Replica of Bonneville Tank Belly Racer Is Rolling History Display
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Here’s the scene: it’s the late 1940s, and the Second World War has finally drawn to a close. Servicemen are trading uniforms for civilian duds, but still crave the adrenaline of screaming across the sky at 500 miles per hour in fighter planes like the North American P-51 Mustang and the Grumman Hellcat. The solution was obvious: scrounge up parts from those now-mothballed aircraft and use them to build some of the hairiest high-speed racers the world has ever seen.
That’s the innovative, DIY philosophy that gave the Bonneville Salt Flats its famous belly tank racers or “lakesters.” They were bullets from the sky—given wheels and big horsepower in a bid to set land speed records and scare the living daylights out of pilots. Built from the disposable fuel tanks affixed to aircraft for longer missions, these early hot rods were among the first performance vehicles to recognize the importance of slippery aerodynamics.
There's really not much separating drivers from glory and disaster in these minimalist speed demons.
Very few original lakesters are still screaming down the salt today, partly due to skyrocketing collector values. It’s not unusual to see the more celebrated cars trading past the six-figure mark. If you love the history of American speed, however, there's a brisk trade in replica tank belly racers like this one for sale on eBay Motors - opens in new window or tab..
There are a few caveats. This particular tank belly hails from the right era—it’s built around a Corsair fuel pod (although in WW2 the Corsair was a prop plane, and not a jet as the listing claims). However, some key components are missing: the engine, the transmission, and anything resembling a drivetrain. In fact, this particular example is actually a display replica using period parts to look exactly like a functional lakester.
It took the same intestinal fortitude to pilot a WW2 fighter plane as it did to soar low across the salt at Bonneville.
Could you pay the affordable asking price on this tank belly stand-in and then install your own running gear to get it going? The seller says somebody with keen engineering skills could probably transform it into more than a very cool garage prop—its safer and more likely function. After all, it does roll and steer with its own yoke. There's really only one way to find out. Just make sure you have a lot of open space ahead of you—and tons of safety gear—before you fire it up and take it on a maiden voyage.
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