Today
Planned Event
History of the Lakeview Cruiser
This is your classic Father & Son project.
(from the wife and mother point of view)
Back in the early 1980's Wayn (the father part of the team) was into Land Speed Racing, while Nate (the son part of the team) was just a baby. When we were not racing our own vehicle we were on the Salt looking, watching and learning about all things LandSpeed. So for many years Bonneville was our vacation of choice. Nate got the "Salt Fever" when he was very young but managed to keep it under control until he was around 17. He then started to suggest that he and Dad should build something for Bonneville. Finally Dad agreed that it was time to build something, but what? That is when Nate said, "we can build anything you want as long as it's a truck." The search was on for a rule book and the pickup class they wanted to race in.
At this same time Nate was into 4wheeling and had a Chevy Blazer that he had all tricked out with all the stuff 4wheelers have, including all the engine and gearing stuff that makes 4wheelers able to go up and over what ever they want to (which to me means slow but steady and powerful).
When Nate switched to a Jeep from the Blazer he kept the engine (which became the first engine ran in the Lakeview Cruiser) and sold the body. Because of the 4wheeling interest and the fact that they found a 1988 Jeep Comanche Pick up for very little $$$ and the fact the the C/MMP record of 186 MPH might be had, they chose the Comanche as their vehicle for their Land Speed attempt.
THE LAKEVIEW CRUISER IS BORN.
It came with the engine completely disassembled and thrown in the bed. That made the purchase that much easier for us since we had no intensions of running a jeep engine. Afterall, we are trying to build something to go really fast so we knew our only option was to run a Chevy V8 small block. Oh yes, it's a Chevy V8 now under the hood of The World's Fastest Jeep.
