Beautiful, Historic and Fast Flathead Streamliner     All I did was capture the return to Bonneville. Dave Thomas, owner of this beautiful recreation of a circa 1952 land speed record holding streamliner. The sleek fiberglass beauty has been known by a few names, but finished here, it's the "City of Burbank" #61 XF/GS streamliner.   Dave summed up Bonneville here...   "August 18, 2013..... The dust er salt has settled. We made it to Bonneville. We got thru tech inspection and had a chance to make a run down the course. It was the most exciting thing I have done in long time. Our driver pulled away from the push truck and motored off into the distance. We chased him for 5 miles before we saw the tiny speck up ahead parked in the turn off area. We didn't go all that fast but the car ran the whole 5 miles without incident, right out of the box. It had never turned a wheel under power before that. The little 276 inch flathead did all it could considering the density altitude was 6700 feet. No excuses, we were...

Challenger 2.5 Rebuilt by Danny Thompson for Bonneville Land Speed Racing   I 'm honored to hear Danny Thompson's story of how he'll rebuild the race car his father, legendary racer Mickey Thompson, originally built in 1968 with help from Ford.   I believe, and I've said it before, land speed racing folks are extraordinarily kind people. Count Danny Thompson as one of those people and as a brave and dedicated man. After losing his father roughly 25 years ago, Danny now knows:   "... It's still a father son project, nothing's changed... he's just not going to be there in physical being."   Please enjoy this interview with Danny Thompson with historic pictures from the build website thompsonlsr.com. Additional images courtesy of Holly Martin Photography. [youtube]http://youtu.be/xG5n4kFNlsA[/youtube]   What a great story of perseverance. Thanks for sharing it Danny!   Please show your support for Danny and the team by checking out their online Challenger 2.5 store, or please leave a comment if the story's got you thinking about projects you worked on with your pops. I know I am.   Click here for all of MyRideisMe.com's Bonneville Salt Flat...

Bonneville Salt Flats Streamliner Special thaks to Spectre Performance for extended 2011 Bonneville Speed Week coverage If you're following the racing from Bonneville Speed Week, you probably saw the "Maro Special" featured as one of the Baddest Race Cars of Bonneville. Owner Bobby Moore made the baddest list twice when details of his World's Fastest Corvette hit the web. So if you need details about this nitro- burning all-wheel drive streamliner, be my guest and hit the links above. This story's about the quest for 400 mph. Bobby's quick to point out the many people who helped and continue to help make the Maro Special, a concept started back in 1999, a reality. One key to running 400 is safety and the Bonneville Salt Flats master of Safety is Lee Kennedy. Lee's listed as the "Car Technical Co-chair" on the SCTA website, but for this race car he's been the mile by mile co-pilot of reaching 400 safely. For previous salt attacks including Speed Week, running fast wasn't possible. As Bobby said, "Before getting up in the morning, I'd have to start thinking about turning left." In other words,...

Round One goes to the Salt 2011 Bonneville Speed Week sponsored by Spectre Performance   My last post about the Spectre Performance "SpeedLiner" detailed THE PLAN. Everyone knew bringing 5 motors and trying to break 5 records was a stretch, but the team was motivated and prepared. Then "the salt" announced it's plan.   Things started well. The streamliner, still naked of it's lettering and B/BGS class was loaded on the trailer, first thing in the golden salt morning. In the 300 mph lane of the long course behind George Poteet's "Speed Demon" streamliner and the mustard rocket called the "Maro Special" (also a 2010 Baddest Hot Rod at Bonneville), SpeedLiner patiently waited it's turn.   Spectre crew chief Steve Schmalz tugs on driver Kenny Hoover's belts   The bell rings... the Spectre bullet is pushed down track until the 434 cubic inch Caddy motor drops into gear and starts making power. Like MMA, the first round lasted about five minutes.   What everyone hoped was a malfunction with the air shifter turned out to be this: What you're seeing is the shredded remains of a quick-change gear set....

Bonneville Salt Flats -Breaking Records 2011 Bonneville Speed Week sponsored by Spectre Performance Any time a land speed racer says what they're "planning" to do, they better be smiling! As a warm up for the record breaking session this year at Bonneville, I stole 15 minutes with Amir Rosenbaum, the founder of Spectre Performance and driver of the "SpeedLiner" race car shown above. He was smiling... The plan is to break five records! Record #1 - B/BGS: When the SpeedLiner hits the starting line of the long course on Saturday, stuffed inside the long lean frame rails will be a 434 cubic inch Cadillac motor. For those of you keeping score at home, that's a B-class motor  at 373-439 cubic inches. They're gunning for the B/BGS record of 337.197 mphcurrently held by Vesco Racing's D. Spangler. Record #2 - A/BGS: If things go well, (isn't the "if" redundant!!) the B-class record's in reach because SpeedLiner already holds the A/BGS record at 356.645 mph. A-class allows 440-500 cubic inches, so they're working a plan they already know fairly well. (there's that word plan again!) Record #3 - AA/BGS: One word:...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car At the Bonneville Salt Flats, fast is fast, that's one thing that can't be disputed and it's what separates land speed racing from other automotive events... the lack of subjectivity! It's funny that there aren't really any awards at Bonneville Speed Week save for the "Hot Rod" trophy for the fastest race car of the week from any class. And did you know that there's no money? You have to buy your jacket if you get into the 200mph club!  These guys do it for the pure pursuit of speed and that's why this 200mph Flathead powered streamliner is one of the Baddest Race cars of the 2010 Bonneville Speed Week! I already told you about this streamliner in another story called: Arizona Model T Streamliner Destroys a Record! But that was 2009! Tom Brawner of Scottsdale, a MyRideisMe.com member, crew member (and driver now, right Tom??) and fellow hot rodder with a too cool 1956 Chevy told me about this streamliner called the "Matrix Machine". The record set last year started at under 100mph in 2004, then went to 160 last year and...

Bonneville Salt Flats Streamliner Dallas Volk, my Salt Flats insider, sent me this link.  He is good friends with the Burkland family.  I knew I needed to share their website with you all.   This post does come with some sad news, that Gene Burkland has passed away this week.  I mean this post to be in deep respect and a tribute to Gene and his family's great history at Bonneville. The Burkland Streamliner is a twin Donovan Chrysler powered, 4 wheel driven racecar that has gone over 400 mph.  Please take a look at their website HERE as it is full of pictures and information, as well as links to other Land Racing websites and stories.  This blazing fast Streamliner was designed and built by Gene and his son Tom Burkland.  If that's not "My Ride is Me" I don't know what is...Here's a quick blurb from the site about the Burkland family: "Gene and Betty Burkland, from Great Falls, Montana (the first SCTA members from that state), have been active in racing, and at Bonneville in particular, for over three decades: their first Bonneville car was a chopped-top, Chrysler-powered '53 Studebaker...

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...

Speedweek begins this week (7 days and counting).  For this Internet Barn Find, we go across the pond to scope out a Steam Powered Streamliner.  Check out  British Steam Car Challenge website.  Take a few minutes and read up on this beauty of a racecar. The record for a steam powered land vehicle stands at 127.659 MPH according to this site.  The crazy part is this record was set in 1906.  It's about time this record gets beaten, don't you think?  Another tid bit of information from the steam car's website is the unofficial (not recognized by FIA) steam powered record is 145.607 MPH set in 1985, and that is the record the British Team is shooting for. Check out this youtube video linked from their site too.  Sounds crazy!!! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkpdSeb2ya4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]...