drop tank race cars on jay leno's garage tv show

[tom d. friedman]

while desperately searching for something to watch on the vast waste land of tv, i happened upon part of "jay leno's garage" tv show which did a spread on ww2 vintage aircraft drop tanks that were bought surplus after the war & custom built into race cars which were raced on the California salt flats. they are not steerable, & have no gears. they had to be pushed by another car to start them off. they are pretty cool looking, no two are the same, paint wise, or as to body style. leno is a big guy & could not fit in 1 to drive. the owner has a quite a few of them & raced 1 for leno. the 1 they raced on the flats was fast!! good ole American inventive ingenuity at it's best!! curious as to what fighters some came from!!

[James D]

Originally P38 tanks were often used IIRC, but sometimes stretched in the middle to fit.

[bdk]

Hard to believe there was no steering capability whatsoever. All the ones I've seen pictures of had steering wheels!

[K5DH]

The early "belly tank lakesters" were usually powered by Ford flathead V-8s, although some ran 4-bangers. They were all amazingly fast. I've seen a few of them in person. Construction was really crude, done using whatever components and materials the builder could scrounge, and there was little thought given to safety. The idea was to go as fast as possible, as cheaply as possible. And they did that, fer sure! A starter motor and a battery added a lot of unnecessary weight, so they ran magneto ignition and had to be push-started. The front and rear axles were modified passenger car units, welded directly to the frame with no spring suspension, and there were brakes on the rear axle only. The gearing in the differential was often so low that they couldn't engage the clutch until the car was up to 80 or 100 MPH (that's still true with some modern streamliners, by the way). Fun stuff, but really dangerous!

[tom d. friedman]

[quote="bdk"]Hard to believe there was no steering capability whatsoever. All the ones I've seen pictures of had steering wheels![/quote

of course they had steering somewhat, but not much, hence their having to go basically straight on the salt flats.

[airnutz]

while desperately searching for something to watch on the vast waste land of tv, i happened upon part of "jay leno's garage" tv show which did a spread on ww2 vintage aircraft drop tanks that were bought surplus after the war & custom built into race cars which were raced on the California salt flats. they are not steerable, & have no gears. they had to be pushed by another car to start them off. they are pretty cool looking, no two are the same, paint wise, or as to body style. leno is a big guy & could not fit in 1 to drive. the owner has a quite a few of them & raced 1 for leno. the 1 they raced on the flats was fast!! good ole American inventive ingenuity at it's best!! curious as to what fighters some came from!!

Would that be the Hand Made episode Tom? The #1952 car "Old Crow" has steering and a 2 speed(at least) gearbox. Dunno about the blue/purple #3 car, but it did have a steering wheel init...tho I guess it could just be something to hold on to/brace yerself with. Mebbe someone used the term, "no steering to speak of " or somesuch...meaning limited. Tho at the end of a run on the "Old Crow" Bobby Green cut a pretty good left arc away from the course after his run and you could see him turning the wheel. That episode if it's the same you saw, would be Season 3, Episode 7. Leno did say in that episode, "Many were built without a low gear". The more complicated the driveline the more weight=less speed. To paraphrase a Brit racing term, "you must add lightness". Leno has quite a few vids on youtube but that's a pay-per on CNBC or free if its part of your On Demand Comcast.

[tom d. friedman]

yep!! that's the episode!!!

[ZRX61]

I've been to that shop that built the Lakesters, it's near the new Ikea in Glendale., there are 4 or 5 more P38 tanks up in the rafters. Guy won't sell them

[goaly]

Here are the beginnings of two such belly tank racers on craigslist.

https://toledo.craigslist.org/atq/d/vintage-aircraft-belly-tanks/6436635506.html

Speaking of craigslist, any idea what these blades may be from?

https://cleveland.craigslist.org/clt/d/ ... 83326.html

Or these wheels?

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/grd/ ... 17168.html

[airnutz]

The only American helicopter I can think of to have that long of a tail rotor would be the Hughes XH-17. By some data this example is either too long or too short. A prototype?

[martin_sam_2000]

The only American helicopter I can think of to have that long of a tail rotor would be the Hughes XH-17. By some data this example is either too long or too short. A prototype?

they could be from a wind tunnel. Never seen blades with that shape before.

Sean

[airnutz]

The only American helicopter I can think of to have that long of a tail rotor would be the Hughes XH-17. By some data this example is either too long or too short. A prototype?

they could be from a wind tunnel. Never seen blades with that shape before.

Sean

Could be, or some type of industrial evac or circulation fan. As for the XH-17, the "fat" end of the blade looks too high up and the hub that fits into the mounting boss looks too small for the load required. There's not many photos of the Hughes tail rotor that I've seen, but one half-way decent one suggests, it ain't it.

Last edited by airnutz on Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[ZRX61]

In related news there's a guy on FB selling F15 drop tanks for $600 each. They're 16ft long & 32in(?) dia.

[Cubs2jets]

In related news there's a guy on FB selling F15 drop tanks for $600 each. They're 16ft long & 32in(?) dia.

Is he in Syria or Afghanistan?

C2j

[Firebird]

Good article here by Hot Rod magazine on the belly tank racers.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/belly-tanks-the-ultimate-hot-rods/