Alex Xydias, founder of the So-Cal Speed Shop, built his famous red-and-white belly tank special from the wing tank of a P-38 Lightning aircraft. "It was designed by the Air Force," Xydias says. In 1951, he ran the car at Bonneville, using three different engines (including a 156-cubic-inch flathead V8 and a 296-cubic-inch Mercury engine that made 300 hp) to set speed records in three different classes, with a top run of over 198 mph. "As I remember, I screamed all the way through the traps," Xydias says. |
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