Back in 1958 six friends undertook a trip to the salt flats with a blown 50 Olds. The vehicles owner: Harry Soenksen had put together a pretty wild ride for the time. A sleek 50 Olds body, a big inch caddy engine, and a GMC supercharger topped by Stromberg 97 carbs finished it off. It was a terror around the streets of Chicago for a while, then went into Andy Granatelli’s Grancor shop for a new Herbert roller cam (the cam has serial # 17 stamped into it and is still in the car today) and a freshen up on the engine. The group then flat towed the car out to Bonneville behind a 58 Chevy. They had little money and slept in their cars and showered under a hose in a gas station in Wendover. This group ran neck and neck with a huge factory backed Chrysler team for the record in their class. And they held that record for part of the meet in 58 until they got beat out by the high dollar Chrysler team by a little over 1 MPH. Not to bad for a group of kids from Chicago out racing on a shoe string.
