Craig Breedlove – the first person to exceed 400, 500, and 600 miles per hour on land – was the recipient of the fourth annual “Spirit of Competition” Award

The Spirit of Competition Award that Dr. Simeone presented to Breedlove featured a model of the Museum’s Cobra Daytona Coupe CSX 2287, the car Breedlove co-drove to 23 international records in 1965, shortly before breaking the 600 MPH barrier in his Sonic I jet-powered car . This was also the barnfind Cobra Daytona http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/stop-if-youve-heard-this-one-before.html

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011. Breedlove joined drivers Mario Andretti, Janet Guthrie, and John Fitch as an Award recipient.

“Craig Breedlove represents what you can achieve if you have a clear vision and determination,” 

“With only a handful of volunteers and a shoestring budget, he was able to accomplish what many others could not. His achievements captured the country’s imagination and made him a household name.” commented Fred Simeone, executive director of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum.

His quest for a speed record captured the imagination of the nation and his technological feat became a symbol of national pride during the Cold War. His achievements made him a household name in the 1960s, and the Beach Boys even wrote a song about him. Shortly before exceeding 600 mph in November, 1965, Breedlove set 23 international speed records – including averaging 150 mph for 12 hours - co-driving the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe (CSX2287) that is on display at the Simeone Museum.

Hot Rod Delux turned up a great story this month... a found deuce had unexpected history, on El Mirage, and a timing tag turned up!

I just keep getting Hot Rod Delux, it never seems like Hot Rod and Car Craft, wasting our money on endless pages of ads and warmed over articles on rebuilding engines and transmissions... they stick to old photos, cool old cars, and lots of interesting stuff turns up... like this duece.

Lewis McMillan bought this one at the LARS (LA Roadster Show) in 1978, and had no idea it had dry lakes racing history. (I label dry lakes racing as "dry lakes racing, LSR, racing. LSR" in the post labels)

He shipped to his home in Lexington North Caroline, and stored it away til he could get to it... 24 years later when he'd collected all the parts he wanted to add, like a Halibrand quick change, boxed frame, etc

Speaking of cool parts, those headlights are 1943 Seagrave fire truck lights!

So when he dug into fixing up the car, he discovered a matchbook with a guy's name on it, and it turned out to be the guy who raced it in 48! Arvel Youngblood. The new and old owners met and Lewis learned about the car... somehow a friend of Lewis found the timing tag and reunited it with the car. Awesome.

The Salt 2 Salt Studebaker set some records at Bonneville this year, with an interesting 182 cu in v8

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/70716191@N00/sets/72157627367551319/ where they have a gallery of Bonneville photos or go to their home page (the home of the 1953 Studebaker coupe that established the records in: XO/BGC, XO/BFALT, XF/BFALT, XF/BGALT, F/CGALT, and F/CFALT )  for links to many years of Bonneville galleries http://www.salt2salt.hutman.net/

The trick of getting such a small displacement is using a tiny one year only block, and the crank from another model year to get the right numbers.

A Bugatti racing on Harpers Dry Lake in 1940...Tommy Lee's, same as the next posts streamliner, wow, wonder if it recieved a timing tag for the dash?

The Bugatti was owned by Tommy Lee, who's dad owned some type of car dealership in LA (thanks Travis!)

These are screen shots from the 1940 Harpers Dry Lakes racing video that Dave from http://www.seabrighthotrods.com/  just added to youtube

the Don Lee special, built by Frank Kurtis. Ford body and chassis, Cord fenders, Offenhauser engine

This is the Don Lee special, built by Frank Kurtis in 1936. The other four "Don Lee Specials" are posted in different posts and without much finesse http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Don%20Lee

 Tommy approached Frank with a project. He wanted the best looking and fastest hot rod in Southern California… and he wanted Frank to build it.

Frank thought the Cord was a smart look and Tommy agreed. Frank felt a Cad motor would be appropriate, but Tommy balked. He wanted the best of the best and that meant this car was going to get a 318-inch Offy. A direction was set and work began.

Frank started with a 1936 Ford chassis and Cord front and rear fenders. From there, the car just blossomed into something VERY unique and VERY fast

Don left millions to his son Tommy, who at age 45 jumped from the 12th story of the Wilshire hotel, leaving 10 million to potential heirs to fight over

Tommy’s roadster ran on the dry lakes of Southern California with limited success. Improvements might have been made and potential realized if not for a tragedy that happened just prior to the war. On an intersection in Hollywood, CA, Tommy was t-boned by a truck and he was badly injured.

Tommy lived the rest of his life in a great deal of pain. He tried to play through and continued buying a number of hot rods and race cars as well as a few fighter planes (p38). But the joy of speed just wasn’t enough to overcome the pain.

On January 13, 1950, Tommy had his driver take him to the dentist. He got on the elevator and went to the 12th floor roof. He then jumped to his death leaving behind a 10 million dollar fortune, a huge automobile and aircraft collection, a radio station, and a television business http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=7365

These are screen shots from the 1940 Harpers Dry Lakes racing video that Dave from http://www.seabrighthotrods.com/ just added to youtube

Comparing the above photo with the last photo below that shows this car in street form vs racing form, I don't see a door handle or hinge in the above racing form

notice that the street exhaust is different from the racing exhaust

these last two images from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=7365

For the other Don Lee Special that I posted this summer http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/06/don-lee-special.html

1940 Harper Dry Lake SCTA racing home video from a 8mm camera thatSeabrightHotRods.com Dave's uncle brought in

And credit to Travis http://perichbrothers.blogspot.com/2011/12/first-100-unearthed-hot-rod-video.html
 for getting the screenshots, and Santa Cruz Dave for getting the home movie digitized and share with everyone! Dave's website is http://www.seabrighthotrods.com/

Thanks Travis!

if you get a kick out of dry lakes hot rodders, check out the color photos from 1947 and 1948 that have turned up on the internet last year:
 http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/looks-like-el-mirage-in-1948-they.html
 http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/back-to-1948-and-el-mirage-im-excited.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/chris-at-speed-seekers-foudn-more-1947.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-lake-in-48-oh-wonder-and-amazement.html

Vic Edelbrock's highboy, set 13 world speed records, and is an icon of streamlined dry lakes racers

Looks like about 4 or 5 inches of lift

The resurrection of the SOCal Streamliner that Dean Batchelor and Alex Xydias set speed records with in 1949 and 1950 at the drylakes and Bonneville

 Here is a bit of hot rod history, reborn. This just gets more astonishing, because the original was destroyed in a racing accident, and this recreation is another dead on perfect remake from Dan Webb http://webbautomotiveart.com/... he remade the Golden Submarine of Barney Oldfield http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/unusual-things-that-cought-my-attention.html, and the Phil Remington Mod !
The original SoCal Streamliner was destroyed in a bad crash at Daytona in 1951.

The 1st Bonneville Nationals in 1949 was a successful endeavor for the So-Cal streamliner. The team ran top time of the meet at 187.89 mph & set a class "A" streamliner record of 156.39 mph. They also set the class "C" streamliner record of 189.745 mph.

After a successful Bonneville and regular S.C.T.A. season where Xydias/Batchelor came 2nd in the points championship. The streamliner was repaired and the front end changed it was repainted white with the 2 painted on the front wheelcovers. At the May 1950 S.C.T.A. meet the repaired streamliner ran strong on Saturday with a 152.28 qualifying run. Come Sunday Dean was backing up with his return run, there was a strong crosswind which he was steering into to keep straight. When the wind died the streamliner veered right putting the car sideways, it skidded, the tires dug in, went up on the 2 left side wheels and the car flipped and miraculously landing back on its wheels the belly pan had flown off and Dean was knocked unconscious after he smacked the steering wheel with his head. Dean never raced again after that accident.


 At the 2nd annual Bonneville Nationals (1950) the Xydias/Batchelor team broke the "A" and "C" class streamliner record setting the "A" streamliner record at 162.950 mph and a "C" streamliner record of 208.9271 mph. The So-Cal streamliner also ran the fastest one-way speed of the meet with a 210.8962 mph, beating the Kenz/Leslie Streamliner which ran 210.6489 mph. The So-Cal liner was featured on the cover of the October and November 1950 Hot Rod

 In February 1951 the So-Cal tank ran on the sands of Daytona Beach


 But are you are surprised to learn the So-Cal streamliner used the chassis from the original So-Cal belly tank Alex Xydias & Dean Batchelor ran in 1948, and that Valley Custom Shop built the streamliner body. Dean Batchelor worked at Valley Customs.

info and magazine outakes from http://hotrodsofthedrylakesera.blogspot.com/2010/12/so-cal-streamliner-part-2.html I've told you how cool that blog is!