It was 1949, when Alex Xydias decided to make an assault on the 200-MPH barrier at Bonneville. Xydias, who founded the So-Cal Speed Shop and knew the mark would make his the fastest hot rod ever, took a modified Model T frame as the basis of his car, while the highly literate historian Dean Batchelor, his driver, sketched up a body inspired by the German rekordwagens of the 1930s. It was narrow, the chassis having been previously part of Alex’s So-Cal belly tank, and using a big-bore Mercury flathead, the streamliner cracked 210 MPH on the salt in 1950, then got invited to Daytona for Speedweeks. That’s where Batchelor flipped the streamliner when it caught a crosswind, nearly killing himself.
Dean Batchelor became a giant of automotive journalism and authorship and has since passed away. Since then, Xydias, who’s still the founding patriarch of So-Cal, determined to build a re-creation of the streamliner. It took 90 days for the very best in modern hot rod fabrication to finish the job. The chassis came from Dan Webb at Webb Automotive Art in Burton, Michigan. Dan has worked on some stunning hot rods, but you may be more familiar with the Ford engine cutaways displayed at major auto shows, which he creates. The master metalsmith Craig Naff of Woodstock, Virginia, exactly replicated its body (without paint) in 3003H14 aluminum. Dan and Craig have worked on past collaborations, most notably a modern reinterpretation of the 1917 Golden Submarine racing car that Harry A. Miller built for Barney Oldfield. The photos here are from Greg Sharp, curator of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California, taken during the streamliner replica’s unveiling there during the 2012 Grand National Roadster Show. In the group photo below are (from left) Dan, current So-Cal owner Pete Chapouris, Xydias, and museum director Tony Thacker.
