WOW! Gassers, Alterds, Funnys, Fuel Coupes, Dyno Don Nicholson, Don Garlits, Bill Grumpy Jenkins, Sox and Martin, the Hell On Wheels wheelstander, panel painted Corvettes, Linda Vaughn, and much more. I think I need a cigarette now.
Thanks for posting Don.
Great videos! Awesome watching the Hell On Wheels tank ... Speaking of, by the way .... Forgive me, I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but y'all may find this interesting.
For several years, there was a custom tank sitting on the side of the I-10 freeway going through Tucson, AZ, on top of a storage container in a military surplus yard. The yard was owned by the late Bob Perry, and the tank, while not the original Hell On Wheels, is actually "Hell On Wheels II," a full-on custom car-crushing "monster tank" designed and built by Bob as a follow-up to the original HOW. While many people believe HOW II was an M-1 Abrams, which the aircraft-grade aluminum body was patterned after, in actuality it was a 1970 M-548 Lance mobile rocket launcher (basic chassis, suspension, running gear, and tracks designated M-113) destined for the scrap yard after gunnery practice destroyed a good portion of the tank and almost all of the running gear.
Motive power was/is provided by a supercharged 540-cubic-inch Chevrolet big-block with a custom 17-quart oil pan. The transmission is a specially-modified Allison AT 540 4-speed industrial automatic with a B&M torque converter and shifter. Various other pieces from military aircraft have been used in the build, including cutting brakes from an F-4 Phantom jet, a transmission cooler and radiator from a military helicoptor, and a hydraulic driveline brake from military helicoptor rotor brakes, with the master cylinder for that coming out of a T-33 navy trainer aircraft.
As for other vehicles Bob Perry has built, he is credited with The Fugitive I & II (I - 1964 Chevy Greenbriar van, II - 1968 Corvette, the first of many Fugitive Corvettes), Hell On Wheels, the original wheelstanding replica M-60 tank (1971), Hell's Fire (self-propelled howitzer cannon wheelstander, 1974), Galaxy II and Starship (both later 1976), and finally, Hell On Wheels II (1989). Current whereabouts of all except HOW II is unknown.
(In case any of you are wondering how I can be so precise on this, I'm reading the original 1990 press kit release on the HOW II tank, given to me by Anita Perry, Bob's widow. She lives less than a mile from my house, and the hot rod tank makes an amazing yard conversation piece! Yes, HOW II is still around, and in remarkably well-preserved condition.)
