moon trailer

 

Here are some family photos I just scanned.

 

"And for the steep mountain pulling, a 205 hp Lincoln with mercury hood and painted on silver trim etc. to make it look like the Monterey:"

Wow, Moe. That is great stuff. The flathead in the Merc wouldn't pull the hill, so they used the 4bbl 317.5 Lincoln OHV. I never noticed the disguised car! My mother had a red and black '53 Lincoln Capri hardtop that we bought new.
If I ever find the pictures of it, I'll post them.