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So-Cal Belly Tank Land Speed Car-replicarz

A Replicarz exclusive, produced in 1:18 scale this is the So-Cal Belly Tank Land Speed Car. Highly detailed and very accurate reproduction of the actual car. Features removable engine cover to show the fully wired and plumbed motor. Very limited edition of just 1,002 pieces. Some history about the car: Alex Xydias and his So-Cal Speed Shop built the fastest unblown flathead-powered car in the history of Bonneville in 1951. It may be a slight exaggeration to call this land bullet a car; in fact it is as much airplane as car. Its body is a World War II 315 gallon belly tank from a surplus P-38. Lockheed had spent lots of time in the wind tunnel with these tanks making them aerodynamically “slippery” and they were available as war surplus for $5.00. It was August of 1948 when Alex installed a “souped-up” Vic Edelbrock Sr. built Ford 156 cu. in. V8-60. Alex took this special car to El Mirage dry lake in California and set a class record of 130.155. Initially the car was run as a streamliner, but the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) created a special class for these fuel tank cars calling them “lakesters”. At the Bonneville Salt Flats the So-Cal Speed Shop team used the V8-60 to set a class record at 145.395. They swapped out the V8-60 for a larger 259 inch Mercury flathead and set another class record at 181.085. They then put in a 296 inch Mercury flathead and set yet another class record at 195.77 setting a one-way speed of 198.34 mph. This last class record was broken again the next day by Mal Hoopster running 197.88 in a Chrysler Hemi powered lakester in the same class, but the one-way speed still stands as the fastest speed ever achieved by a normally-aspirated flathead-powered car. At the 1952 Bonneville Speedweek, this car was voted the “Most Honored Car in the History of Bonneville”.

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