Bonneville Salt Flats -The Power Of Bonneville
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
The Bonneville Salt Flats is the place where guys will race anything. No one with a single automotive synapse firing can attend a land speed race there and come home without looking at a weedblower with newborn curiosity. Yet magazine and TV coverage rarely glorifies the champions of oddball powerplants who thrash all year for a single chance at quiet victory, so that's exactly what we're doing with this year's coverage of the Southern California Timing Association's Speed Week event, held more or less every August for 59 years.
For those who've never attended a race at Bonneville, El Mirage, or Maxton, the reason for such eccentric power combos demands some explanation. For some, the goal is not necessarily a record, but simply a personal best or the ability to claim "world's fastest" three-cylinder, or Crosley, or flat-four, or whatever. Also, the SCTA encourages feats of traditional hot rodding with special engine classes just for Vintage Fours, flathead Fords and Mercs, and '59-or-older inliners or flathead V-8s other than Fords and Mercs.
Those who use atypical engines are playing the rules game, seeking new classes in which to score a land speed record. The SCTA vehicle categories and classes are broken down by five basic criteria: 1) aerodynamic mods to the body, 2) engine displacement, 3) gas or fuel, and 4) blown or unblown. Only the Production classes require the engine style and the body style to have left the factory together, so it's anything goes for those seeking to run engine classes from K (30.99 ci or less) to AA (501 ci or more) in cars of all years, types, and shapes. Also, land speed racers are just scroungers, innovators, and contrarians by nature. They race bizarre powerplants simply because they can.
In 1948, the SCTA contacted AAA in hopes of help in developing a sanctioned event at Bonneville. According to Wally Parks, the AAA official said no, because "the world record in Class C is 203 mph, and it is highly doubtful that any hot rod will ever attain that speed." Of course, the SoCal belly-tanker exceeded that speed just two years later in 1950, running 210.896 mph. Today, guys are past 300 with tiny four-cylinders.
The prolific achievements of land speed racers stand as a fine tribute to Wally Parks, who was largely responsible for founding the Bonneville Nationals, and to the legacy of HOT ROD itself, which thanks to the efforts of many staffers long before our time, celebrates its 60th anniversary with this issue. Aside from SCTA land speed racing events in the dustbowl of El Mirage Dry Lake, there is no more historic achievement a hot rodder can accomplish than a record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Regardless of the powerplant.
(Right) Xydias & Batchelor; Kenz & Leslie; Mickey Thompson; Herda, Cagle & Knapp; Noel Black; Larson & Cummings; Les Leggitt; Nolan White; Al Teague; and Team Vesco. In 59 years, those are the teams that have scored more than one engraving on the HOT ROD Magazine Top Time trophy, presented for the single fastest pass during Speed Week. Now there's a new name for that list: Team Nish. It's a huge accomplishment to organize the car that can best overcome the obstacles of the Salt to set the fastest run of the meet, and to do it twice is incredible. The Nish Royal Purple streamliner accomplished it for the first time in 2004 with a run of 383.553. In 2007, driver Mike Nish ran a best flying mile of 380.046 and set an AA/Fuel Streamliner record of 377.715 mph using a single, naturally aspirated, 673ci Arias/Chevy by Klein Racing Engines of Strawberry, Arizona. The Nish team's efforts were documented in a recent episode of HOT ROD TV, and you can learn more at www.nishmotorsports.com. From left to right are Terry Nish, Cec McCray, Mike Nish, Larry Lawson, Rick Nuesmeyer, Dominic May, Jerry Keener, Bill Randall, and Scott McCray.
Photo Gallery: Bonneville Salt Flats -The Power Of Bonneville
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