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Code: R18002
Price: $189.95
Exterior: Red/White
Interior: Black
Manufacturer: Autoart
Scale: 1:18
Limited Edition: 1,000
Status: In Stock
Highly detailed and very accurate reproduction
of the actual car. Features removable engine
cover to show the fully wired and plumbed motor.
Some history about the car:
Alex Xydias and his So-Cal Speed Shop built the
fastest unblown flathead-powered car in the history of
Bonneville in 1951. It may be a slight exaggeration
to call this land bullet a car; in fact it is as
much airplane as car.
Its body is a World War II 315 gallon belly tank from a
surplus P-38. Lockheed had spent lots of time in the
wind tunnel with these tanks making them aerodynamically
"slippery" and they were available as war surplus for
$5.00.
It was August of 1948 when Alex installed a
"souped-up" Vic Edelbrock Sr. built Ford 156 cu. in.
V8-60. Alex took this special car to El Mirage dry
lake in California and set a class record of 130.155.
Initially the car was run as a streamliner, but the
Southern California Timing Association (SCTA)
created a special class for these fuel tank cars
calling them "lakesters".
At the Bonneville Salt Flats
the So-Cal Speed Shop team used the V8-60 to set a class
record at 145.395. They swapped out the V8-60 for a larger
259 inch Mercury flathead and set another class record
at 181.085. They then put in a 296 inch Mercury flathead
and set yet another class record at 195.77 setting a
one-way speed of 198.34 mph.
This last class record was
broken again the next day by Mal Hoopster running 197.88
in a Chrysler Hemi powered lakester in the same
class, but the one-way speed still stands as the
fastest speed ever achieved by a normally-aspirated
flathead-powered car.
At the 1952 Bonneville Speedweek,
this car was voted the "Most Honored Car in the History
of Bonneville".
