The Birth Of Bill Burke

A few weeks ago, we featured the first belly tank to ever hit Bonneville. It was built by a mild mannered yet seriously respected man by the name of Bill Burke. Assuming you don’t know the name would be a kin to me assuming you don’t know how tie your shoes. In a lot of ways, Bill Burke is the Michael Jordan of Bonneville master minds. He’s one of the best we’ve had in terms of both talent and accomplishments.

It all started for Bill in 1938. That was the year that he got the hot rod bug. He built a ‘29 roadster featuring a flathead v8 with dual carbs, milled heads, and dual exhaust. Later that year, he caught the racing bug, became the 45th member of the SCTA, and hit the dry lakes with his first race car – a modified T-roadster on Chevrolet rails powered by the venerable Model B banger motor. Bill turned 110 mph his first time out and, in doing so, became one of the first five to go 100 mph.

“I was scared, boy, real scared! Remember, in those days we had no roll bars, no seat belts… Nothing! Not even insurance if something did happen!”

Of course, shortly after Bill’s record run the world of fun shut down and its members concentrated on making killing machines rather than horsepower. Bill was out of the game until 1946 – the year he built and raced the belly tank we spoke of earlier. The rest, as they say, is just history… Amazing, glorious, wonderful… history.

Bill went on to build around 20 land speed cars and set just as many (or more) records. I could write about each, but rather than tease you with words I thought I would post a little picture story. Enjoy.

Much of this article was sourced from various articles found in Hop Up and Hot Rod Magazine… The June, 1965 issue of Hot Rod Magazine has a great article on Burke and his accomplishments. If you have that issue, read it!

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