Belly Tank Racer
The drop tank was designed to extend flying time by acting as a portable fuel cell that could be dropped once empty. That way, the pilot could more nimbly engage the enemy. They're also known as belly tanks or wing tanks depending on where they were attached to the plane. During WWII, they were available for the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, North American P51 Mustang, Northrop P-61 Black Widow, and other combat aircraft.
After the conflicts ended, thousands of the tanks languished in military surplus yards, and racers soon noticed. They snapped up the slickest shapes that would work the best as race machines. They were, and are, fast little suckers. Before WWII, streamliners ran just over 100 mph—today, more than 360 mph!
In early dry lakes racing, the Southern California Timing Association only recognized roadsters and coupes. They soon accepted streamliners because racers wanted to test new theories of aerodynamics. This morphed into many classes, and lakesters got their own game when they split from the streamliner class.
The attraction was that exposed-wheel lakesters were much easier to build than enclosed-wheel streamliners. The tank gave you the whole body, you could stuff bits of a Model T frame and a flathead motor inside and add Ford axles on both ends, and you were nearly done. That's what the builder of the first recognized postwar tank, Bill Burke, did.
Over the next 60 years, tankers went from junkyard bombs to finely crafted speed weapons. Flathead Fords were a classic source of power, but like every form of dry lakes racing, there are now broad classifications of engines sizes. What makes them interesting is that although they all have a vaguely familiar look, none is the same. This is a wide-open class that builders can interpret with some wild combinations. Don't think that just because it's a vintage style that it's a dying classification. At the 2016 SCTA Speed Week, 30 cars registered for the lakester class. It's a class where nothing is normal, and tanks and lakesters offer a hot-rodding history lesson. Here's a look at the racers from Speed Week 2016 and the cars that inspired them.
