Historic Ice race car info sought

[mkamm]

Hello historic ice racers,

 

I am trying to find out anything I can about the car on the right in this picture.

 

 

This image was taken from an 8mm silent home movie that was filmed by Randy Koehler of Castleton, NY. It dates back from the late 1960's [1969 I think] during an ice race on Lake George. As I understand it, the car was built by three R.P.I. students. The body was made of ash wood. Some called it the "Cigar Car". It used a Saab 96 floor pan and running gear and the inner cavities of the body were filled with some type of foam insulation. It is reputed to be the only ice racing car ever built, that would actually float if the ice ever failed.

 

If anyone out there knows anything about this car, it's builder's, or owners, please let us know.

 

Thanks, 

Mike Kamm
(518) 674-0520

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[HAC...@aol.com]

Back when I remember this wooden whale and raced with it back in 69-70s. Looked then like a whole lot of work and was done pretty nicely. It insides were as you descrided. I do not remember it as a winning racer however.

Paul Hacker

 

In a message dated 7/20/2009 12:21:18 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, mk...@juno.com writes:

Hello historic ice racers,

 

I am trying to find out anything I can about the car on the right in this picture.

 

 

This image was taken from an 8mm silent home movie that was filmed by Randy Koehler of Castleton, NY. It dates back from the late 1960's [1969 I think] during an ice race on Lake George. As I understand it, the car was built by three R.P.I. students. The body was made of ash wood. Some called it the "Cigar Car". It used a Saab 96 floor pan and running gear and the inner cavities of the body were filled with some type of foam insulation. It is reputed to be the only ice racing car ever built, that would actually float if the ice ever failed.

 

If anyone out there knows anything about this car, it's builder's, or owners, please let us know.

 

Thanks, 

Mike Kamm
(518) 674-0520

Make sure the temperature's always just right with a new thermostat. Click now!

---

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[RiK Rydant]

Hello Paul Hacker,

              Most likely what you are looking at is a drop tank from  B-47 Bomber or other large aircraft. They were available as surplus and guys made them into  avariety of machines. Smaller fighter drop tanks were more common but this Ice Racer body looks like it came from a larger aircraft. Rome Air Base, Plattsburg Air Base, or Steward in Newburg had and sold this type of surplus drop fuel tank after the war. Take Care and stay in touch, RiK Rydant

 

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[RiK Rydant]

Hello Mike,

       Most likely what you are looking at is a drop tank from  B-47 Bomber or other large aircraft. They were available as surplus and guys made them into  avariety of machines. Smaller fighter drop tanks were more common but this Ice Racer body looks like it came from a larger aircraft. Rome Air Base, Plattsburg Air Base, or Steward in Newburg had and sold this type of surplus drop fuel tank after the war. Take Care and stay in touch, RiK Rydant

 

---

 

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From: vintageic...@googlegroups.com [mailto:vintageic...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mkamm

Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 12:18 PM
To: vintageic...@googlegroups.com

[mkamm]

Good to hear from you RiK,

 

You are correct about many streamliners being built from surplus military aircraft belly tanks, but this one was built from wood, ash to be exact. Don't ask me why, as I would have preferred a lighter aluminum belly tank as you described.

 

Paul,

 

Glad to hear you too saw this car in person. Did you talk to him/them? Was the track width of the car narrowed as well? Can you remember anything else at all?

 

Mike Kamm

face=Times-New-Roman size=2>

[Bruce Carlton]

This car was on a 3 cyl SAAB floorpan, the body was wood strips bent around bulkheads and it had urethane foam around the sides of the driver for crash absorbtion. I only remember it racing one or two weekends (Lake George for sure) so it never had a chance to be debugged. The driver was also a new racer. It was nicknamed "The Bananna". Most people made fun of it, but I thought it was quite inovative.   Bruce       --- On Mon, 7/20/09, mkamm <mk...@juno.com> wrote:

[Mike Mazoway]

I remember this car. We called it the Peach Basket. The wood strips were actually woven to make the body. It was SAAB underpinnings. I cannot recall who raced it. My first races were in the 1969 or 1970 season.  This car was not particularly competitive as it was very light and would get blown around if there was much wind. Remember it was rubber to ice back then. It was fun to watch as it would bounce off the snowbanks rather than get sucked in, and if you were following it looked huge when it was sideways across the track. If anyone knows if Phil Cooper or Earl Hurlbut or any of the old Utica gang are still around, they may be able to shed some light on the subject as it showed up at every race in Inlet that I attended back then.

 

Mike Mazoway

-----Original Message-----
From: mkamm
Sent: Jul 20, 2009 3:18 PM
To: vintageic...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [VintageIceRacersNY] Re: Historic Ice race car info sought

Good to hear from you RiK,

 

You are correct about many streamliners being built from surplus military aircraft belly tanks, but this one was built from wood, ash to be exact. Don't ask me why, as I would have preferred a lighter aluminum belly tank as you described.

 

Paul,

 

Glad to hear you too saw this car in person. Did you talk to him/them? Was the track width of the car narrowed as well? Can you remember anything else at all?

 

Mike Kamm

 

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:19:16 -0400 "RiK Rydant" <rry...@verizon.net> writes:

Hello Mike,

       Most likely what you are looking at is a drop tank from  B-47 Bomber or other large aircraft. They were available as surplus and guys made them into  avariety of machines. Smaller fighter drop tanks were more common but this Ice Racer body looks like it came from a larger aircraft. Rome Air Base, Plattsburg Air Base, or Steward in Newburg had and sold this type of surplus drop fuel tank after the war. Take Care and stay in touch, RiK Rydant

 

---

 

---

From: vintageic...@googlegroups.com [mailto:vintageic...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mkamm

Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 12:18 PM
To: vintageic...@googlegroups.com

Subject: [VintageIceRacersNY] Historic Ice race car info sought

 

Hello historic ice racers,

 

I am trying to find out anything I can about the car on the right in this picture.

 

 

This image was taken from an 8mm silent home movie that was filmed by Randy Koehler of Castleton, NY. It dates back from the late 1960's [1969 I think] during an ice race on Lake George. As I understand it, the car was built by three R.P.I. students. The body was made of ash wood. Some called it the "Cigar Car". It used a Saab 96 floor pan and running gear and the inner cavities of the body were filled with some type of foam insulation. It is reputed to be the only ice racing car ever built, that would actually float if the ice ever failed.

 

If anyone out there knows anything about this car, it's builder's, or owners, please let us know.

 

Thanks, 

Mike Kamm
(518) 674-0520

[mkamm]

Thank you everyone for all of your replies. I've never known of a car with so many nicknames. So far we have "Cigar car", "Peach basket", and "Banana car".  There were probably more. It's too bad that the car was not taken seriously or appreciated by most. I think it is creativity like this that makes early ice racing so interesting. There aren't many racers left today that have that kind of creativity for "thinking outside the box" [or more importantly race organizations that allow such creativity]. Thanks to  A.M.E.C. 's club officers and members, ice racing has always been unique in that perspective.

 

I'd love to take David LaChance up on his offer to include the picture in the "Lost and Found" section of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car magazine, but frankly I don't have the capability to generate a high resolution image from an 8mm movie film.  Randy and I originally simply videotaped the 8mm movies while projecting them on a movie screen. I then generated the still frame image with my camcorder's still picture mode from the tape. Unfortunately, my camcorder's still image capability is only one megapixel.

 

Mike Kamm

A.M.E.C.

 

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:37:57 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Mike Mazoway <mcma...@earthlink.net> writes:

I remember this car. We called it the Peach Basket. The wood strips were actually woven to make the body. It was SAAB underpinnings. I cannot recall who raced it. My first races were in the 1969 or 1970 season.  This car was not particularly competitive as it was very light and would get blown around if there was much wind. Remember it was rubber to ice back then. It was fun to watch as it would bounce off the snowbanks rather than get sucked in, and if you were following it looked huge when it was sideways across the track. If anyone knows if Phil Cooper or Earl Hurlbut or any of the old Utica gang are still around, they may be able to shed some light on the subject as it showed up at every race in Inlet that I attended back then.

 

Mike Mazoway

 

This car was on a 3 cyl SAAB floorpan, the body was wood strips bent around bulkheads and it had urethane foam around the sides of the driver for crash absorption. I only remember it racing one or two weekends (Lake George for sure) so it never had a chance to be debugged. The driver was also a new racer. It was nicknamed "The Banana". Most people made fun of it, but I thought it was quite innovative.

 

Bruce

---

 

---

From: vintageic...@googlegroups.com [mailto:vintageic...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mkamm
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 12:18 PM
To: vintageic...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [VintageIceRacersNY] Historic Ice race car info sought

 

Hello historic ice racers,

 

I am trying to find out anything I can about the car on the right in this picture.

 

 

This image was taken from an 8mm silent home movie that was filmed by Randy Koehler of Castleton, NY. It dates back from the late 1960's [1969 I think] during an ice race on Lake George. As I understand it, the car was built by three R.P.I. students. The body was made of ash wood. Some called it the "Cigar Car". It used a Saab 96 floor pan and running gear and the inner cavities of the body were filled with some type of foam insulation. It is reputed to be the only ice racing car ever built, that would actually float if the ice ever failed.

 

If anyone out there knows anything about this car, it's builder's, or owners, please let us know.

 

Thanks, 

Mike Kamm
(518) 674-0520

 

 

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