Speed costs money, how fa$t do you wanna go?

July 15, 2005 5:31 PM

Behind the scenes in Bonneville. Land speed record racing, as practiced every year during Bonneville Speed Week, is at once the simplest and most unique form of motor racing around. Here's a look into the Rice/Vigeant team's Suzuki Hayabusa-powered lakester--from construction to competition, near-tragedy to rebirth.
posted by arto (9 comments total)

The shop foreman at the machine shop I used to work at was (and may still be) the world-record-holder for driving a normally-aspirated flathead-powered car. He had a flathead V-8 from an ancient Ford jammed into a 1979 Mustang, or thereabouts, which he managed to take over 130MPH, I think.

I never got out to the Flats to see him run, but he did warn me that, if I ever did go, I should wear long pants. You see, if you're male, and you wear shorts, the sun reflects up your shorts from off the salt and gives you a sunburn in a most uncomfortable place.

Dutifully filed under "Remember this for future reference".
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:22 PM on July 15, 2005

I always heard you could go out to Bonneville in a regular car and drive on the salt flats as fast as you want. Is that true?
posted by rolypolyman at 7:52 PM on July 15, 2005

Kinda. There are a couple of "run whatcha brung" classes, the 130 and 150mph clubs, but it's not quite no-rules anarchy. Never been there myself, but it's something to file under "someday before I die".
posted by arto at 8:04 PM on July 15, 2005

What a delightful post. I particularly enjoyed seeing how the late-model GM lakester looks very much like the lakester on the cover of the (1932?) Hot Rod Comics.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:36 PM on July 15, 2005

I honestly wonder why land speed records require a human driver. At the super high speeds the car is pointed straight and the driver honestly doesn't have to do much but make sure nothing goes horribly wrong (and try not dying in the process).

I don't see why the entire process can't simply be handled via remote control.
posted by mathowie at 4:20 AM on July 16, 2005

Friends of mine have been attempting to break a record at the salt flats using a Vincent Streamliner, think they're going to try again this year. Been interesting watching the project come together seeing the amount of work and ingenuity required to get two old Vincent engines to go over 300 miles an hour.
posted by squeak at 4:23 AM on July 16, 2005

I don't see why the entire process can't simply be handled via remote control.

And the Olympics could allow robotic bob sleds, robotic horse riders (there are robotic camel jockeys now), and robotic bicycles. In terms of engineering, the cars, like rockets (which the fastest of these cars are), should be unmanned. But who cares how fast a machine driving a machine went? People want to know about people.

The real challenge, though, is in the water speed record: "Campbell's headless body wasn't found for 34 years."
posted by pracowity at 10:13 AM on July 16, 2005

mathowie writes "I don't see why the entire process can't simply be handled via remote control."
What pracowity said. Plus there is a lot of seat of the pants control feedback that can't really be telemetrised and the requirements to house a human limit packaging options.
posted by Mitheral at 10:52 AM on July 16, 2005

But who cares how fast a machine driving a machine went?

I do! Me, sir!

I'd love to see a couple of series spun off of F1 like that. One could have cars driven by humans through telepresence, and the other could be straight autonomous cars, just so the cars wouldn't have any inhabitants to keep safe. I'd love to watch cars cornering at eight gees through Monte Carlo, or hitting 350+mph at Indianapolis.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:20 AM on July 16, 2005