San Jose Gear Jammers

[bighammer]

Wondering if anyone can tell me anything about this car. It belonged to friends of my family whom I've known for most of my life. I know very little about the car, but I do have a few photos of it.

For anyone that hasn't seen one of these before, it is a car which was fabricated out of an airplane fuel tank. I don't know what was used for the chassis, but it looks like a big ol V8 stuffed in there.

I'll post a couple more pictures

 

[bighammer]

Any idea what engine / chassis that is?

 

[bighammer]

Another shot

 

[bighammer]

Engine shot:

 

[67redcudavert]

Those "belly tankers" typically used pieces of different car suspensions fastened to a custom fabbed frame. As for the engine, I know a flathead when I see one.

The idea of the belly tank racer was formed by a WWII vet who was a Socal dry lakes racer before the war. He saw one of those tanks while serving out in the south pacific and thought "this would make a good race car" and then after he was home in '46 bought one as war surplus, built the first belly tanker and the rest is history.

I believe he was one of the original staff members when Hot Rod magazine started out in '48. He started out racing on the California dry lakes in the 30s then continued after the war and also raced at Bonneville for many years with his son and grandsons. I had the honor of meeting him at Bonneville in '88. His name is Bill Burke.

 

[bighammer]

Thanks for the extra history on the cars 67redcudavert.

 

[bighammer]

In my ignorance about the engine pics.. What the heck is it? There are 8 spark plugs, but looks like only 6 exhaust ports??

 

[DNasty777]

In my ignorance about the engine pics.. What the heck is it? There are 8 spark plugs, but looks like only 6 exhaust ports??

"Valves for each bank were mounted inside the triangular area formed by the 'Vee' of cylinders. The intake manifold fed both banks from inside the 'Vee' but the exhaust had to pass between the cylinders to reach the outboard exhaust manifolds."

Interesting design idea, I never knew that until now either!

 

[67redcudavert]

The end cylinders each got their own exhaust port but the two middle cylinders had to share a single port. Besides being restrictive it put a lot of extra heat into the engine and sometimes cracking in the deck surface by the two center exhaust valves.