White 3000 Camper
Bonneville Speed Week 2012 didn’t disappoint. Over 500 cars entered. Lots of weird-assed cars both in the parking lot and on the salt. I can sense Paul’s woodie meter pegging at the sight of this, ah, really fine camping unit. Anyone having driven any Cab-Over-Engine (COE) truck can tell you this is not a pleasant experience. No front plate indicates that this unit has come from a distance. Painful.
Consul? Anglia? Stupid?
OK. Those of you in the Commentariat may take exception to the photo caption, but really, what’s the point? Sorry, I just remembered my earlier Bonneville posts in which I defended random acts of assholitry as being a defining characteristic of the Salt. Chevy small block, big-assed rear tires (is it tubbed? Effin A!), high maintenance paint job, total lack of utility in the real world, you bet. No wonder I love coming to this place.
Falcon Ranchero
So I’m walking through the pits and I espy a nicely prepared Ranchero. Bears looking into.
Sweet Nissan inline six
When I looked into the engine bay I was surprised to find an inline Nissan six, something you might expect to find in a 240-280 Z or early Maxima. I quizzed the crew as to why this engine was in this truck, the response was “modifying a Ford pushrod six would have been too expensive”. With minimal mods, the team hoped to run 150 mph (241 kph).
1950 Studebaker Diesel
When attempting to set a record you begin by assessing the record you want to crush and plan from there.
Really?
Hmm. World’s Fastest Bio-Diesel 1950 Studebaker. I checked the rule book and there isn’t a class for this particular achievement. The car was running a 235 cu. in. Isuzu Diesel and had run just over 93 mph (150 kph) on previous runs.
1971 Triumph TR-6
GT6s weren’t particularly good street cars but they seem to make bodacious inline racers, at least when Black Salt Racing stuffs them with a twin turbo 360 cu. in. Chevy Small Block V8. In October 2012 this car set a record at 370 mph (595.5 kph). And by the way, it’s front wheel drive.
Front wheel drive
Black Salt Racing is out of Stateline, NV in the Lake Tahoe/Carson City area. Check out more photos at their website: blacksaltracing.com
A Monument to Bad Taste
So what’s up with bad taste? It could said that much of what one sees on the Salt parking lot is in bad taste. From this perspective nothing seems amiss. But when you get up close to this A one sees that the metalflake is the size of dimes. El puko mundo.
1953 Ford F100
The grille says 1953, and the class painted on the side of the hood indicates that this truck is running a flattie, the last year Ford pickups came with the flathead. For you brougham fans (you know who you are), the two-tone paint job is chubtastic. The number of Speed Week decals on the windshield indicate that this vehicle has been coming to the Salt for some time.
Packard Rat Rod
Rat rods are rat rods. But powered by actual Packard power? Rare.
1952 Chevy
Let’s take a car that wasn’t all that good looking to begin with, and see if we can hit it with an ugly stick and make it look worse. Whoever built this turd succeeded admirably in spite of hooded headlights, Dodge spinner hubcaps, and a chopped top. The grille treatment is sorta WTF?
Alfa Duetto
Yah, I know this isn’t an actual Duetto, but I’m too lazy to do the research to determine which model it actually is. Who gives a rat’s ass? The thing is yellow! And this “thing” ran 222 mph (357 kph) in 2008.
1937 Chevy
I have profiled this Chevy before, but this was the first time I was able to hear the car launch from the starting line. OMG! The 302 GMC with a Wayne head sounded orgiastic. God, I love inline sixes. This car is a class record holder at 157 mph (253 kph).
Aussie Monaro
Ferrari 475
Man, this just proves that you can’t paint a Ferrari blue and expect it to run fast. These guys were running in C/GT and had run 191 mph (307 kph) on a 230 mph (370 kph) record. Ugly.
Next Up: Bonneville 2013
Waiting for the bikes. Especially like the stude diesel and nissan ranchero but the 37 chevy with the GMC is something I would drive to watch.
Good collection Kevin.
All those cars on all that salt – would wreck havoc on my blood pressure…
Neat! I’ve been to Bonneville, but out of season when there was a foot of water on the whole thing. It’s on the bucket list to go back.
Kevin, is the ultra-high UV rating on the salt making your eyes overly sensitive? Don’t be so hard on the weird vehicles, you can enjoy them visually without having to deal with them daily. Like where do they put that COE camper when they’re not using it? And just what would you do with a stock Anglia anyway? May as well rat rod it. Not my cup of tea, but why not?
Doug,
Let me take a moment to remove my tongue from my cheek to say that if I don’t find a vehicle to be of interest, be it on the salt or on the street, I don’t photograph it.
You bring up a good point. What else would you do if you owned an Anglia but stuff it full of SBC and fat tires? Pure Euclidian reasoning.
By the way, I lost my mind long before I made it to Bonneville, but I feel comfortable there, high UV levels and all.
Wow a HK Munro the little Ford van is actually a Thames UK Ford commercial brand name and while I love a loewy Stude my factory stock 1905cc Citroen diesel is a whole lot faster I can hit 150kmh with a gear left over, cool mods on some of them and a RB30 would be a better Nissan engine to hotrod look at the Godzilla Skyline or the turbo 87 Holden Commodore thats what they used and yep they will fit an early Falcon.
Looks like and Escort badge (without enlarging the pic) which would be correct for a van. Edit – doh! should have scrolled down a bit more! Also have to love that novelty plate too.
You are right on the RB30’s, I’ve seen one run 155mph in the quarter mile on a stock driveline, no tubs or cage and I think it was driven 150 miles to the track (on road tyres not the slicks obviously). Roughly low 8sec ET but the dump pipe was tripping the beam so didn’t get a proper time.
I’m wondering if they used the Nissan L-series motor because of easier availability vs the RB-series? The US Z and RWD Maxima were fitted with the L, but I don’t think the RB was available in the States in anything. And like your Citroen Bryce, my RD28 Laurel can do over 150km/h (although anything over 160 requires a reeeeeeealy long straight!). And I run it on Gull biodiesel too.
Not an Anglia but the first Ford Escort,the Anglia/Prefect wagon of the late 50s from Dagenham UK,not Detroit although a few left hookers were sold stateside.There was a woody version called the Squire.A neighbour had a pale green one
Your right and the barebones Escort is the rarest model.
The Monaro looks good, until you notice the cancerous black growth on the hood.
Take a bet the original 327 aint under that either?
Close, but I talked to the owner/driver and he said that he was running a 357 NASCAR SBC.
Chur a bolt in conversion I like it
Yes, that White COE is a beautiful beast. And you’re right: I wouldn’t want to drive it further than a run on the salt flats.
Old car guy…new member here. When I was reading feature…I was thinking how good looking that 52 chev was, in fact I thought a blow up of that pic would be perfect to fill up the one last empty space of wall in my in-house man cave above my die cast collection. When I read your verbal beat down, I was aghast to say the least. Since I am the newbie here, I will give your automotive taste, or lack there of, the benefit of the doubt…..
It is true…beauty is in the eye of the beholder…and opinions are like a-holes…everybody has one.
I also think my boattail riv is drop dead gorgeous !!
Love the site !! Hope you guys are not thin skinned 🙂
Pure insanity and I love every single one of them.
All great…but I WANT that Packard.