Belly tanks - racing cars made from aircraft tanks and spare car parts
The so-called "belly tank" vehicles are hardly known outside the United States.
At the end of the 1940s, belly tanks were a way of building a racing car relatively cheaply. If you could find one, you took a tank from a P-51 fighter plane or something similar and built a car around it. The early Belly tanks were fitted with a shortened Ford T-chassis and Ford A-axles, for example, and then the most powerful V8 engine possible was installed, and the aerodynamically advantageous vehicle was finished. It was then possible to take part in speed and acceleration races (e.g. on salt lakes). Later belly tanks were equipped with more advanced technologies, such as tubular frames, but at some point the supply of aircraft parts naturally dwindled. Today this type of vehicle is almost forgotten, which is why people like Geoffrey Hacker are paying tribute to these contemporary witnesses, including with a beautifully designed website.
We will be publishing a more detailed article on this interesting and little-known type of vehicle later this year.