The seed for North of 49 was planted in 1998, when on a Hot rod tourist trip to Bonneville Don Siewert decided to try and round up a collection of Calgary area rodders willing to combine their talent to construct a Bonneville Land Speed Racing (LSR) vehicle. That seed became a bud when Ted Allan of Allan Rod & Custom joined Don in Bonneville in 2001. They started construction in the fall of 2001 and now the project had grown to full bloom.

We went to Bonneville dreaming of 175 to attain nearly 192 was only in our wildest dreams. After all this was our rookie year, in a newly constructed vehicle, running as the sole roadster pickup in a class of roadsters, if there is beginners luck, we had it. We prefer to attribute our success to the talent of the primary builder Allan Rod & Custom, the engine builder Kenny Gilmour and the dedication of the team of Rodders who contributed their time, talent, resources and parts in pursuit of a hot rod dream.

2003
Our rookie year behind us we've set our eyes on a new set of goals. The first is to run North of 49 over 200 MPH, then there's the big goal set on October 2001 by the Barbee Boys. The record for the class, B Street Roadster (B/STR), is 214.515, that's a long way off from 192, but it's the only way into the 200mph club with this truck. To gain entry to the 200 club you must break an existing record over 200, 2003 is the 50th anniversary of the Bonneville 200 Club and Ted Allan would dearly love to join. To that end we're hard at work on North of 49 in preparation for Speedweek 2003 to be held August 16 through 23 on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Out at Allan Rod & Custom there are a number of changes being made to the truck in preparation for it's 2003 runs. The most obvious to an observer will be the smaller 22.5 inch front tires. They'll punch a slightly smaller hole in the air than the 24 incher's we ran last year. When the truck is sporting its new front tires, the chin of the radiator shell is sitting just under 2 inches off the ground. Ted's planning on adding a snubber to the front suspension so that we don't bust it off. Ideally we'll grind/shave the chin on the salt.

Under the hood Ken Gilmour has a host of changes underway, the 427 we ran last year has been retired and will be replaced with a newly built 427 tall deck engine. The engine will be opened up to 438.5 cubic inches and will run the same bottom end and Merlin heads as last year's power plant. This year we'll be going to a different cam, to be determined during May's dyno. sessions, the carburetor will be upped from 1050 to a 1250 cfm unit and finally the Headers will be enlarged from 2-1/8" diameter tubes to 2-3/8".

Other changes under way involve making the truck more user and rule friendly.
We've got a radiator that will fill the grill opening now (rule), it required a special build since it sits inside the radiator shell ahead of the front cross-member. The new radiator can also be plumbed into the cooling system. We still run a 10-gallon coolant tank in the box of the truck.
We've got new Belts from Simpson with the pulls reversed so that it's easier to secure the driver, and we're working on re-mounting the tranny blanket so that it won't act as a Salt Scoop.

The team is also scraping around for every penny we can find to help put the truck on the salt. If you'd like to help us out please drop into our website (http://www.fsra.org/n49)
and check out our T-shirts, Belt buckles, stickers and (soon) plaques. North of 49 is a "grass roots" racing effort and we really appreciate the support of anyone who is interested in the project.