A car made from the external fuel tank of a fighter plane to race on the Bonneville Salt Flats starting in the late 1940's. Here is some info about it.

It may be a slight exaggeration to call this land bullet a car; in fact it is as much airplane as car. Its body is a World War II 315 gallon belly tank from a surplus P-38. Lockheed had spent lots of time in the wind tunnel with these tanks making them aerodynamically “slippery” and they were available as war surplus for $5!

It was August of 1948 when Alex installed a “souped-up” Vic Edelbrock Sr. built Ford 156 cu. in. V8-60. Alex took this special car to El Mirage dry lake in California and set a class record of 130.155. Initially the car was run as a streamliner, but the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) created a special class for these fuel tank cars calling them “lakesters”.

At the Bonneville Salt Flats the So-Cal Speed Shop team used the V8-60 to set a class record at 145.395. They swapped out the V8-60 for a larger 259 inch Mercury flathead and set another class record at 181.085. They then put in a 296 inch Mercury flathead and set yet another class record at 195.77 setting a one-way speed of 198.34 mph. This last class record was broken again the next day by Mal Hoopster running 197.88 in a Chrysler Hemi powered lakester in the same class, but the one-way speed still stands as the fastest speed ever achieved by a normally-aspirated flathead-powered car. At the 1952 Bonneville Speedweek, this car was voted the “Most Honored Car in the History of Bonneville”.