Hey , I ’ve got an thought for something to do this weekend : How about you strap yourself inside a gas storage tank from aWorld War II fighter planeand go screaming across some salinity flats at nearly 200 miles per hour ( 322 km per hour ) ? C’m on man , it ’ll be fun !
That pretty much discover venter storage tank racing , a type of automobile racing that develop in the forties and fifties using surplus plane parts fromWWII . Streaking across dry lake beds in the American West , venter tank racers were the platform that a generation of mechanics , designer and drivers used to set land focal ratio records and spark the imagination of many of today ’s gearheads .
Though it sound like something that a XC - kid - turn - marketing - executive dreamed up for the X Games , belly tank racing is an important part of hot rod finish and a jolly old activity . Belly cooler racers started in the forties ( yes , your gramps ’s generation fabricate it ) , and while the classic racers are now importanthistorical artifactsthat are too worthful to slipstream anymore , the descendants of those original hot rodders and their belly tank cars still race across lake beds for amphetamine record and line-shooting rights . Of course , today ’s lakester race cars are more technically advanced , safer and faster than the original , but they do n’t have the prayer of being made from redundant military component part .
When you take some cast of characters - off gas storage tank , add together in some big engines , plenty of spare sentence and a dry lake bottom , you have the perfect recipe for weekend wrench warrior setting speed records in their belly tank racers . Feel like squeezing yourself into an sometime gas tank ? Strap in and squeeze your golden rabbit ’s groundwork — we ’re proceed belly army tank racing . Keep reading to see how dauntless drivers , innovative mechanics and $ 35 Charles Frederick Worth of military sword raced into the history books .
Where Belly Tank Racers Come From
One of the literal shortcomings of some WWII fighter plane was their range . They just could n’t hold enough petrol for some of the missions they were require to fly . That ’s where drop-off tanks , or belly tanks , come in . Belly armoured combat vehicle were supplemental petrol tanks . They ’d be strapped to the venter of the plane to supply extra fuel , which in tour provided additional fast-flying stove . When the tank was empty , the buffer would plainly jettison it .
And while this military computer hardware was progress for a specific design , it reverse out that those stomach tanks are very good at something entirely unlike . abdomen tanks make great wash cars , especially if you ’re trying to set a land f number disc on adry lake layer . And not surprisingly , their preferred racing locale is also how belly storage tank racers fix their other name : lakesters .
The original use of a belly tank car avail make it ideally suited for purpose as a slipstream car torso . If you ’re strapping something the to the belly of a plane to increase its flying range , the last affair you desire to do is have a negative impact on how far the airplane can wing . That is , you do n’t want to add so much air current resistance that you terminate up burning more fuel by carrying the belly tank than the tank itself can take hold . so as to minimize wind resistance and maximize fuel economy , belly tanks had to be very flowing . venter tanks await like elephantine heater and are about asaerodynamicas they come .
After World War II terminate , abdomen tank car ended up in nimiety and combat yards . Hot rodders took observation . Beyond the belly tank ’s super - firm shape , car builder noticed that the rear of the stomach tank was just all-embracing enough to install a car locomotive engine block and rear end . fall in that hot rodders were already build and speed their own creations made from a jumble of machine section , adding an airplane fuel tank was n’t that farfetched — especially when the excess tanks could be bought for about $ 35 [ sources : Wise;Wilkinson ] .
Belly Tank Racer Design
If you ’re driving around in an oldgas tank , you should n’t anticipate a set of creature comforts , which is good , because belly tank racers do n’t provide any . In a belly tank automobile driver , the driver sit down in a tiny compartment about Battle of Midway in the tank . little trap are cut in the tanks for number one wood to dig their heads out . Some belly tank race car have bubbles or cages that go over the driver ’s head , but many do n’t . Lakesters also usually do n’t have windshields , so pack your racing goggles and be prepared to get a lot of sand in your teeth [ germ : Wise ] .
The first belly tank racers used a front engine design , where the engine sat in front of the machine driver . They used this frame-up mainly because the first belly tanks they used were 165 - gallon ( 625 - liter ) tanks fromP-51 Mustangs . When racer made the switch to larger 315 - gallon ( 1,192 - cubic decimetre ) tank taken from P-38 Lightning sheet , there was way to put the engine behind the driver , and that ’s how most abdomen tankers and lakesters were laid out from then on . The type of engine varies , but for most venter automobile driver , the bigger the engine , the good . Classic belly cooler racers had American - made engines because of their handiness to hot rodders at the time . Record - setting engine for belly armored combat vehicle automobile driver admit Ford , Mercury and Chrysler V-8s [ germ : Wilkinson ] .
Because of the fuddled confines of a venter armored combat vehicle race car , the wheel are n’t under the organic structure of the machine . Rather , they stick out to the side in the front and rear . While it may look a little goofy , it gives the racer more stability than add on the wheels under the car ’s very narrow-minded torso . constancy is important , because unlike modern race gondola , belly tank racers do n’t have spoilers [ source : Wilkinson ] . In engineering , spoilers are n’t just what you see on message boards ( i.e. , " spoiler alerting : Snape kills Dumbledore " ) , they ’re wings on the binding of cars . When a railcar is driven at high speeds , it will begin to go up more or less off the ground . Aspoilerforces the elevator car back down to firm contact with the ground . venter tank racers do n’t have spoilers , and because of the focal ratio at which they travel , plus their light weight , a bad gibbosity or cross breeze could air them airborne .
fuck off a spare fuel tank and an itch to progress a riotous motorcar ? Keep reading — today ’s lakesters have some bighearted shoes to fill .
Belly Tank Racer Milestones
Aside from a fast motorcar , the one affair you need to setland speed recordsis space . Across California , Nevada and Utah are the dry beds of giant prehistoric lakes . These salty , wide - open expanses are matte and smooth . In other words , they ’re perfect for top - speed run , which is why hot rodders have been using them since the 1930s . Today ’s car have gone over 600 miles per hour ( 966 km per hour ) on the Bonneville Strategic Arms Limitation Talks flats , a rock and roll - hard lake bed in Utah that ’s synonymous with speed trials and fast motorcar [ sources : Christensen;Wise ] .
To set an official record , during the official Speed Week at Bonneville , for deterrent example , each car is give two run through the course . The average speed from those two runnel is used to determine the final speed for the machine [ beginning : Wise ] .
One of the most famous abdomen tank racers is link with Alex Xydias and his iconic So - Cal Speed store . build from the belly tank of a P-38 Lightning and powered by a 156 - cubic inch ( 396 - cubic centimeter ) V-8 , the So - Cal Speed Shop belly automobile driver bleed at an average speed of 145 miles per minute ( 233 km per 60 minutes ) at Bonneville in 1951 . Later , So - Cal swapped out theenginefor a larger one and averaged 181 mile per time of day ( 291 klick per hour ) with the young rig . They swapped the railway locomotive out yet again ( because if it work once , why not try on it again ? ) and managed to average out 195 miles per hour ( 314 kilometers per hour ) [ rootage : Barracuda Magazine ] .
Other classical abdomen race car let in the one from Mal Hoopster , which broke the So - Cal Speed Shop record with a Chrysler - powered belly tank car racer that averaged 197 miles per hour ( 317 kilometers per hour ) . Bill Burke , a red-hot rodder who worked at So - Cal Speed Shop and is wide credited with first noticing that paunch tank would make great race cars , build a belly tank racer that made it up to 131 miles per hr ( 211 kilometer per 60 minutes ) [ reference : Barracuda Magazine ] .
A classic belly tank racer from the 1940s and 50s would be expensive to grease one’s palms today , so you ’re not likely to see them at the racetrack . The So - Cal belly racer that made it up to 195 mile per hr ( 314 kilometre per hour ) is deserving well-nigh $ 200,000 today [ source : Wilkinson ] . But if you do n’t have that sort of Johnny Cash to spare , you could always head out to Speed Week at Bonneville in August and see the heirs of the paunch tank racer ’s legacy hit speeds the original manakin could only dream of .
Lots More Information
The most engrossing matter about hot rodders is how they can see at an physical object and see it used in a all young manner . The account of belly tank racers makes me a little sad though . With all we know now about automotive guard , it ’s unlikely that something like a belly tank race car would gain a lot of popularity . Still , back when no one deal about thing like roll cages or fervency suppression systems , a clustering of guys obtain a bunch of old plane fuel tank car and set about them to go really , really fast .
