While Bill Burke has been known for many
achievements in the dry lakes racing community,
his first and most famous mark in history comes
from this innovation in design and speed. This
approach to dry lakes racing ultimately led Hot
Rod Magazine to recognize Bill Burke as building
“The World’s Fastest Hot Rod” in August 1949.
Burke was the first to be recognized with this
title, which Hot Rod Magazine continued to award
thru the 1950’s.
Initially, Geoff Hacker met with Burke to
discuss his original tank in the summer of
2008. With notes in hand, Geoff returned to
Florida and planning began and by the Spring of
2009 CMC was busy laying the ground work to
build the tank. This was not an easy
undertaking because the Burke tank was built
during a time when automotive magazines were not
yet published. That didn’t start until about a
year later with the beginning of Speed Age
Magazine in May 1947.
With the help of Jim Miller of the National Hot
Rod Foundation in Los Angeles, California and
Ron Kellogg of Kellogg Auto Archives of Whittier
California, several pictures of the original
1946 Belly Tank Streamliner were found and the
design started to come into focus. During this
time, Bill Burke continued to participate with
the build team via phone conversations from his
home in California. Hemmings Magazine also
covered the build over an approximate 6 month
period.
The tank was finished in time to participate at
Bonneville Speed Week, 2009 where it debuted
during the week-long event. From there, it went
on display at the Goodguys West Coast Nationals
Show in Pleasanton California, and finally
debuted at the NHRA Museum in Pomona California
in September 2009.
The Streamliner stayed on display at the NHRA
Museum along with other famous race cars built
and driven by Bill Burke thru early March of
2010, and then it was transported to Florida to
appear at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
in March, 2010. This marked the first time that
a belly tank streamliner made it to one of the
top three recognized coucours events in the
world. As of January, 2011 the Bill Burke
Belly Tank Streamliner is on display at the
Sarasota Classic Car Museum in Sarasota Florida.
Although just over a year and one-half has
passed since the debut of this Streamliner at
Bonneville, it has managed to capture the
attention of audiences across the world with
premier appearances in Rodder’s Journal (issue
#48, 2010), Hemmings Magazine (November 2009),
and a chapter dedicated to the history and build
of this car in Tom Cotter’s 2010 book, “Corvette
in the Barn.”
