Great Cars: BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS

[Music] bust stock and beautiful words that can be used to describe the Bonneville Salt Flats a lonely landscape unchanged for over fourteen thousand years but twice a year the thunder of speed transforms this tranquil setting into a Raceway on salt stay with us for an insider's look at the world of speed [Music] the bonneville drama begins long before a wheel touches the salt [Music] we witnessed the development of an historic racing alliance that joined one of hot rodding x' most renowned builders the SoCal speed shop with the giant automaker General Motors gM hoped that the SoCal team could help them transform a stock Saturn Ion into a record-breaking racer [Music] it was an unusual assignment for SoCal a company known mostly for its painstaking restoration of classic hot rods but they had a history of breaking records and racing at Bonneville like many hot rodders the founder of the SoCal speed shop Alex egg Sidious and his friends first set speed records on the dry Lakes in Southern California but they always had their eyes on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats it was the ultimate goal for Speed enthusiasts Bonneville got the world's attention in 1935 when local building contractor and amateur racer AB Jenkins set out to lure sir Malcolm Campbell to the salt baths camels no flies powered Bluebird would eventually set a world record at 300 1.13 miles per hour and make news around the world [Music] the following year 1936 famed British driver Captain George Easton set a 24-hour speed record of one hundred and forty nine point nine six miles per hour but AB Jenkins had his own speed record plans his modified Duesenberg dubbed the Mormon meteor bested Eastern at a hundred and fifty three point eight to three miles per hour for 24 hours and one hundred and forty eight point six four one miles per hour for 48 hours Jenkins the meteor and Bonneville they came at legends hot-rodders longed to take their cars up to the fabled salt beds but Bonneville regulars didn't want to share the salt flats with hot rodders they were considered to be juvenile delinquents under intense pressure from hot rod organizations like the Southern California timing Association they were finally allowed a one-week trial race in the hottest part of the summer of 1949 we went up there to prove ourselves and also them to build it this fall Hall of racing at the shop we talked about what a great opportunity is and let's do something special people were starting to use the wing-mounted or belly fuel tanks from World War two surplus airplanes to build streamlined races Alex and a friend transformed one of the belly tanks into a racecar for themselves [Music] he realized that winning races was good advertising for his new speed shop he cleverly used a distinctive scalloped design on his lakester and the letters SoCal speed shop on its nose what counted was how fast it went on the second outing he sent a record of 127 miles an hour on his third run up that to 130 a new record speed in its class [Music] you went to work to make it even faster for the trip to Bonneville he and Dean bachelor built a new streamlined body and it was something very different than what had been done before and a lot of people thought they were crazy for building that particular style of car based on out a unions Grand Prix racer from the 1930s it had a streamlined body that cut the drag coefficient by half they were doing what every hot rodder knew and practiced watch other races and copy what works out a union had created a car that went over 200 miles per hour their wind tunnel tests were in this book that Dina dread and in there was the fact that even though they had increased the frontal area of the car 50% by enclosing it made it bigger they'd reduced the drag coefficient in half didn't take a brain surgeon to see that that was pretty incredible to get those wheels out of the wind the existing hot rod speed record was 160 miles per hour dee and Alex took that odd-looking new car to Bonneville and flew past the record at 193 miles an hour and we blew the hot rod record away so bad that we were all flabbergasted including Dean and I a new speed record landed SoCal on the cover of hot rod magazine for the second time in one year business was booming at Alex's Burbank hotrod shop when the streamliner set another Bonneville record the following year ripping up the salt flats at 210 miles per hour Alexson Dean went to Daytona Florida intent on blowing away outer unions international speed record at 219 miles per hour they flipped the car while racing it during Speed Week in Florida no one was hurt but they no longer had a car for bonad or Dave de lankton another member of the SoCal racing team suggested rebuilding a belly tanker with one of the bodies stored in the shop Alex agreed and dilantin's new version of the racer was flattened on the bottom to lower the car so Cal's new belly tanker immediately sets speed records at Bonneville the SoCal speed shop was permanently linked with Bonneville that his belly tanker became a legend a legend GM hoped to be part of over a one-year period we saw the GM and SoCal team build and race several cars they created the brake will speed records of course one of the cars have to be a belly tank a tribute to the car exodus raced at Bonneville years ago Alex was surprised when he first saw the drawing I went to the speech shop one day and there's this drawing of a red and white modernized version of the belly tank and I go oh god what is this thing and he says well the styling guys and the engineers back in Detroit like your belly team the team was also determined to create at modern races that could again carry the SoCal banner at Bonneville SoCal was now being run by Peter Perez a legendary hot rodder in his own right who'd restored one of Alex's cars that Pearson brothers Cooper Peter also restored SoCal and it was now one of the hottest hotrod shops in the country I'm a welder I like to create things in fabricate and I was blessed with having a lot of really good friends that I hung out with that we're able to take that need for speed and turn it into a business GM turned to SoCal because of his reputation the challenge was to build the belly tanker concept car a push truck and a transform a Saturn Ion into a speed record winner the goal beat the 180 3.86 miles per hour record set in 2001 by a Honda Civic at the Bonneville Salt Flats gM hoped this would boost the ions appeal with young performance enthusiasts after being shipped from the assembly line it received a full hot rod makeover at the SoCal shop in Pomona California first up a full roll cage to surround the driver in a cocoon of steel tubing and also strengthen the chassis Russell Blaine's of GM racing came on board to modify the cars Ecotec four-cylinder engine his mechanical magic upped it from 200 horsepower to over 700 he gave it an exhaust driven turbocharger and set it up to burn methanol fuel if that wasn't enough power to do the job he put in a boost adjustment that would let the driver summon all the horses needed [Music] weeks of hard work at long days brought the projects right down to the wire [Music] in true hotrod fashion the last push was an all-night thrash excellent counter load and go finally the long hours of hard work late nights cold pizzas and skinned knuckles were over it was time to go racing [Music] arriving at Bonneville the next morning the team was anxious to see what the Saturn could do at the October 2003 world finals there's only four of us in the truck GM chose Jim minica to pilot the Saturn he's a veteran engineer who spent over 13 years developing high-performance power plants for the company minica is also an accomplished racecar driver like so many others he started out as a weekend warrior racing Corvettes at a local drag strip from there he went on to the SCCA World Challenge in sir supercar series M sir GT and the grand American series but he was a Bonneville rookie it's impossible not to be affected by the enormity of the setting and thought about the history of record breakers who've challenged the salt before [Music] the top speedrun requires high gear ratios but this makes taking off from a standing start very slow hot rodders solve the problem of getting up to speed by using a push truck the GM cyclone will perform this traditional duty for the ion once up to speed it is up to minica and the saturn to perform the car started to feel the speed as minica accelerator [Music] the course is so long it's impossible for the crew to know how fast their car is going but when the chute was pulled they got the report they'd bested a Class G blown Fuel altered record held by the rival Civic with a speed of over a hundred and ninety miles per hour to make it official the iron would have to make a second run the average of those two runs would be at score this would have to wait until the next day the cow was impounded so no major modifications could be made beating or equaling its first runs time wasn't a foregone conclusion in 1960 Mickey Thompson piloted his challenger won powered by four supercharged Pontiac engines to 406 point six 31 miles per hour more than 10 miles per hour faster than the existing land speed record unfortunately a broken driveshaft kept him from making the second run and getting an official record as they say anything can happen in racing [Music] a team was back before sunrise the next day to get ready for the ions second run [Music] been stressful right now just here we go we've done everything to craft we know the engines right the cars right but it's still you don't have control of anything once once you light her off and let her go it's in the hands of the border so we've got real comfortable but it's still I get emotional so attention mounted while they waited finally they were off [Music] the ion was responding just as they'd hoped it would minica was feeling good [Music] [Music] it was even faster the eye on a tour down the salt and hit over 204 miles per hour the team and the car had performed they done it the record was there I mean our internal goal really was just to break the record of 183 and you have the car go over 200 on its second pass was a I mean that's just the clockwork of all that was it's very very difficult to do you work on a car for this long you spend this kind of money and then you drive out here twelve hours you don't really got to want to do this it's there's no money in it there's not even aren't any trophies I mean it's just there's a red hat that you get to go 200 miles an hour to a mile an hour club and guys have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to just get that ball cap the team came back for Speed week in August this was the event that started it all in 1949 this time the GM and SoCal bunch were hunting for records with an all-new lineup of races the expedition to Bonneville was led by a highly modified pre-release version of Chevrolet's new 2005 Cobalt SS supercharged sport compact Cooper they hope this car would write a new chapter in the long history of the SS lion at Chevrolet they had a new car and a new driver NHRA sport compact drag racing champion Nelson Pius GM and SoCal had learned a lot with the Saturn Ion and have designed the Cobalt SS racer to run even faster the production cobalt SS supercharged uses a 2-liter engine with forced induction and so did the new racer but it also has a turbocharger [Music] also running four records with Ecotec power Todd Hauser's 1934 roadster and Ron Mane's eco fire streamline these vehicles spanned the range of Bonneville racers from vintage hot rods and stock bodied production cars to specially built high speed record-breaking machines GM wanted to prove that its Ecotec was a world-class high-performance engine much like the Chevy small-block v8 introduced more than 50 years ago [Music] it was finally time to test the Cobalt SS and its 700-plus horsepower Ecotech powerplant you have a team helping you build the car bring it to Bonneville get it ready and push you off but once you're bottled in it's up to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] after two runs the timer Latoya's the team know they done it they'd established a new record in the G blow and fuel altered class two hundred and forty three point one to seven miles per hour this eclipses a record previously set in the Saturn higher next up was Todd has in his Ecotec powered roadster he was shooting for a record and membership and the 200 mile per hour clock [Music] HUS produced a one hundred ninety three point two three one record in the blown fuel a modified roadster class he'd be back later to earn his membership in the 200 miles / heartland [Applause] [Music] it was now up to Romain and the echo fire to really rev things up he was ready for some unusually fast driving [Music] generally the push truck rolls the car out such a high gear transmission that actually I shift out of first gear that procs me 130 miles an hour well I have to be careful in 1st and 2nd gear not to spin the tires once you spend the tires sometimes the rear end wants to outrun the funny our main goal this weekend was to put a number over 300 his streamlined echo fire did it a record in his class three hundred nine point six oh seven miles per hour main thought the engine could do four hundred four hundred is a hard number to pitch I think this four-cylinder motor has potential maybe not by us but by someone will get over 400 mile an hour it was quite an event that we decided to come back for the World Finals in October GM and SoCal teamed up again for another round of the Salt Flats shootout the cobalt was back for more and so was the Roadster but the big news was that the belly tanker was finally going to get a chance to run for a record [Music] Alex Exodus was thrilled when he saw it on the salt [Music] all as we took the both the old tank and the new tank to Bonneville this last year and we had them sitting in our pit together and all the old Bonneville guys would come over and they'd see the tank of a new tank of it I mean it was such a marvel experience to have most two cars together this is different than the old one I'll tell you that this is bitchin [Applause] finally it's time for the belly tank to get a shot at making it into the record books it was 52 years since Alex's first belly tanker set a record at Bonneville the GM SoCal team hoped to repeat history maybe this was going to be the belly tanks turn in the limelight driver Don Sherman was at the wheel for this historic run [Music] [Applause] things were looking up and finally it was official after several more runs a new record of over one hundred and seventy nine point three eight one miles per hour Don Sherman at the SoCal team had plenty to celebrate sometimes history dust repeats the breakthrough was getting onto the long course you have to do 175 to do that and having the right gearing that gave us a combination of acceleration and power at the very end to not have record speed it's a great day for the team but they'll be back again to see if they can break their own records there's nothing like racing at Bonneville and becoming a part of history this was truly a time to remember [Music]

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 151,985

Rating: 4.8134327 out of 5

Keywords: Hot Rods, Land speed records, Southern California Speed association, Alex Xydias, SoCal Speed shop, Belly tankers, Southern California Timing Association, SCTA, Bob Petersen, Hot Rod Magazine., Pete Chapouris

Id: nbvBoY-48ps

Length: 25min 4sec (1504 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 11 2017