Here is a picture of our late daughter who died nearly 4 years ago of a hemorrhagic stroke carrying a Jeff Gordon left front tire that the Goodyear master tire engineer lady saved for her at the CA Speedway in the 1998 NASCAR race. These used ones Goodyear was selling for $10 to $100 depending on who used them. She was offered $500 by a fellow as we carried it back to the van during a break in practice.
We also get a Jimmy Spencer and Mark Martin tires and they sure made the inside of the van smell like rubber!
In the picture Glenn posted with the X-15 rocket plane it was mentioned that one of the pilots was a Commander Petersen of the USN who ended up being CO of the USS Enterprise when I was stationed on it for the first 1 1/2 years. He had a beautiful girl friend who had been Miss Philippines 1970 so every time we went into port, either Subic Bay, Hong Kong or Singapore she would fly in to stay with him (he paid I think for the flight) and in Subic Bay they stayed in the honeymoon suite at the Marmont Hotel! She still has her picture on the web if you Google Miss PI 1970. I always thought it unusual as his son was going into his senior year at the Naval academy and his wife was running a large organization to help wounded vets coming from 'Nam AND he had made going off base into town off limits for ALL the officers, even the pilots!
John