THUNDERBOWL COMET
During
the 1970s, dirt bike riding was a big part of my leisure time. My brother in
law, (step….we married step sisters) and I would frequently make the trip
from San Bernardino, where I lived, and Simi Valley, where he lived, through
Mojave and out to Red Rock Canyon. Acton, a small town, south of Palmdale, was
one of the places we passed, northbound on Hwy 14,
always caught our attention. Up on a hill, in someone’s yard, sat an old
race car. We passed that car for many years, until one time we passed, and it
was no longer there. I hadn’t thought about it until a couple days ago.
(11/15/2015) I went online to see if I could find out anything related to that
old car. Not knowing the name of the car made the search rather difficult, but
I finally came across a website that had some photos of what was, unmistakably,
the car we used to see. I emailed Jon to see if he remembered. After you look
at the pictures, you can read our correspondence.
Webpages
come, and go, and change. I took some screen grabs from the following web page.
You can click on:
http://reservatory6.blogspot.com/2012/11/thunderbowl-comet-again_16.html
or see below. You
may view the page as it appeared on 11/15/2015.
END
Some emails between
Jon and myself:
Jon!
Do you remember this? We used
to drive by this old car, when we were on our way to "Red Rock
Canyon", to go dirt bike riding. More pics at;
Regards,
Pete
His reply:
Yes,
I remember. These are some great cars in these photos.
Jon R
My reply:
Those photos are all of the
same car. It was parked in somebody's yard in Acton, at the top of a hill. It was
there during the early 70s. I don't remember exactly when it disappeared,
probably late 70s or early 80s. We stopped, one day and asked about it. The
person we talked to didn't know much except that it had attempted a land speed
record. I did a little more research, and this is what I found.
http:
This
webpage says:
The Thunderbowl Comet has appeared a number of times in Hemmings
Classic Car‘s Lost and Found department (#66, #85, and #87), and through those appearances, we’ve learned quite a
bit.
According to Ohioan Ron Carbaugh, it was built by Harlan Fengler
in the 1930s for the Metro film studio, specifically for use in the 1936 Jimmy
Stewart filmSpeed. In
the film, the car – known as the Falcon – is taken to Muroc Dry
Lake for a land-speed record attempt, but Fengler apparently believed that the
car was actually competitive and devised a plan to switch out several different
engines for different land-speed record classes. The only drivetrain we know
that powered it was one from a front-wheel-drive Cord L-29. To the best of
anybody’s knowledge, Fengler never proved the car’s
competitiveness, and it instead spent the next couple of decades promoting
different venues around Southern California. At one point, it promoted the
Carpinteria Thunderbowl, a quarter-mile dirt track, and later it promoted The
Village Inn outside Palmdale, California.
see attachments
acton
car Harl…bowl Comet.jpe
acton
car Harl…Comet.jpe1.jpg
I wish
we had taken some photos, but neither of us ever carried a camera.
He replied:
What
I received was pictures of the car we had seen on our way up to Red Rock Canyon
but also another 10 or so other strange looking cars. I remember stopping and
talking to the people who had that car. I don’t think it had an engine in
it at the time. Great memories.
Jon
When we stopped and asked about the car, I don’t
remember if it was after the car was gone. Jon thinks we stopped while it was
still there.
Today, I searched some more, and gathered enough to create
this page! I left out the most important photo of all. It shows the car, its
builder, the producer, the director, and the stars of the movie
“SPEED”. This came from a PDF.
http://sandiegoearlyfordv8club.org/FF%20Feb%202014.pdf
Here’s something else I found!
Lost
Landspeeder
There's a story behind these photos sent in to
us by Gary Ericson of Tehachapi, California, but we only know snippets of it.
Gary said these photos date from 1972, when he stopped by what he described as
an old movie ranch on Old Highway 6 south of Palmdale, to inspect the Thunderbowl
Comet, a 25-foot aluminum-sheathed bullet.
We
discovered rather quickly in our research that the Comet got
its moniker from the owner of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl, a quarter-mile dirt
oval track in the town of Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, where races ran from
1947 to 1956. He apparently ran the Comet around the track as a form of
pre-race entertainment. Before that, according to a September 1941 Popular
Mechanics article, the Comet went by the name Golden Eagle when
driver Ted Ellis aimed to break the absolute land-speed record (then at 357
MPH), using a 1,200hp 24-cylinder air-cooled engine.
That
latter claim seems dubious, for a few reasons: We've seen no record of results;
a straight-eight engine resided in the car; and in 1932, the car was apparently
built as a prop for a 1936 Jimmy Stewart movie titledSpeed.
So
what we want to know is how all these snippets of history are connected and,
most of all, where the Comet is today.
This article
originally appeared in the March, 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.
And here’s more! Website url https://en-gb.facebook.com/GyronautX1/photos/a.263382227084425.62408.247439348678713/535164896572822/
Timeline photos (screen shot)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Subject of my very first post, this formidable machine was
identified by Dan Strohl of Hemmings Daily as the Golden Eagle aka Thunderbowl
Comet. Although the car's story varies from one teller to the next, it did at
least portray a Muroc Dry Lake LSR contender in a 1936 Jimmy
Stewart B-movie called 'Speed', turning up years later as opening act at the
Carpenteria Thunderbowl, a quarter-mile dirt track near Santa Barbara,
California. As Auto Puzzles editor Ray B.
posted, "The Carpinteria Thunderbowl was operational between 1947 and
1956. Anton Krivanek reminisced about the circuit: I used to go there
when I was about 14. The guy who owned it had a great big streamliner called
the Thunderbowl Comet. It had the name painted on the side and it had a big fin
on the back end with a stylized comet with a tail of sparks and stars painted
on it. He'd trundle it around the track before the races to impress the rubes
(me). In my memory it was so long it could hardly make it around the corners...
Years later I saw it parked alongside Highway 14 out near Acton as a draw for a
sad little western roadside attraction. I told Strother MacMinn about it and he
drove out there and checked it out... He had seen it parked on the street in
Hollyweird in the late '30s or '40s. It was on a stretched L29 Cord chassis and
eventually was bought and dismantled for its Cord parts." I
recently acquired the photo above, the script on the side plugging
(indecipherable something like Egge) Speedway Carburetors of Glendale. Below is
the photo previously posted, followed by movie frame captures from IMCDB.Check
out the original shotgun/centerline fin aiming setup. Used car / rental lot
snapshot was found at H.A.M.B. Jalopy Journal and
the last four were pilfered from Auto Puzzles,
where further information and photos can be found. I thought 'Our Famous Salad
Bar' might lure Antelope Valley tourists to the Village Inn of Palmdale, California,
mentioned in a Frank Zappa song, but another Auto Puzzles photo brings Noel,
Missouri out from behind the cage post. Salad bar, honey! We really
must give it a try the next time we're 1600 miles east of here! The
distinguished gentleman smiling from the cockpit is designer Alex Tremulis,
another luminary who made the Acton pilgrimage to pay respects. According to
Strohl, the beast still exists.
