From source (14 October 2025):

Tempest on the Flats

This was the final drawing that started during my Need for Speed themed Picarto stream. It was also a request for Tempest Shadow with a vehicle designed to run on the Bonneville salt flats.

Well this struck a nerve of sorts in me. My father was heavily involved in the Southern California (So-Cal) hot rod scene in the 1950s and early 60s. Both as a direct participant by building several hot rods, lead sleds, and race cars, but also a professional photographer who did freelance photography for publications like Hot Rod magazine.

One of the vehicles he helped build, and drove several times in speed trials, was a variant of what's behind Tempest. They are a class of vehicle that go by several names ranging from Lakesters, Belly Tank Racers, and Death Traps. Link

With the end of WWII the US Military was left with what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of surplus equipment that the Government no longer had any use for and wanted to be done with. One of those items was hundreds of thousands of drop tanks for various fighter and long range patrol aircraft. Link

As their name implies drop tanks were expendable fuel tanks that were attached to the wings or the bellies of aircraft to extend those airplanes range, and if necessary to be dropped to improve maneuverability in the event of combat. So they were made in the millions. *Link

Since they were out in the slipstream drop/belly tanks had to be aerodynamic, so when young builders in the 1950s were looking for aerodynamic shapes to run out at places like Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah or various dry lakes in the Mojave Desert area of Southern California they were drawn to these tanks. These were light, cheap, aerodynamic shapes that could be purchased for the price of their scrap metal.

Back then there was no 3D printing. Even fiberglass was something generally reserved for more industrial applications. Although it would become more popular as a fabrication material as the 50s went on.

So you would usually build a Lakester by fabricating what passed for a frame inside the tank to which the engine, transmission, coolant system, fuel tank and controls were some how shoehorned into this small body. Also somewhere you had to stuff the driver into it. Crumple zones? You were the crumple zone.

I remember my dad talking about the one that he and best friend Hank built. It was powered by a Ford Flat Head V8 with an early form of mechanical fuel injection. I don't remember other specific details about it. It was fast, but after a couple of close calls they decided to sell it.

I seem to remember that the guy who bought it killed himself in it soon after during a speed run. After that my dad and Hank stuck to running modified 32 Fords and Studebakers on the lakes and flats.

Uploaded to Fur Affinity on 14 October 2025.