A Hot Rod Heart for a Historic Greyhound

When Steve Belsky jokes about making bad decisions for a living, one of them stands out—his “Pancake Engine” project. But if you ask anyone in the world of high-performance engineering, they might argue that this so-called “bad decision” is actually a masterpiece.

Steve’s passion project is a 1948 Greyhound bus, a relic of a joint venture between American Car and Foundry, known for making rail cars, and Brill, a company famous for its trolleys. From 1946 to 1949, these two giants collaborated to produce Greyhound buses, with Steve’s specific model being built in 1948 and hitting the road in 1949 for inner-city routes. Today, the bus still carries its original marquee names—something Steve refuses to change, keeping a piece of history alive.

But nostalgia isn’t the only driving force behind this project. Steve has set his sights on a land speed record, joking that it’s all part of his 30-year plan. With a previous engine, he has already clocked 105 mph on the freeway—twice. But with the Pittsburgh Power-built Pancake Engine and a specialized transmission, he aims to push the bus to an eye-watering 145 mph.

From Scrap to Speed

Steve’s journey started when he found the bus just three miles from his home in Austin, long before the internet made such searches easier. Scouring Hemmings Motor News, he specifically sought a mid-engine configuration with the door positioned behind the front axle. He chose this classic over a modern bus because, as a child, he associated these models with a sense of freedom—though by the time he acquired it, the project was more about “surviving with a thrill.”

The bus’s original powerplant was a Holscott pre-war gas engine, but Steve replaced it with an engine from a Hungarian Ikarus “twist bus” that was headed for scrap. After refurbishing it through a Cummins dealership, he installed it in the Greyhound using broomsticks as makeshift frame rail mock-ups, since the new engine was nearly twice the size of the original. However, he later regretted scrapping the historic Holscott engine—a decision he acknowledges as another “bad decision.”

Chasing the Record

At the time Steve began his project, the land speed record for a bus stood at 92 mph. With his racing background and that of his friends, he was convinced they could surpass it. Years later, after extensively researching online, he found no evidence that anyone had officially beaten that record—until his own documented 105 mph run.

Despite this achievement, Steve doesn’t believe the bus will ever make it to the Bonneville Salt Flats due to its sheer weight—15,000 lbs without glass and 19,000 lbs when fully reassembled. The fragile salt surface, along with strict regulations, makes it unlikely that the bus will see action there. However, that won’t stop him from pushing forward on other proving grounds.

The Pittsburgh Power Connection

Enter Pittsburgh Power and its legendary expertise with Cummins Big Cam engines. Steve first met with the late Pete, a key figure in the company, who helped him understand the intricacies of modifying a Big Cam to reach peak performance. What started as a backup engine quickly became the first in line as a primary powerplant, as Steve acknowledges that “when you’re going for any kind of record like this, you have to be willing to plant your foot and blow up the engine.”

For the past two and a half years, Pittsburgh Power has been crafting this one-of-a-kind Pancake Engine. It features Mechanical Variable Timing (MVT), originally developed as an emissions-friendly feature for California. However, in Steve’s case, the MVT system has been repurposed to advance timing and “throw the heat at it,” essentially hot-rodding the engine in a way that defies its initial regulatory intent.

More Than Just a Bus

Steve’s Greyhound has another claim to fame—it’s the same model used in the classic Marilyn Monroe film Bus Stop. While he has found scripts from the film inside his bus during restoration, a club of Greyhound enthusiasts insists that his isn’t the bus from the movie. But for Steve, that’s just a minor technicality. “It’s the same kind of bus,” he says with a grin. “So it was in a movie. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”

Whether or not it’s a Hollywood icon, one thing is certain—this bus, with its custom-engineered Pancake Engine, is on a mission to carve its own place in history. If Steve Belsky has his way, his so-called bad decisions might just make him a two time record-breaker.

Written by: Jordan Greathouse, Pittsburgh Power inc., 3600 S. Noah Drive, Saxonburg, PA, 16056 Phone (724) 360-4080 Email: [email protected] Website: www.PittsburghPower.com