NEWSLETTER 43 - January 31, 2008

Editor: Richard Parks
President's Corner: By Jim Miller.
Last issue I talked a little about "if you had an idea, you could build it" and mentioned some drawings in my collection. Here they are with a little story to go with them and some more lost land speed history. This story kinda begins in the mid-thirties at 8921 David Avenue in West Los Angeles. Eddie Miller Senior is an Adviser to the AAA and has been asked to be an Observer at the up coming speed trials at Bonneville, where Campbell, Cobb, Eyston and Jenkins are going to try and break some records. Miller is familiar with record breaking as he set over 50 records himself at Muroc in '32 driving an Auburn. Anyhow, it's off to B-ville to watch Jenkins drive around in circles in version 1 of his "Meteor." After the runs, Miller goes home and designs a speedster more streamlined than Jenkins, but never finds the sponsorship to build the thing. This concept will influence later creations. A few blocks North of the Miller residence lived a young man named Bob Rufi who was building a new kind of land speed car. It wasn't long before he had talked Miller into building the exhaust system for the car. After some further modifications the car was the first to set a 140 mph record on the dirt.
A few months later it was back to work for the AAA again at Bonneville, this time to watch George Barringer drive in circles in the rear engined, 4-wheel drive, Miller-Gulf cars. Barringer set six U.S and International records on July 30, 1940. Any self-respecting speed-addict was aware of the German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union speed cars and Eddie was one of them. He also was well aware of "Goldie" Gardner's MG that also ran with them on the Autobahn. The foundation for a new record challenger was now set in Miller's mind. Rear-engined and fully streamlined and don't forget to mix in the Spalding and Harvey liners, too. But first, more side projects. Miller rebuilds Rufi's wrecked car for his daughter's soon to be husband, Charlie Beck. Then in early '42 Miller took his '21, stud-flat motor out of Pacemaker's Stuart Hilborn's '32 Ford roadster and puts it in Low Flyer's Stuart Hilborn's streamliner just purchased from Bill Warth. (Editor: Is Stuart Hillborn a member of two clubs at one time?) By mid-'43 a new OHV cylinder head design is finalized for a flattie V8. By early '45 rear swing axles from Ford parts are being built and the war is almost over so it's now time to start looking for sponsors again.
For a real job Eddie worked at MGM studios and knew everybody in the movie and racing world. For instance, he had had met Clark Gable in the early '30's through Phil Berg and took care of his Deusey and showed him around the racing world from Ascot to Indy. These associations led him to pitch some interesting folks. The first big fish was Louisiana State Senator Dudley LeBlanc. LeBlanc was the P.T. Barnum of snake oil with his Hadacol brand elixir. He came to Hollywood to get entertainers for his 'Medicine Shows' featuring the likes of Mickey Rooney, Bob Hope, Marx, James Cagney, etal, he got Miller's ear, but nothing came of it. Another was Texas wildcat oilman 'Diamond Glenn' McCarthy, who's life was the inspiration for the character Jet Rink in the novel and movie titled Giant. Again no deal was struck on sponsorship. Last one up was a little closer to home. Talks were held with old friend Gerry Grant who had sponsored and eventually bought the Hilborn car for the show circuit but by this time technology was moving so fast that the design was showing its age in Miller's eyes.
Plans to finish the car were scrapped, but some of the driveline made it into a car that actually got built. But that's another story. The liner is interesting in that it was conceived with the thought of taking multiple National records. Consider the motors for instance. They were all Ford products and there were four of them. First, there was a Model-B four-banger, then an in-line six, next up was the venerable V8 and lastly a Zepher V-12. Just unbolt one and bolt in another, real simple. It's also interesting that they could be supercharged and run on gas and then fuel. Note how well thought out the water and driveline systems are. There is one thing about the car that still mystifies me. The '47 McCarthy version was called the Texas Tornado. So I just had to include a shot of Lee Chapel's Tornado OHV-headed Flattie liner built a couple of years later and darn if it doesn't look the same. The body of Gardner's car was the inspiration for Alex Xydias' So-Cal liner right down to the lightning bolt graphic on the side and the Kenz & Leslie twin Flattie-powered ride. Wait until the next installment, I've never seen any built before this.

Editor's notes: Just about all of us have personal and private collections that are extremely valuable. Marv Jenkins in Utah has records of his father, Ab Jenkins, literally the founder of American land speed racing. My brother and I have records of the earliest days of the SCTA and from our father. Bruce Geisler has an outstanding collection. Jack Underwood has been honored by the Gold Coast Club as Historian of the Year at the Gas-Up Party and Dry Lakes Hall of Fame. Landspeed Louise Ann Noeth, Jim Miller, Glenn Freudenberger and Greg Sharp have also been honored as Historians of the Year. Greg Sharp is the Curator of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California and his collection has gone past the stage at which we consider people to be addicted to a hobby. Leslie Long in Yorba Linda has a vast collection. Ed Iskenderian is a walking collection just by himself. The list of people who have valuable artifacts, photos, programs and memorabilia that is vital to historians is huge. One of the tasks that we need to undertake is to scan the material into a computer disk and make it available to as many people as we can before decay, damage, fire and neglect destroy the objects that tell the story about our sport. Finally, there is one more source out there - YOU. Your records are invaluable to the rest of us. We may not know what you have or even how valuable it is to us. That's the problem, you may have things that we don't know about and maybe you don't feel is very valuable, so to make room for the pool table, out to the curb it goes. If we are lucky, a passing motorist will stop and pick up that 1939 SCTA Trophy, a one of a kind sort of artifact and take it home, not realizing the value or meaning. Otherwise it will end up at the bottom of a dump, or if it's metal, melted down to make one of those cheap Tatas from India we hear about. Even if you know and respect the value of the object, will your children? Will your grandchildren know and appreciate the historic significance of your treasures? Just think of the dozens and dozens of trash cans filled with the treasures of our fellow land speed racers that were carted out to the street so that the distant relatives could sell the property to get their hands on whatever money they could. We have a great many members who possess a vast amount of historical artifacts and it is our responsibility to preserve, save and leave these objects to those who will appreciate them as we do and in turn, find a good home within the generations to come.

Elmer (Bud) Vess, My Grandfather, has a picture of his hotrod in the January 1948 Hot Rod Magazine, page 13. They misprinted his name (Almer Vess) under the picture, center of magazine right page, lower left picture, Car #803-A. I have another picture that must have been in 1948 or '49 with a longer tail and the #917-A. He ran a 1927 body with a cut down 1939 Buick front end and a V8-60 power plant. He had 12” Crosley front wheels and used different size wheels on the back. The story goes that you could put a short pack of 'Lucky Strikes' cigarettes upright on the ground and the car would knock it over with the front axle. I have some pictures. Interesting note: the car was painted OD green in the beginning, then it was painted pink for the LA show in the Armory, I believe it was in 1948. The family refers to the car as 'Pinky.' I am trying to gather Bud's and the car’s information. I am 53 now. Bud was born 25 Oct 1912 in Phoenix, AZ. He died on 16 Mar 1974 in La Mesa, CA. I didn't have the insight to collect the technical stories then. In the January 1948 Hot Rod Magazine picture my dad, Elmer Jr born 22 Jan 1935 in El Centro, CA - Died 20 Nov 1997 in New Plymouth, ID, is in the car. He was a teen then and didn't recall much of the building of the car. The car was built in '46 and disassembled in '55 when I was born. I have the original California title that is in our shared name and I always knew that I would get the car. I believe the car mostly ran in those years at El Mirage. The stories I have are not of the racing but of the battle between my teenage father and my grandfather. The car was disassembled for modification to be lengthened; it was never reassembled due to my grandfathers moving. A family disagreement resulted in many pieces being lost (sold). I have spent years reassembling the car and I am close. One of the stories is about Bud, Grandpa removing three of the spark plugs to keep my father from racing around Holtville, California. Then about Dad driving a couple of blocks and putting some spark plugs back in. Then there was the one where my father would complain about Grandpa always knowing where in town he was. Grandpa would stand outside his residence, listen for the sound of the car, then go in the house and call where dad was and tell him to get home. Another story is about Dad racing around town with the police close behind. Grandpa owned a garage and when Dad was passing the garage he noticed an open bay with a lift, so he whips into the stall and lifts the car in time that when the police drove by, they didn’t see the car. It wasn’t long before the police identified the car and they would just go to the house and wait for him to come home. I have pictures, and some 16mm film. Bud raced a midget when he was 19, about 1929. There is some information with Arizona Midgets. I have a few pictures. Elmer Lawerance (Larry) Vess III, Tacoma, WA

The following is an article written by Landspeed Louise Ann Noeth. "Champagne Set Toasts Ab Jenkins."
While more than 540 entries brought themselves to the starting line at the 59th annual Bonneville Nationals this past August, a land speed racing historical marker was cemented with the champagne set a few hundred miles due west at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Ab Jenkins’ Mormon Meteor was chosen as “Best of Show” – a first for any land speed car. The Pebble show is an oh-so veeerrrrry fancy car show where entrants try years to gain an invitation on the green to be judged with intense scrutiny. Think Riddler Award, or AMBR in a tux. Jenkins’ Meteor is one of only a handful of race machines to have ever claimed top honors. I’ll bet Ab is smilin’ down from his Mormon heaven. This is where Ralph Lauren walked off with the same prize years ago, as did Phil Hill, who unlike the clothing stylist set a record on the salt in a MG in the ‘50s. Back in 1935 Jenkins, always a solo act, was forced by sponsors to share driving chores and Indianapolis co-driver Tony Gulotta. The pair set several 24-hour speed endurance records despite a fire, electrical system and tire failure at speed. Jenkins’ supercharged stock engine was personally prepped by Augie Duesenberg. In 2004, sixty-nine years later, restored to glory by Chris Charlton of Maine, Jenkins’ car sold for a staggering $4.5 million at a Pebble Beach Auction held by Gooding and Company. Note: Photojournalist Louise Ann Noeth is the authoress of the award-winning book, Bonneville: The Fastest Place on Earth, a complete historical review of the first 50 years of land speed racing now out of print. To explore some of her other work log onto: www.landspeedproductions.biz, www.good-guys.com.

The speaker for the B'ville NW Reunion, Feb 23, 2008, at the Shilo Inn, Portland Airport site, will be RICK VESCO. With the family history of participation since the beginning of Bonneville, the motorcycle streamliners, his father, John's 444 streamliner, building the Turbinator and a participant in Save the Salt since it's inception, I think he will be an interesting speaker. Glenn Freudenberger, B'ville NW Reunion, 11113 37th DR SE, Everett, WA  98208   425-337-4558

Do either of you know the details surrounding the Ron "Bend'em" demise? I helped Ron on one of his projects a few years ago...he planned to build a streamliner with a Ford flathead and decided he wanted to use an aircraft external fuel tank for the body. The search took him to Sargent Fletcher, in El Monte, where I was employed. One day the plant manager came to me and stated that a guy had visited and was interested in information regarding one of our fuel tank designs he could use for his race car....and knowing my background in auto racing, would I mind speaking to him. Long story, short...we got together and I arranged to provide him with some of the scrap parts of a 370 gallon F-16 under wing tank that Sargent Fletcher manufactured in great quantity. The last I heard was that the car was completed and he ran at Bonneville, did pretty well, and sold it. Ron had a pretty nice shop at his home in El Monte. Bob Falcon
Bob: The service for Ron Benham is February 2, 2008 at 1 PM at Rose Hills off the 605 freeway. I haven't heard any more details, but hope to after some of our members return from the funeral. Ron and his son, "Stormin' Norman" were avid land speed racers and good friends. Ron was inducted into the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame in Buellton. He is given credit for building and operating cars that put more members into the 2 clubs than any man who ever lived. That's a sobriquet that he holds until our members do the research to disprove it. Benham was a kind and generous man, much like the land speed group in general. He's another friend whom I will miss dearly. If anyone out there would like to do a history or obituary on Ron, please send it to me to publish.

Gone Racin'… Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport on Wheels, by Ed Almquist. Book review by Richard Parks, photographic consultant Roger Rohrdanz
Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport on Wheels, by Ed Almquist is a hardbound book with 378 pages, that tells the story of hot rodding by developing short biographical sketches of famous racing personalities. Approximately 198 men and women are portrayed in a short one or two page segment. Although it has an encyclopedic format to the book, the writing resembles that found in magazine articles. The publisher is SAE International (Society of Automotive Engineers), located in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, and the issue date is 2000. The ISBN# is 0-7680-0232-X. The SAE is a well-known and respected society that has high standards for accuracy and research. For more information or to order this book, call the SAE at 724-776-4970. You can also buy this book at Autobooks/Aerobooks at 818-845-0707. Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport is 9 ¼ inches in height and 10 ¼ inches in width. A strange shape for one's bookcase but the quality of the work lends itself to being a coffee table book. The book has a special extra quality binding rather than the typical glued binding. The hard cover is black and the dust cover jacket is a striking roadster with a blue paint job and yellow flames. As with all dust cover jackets, take extra care because they add value and appeal to the book. Now comes the massive amount of data; 943 black and white photographs, 39 drawings and 121 color photos. In addition there are 12 ads, one map, 21 diagrams, 11 programs and 7 miscellaneous objects too difficult to categorize. The paper is non-glossy and rather thin and this does affect the quality of the black and white photos. The color photos are reproduced on glossy, waxed paper and are extremely well done. It is the sheer massive volume in Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport that will make this encyclopedic book a mainstay of your library.
The Foreword was written by Don Garlits and his enthusiasm for hot rodding and drag racing shows clearly in his writing. The Introduction was written by the author, who discloses that he spent two years writing Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport and traveled 28,000 miles in his effort to interview as many people as possible. This book is thorough and many people are chronicled in this work that have been largely forgotten as hot rodding and drag racing have matured over the decades. Almquist gives the reader little vignettes and lagniappes, or extra topics embedded into the title subjects. He tells of his encounter with Henry Ford and other interesting events. There are seven chapters that cover 367 pages of the book, though the chapters simply merge into each other. The construction of the book is based on one, two and three page biographical sketches of important men and women who played a major role in the hot rodding movement. These men and women would go into all forms of motorsports racing and work in the automotive speed equipment field. The chapter headings are designated by decades, which don't make as much sense when you are dealing with individual biographies. Wally Parks, for example, is active in motorsports from the 1930's right up through the present day (2007). Ed Iskenderian began turning out great cams since the 1940's and is still actively involved. The author provides an eleven-page index and it is very good, but I checked a few names and they were missing from the index on the pages they were listed. There wasn't a bibliography; but then again, Almquist was conducting private interviews and not researching his material in a public library.
This is living research, or field research as the experts call it, and Almquist did an excellent job. The book tends to be concentrated toward hot rodders who went into land speed time trial and drag racing. It overlooks many hot rodders who were oval track racers and road course racers. After World War II, as servicemen returned to their jobs and families, there was an explosion of enthusiasm for the car culture and racing in particular. New racing leagues formed and fell apart at a dizzying rate and men and women experimented with all types of motorsports. Many racers would race at the dry lakes then go drag racing at the nearest dragstrips that were opening up. Just as many young people would go racing in oval track and road course racing. There is scant mention of men like Walt James, Danny Oakes and Rodger Ward in the book, yet each of them were hot rodders too. But Dick Wallen writes excellent books about oval track racing and it would be rather burdensome to include everything. Almquist is on to something here and with a bit of encouragement, maybe we can prod the author into doing another sequel to this book. There are more men and women who need their stories told and their day in the sun. Some of the hot rodders mentioned in Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport are: Don Garlits, Dave Marquez, Jack Mendenhall, Barney Navarro, Craig Breedlove, Wally Parks, Robert 'Pete' Petersen, Alex Xydias, Dick Martin, Eddie Meyer, TV Tommy Ivo and Don Francisco. Clay Smith is portrayed but not his mentor, Pierre Bertrand, who was Ed Winfield's competitor for quality cams. Almquist found as many jewels as he left out. A special recognition must be awarded to the author for noticing Dave Marquez and Jack Mendenhall who are often overlooked but who inspired many young hot rodders. Hot Rod Pioneers, the Creators of the Fastest Sport fulfills a great need for a fact filled book that includes a large selection of famous hot rodders. Gone Racin' is at RNPARKS2@JUNO.COM.

Computing folks are catching on. Several years ago, Apple abandoned its old OS, (now called Classic) and changed to a new Operating System (OS-X) which has a Berkeley Unix kernel (the piece of the System that interprets commands for the CPU) plus a new user interface to manage your applications and interaction. BSD, as a Unix kernel is very different from MS-DOS (the kernel in Windows) in the way it lets applications interact with the CPU and the things stored in memory. Where DOS still has many exploitable "holes," Unix folks have been diligent in correcting such things. The virus that exploits the DOS kernel is simply not recognized by the BSD kernel. The BSD programmers continually "tighten" the kernel, and Apple includes their changes. So you can connect a Mac to the Internet, get your mail, and browse Web sites -- and just smile when someone warns you of a new virus going around. You can also smile when Windows folks need to reboot -- Unix-based systems run month after month without needing to reboot. Connecting a new modem? Still no need to reboot. Want to change from WiFi to your phone modem or ethernet? A single select gets you there.
There is also a hardware difference: a Mac does not use a "BIOS" to boot up. So both Apple and 3rd party vendors have written programs (emulators) that will let you run Windows on a (Intel) Mac -- if you should want to do that. Also, Mac has a line of computers, called "iMac" that are much more designed for the home than the usual "gray box." They include all the stuff you need to connect via USB, Fire-Wire, WiFi, and Blue Tooth, and the apps that will let you work with text, PDF, Word, photos (your camera), video (your camcorder), Internet, Web, and audio (e.g., iTunes) files. That "stuff" is what Apple has built on top of the BSD kernel; all safe from the virus that will infect and cripple DOS-based computers.
Granted, the "user's desktop" philosophy is a bit different. Apple does not label drives as "A, B, C, etc."; instead any connected or installed and/or partitioned drive is displayed on the desktop by its name, or the name of the media that is in the drive (such as a Zip drive). Each connected drive is displayed in the upper right of the desktop; just double click on it to open it and see what is in it. (Any networked drive is similarly displayed -- no need to open "Network Neighborhood.") In addition, all your apps, selected directories and files can be included in a "menu bar" on the bottom (or left side -- you choose) of your screen. An included app called Preview will open Word files, images, or most anything folks send you. iPhoto is super at managing your photos, and iTunes is about the finest music server you can find.
Want to be uber-safe? Your new Mac, which has OS 10.5 on it, plus an external hard drive will let you, via the new "Time Machine" feature, glide quickly back to previous versions of your files. Whenever you want to go back to; all safely kept on your external drive.
Apple has also adopted PDF Display to present information on your desktop. So if you want to open a PDF document, just double-click it. If you want to create a PDF document, just Print; Print to PDF, and give it a name.
Those, and other nice things, are why folks smile knowingly when you use your Mac. Granted, I've just touched the surface. Go to your local Apple store and let them show you what a nice experience you can have. (They can also show you terra-byte servers or multi-processor Mac towers, and recently ultra-thin notebooks, if you need such hardware...)
I've managed labs which included everything from IBM, DEC, Tandem, SGI, Sun, and Cray computers to PCs. In my experience, Apple has always seemed to be on top of the "user-experience" curve. These days, it's a good bet to keep a Windows machine around if you have one with some legacy stuff, but only connect your Mac (or a Unix system) to the Internet. And when you've had time to get acquainted with OS-X you'll realize that any other system had been like banging your head against a wall. Enjoy your computing anew,
Curtis Parks

Check out the CRA Reunion story under "Events." Roger Rohrdanz;
http://speedstylemagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=33 
Roger: Many of the oval track racers got their early experience at the dry lakes. The last picture shows famous big band singer, Martha Tilton. She was the sister of SCTA founding Secretary, Arthur Tilton. The Pete Dean Award was originally the Arthur C. Tilton Award, a trophy bought and paid for by Margaret Tilton, Art's mother, to honor an SCTA member for each year who had exhibited the greatest sportsmanship. The first person to receive the Art Tilton/Pete Dean Award was Tony Capanna. Does anyone know why Capanna was chosen? Why the award's sponsoring name was changed to the Pete Dean Award is not known, but it does no honor to the SCTA to have forgotten the importance of Art Tilton and his contributions to the Southern California Timing Association. This is not to say that Pete Dean should not have been honored, only NOT with the trophy bought and paid for by the mother of a man who died while on active duty during WWII. A separate award should have been created to honor Pete Dean rather than scavenging the trophy of one of the SCTA's major founders.
Addendum by Jim Miller: The Art Tilton trophy became the Pete Dean Memorial Sportsmanship Trophy. Pete died at El Mirage in May 1984 after crashing his roadster. The Tilton trophy name was then changed to the Dean Trophy. Art is not forgotton by a lot of us racers. We know without him the SCTA would not have survived the early days.

Does it continue to be published? Cannot recall how long it has been since the last was received. Just want to ascertain that I was not accidentally dumped from the mailing list. Thanks, Bob Falcon
Bob: The newsletter normally goes to www.landspeedracing.com and other sites on Wednesdays. Landspeedracing.com then takes the newsletter and sends it back out on an emailed list to the 75-plus members so that they can get the newsletter and read it as a regular email. This saves me some time. Then landspeedracing.com puts it on their website and archives the issues so that people can go back and review and save whatever they are missing. It became impossible for me to do that function due to the volume of work that has come my way. Evelyn Roth from www.oilstick.com and Tina Van Curen co-owner of Aerobooks / Autobooks in Burbank, California, also archive the newsletters on their sites. Part of the confusion lies in the fact that I cut off the newsletter based on size and therefore might send only one newsletter a week, or sometimes as many as three per week. Always check the number on the newsletter and that will tell you which newsletter you are missing.

Members:

Jonathan Amo, Brett Arena, Henry Astor, Gale Banks, Glen Barrett, Mike Bastian, Lee Blaisdell, Jim Bremner, Warren Bullis, George Callaway, Gary Carmichael, John Chambard, Jerry Cornelison, G. Thatcher Darwin, Jack Dolan, Ugo Fadini, Bob Falcon, Rich Fox, Glenn Freudenberger, Don Garlits, Bruce Geisler, Stan Goldstein, Andy Granatelli, Walt James, Wendy Jeffries, Ken Kelley, Mike Kelly, Bret Kepner, Kay Kimes, Jim Lattin, Mary Ann and Jack Lawford, Fred Lobello, Dick Martin, Ron Martinez, Tom McIntyre, Don McMeekin, Bob McMillian, Tom Medley, Jim Miller, Don Montgomery, Bob Morton, Mark Morton, Paula Murphy, Louise Ann Noeth, Frank Oddo, David Parks, Richard Parks, Wally Parks (in memoriam), Eric Rickman, Willard Ritchie, Roger Rohrdanz, Evelyn Roth, Ed Safarik, Frank Salzberg, Dave Seely, Charles Shaffer, Mike Stanton, David Steele, Doug Stokes, Bob Storck, Zach Suhr, Maggie Summers, Gary Svoboda, Pat Swanson, Al Teague, JD Tone, Jim Travis, Randy Travis, Jack Underwood and Tina Van Curen, Richard Venza.

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