Bill Burke

Bill Burke's 1936 Ford 3-window Coupe

Bill Burke's P-51 Belly Tank is known as the first Belly Tank Streamliner racer. Bill was racing on the dry lakes long before the war started. While stationed in the South Pacific during WWII he saw potential in using a Belly Tank as the body for a dry lakes car. Shortly after returning home from the war he built his first Belly Tank Streamliner. In 1946 he raced his brand new car. Burke was the first to run a belly tank in the "Streamliner" class and ran at both El Mirage and Harper Dry Lake. The first Bill Burke streamliner used a small 165-gallon steel wing tank from a P-51 Mustang. The car was a front engine design, and a bicycle seat was welded to the torque tube for driving. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Bill Burke and Don Francisco's P-38 Bellytank

Bill Burke's First Streamliner - The Hot Rod Special.

The Atlas Swallow is a fiberglass sports car that emerged from a collaboration between renowned automotive innovators Bill Burke and Mickey Thompson in the early 1950s. In 1952, Burke and Thompson began working on the Atlas Swallow after pulling a mold from Robert Petersen's 1946 Cisitalia 202 Coupe. They partnered with Roy Kinch, the founder of Atlas Fiber-Glass, Inc., and later changed the company's name to Allied Fiberglass. The first body produced was the 94-inch wheelbase coupe called the Allied Swallow. A roadster version, the Allied Falcon, followed in 1953, and the larger 100-inch wheelbase version, the Allied Blackhawk coupe, appeared in 1954. Photo courtesy of Undiscovered Classics.

A photo of Burke and Laster's Golden Commode streamliner taken at the 1960 Bonneville Nationals. It was entered as The Sports Car Illustrated Magazine Special. Photo from The Fred Larsen Photo Collection.

Geoffrey Hacker's Recreation of Bill Burke's P-51 Belly Tank of Tampa, Florida. Bill Burke's P-51 Belly Tank is known as the first belly tank Streamliner racer. Bill was racing on the dry lakes long before the war started. While stationed in the South Pacific during WWII he saw potential in using a belly tank as the body for a dry lakes car. Shortly after returning home from the war he built his first Belly Tank Streamliner. In 1946 he raced his brand new car. Burke was the first to run a belly tank in the "Streamliner" class and ran at both El Mirage and Harper Dry Lake. In 2009 Geoffrey Hacker commissioned Creative Motion Concepts to build him a recreation of Bill's groundbreaking belly tank. The recreation made its debut at the 2009 Bonneville Speed Week.

Bill admiring the recreation of his first belly tank. After Bonneville the trip went on to Bill's Shop. Bill was very excited about the build and couldn't stop looking at the re-creation. Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Hacker.

Bill Burke is a dry lake racer pioneer famous for building the first bellytank racer based on a bellytank.

Bill is listed as an entrant in the streamliner class at the El Mirage August 18, 1946 SCTA time trials event. He ran as a member of the Albatas car club at the event.

Bill was also a member of the Road Runners SCTA , and he acted as President for the SCTA for the 1951 season.

Bill Burke's Cars

Bill Burke's 1936 Ford 3-window Coupe
Bill Burke's Fiberglass Coupe
Bill Burke and Don Francisco's P-38 Bellytank
Bill Burke's P-51 Bellytank
Bill Burke's First Streamliner - The Hot Rod Special

Cars Built or Restyled by Bill Burke

Rulon McGregor's Lakester