The Howey's from North Salt Lake set a 172.116 mph record in 2001 with their
straight 8 Buick powered XO/BFL Howey Doin' lakester. Still runs strong.
Wes
on 5/7/03 9:40 PM, ARDUNDOUG@aol.com at ARDUNDOUG@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 5/7/2003 6:55:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, jlance2@msn.com
> writes:
>
>> ( somebody on the list
>> used to run a straight 8 Buick in early drag races ?), I'd like to hear
>> from
>> you.
>>
>
> Lance,
> Mel Tull, from Atascadero, CA (central Calif lower Salinas Valley) showed
> up at the Salt during the late 80's or early 90's with a Buick Straight 8
> powered XXO/STR and proceeded to run something like 174 one way for an
> average of about 169. It had a stock head that was wildly ported. What put
> him into the XXO class instead of XO class was the 350 ci or so displacement
> of the engine.
> Mel was an old-time Buick drag racer from the 50's in LA and decided to
> give Bonneville a try.
> He was also working on a future project that involved taking a Buick
> Straight 8 block, cutting off the old deck and replacing it with a steel one
> that would accept 2 2000cc Toyota cammer heads. He got as far as making a
> billet crank and finishing the deck replacement when he sold the roadster to
> someone in the Northwest as I recall.
> It's kind of a moot point now since the cammer heads in X & XX classes
> have been declared ineligible.
> Mel is a welder by trade and worked at the Diablo Canyon power plant near
> Morro Bay, CA.
> One time when he was visiting me he mentioned that years ago he'd taken a
> 1930's Buick column shift tranny (inspection plate on the top), adapted a
> 1939 Ford floor box shifter to it, and had a real slick floor tranny for his
> driver.
> I mentioned that I had a similar tranny in my stash that I bought from
> veteran Bonneville/El Mirage racer Bud Morrill. We dug it out of my barn and
> lo-and-behold it was the same one.
> If you're interested in contacting Mel let me know off-list and I'll put
> you on to him.........Ardun Doug King
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