Bonneville Salt Flats World Finals Pictures I took a couple hundred pics at World Finals at the Bonneville Salt Flats a few weeks back.  I thought I should start sharing some of my favorites. This 1955 Chevy Bel Air Post built by Hot Rods by Dean was absolutely gorgeous.  I don't know squat about the car.  It runs in the B/CGC (B engine size is 373 cu in to 439 cu in, and is a competition gas coupe) class.  I dig the yellow interior too.  It gives the cockpit some pop. The first thing that grabbed me is that two-tone paint.  Cream and grey is not the usual color combo for a hot rod, but it works perfectly.   The paint is a smooth, matte or flat finish, it goes nice with those moondiscs. The car is run by Sidney Allen and ran a 172 MPH in the first Mile.  Then on Friday it actually spun, according to the Results page on SCTA-BNI.org. Check out this cool reflection in the crazy chrome bumper.  The bumper was the second part of this Chevy that caught my attention.  This car oozes CLEAN.  Hot Rods...

Stromberg Carburetor is proud to announce the first World Land Speed Record powered by New Stromberg 97 carburetors. Congratulations to Bobby Green and the Old Crow Speed Shop crew from Burbank, CA for shattering their 104mph 2008 V4/FS record with a new 127.270 mph pass at Bonneville’s Speed Week in August 2009 with their belly-tank lakester. The traditional belly tank lakester has been a Bonneville favorite since Bill Burke fixed a war-surplus aircraft drop tank onto an early Ford chassis back in 1946. The natural streamline shape of the tanks, used during the war to hold extra fuel on aircraft which could then be jettisoned or “dropped”, was the perfect ready-made streamlined race car body. The Old Crow Team was put together specifically to maintain this tradition. In the FS (Fuel Streamline) class, the design of the body is restricted only to the extent that at least two wheels must be covered. The V4 engine class is for Vintage (pre-1935) 4-cylinder engines. Says Stromberg owner Clive Pew, “I met the Old Crow guys with heads in hands on Monday as they couldn’t get enough fuel into the very hot H&H...

Bonneville Salt Flats: "Save the Salt" With all the Bonneville Salt Flats racing coverage and stories from MyRideisMe.com, maybe the most important story is the behind the scenes one, which is the "Save the Salt" program.  Please follow along as Larry Volk (Chairman of the Board) and the Save the Salt Board Members provide a history of the Save the Salt Program and how important it is to the future of Land Speed Racing at Bonneville. What is Save the Salt? It has come to our attention that there are a number of folks out there that are not fully aware of what our Save the Salt organization is all about.  To that end we have comprised the following brief history of when and why Save the Salt was formed.  We hope this tells the story "In a Nutshell". Thanks to Mary West (Secretary of Save The Salt) for putting this history together and thanks to JoAnn Carlson (SCTA/BNI Office) for forwarding the note to us from a gentleman who is a new competitor at Bonneville.  He said that he knew Save the Salt was important but he wondered what it...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car: While at World Finals at Bonneville on Friday, I was cruisin' the pits looking for cool cars.  I spotted the little red Vega with its hood up and the small crew busy working.  I walked over and just started watching and listening to the sweet Cosworth powered twin cam engine.  I did not know anything about the rare Cosworth Vega (only about 3500 total built during 2 years of production), but I left with the interesting basics.  The owner/driver Frank Sloan from California answered all my noobie questions and left me wanting more.  Luckily, his "Cosworth Vega Owners Association" decal had a website that can give you the history of the Chevy.  The concept actually started out as early as like 1970 or so.  The Chevy Special Projects group (Chevy Racing Dept.) wanted a hot little econo-rod to compete with BMW's 2002ti and Datsun's 510.  Original designs called for a 2.0L twin cam, 16 valve aluminum head and block built by the Indy car engine builder Cosworth to make around 185hp.  After having smog certification test failures, the car was late to the market and...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car: I arrived at the Salt for World Finals 2009 right as the sun peaked over the mountains.  What a beautiful sight.  I pulled up to the start line where there were race cars and bikes waiting to make their record return runs.  The first car I walked up to was this bright yellow VW Karmann Ghia owned by Larry Monreal from San Bernardino.  I asked the gentleman standing next to the car if he was Larry, and he responded that no, he was Jim, Larry's friend and driver.  As with any Bonneville Salt Flats land speed race car and team, there is always a big, long and interesting story.   No long  stories today, but I do want to share some details I learned by spending a few minutes with Jim that I hope will display what dedicated hot rodders and land speed racers these guys are. I chatted with Jim Bradshaw for like 10 minutes.  Something you'll experience when you attend a land speed event at the Salt Flats is the people.  It's almost sounding cliche attending my 4th event, but the people are the heart of this amateur...

Bonneville Salt Flats: World of Speed Finals World of Speed 2009 goes down on the Salt at Bonneville Speedway this Wednesday through Saturday.  It's the last event of the year on the Salt.  I'm hoping the rain we've been getting here in Utah doesn't cancel it.  I'm planning to be there Friday to cover the action, snap lots of pics and get some Salt stories.  Here's a pic I took from the last World of Speed event I attended in 2007.  This was actually my first time on the Salt and I was there with my oldest son (he was 4 at the time) and my dad, 3 Generations of Hechtspeeders!  That's poppi checking out the Volk Bros '29 Roadster as it sat in the 200 MPH Club Booth and my son giving a thumbs up! See You On The Salt!!! See all my pictures from the 2009 Bonneville Salt Flats World Finals...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Streamliner Race Car The Record setting crew from Arizona. This model T powered 'banger' is for real! I was thrilled to find Tom Brawner of Scottsdale as a member at MyRideisMe.com.  Not only does Tom have a killer 1956 Chevy with perfect looking Real Rodder wheels with the Dow 7 coating, but he's also got pictures of the the Corsair 3 T land speed racing streamliner powered by a turbocharged 4 cylinder! Tom crew's on the Corsair owned by Joel Young of Phoenix, Arizona.  He set a new world speed record for 4 cylinder flathead engine under 220 cubic inches with a speed of 130 mph. An amazing feat considering he was running on a 99.448 mph record set in 2004. Even more amazing, due to problems with the transmission shifter this record was set using only 1st and 2nd gear! With the shifter problem resolved Corsair 3T bumped its previous record to 166 mph on its third run and backed it up the next day with a run of 154 mph for an average of 160mph. The slower speed on the forth run was due...

Salt Flats Friendliest People When you're on the salt, you're either preparing to race or racing. The atmosphere is  more cooperative than you're likely to find at any other kind of racing, but you're still busy. Unpack, tech, race, hopefully impound (that means you have the potential to set a record!) then back in the early morning for a record run.  If you're successful backing up your record, you go back to tech for a final inspection. If not, back to the pits to make a few tweaks to the car, then back in line to start over again. Jon Amo, the founder of Landracing.com found that the land speed racers, especially the ones who are connected through the internet forum and chat, need a place to catch up with old and new friends and hear who's running what and how fast.  That was the birth of "Salt Talks". It's a social gathering held on Sunday evening of 2009 Speed Week after the day's racing was done. About 6 years ago at around 5:30 PM, not long before Salt Talks were to kick off, Amo was walking around at...

Bonneville Salt Flats Tragedy: With all the excitement about Bonneville Speed Week, before I post my first blog and pictures, I want to show my respect following the tragic death of a great family man and land speed racer, Barry Bryant. Unfortunately, I only knew of Barry Bryant of Anderson, California by his race car.  I told some friends about a sinister looking, long and bad, silver and black competition coupe that stood out as one of my favorites on the salt.  After describing the car as best I could, I learned it was the Bryant family's "Tom Thumb Special" Late in the afternoon of 8/9/2009, Barry Bryant crashed near the 5 mile marker on the long course at Bonneville traveling close to 200 mph. MyRideisMe.com would like to express our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Barry Bryant. If you knew Barry, please leave a...

Bonneville Salt Flats - Our First Trip For over 61 years the Bonneville Salt Flats have been giving people "salt fever" during its annual Speed Week each August. This year Pikesan, Hetchspeed, and GreaseGirl met up at the flats to bring everyone at MyRideisMe.com a little taste of the salty stuff! And are you guys in for a treat!!! Not only is Speedweek home to land speed racings biggest event but its also one of the most amazing mix of cool people and cars you'll ever experience. So check back into MyRideisMe.com soon to catch a glimpse of some of the nearly 1000 pictures we took, coverage of build stories, records broken, life on the salt, and the people that make it all happen. We had the time of our lives out on the white stuff and we can't wait to share it with...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Welcome Home Bonnie! I think its only fitting that the first pic from Speedweek 2009 that we post is of our fearless leader, pikesan.  I'll let pikesan post most of the pics of his car "Bonnie" and her homecoming to the Salt Flats but, I took this cool rolling shot Saturday morning and wanted to share it with you all.  This was taken about 30 seconds after Bonnie and pikesan (suffering from a sever case of Salt Fever) made it onto the Salt for the first time.  What a cool moment! I switched to shutter priority mode on the D90 and started snapping pics while trying to drive (luckily the entry road is super wide). This shot inspires me to build my own roadster.  Well, that's it for now.  The MyRideisMe.com crew that made it out to the Salt (we missed you Swanee) for Speedweek 2009 will be sharing stories and a sizeable photo gallery.  It was also the first time pikesan, GreaseGirl and Hechtspeed met in person.  We had a great time and can't wait to share our experiences! Ok, this pic is just too good (imho)...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car: Traveling alone sucks. That's why I'm glad to have a traveling buddy for the long drive from Phoenix to Wendover, Utah for Speedweek on the Bonneville Salt Flats.  I'm towing my 1927 roadster, so I can't drive that fast so I fit right in with my 250mph partners on the road, "Bonnieville Bob" and his son Rocky. Their B/GMR modified roadster is a stretched 1927 roadster that's been as fast as 251 mph at Bonneville and that's just 4 mph off the record. Much more to come on these guys since I'll be shooting lots of pictures of all the race cars and picking Bob and Rocky's speed-brain for all they're worth! Look for us on the salt!  And if you know Bob, say hi right here by leaving a comment.    ...