Belly Tank Lakesters at Pendine 2023 | Ep43

Belly tanks at the Vintage Hot Rod Association (VHRA) speed trials at Pendine Sands in West Wales, UK.

There were 2 belly tanks there this year and I have tried to capture some video of both. One tank has been fabricated from scratch and the other I believe has been made from parts of 2 tanks joined end to end.

Cars leave a fenced off pit area one at a time and are timed between two flags at the end of the run. This means there is a long initial stretch to build up speed. After about 30 cars have run, they return to the pit area in convoy and the cycle repeats until everyone has to flee the beach as the tide comes in.

Pendine Sands is a very flat beach around 7 miles long which ends in a military rocket testing range. It has a long history of land speed record attempts including Sir Malcolm Campbell in his 1920's Bluebird cars. There is a famous photo of him driving it through the edge of the surf to cool the tyres before making a return run.
   • Malcolm Campbell races at Pendine San...  

https://pendine.com/about/napier-camp...

It has a small museum housing Babs which was the 27 litre V12 Liberty aero engine car in which John Parry Thomas died in 1927. The car was buried in the sand for many years before being recovered in 1967 and restored.
   • Buried alive: 1926 land speed record ...  

There are very few people building belly tank based cars right now but two of them are in Belgium and they turned up at this event, like me, to learn how everything is organised ready to hopefully enter ourselves next year. There is a very short interview with them in the middle of this video.

Update 18/7/23: There some more good shots of Jamie's car in this Grand Thrift Auto channel video at 12:23
   • The world's fastest beach race 2023