Mike Barillaro staging in his period-inspired belly tanker at The Race of Gentlemen. Photos by the author.
Very few cars command such excitement among hot rodders as the belly tanker. These streamliners represent the quintessence of postwar automotive performance, combining the age-old passion for speed with newly found technical know-how and surplus military equipment in a real instance of swords being beaten into plowshares. So when we saw Mike Barillaro sitting on the tire of his belly tanker in the pits at this year’s Race of Gentlemen, we were understandably enthusiastic.
As you know, this style streamliner has its genesis during World War II when hot rodder Bill Burke—who was serving as a pilot in the Navy—realized the automotive potential of “drop” or “belly” tanks then in use on some military aircraft.
Note the drop tank on this F-5A Lightning (a derivative of the P-38) just inboard of the engine; there is another in the same location on the other side of the fuselage. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.
In their intended application, belly tanks extended the range of aircraft tasked with escorting heavy bombers on long-range missions by increasing their fuel-carrying capacity. While these tanks were, by necessity, aerodynamic and lightweight, they could be jettisoned to diminish performance-reducing drag and the stress they would place on an airframe in the event of combat or other emergency.
The fact that they weren’t integral to the aircraft and were stockpiled as consumables made them plentiful and easy to acquire by civilian racers after the war at surplus stores like the legendary Palley Supply Company—“the gadgeteer’s heaven”—in Los Angeles.
The long fairing conceals the roll bar and channels airflow from around the low-seated driver.
What Burke, and later, others like Tom Beatty and the Reed Brothers, especially appreciated about these belly tanks was that they were just large enough to hold a driver and driveline and so provide an easy and inexpensive way for racers to acquire a workable and exceptionally streamlined body. In the past, guys running streamliners like Bob Rufi, Ralph Schenk and Ernie McAfee had to spend time, effort and money to fabricate their bodies as well as build the drivelines. Belly tanks allowed racers to concentrate more of their focus on developing ever faster powerplants.
Burke quickly proved the capability of his formula when his first belly tanker, which he built in 1946 using a 165-gallon steel drop tank from a P-51 Mustang, immediately began breaking records. In July of 1949, Suite Sixteen—his improved design using the larger, 315-gallon aluminum tank from a P-38 Lightning—became the first hot rod to post a two-way average speed in excess of 150 MPH.
A period-appropriate bomber seat, airplane-style yoke connected to a conventional 1940s-era Ford “cross-steer” box and a side-shift transmission await the pilot of Barillaro’s belly tank.
Like us, Mike Barillaro felt it was long overdue for a belly tanker to run on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, at The Race of Gentlemen (“TROG”). Mike’s not only a TROG veteran, he’s part-owner of Barillaro Speed Emporium in Knoxville, Tennessee, so he knew what he was doing when he set about building one.
Mike began by locating an appropriate belly tank. Original World War II-era tanks are rare and expensive, and he didn’t want to use a fiberglass reproduction, so he settled on a tank that, according to the stenciled information on its side, can be dated to May of 1961.
As is the case with all of the racers at TROG, Mike has a great respect for the way things were done in the past, so it’s not surprising that he then took a page right from Burke’s playbook (which, in-turn had been a page from Rufi’s) and used a narrowed Model T frame as the foundation for the belly tanker’s internal structure.
Like the front axle, the rear is integral to the structure of the car, avoiding the added weight and height of a suspension.
Also like Burke’s lakester, Mike’s “beachster” has no suspension, and the front and rear axles function both as rolling stock and structural cross members. Mike added a roll bar positioned discretely forward of the dorsal faring as added protection in the unimaginably rare event of a roll-over—perhaps a tip-off that Mike has grander plans for the car.
Such a light, streamlined vehicle wouldn’t need much in the way of exotic equipment to get it moving sufficiently fast on the beach, so Mike sourced a fairly stock 221-cu.in. Ford flathead. “The motor has been freshened up, the bottom end is pretty stock,” Mike explains. “It’s got adjustable lifters. I don’t know what it’s got for a cam. I bought the motor that way. I put the heads on it and the intake, and it just runs good.” Though the belly tanker has a push bar at the rear, it also has a starter.
The engine spins a 1948 Ford “side-shift” transmission and 4.11 gears in a ’35 banjo rear. The front axle, “cross-steer” box and split bones are all from Ford’s 1940 parts bin. “It’s pretty basic,” Mike says.
Mike’s belly tanker parked in the pits next to the 1926 T/V-8 modified he built and ran at TROG in 2014. To get in and out, the top of the tanker must be removed.
While packing everything—engine, transmission, fuel tank, steering wheel, driver—into the bomb-shaped confines didn’t make the job easy, the greatest challenge in the six-month, nights-only build was cooling.
The aerodynamic shape of the belly tank ruled out a radiator in any of the usual locations, so Mike decided to run a water-tank setup. He fabricated the metal tank—which would then be filled with water or ice—containing a conventional radiator and installed it just aft of the driver’s seat. “It seems to be doing really well,” Mike says. “We were sitting there idling for a little while—it got up to 200 degrees, but it cools off pretty quick.”
More than 144-lb.ft. of torque packed into a “five-pound sack,” so to speak. But the real difficulty was cooling; note the water-tank-type system located just fore of the engine.
So, what’s it like to drive a late-’40s early ’50s-style belly tanker on the beach? “It’s doing great,” Mike reports. “It feels really good. It’s fun … What’s weird is when it gets a little squirrely fishtailing, because you don’t feel it as bad up in the front. But other than that, it seems to be pretty stable.”
Two purpose-built could-have-been cars charge off the line: Mike in his belly tanker and Jim Loughlin in his alcohol-burning ’26 Ford modified.
This year’s Race of Gentlemen saw a significant increase in the number of unique historical and purpose-built, period-style homemade cars like Mike’s belly tanker. We can only imagine what’s in store for fans next year!
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1Gz6RJq
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