Keep reading to see how fearless drivers, innovative mechanics and $35 worth of military steel raced into the history books.

Feel like squeezing yourself into an old gas tank? Strap in and squeeze your lucky rabbit's foot - we're going belly tank racing.

When you take some cast-off gas tanks, add in some big engines, plenty of spare time and a dry lake bed, you have the perfect recipe for weekend wrench warriors setting speed records in their belly tank racers. Of course, today's lakester race cars are more technically advanced, safer and faster than the originals, but they don't have the appeal of being made from surplus military parts. Belly tank racers started in the 1940s (yes, your grandpa's generation invented it), and while the classic racers are now important historical artifacts that are too valuable to race anymore, the descendants of those original hot rodders and their belly tank cars still race across lake beds for speed records and bragging rights. Though it sounds like something that a 90s-kid-turned-marketing-executive dreamed up for the X Games, belly tank racing is an important part of hot rod culture and a pretty old activity.

Military surplus drop tank for sale