Waiting in line is the #132 lakester from Scandinavian Street Rods in California. Tonight, lets take a look at some belly tank lakesters I’ve spotted at Bonneville in the last couple years. You can tell the difference cause they’re much longer. Some tanks have been borrowed from 60’s jets as well. You can still spot a few belly tanks at Bonneville today. Now picture one of these dudes hunkered down inside one of these tanks going 200 mph on the salt flats! That’s what I’m talking about! Two aircraft mechanics get ready to load a drop tank on a P-38 Lightning. Here’s a photo off the internet of a P-38 Lightning with two drop tanks chasing down a Japanese Zero in a mock battle at an airshow. Nowadays, there is at least one company I know of that makes fiberglass replicas of the P38 drop tank for racing purposes. They have a perfect aerodynamic shape, tested by the US Army Aircorp and Air Force to go at least 400mph as that was the top speed of the warbirds like the P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang and F4U-1 Corsair amongst others.
The aircraft mechanics and their buddies snatched these up and started building them into lakes racers.
These drop tanks turned racecars were cheap to come by 60 years ago or so when WWII was over. It’s the perfect combination of hot rodding and World War II warbirds, my two favorite mechanical things in this world.
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