There would be many racing vehicles that bore the name “Andersen’s Pea Soup Special” , but the first was this drag car that is still enshrined at the Mendenhall Museum in Buellton. This flaming fast dragster was built to run the ¼ mile tracks in Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo, and promote pea soup. It was a traveling billboard, albeit a fast one, bearing the image of Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, the Andersen’s cartoon characters.
When Vince Evans purchased Pea Soup around 1965 he saw the potential in promoting it as a racing fuel by sponsoring more “soup powered” specials. These gas powered racing machines were purportedly powered by the potential inherent in the famous split pea soup. In fact they were said to be “Souper Charged”.
More to follow...[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 08-14-2005).]
