Bob Parker's 1771

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Bob Parker's 1771 Roadster:

How the “1771” Roadster came to be.

It all started in August of 1965, when Steve Straw and I made a trip out to the Bonneville Salt Flats from Hermosa Beach, California, in my 1947 Mercury Woody.

At that race the Markley Bros. were running their P-38 belly tank lakester. After watching them run, along with all the other cars I was hooked on trying to run on the salt to go as fast as you could. After returning home I bought a P-38 drop
Tank, put it in the garage, so I’d have the start of my project. Being involved in drag racing and boat racing at the time that project never became a reality so I sold the tank.

Shortly after that I returned to Massachusetts to pursue a new career in 1971. Still thinking about running out on the salt I purchased a Cal Automotive 1928 fiberglass body and started on the roadster project. I gathered up parts, with the help of my good friend Ed “Smitty” Smith, built a frame and modified the body to conform to the rules out at Bonneville. My two sons came along so the family thing took over and the roadster project went on the back burner.

I continued to go out to Bonneville as a spectator along with Frank Cutting and several other club members. After returning from one of the trips Frank decided he was going to build a lakester from a F-105 drop fuel tank. This caused some pressure for me to resurrect my project. I dug out all the parts and pieces and decided to continue my project. The roadster had been on the back burner for so long it was obsolete, because back when I started the driver straddled the driveshaft making the car up pretty high, today’s technology has the car down as low as possible to keep the air out from under the car.

I took the old roadster body and made it so I could use it for a plug to make a mold for a new body so the driver would sit on the left side of the car where a driver would normally sit and that would allow the car to be a lot lower. It took me about a month and a half to build the mold, then I took it to C&C fiberglass and they laid up the new body that weighed only 63 pounds. I gathered up a bunch of parts, the body and took them up to Bluff Point New York to Lee Osborne’s Chassis Shop and about six weeks later Lee had the chassis made and it all returned to my garage in Freetown.

Now a lot more work had to be done, eight plus hours a day, six and seven days a week were spent in the garage. It takes a lot of planning to fit all the tanks, pumps, lines, fire extinguishing system, etc., in the car, so they could be worked on without taking the whole car apart just to make a small change. We used a mock up engine and transmission to fit the oil pump, alternator, and the fuel system in place. The race engine was being put together at Nat’s Racing Engines, in Swansea, Mass. The 370 cu.in. small block Chevrolet engine was assembled, run on the engine dyno where it produced over 600 horse power. During all this my extra pair of hands were supplied by Bill Horn, my cross the street neighbor, who is a great help.

After all the bearings, had a special anti-friction coating applied, the transmission and rear end
center sections were assembled at Chet’s Automotive Shop in Dartmouth, Mass. Now all the parts were ready to re-assembled into the car for the final time. I figured out a paint scheme, curtained off the end of the garage, painted the body, added the lettering and numbers so all we had to do was attach it to the frame and it is ready to race. We plan on racing it on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2012 and see if we can bring the C\GR record to the East Coast. The cost of the trip to Utah keeps increasing so if anyone would like to help with the expenses that would be greatly appreciated.

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