The trip was a great success! I got ambushed by a cold on the way home Sunday, but I feel much better today. The motivation for going to Bonneville was provided by a group of Austin Healey owners and restorers who recreated two historic vehicles from the 1954 world speed record attempts on the salt by Donald Healey.
The endurance car
and the streamliner
were each faithful recreations of the original vehicles which set endurance and speed records in 1954.
I have wanted to go to Bonneville for decades. When I started to plan the trip one of the first things I looked at was my Hot Rod Yearbook from 1964, just to see what the salt, the cars and the people looked like and to get a feel for the place. I did find a photo of Bert Monro and his Indian but that is beside the point. What I found on the salt was far more than could ever be part of the yearbook.
The sunlight is bright and the salt surface is very reflective, I think Dan said 403% of normal. I don't know what people did without modern sunscreen. I was sure lathered up.
The people on the salt are all comrades. The Utah Salt Flats Racing Association members who run the show, the racers, crew members, other hangers-on, and the spectators all seemed perfectly willing to help each other make every speed run the best possible.
The type of competition found at Bonneville encourages cooperation. Every racer on the salt is alone with his or her car or motorcycle, using the machine to take on the wind and the salt with the goal of beating the clock for a personal best or new world record. There are numerous classes from the AA streamliners that travel over 368 miles/hour to the Crosley that went 70 miles/hour. It is a great "run what you brung" culture.
 |
| Dan and "The Beast" at Bonneville |
I am going back.
Keep 'em running
Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment