Wheels Day 2012 Report

Easter Friday means Wheels Day!

The day started off pretty cold around 1 or 2 degrees so when the sunshine started to warm up the arena the day just got better and better. Hosted by the Surrey Street Rodders, Wheels Day is one of the first runs of the season and people certainly turned out in their droves. Rushmore arena, just down the road from Farnborough soon filled with an incredible range of cars, bikes, trucks and anything in between. If you didn't make it this year I would highly recommend that if you have something with wheels get it down to wheels day 2013 you won't be disappointed.

Just a third of the main arena and the surrounding banks and woodland were also packed with all sorts of wonderful vehicles.

1939 Ford 4 door convertible

(digitally painted ink sketch)

Mike Payne's (Surrey Street Rodders) latest creation. Only MOT'd the day before the event this wonderful saloon, contains a 350 small block Chevy with a 9" Ford rear. It certainly was catching the eyes of a lot of people whilst I was sketching it and who can blame them.

1935 Standard 12 Delux

(digitally painted ink sketch)

This Standard is a rare car indeed only 5 of these still exist and this one has been lovingly restored and run as a wedding car by Peter of GP Occasional Cars. There are 3 cars in their fleet the other two are a 1932 Ford Model ‘B' and a fantastic 1936 Austin 16 ‘Shootingbrake’woody. To see more of these cars please visit the GP Occasional Cars website and click on the 'cars' section.

www.gpoccasionalcars.co.uk

Subaru 360

(digitally painted ink sketch)

This fantastic little Subaru cought my eye next. It is one of only three known in this country and is the only on up and running. Victor Sayer does own another of the three but the engine has blown on that one. Half a million were made between 1958-72. This fine example has been restored as 0ne of the three 1964 Japanese Grand Prix Support Cars, hence the black and ahite headlights. The three cars had different configurations of headlights, both black, both white, and one black one white (incase you'r wondering).

1964 Chevrolet Greenbrier

(digitally painted ink sketch)

A Quick sketch before hometime. This is another of the Surrey Street Rodders club cars. Unfortunately I did not meet the owner to find out more about it.

There was such a huge range of cars at this event the selection below does not cover everything but will give you a good idea of what turned up to enjoy the sun.

Chrysler

Hudson Pick Up

International Pick Up

Bedford Truck with Indian on board

BMC "Jobs Better Milk" (enough said)

1934 Nash

Advanced Eight Coupe (model 1282-R)

1964 Panhard PL17

Well if this is the sort of thing that get's you excited then I would strongly advise making the trip next year.

For more photos of the event please visit the Surrey Street Rodders facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/surreystreetrodders

Bill Burke and Don Francisco's Suite Sixteen

Suite Sixteen

(Ink and Monotype on A3 Bristol Board)

Second piece in the Belly Tank series is Bill Burke and Don Francisco's "Suite Sixteen". After using the 51 tank for number 23 Bill Burke opted for a p-38 wing tank for the next Belly Tank Streamliner as it was slightly larger. This enabled the driver to sit in front of the engine maintaining the streamlining of the original tank. Running a Flathead V8 engine, it became an early Dry Lakes Record Holder.

Bill Burke's P-51 Belly Tank Streamliner

Number 23

(Ink and Monotype on A3 Bristol Board)

Bill Burke was racing a '32 Ford roadster on the dry lakes of Southern California during the 1930s through to the early '40s until WW II broke out. While stationed in Guadalcanal (South Pacific) as a PT boat pilot Bill saw some teardrop-shaped P-51 Mustang fighter plane belly fuel tanks being unloaded from a freighter. The streamline nature of these tanks made him wonder whether they could be used as a racer. He took the opportunity to measure a tank up and found that it was indeed possible to fit a Ford rear end and an engine block inside, and so the Belly Tank Streamliner was born.

Shortly after returning home from the war Bill Built the first Belly Tank Streamliner from a P-51 Belly Tank. These tanks were in plentiful supply from surplus yards costing $35 a piece making it cheaper to build a streamliner with this ready made body work than to build one from scratch. As well as being cheap aircraft engineers had spent a lot of time and money designing these tanks to be lightweight and optimally aerodynamic at very high speeds, making them ideal for racing on the dry lakes.

In 1946 Burke was the first to run a belly tank in the "Streamliner" class, and ran at both El Mirage and Harper Dry Lake. The car was a front engine design, and a bicycle seat was welded to the torque tube, real seat of the pants racing. Bill ran the P-51 Belly Tank three times in 1946, reaching a speed of 131.96 mph powered by a Mercury V8. Bill Learnt a lot from the 1946 season and came back the following year with a car utilising a larger P-38 Lightning Wing Tank, but that's a whole other story.

A3 signed and numbered Giclee Prints are available, to order email:

mrtnsquires@googlemail.com

Digitally Painted Ink Sketches Part 2

Here's the next round of digitally painted ink sketches.

Mostly bikes this time with a Model T thrown in for good measure.

Trojan Gearless Cycle Outboard

1904 500cc Peugeot

1923 Harley Davidson JD

1908 FN 4 Cylinder 500cc

1919 Blackburne

1924 Ford Model T