Bonneville Salt Flats Streamliner Well it's gonna be! Right now, it's a lesson in patience. Take a look at the "Maro Special" a dedicated Bonneville Salt Flats streamliner race car if there ever was one. Like most race cars on the "Great White Dyno" aka Bonneville, this one's got a great story and Bobby Moore is the perfect gentleman to tell the story. Just like with the World's Fastest Corvette owned by Bobby, going fast takes time. Bobby Moore was 15 when he built his first car, a 1933 fenderless Plymouth five window coupe that he found in a field. He's always enjoyed the thrill of speed and the many friends made during his racing career. So naturally, in 1996, Bobby was drawn to Bonneville as driver of the Hoyle-Dickenson-Moore A/FL (A size engine'd lakester). Then later in '96 he bought the old 219mph Doc Jefferey's A/GT Corvette. The team campaigned the car in 1997 where Bobby got alot of seat time and learned many humbling lessons at Bonneville. With the hardest speed lessons learned, in '98, he joined the 200mph Club with a record of 234.162 in A/GMS...

Auto Meter STACK for Bonneville Salt Flats Racing From the analog data of "Old School" and to accuracy, speed and ease of digital data logging. That's the simple goal here. From there, the Volk Brothers Racing 1929 Model A roadster is looking to use the data at the race track to modify or update the engine setup to ultimately go fast and break a record. Then, the reality of salt flats racing steps in... Photo courtesy of SCTA website Backing up a step, Auto Meter Gauges, Volk Brothers Racing and MyRideisMe.com teamed up for Speed Week 2010 and World of Speed for some high speed runs down the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Our salt infested friends, the Volk family, run a Ford roadster with a fuel injected big block Chevy engine. They compete in the B/GR (373ci-449ci engine/Racing Gas, Roadster) class at Bonneville during Bonneville Speed Week and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Associations World of Speed. "...all while trying to keep a 200 mph rolling brick on a straight line for 5 miles." The Volk family salt flat racing pedigree includes (what seems like) 200 mph club membership for...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car Say hello to the "World's Fastest Corvette" Maybe you're wondering how I make the "Baddest Race Cars" list? Could be any number of things, but a sure formula is SPEED!  Be the fastest in your class, or classes and maybe world's fastest - You're a lock! In other words, go out there and set a record.  Add to that a welcoming smile and a generously given chat with up-and-comer MyRideisMe.com and you're just starting to see why Oklahoma's Bobby Moore and his Moore Boys Corvette is certainly one of the BADDEST! (Other hot rods from Oklahoma) With a helping hand from crew member and friend Rudy Heaton Bobby's patiently waiting inside for a run. Bobby's story about how he started racing isn't that different from others stricken with salt fever! Racing started at Bonneville in 1996 with a trip to the salt as the driver of the Hoyle-Dickenson-Moore A/FL (that means, "A" class engine, running fuel, lakester style body). That's all it took... From there, Bobby bought bought the 219 mph Doc Jefferey's A/GT Corvette. The following year, the Moore Boys Team made several...

Race Tech in a Wind Tunnel: Horsepower and Aerodynamics Story by Dave Salazar of A2 Wind Tunnel: Bonneville is the Mecca of speed and every year land speed race teams journey to the historic site to see if they can go faster than the year before. Top speed records can be so close that sometimes the difference from being a hero to being a zero can be 1 mph or less. Whether it's a production based car, roadster, lakester, streamliner, motorcycle, or some other rodders creation, there are some major obstacles to overcome in order to reach each vehicles maximum potential (SPEED!). The two major hurdles in land speed racing that I am going to discuss  are horsepower and aerodynamics. How do they relate and why something that you cannot see such as air can be your biggest competitor on the salt. Horsepower is something that any gear head can relate to and we all can't seem to ever get enough... But as we all know, it costs money for each pony, and the more you need the more it will cost because as an engine starts to reach...

Hot Rods at Bonneville Salt Flats   Every year tons of hot rods, rat rods and some customs make the road trip of a lifetime to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week.  I spotted these hot rods cruising around the pits and thought you might like to see 'em.  I gave you all a sneak peek in the Speed Week 2010 Cruise In blog post for some of these rods.  This time we'll get down and salty with my favorite rides of Speed Week.     This is H.A.M.B.er Bass's bad Model A 5 Window Coupe that made the Hot Rod Pilgrimage from Dallas, Texas by himself.  Yes, SOLO!!!.  My jaw dropped when I saw this Coupe parked next to the tech inspection area.  All I could say was "Wow!".  I was too curious and found his thread on the HAMB HERE and read that this is bare metal.  It had already started to surface rust by the time he got home after being out on the salt and going through a humid Texas.     I really like this photo.  Gives you a detailed shot of the well executed...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebaker The moment my Studebaker and I drove out on to the salt this year during 2010 Speed Week, what was the first thing I did? Look for other Studebakers of course! And what was the first one I found but Gord Driedger's Blue Beauty. This 1953 Studebaker Coupe looks like she was born on the salt! In fact, this was her first time there - as well as Gord's! People end up on the salt from every corner of the earth it seems, and with all sorts of fascinating stories about how they got there. For Gord, his timely meeting with Blue Beauty happened while on vacation... in Napa of all places. Sitting on the patio, basking in the California sun, enjoying Napa wine, when suddenly Gord and his Wife's peace was disturbed by the loud sound of a racing engine. With salt flat racing on his bucket list, Gord went a-searchin'. The search led him to a neighboring garage. Not to the Studebaker, but to the guy who would put him in touch with #653. As it turns out, Blue Beauty was...

2010 Speed Week Hot Rod Shop Tour As Speed Week 2010 arrived, one of the events to attend for the local Utah natives and those making the hot rod pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats is the Open House at the Salt Flats Speed Shop.  Owner Chris Davenport, invited the guys from The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop. I arrived around lunch time and chatted with a few of the people who were enjoying the scene that the Salt Flats Speed Shop provides.  Chris has not only been working on his "shop car" 1932 Ford Tudor but has evolved his shop into a piece of hot rod art! The entire shop is a time machine.  Old metal crafting tools and equipment, vintage gas station signage, WWII type hangar aluminum sheeting and of course, the hot rod projects. Here's just one example of vintage signage.  So cool!  Chris was telling us he found a jackpot of a source that will go un-named. The front view of Chris' 1932 Ford Sedan rod built in the 40's and 50's Traditional Hot Rod style, Chris' specialty and passion.  Hundreds of individually stamped louvers! ...

Land Speed Racing History at the Bonneville Salt Flats [Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird, Land Speed Record setting car, circa 1927. Photo courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection at http://ibistro.dos.state.fl] I think ever since engines were invented, men across the globe were seeing how fast they could get them to go. Eventually this became known as land speed racing. It was in 1898 that the first documented attempt for land speed racing was recorded. The man was the Conte de Chasseloup, the street was a long road outside of Paris, and the whooping speed that set the record was 39.24 mph! Since then we’ve been seeing how fast any sort of engine-powered, wheeled contraption would go…from empty roads, to Florida beaches, to Australian dry lakes, and of course… to salt flats in Utah. Why would so much effort be put into seeing how fast you can go? Quite apart from such factors as national prestige and technical advancement that are bound up inseparably with this Land Speed Record, there is satisfaction in knowing that you have driven faster than any other human being without any possible question of dispute. [p.13, The...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Studebakers I've already covered the two record-taking Studebakers for this 2010 Speed Week in previous articles of this Speed Seeking Studebakers series (#1 1953 Studebaker Coupe & #2 1949 Studebaker Pickup). So before looking at more racing Studes, I wanted to show you some of the fine Studebakers that spectators were driving around on the salt! To begin with, is Bob Weaver's 1953 Studebaker Coupe. I'm not sure color has as much to do with speed as the aerodynamics body of the Studebaker coupe - but in this case yellow=fast! My 5-year-old nephew exclaimed "Yellow cars are the fastest" while wandering around Gene Winfield's shop a couple of months ago, and in this case I'd say he's right! It isn't just the yellow color and aerodynamic body that's making this Studebaker go fast. This special Stude has a Chrysler Hemi powerplant! I was amazed at how snugly it fit in the engine compartment. This hot rod sure looks just as pretty under the hood as above it! Any Studebaker-fan knows that us Studebaker owners are a quirky bunch of folk! So I wasn't overly surprised...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Truck I met Pete and his son (the driver) at Speed Week 2010, but we had been talking through email the last couple months.  I was cruising through the pits at the Bonneville Salt Flats on day 1 when I saw Pete and his Comanche heading to the Tech Inspection area to check in.  I followed behind them and then went over to say hi.  Before we get into the Jeep's performance at Speed Week, first, let's see what it took Pete to get there. In Pete's own words: "At this point I have more time than money. The Bonneville truck was to be a budget build but that didn't quite work out...  I consider myself to be a good mechanic and a reasonable engineer.  I have worked on my cars my whole life  and was a mechanic in the Army.  All of that said, I had never built a race car. I had re-built engines, but never built a race engine.   So what made me think I could build a record setting race truck?  Maybe it was more balls than brains.  And why a Jeep?   That question I know...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers #898 obviously isn't a coupe, but it's still Speedy. And most importantly, it's a Studebaker! This 1949 Studebaker farm truck out of Kansas took the second of the two records for this years Speed Week. And break a record did it ever! With Chevy power under the hood in it's AA/MP class, the old record was blown away by nearly 18 miles per hour! Norris Anderson definitely knows how to build one, as he powered this truck down the line at 219.331mph! And you know what that means, its a record-breaking run over 200mph... so Norris Anderson gets his well-deserved Bonneville 200mph Club admission. He'll be a happy man wearing that red hat. In fact... he was already wearing it, even as he did broom duty around the pits! It looks like Norris Anderson and his Broom Crew have a lot of fun out on the salt! It was in 2004 that Norris first found the old farm truck and began building it into a salt flats racer in 2004. Their motto? "Safe Trucks Travel Fast." Start here for All Speed Seeking...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers Heading up the line of this year’s Speed Seeking Studes, is #4594. It may not be the prettiest out there, but what it’s got going for it is a Studebaker engine and multiple record-holdings!  Greg Meyer's from Minnesota brought his Salt2Salt Racing's 1953 Studebaker Coupe powered by a 182cid V8 Studebaker engine, putting it in the F/CGALT class. I think it was the only non-Avanti to have Stude power rolling it down the line! The engine class being F, means it’s got to be somewhere between 123-183 c.i.d (cubic inch displacement.) In order to get this engine’s c.i.d. down to 182 the Studebaker V8 was destroked, pushing it into the “F” class by just a hair! Although Greg reports they encountered a few problems and there's still more to do to get this particular engine running at its top speed, they were still able to set 2 records in their class by the end of the week. First with Greg driving in the F/CGALT catagory at 131.593. Then with partner-in-crime, Bob Waitz driving in the F/CFALT catagory (wounded engine and all) at 113.998mph! Good job Salt2Salt...