The Wee Wee Eel was in dry, spider infested, storage in Torrance with the
other Eelco car ( now at the Speedway Museum in Lincoln, NE.) for many
years. Eels Lohn raced it with a British Ford engine. They had problems
with the engine getting enough gas until they took the jets out of the
carb's. It went over 200 with that set up. It was almost a tricycle set-up
with the rear tires very close together ... just room for the sprocket for
the chain drive. Nothing to stop the chain from doing serious damage to the
driver's head if it broke. I picked the car up from Eels in early June of
'94, brought it to Salt Lake and USFRA people restored the exterior of the
car cosmetically, re-painted it the correct color and put the same type
lettering on the car. It was on display at Saltair until the shop where it
was on display changed hands and we couldn't guarantee it's safety. It was
then at the Salt Flats Garage except for an Autorama show where we had it on
display. Eighteen months ago it was moved to the Stateline Hotel in
Wendover through an arrangement with Larry Volk, the Stateline manager at
the time and Eels Lohn. Last I saw the car some non-green-card janitor had
his stinking feet propped on it while he took a nap.
The Pumpkin Seed was a smaller car that really resembled just that. If I'm
thinking of the right car it was tiny, short wheelbase, the driver looked
between his feet to see the course and there was just the clear plastic
nose, not much of a bubble for head space. The car I'm thinking of was
destroyed in a fire on the salt in the '80's.
Wes
on 5/25/01 7:44 PM, William McIntyre at acromac@worldnet.att.net wrote:
> When I was drag racing in the late 50's / early 60's I think I
> remember reading about a Ford OHV 6 powered Bonneville car called the
> "punkin seed" possibly owned and/or sponsered by Ells Lohn of ELCO
> fame.Perhaps Ardun Doug could enlighten us on this.
> Bill in Mesa,Arizona where 110 degrees came early this year.
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