Old skool type Bonneville/dry lakes cars; what have you?

[Wickersham Humble]

I'm fascinated by the race cars that were put together in the dark ages of hot rodding (tho maybe the most fun era?) and what might have been on the Salt Flats and dry lakes.  I'm doing a couple of 'what if' cars just -- mostly -- because I sourced engines that sparked my interest.  Some parts are pretty hard to find for 1/25/ -1/24 scale racers, I discovered; real 1/24 size Firestone Super Sports 'tall n' narrow' racing tires, or that ilk, for instance.  Some of the kit tires are reasonably similar, like the ones from a R-R limo in my pic, or Cad V-16 -- both with wire wheels, but 1/25.  I've had a number of kits with big-scale rubber (and usually it was, in the 'fifties when lots of scale models were motorized, either JetX or battery powered, and expected to have some traction relationship with 'the road,' but 65 years later, what did I do with them? I have one wheel (nondescript, looks a bit like a later slot-mag) from a Comet 'Panther' race car design (Bonneville, or Indy?) to make resin castings from the tire, but resin often doesn't come out looking right.

Here is my in-progress LSR car, c. 1938-41; a twin Cad V-16-engined semi-streamliner.  Inspired byAb Jenkin's  "Mormon Meteor" record holder with Duesenberg DOCH straight-eight, it has two V-16's, one driving the front, and the other the rear wheels, in theory.  I kid my wife by calling it the "Catholic Comet" -- still waiting for her to laugh!  It has a brass rod frame (never again: solder brass, not braze it!)  the rear body from a melted-down Monogram Kurtiss Indy roadster (with 'way too many hours in it!) and the forward body from a Bic or Scripto gas fire lighter.  I'm going to use those chrome tubular 'beads' from Michaels as tuned individual exhausts, and four updraft carbs per bank on the motors.  The tubes work really well for small diameter dumps, and can be run full length, or cut into two useable sections with the old Mototool abrasive blade.  I guess I'm going to have to use the wire rims from either R-R or Cad kits.  Pretty simple build, with most detail unseen from the streamlining needed.  In theory, the driver starts the car on battery, gets it moving on the rear-wheel engine, then cuts in the front direct-drive one via an in/out box.  Low tech, for the thrifty 'thirties, right?  Maybe cream pearl white, with royal purple stripes, and some gold, for the ecclesiatical theme?  

I'll post some WIP photos by springtime; lots of other irons in the fire, incl two apocryphal Harry A. Miller street roadsters based on R-R Mono roadster and Cad V-6 roadster bodies/frames.  I made a reasonably typical (if not accurate) V-16 resin copy for the latter from an old Hawk M-B GP prewar car motor.  The other will have a V-12 or V-16 scratch-built mill.  Miller made the first 'mag wheels' on his TNT racers about 1916, and Bugatti copied them later, so by dint of a generous Canuck donor, I'm just using the die-cast Bug rims when I can find a bit bigger tires for them.  

Just realized my files are pdf; don't know why.  Back when converted.  Wick