MICKEY THOMPSON CHALLENGER 1 LAND SPEED RECORD ATTEMPT @ BONNEVILLE 60534

we present adventure tomorrow the cameras of today are recording the history of the future this is the documentary of our times and of times to conquer and now on adventure tomorrow dr. Klein traces the very fast life of Mickey Thompson the only man alive to travel over 100 miles per hour in a racing car we'll meet the man we'll see how he set his record and here the fastest tongue in the West dr. Martin L Klein director of research communications control corporation thank you very much Peter we're doing tonight's program especially for those of you who are going to the opening of the baseball season tomorrow now as I understand it they're not quite ready to handle the traffic they've told everybody to start turning out at about 10:00 in the morning which means that you probably make about 400 feet an hour as things will go tomorrow that's quite away from 400 miles an hour in an automobile but believe it or not it has happened what's more it's one of our native sons here in Los Angeles who did it and we expect that he'll come whizzing into the studio if he can apply the brakes fast enough during the next few minutes we're going to tell you the story of Mickey Thompson tonight you're going to sit with him and you're going to ride in an automobile going over 400 miles an hour believe it or not and now we turn to that story which we call appropriately the fastest man on Wheels arena for high-speed auto racing such as Mickey Thompson is known for his Bonneville Salt Flats near Salt Lake City Utah here winter rains and Summer Sun combined to provide a flattened level race course 11 miles long solid salt so this sun-baked phenomena of nature have come the racing greats over the years Cobb Graham Campbell men have died here striving for the goal reached by Thompson in the late summer of 1962 so fast 394 miles an hour set by Cobb in 1947 in 1959 some had come close with a speed of 367 miles an hour to ordinary men this would have been fast enough but the magic 400 brought Mickey back for another go only a few years ago he worked as a Pressman for the LA Times speed has always been his preoccupation sports cars power boats skiing skydiving he's tried them all his car is called challenger one built especially for this run it has to be carefully designed not to fly 400 miles an hour is about as fast as the pursuit planes with which we won World War two four hundred miles an hour is twice as fast as the scorching touchdown of the x-15 and the Challenger must survive 400 miles an hour with all four wheels on the ground the bulk of the Challenger one is made up of engines four of them each Pontiac engine drives one wheel each has been supercharged to put out an incredible 750 horsepower that totals 3,000 horsepower available the gearing to would drive a Pasadena lady to distraction Vicki doesn't get out of low gear until 210 miles an hour and second takes in to more than 300 miles an hour although the Challenger stands little more than three feet high it would never qualify as an economy compact it burns a special racing fuel at the rate of about two gallons per mile it's not built for comfort either the specially designed Goodyear tires carry 100 pounds of air pressure and there's no suspension system at all it's a bone-rattling ride all the way in August 1960 Thompson began preliminary runs to see if conditions were right for the record try beside his own condition and that of the car he must worry about the salt surface and the weather both of these factors turned out to be troublesome an especially dry summer had left the salt rough and this kind of racing can't be safely done and winds over five miles an hour Thompson elected to make a trial run to see just how bad the problems were for this the four gas tanks of the four engines get their fill on this run Mickey will only go a couple of hundred miles an hour or so just to warm up the track he may not even get out of second gear in Challenger one Thompson rides in a semi reclining position it's a small item but it helps keep the center of gravity low it improves stability a standard part of his pit crew is Judy mrs. Thompson the children stay at home but she's on hand the clock is hazardous progress now chief mechanic Fritz Voigt bribes the push car and the Challenger is off and running [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] any airplane would be fine at this speed in the Challenger Thompson views the course through tiny two inch square windshields and follows a black line painted on the salt it's his lifeline [Applause] he drives an 11-mile course the fifth mile is measured by electronic climbing instruments their records are made and broken at the end of the fast run when braking shoots slow the Challenger to about 90 miles an hour where ordinary breaks take over turn now to our story of the Challenger one and the push car dr. Klein those of us who are in the business community of Los Angeles Drive to work at between 40 and 50 miles an hour gentlemen sitting next to me is in the business community in Los Angeles he operates several businesses the significant difference is his name is Mickey Thompson and he drives to work or he did drive to work at 406 miles an hour is that right that close of that yet I'd like to ask one question that occurs to me why why do people want to go fast do you find this in itself interesting or are there some side things is there a definite reason that you can put your finger on them well two or three things I started as a lifelong ambition with me as a very young age and of course there's always the monetary gain green stuff that comes along plus the fact I think you accomplished something and it gives you a lot of self-satisfaction well now you fundamentally you actually earn the business now of building automobiles aren't you not the kind of automobiles that I buy or most people buy but you do build automobiles yes we do build racing cars I did not particularly want to get in that business but we're in the process of building some race cars were in Annapolis and I couldn't get anybody to build it the way I wanted it so we started building that are one of our shops now is it true in all candor is it true or is it not true that those of us who drive conventional automobiles gain something from the fact that they hold races in Indianapolis so people like yourself drive 350 and 400 miles an hour or is it a stunt really no I think if the general public actually knew this time which gained me they do get from race cars they'd be completely amazed than more majority the major auto manufacturers and such as tire manufacturer and they also watch it very closely and put millions of dollars a year into the development of race cars for their own so they have they have a way then is it true that they have a way of testing out new ideas under very difficult conditions and they can incorporate some of these ideas into ordinary automobiles very definitely they if I'd say the majority of all the advancement in automobile has been done on a race track or on test tracks in conventional racing what what does a normal race runner how fast about a hundred and thirty six two hundred and fifty miles an hour well of course it depends on what type not Bonneville I mean it in Annapolis they average around one hundred and forty five around a track and they run as high as one hundred and seventy-five done a straightaway is it possible that will get faster it seems to get faster every year I hope this year it's going to be faster with our new cars is that right well that's amazing what I'd like to do now is show you some more pictures of this remarkable gentleman before we hear more from him and we'll turn back right now to our story which we call the fastest man on wheels Mickey Thompson following the test run we saw earlier Mickey Thompson was faced with a difficult decision the salt was too rough for safety on an all-out run how do you fix up eleven miles of salt the answer is that you do it with lots of dedication and good hard work while the car was pulled back to Wendover Utah for more adjustment and fine-tuning the crew and a little band of speed enthusiasts set out to groom the race course the technique little water with salt and spread it in the holes and cracks just like cement under Utah Summit drives like concrete in a matter of hours [Music] this is part of the painstaking detail it goes into a triumph at the edge of the impossible mile after mile the team repair the ravages of summer heat the Utah State Highway Commission aids the project by sending a specially designed drag rail to polish the surface of the track finally the black stripe is relayed straight as an arrow on a run Mickey follows it like a gun sight aiming his car through the measured mile during the three weeks it took to prepare the track the mechanics were not idle taking a page from the aircraft designer they fastened strips of yarn to the Challenger to study the high-speed airflow results they installed a spoiler to help prevent unwanted lift meanwhile the timers from the United States Auto Club calibrate their electronic measuring instruments this organization officially times all records in this country and their standards are high they must be the Challenger will flash through that measured mile in just about nine seconds it will be travelling nearly seven miles in a minute and now it is September 9th 1960 this is to be the day of the fast run the Challenger and its handlers are on the salt had gone for the end time they checked every detail the braking parachutes are triggered from inside the car test them without them the Challenger would coast 50 miles or as far as the nearest rock in its path he even saw the poor conditions for precision machinery the chief mechanic keeps the wheel bearings packed in ice until a run then he inspects them and the tires as they are mounted on the car these tires you'll see in a moment are specially built by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for the Challenger less than two and a half feet in diameter they carried tread rubber thinner than ordinary cardboard we learn more about them in just a moment there again Mickey Thompson dr. Klein and the tire haha thank you very much Peter we have before us a model of the Challenger which is a model of the car you drove incidentally this is a handmade model I don't think it's available yet but can you show us on this what are some of the features of this car we saw them in the film but maybe we can see them close-up in this model well we're very fortunate in having this model with us here it was given to us by Revell incidentally Revell is going to make kit models of this car which will be introduced in a very very short time for the hobbyist mmm-hmm as you can see there's a very exacting detail here Wow it gives the four fuel tanks here any four engines and the Goodyear tires and our water and even gives the driver's compartment and the whole works back here so it's a very exacting model and I say it will be available you sit way in the rear when you drive this car yes sir we sent right back here in a very rear of the car underneath this steel roll bar here the parachute is placed here which is ejected by a projector when we get underway incidentally is each of these engines these I presume are the engines are each of them connected to a separate wheel well theoretically they are these are Pontiac engines here and there the front and the rear are connected separately the two front engines are connected to the two front tires although there is a common axle in between that governs the engines together now you don't knock cars out like these or the Indianapolis cars these are actually hand-built I think yes sir they are hand-built I personally built this on all myself did you build this car too I did with the help of such people as Kenny Drew's Beck and Fritz Boyd and no one individual makes a car like this it's a complete fall team and I have a best team of friends that work with me I might ask in connection with that are there a group of people who spend their lives working on racing cars as a sort of a hair key or a group of people who find is sufficiently interesting I might say yes when we first started this all the time was donated towards the billing of this car however since this time we've organized a racing group who now we have a shop in Long Beach that we just specialized in billions racecars such as these indianapolis cars that are coming up we have body men such as Don borth and many many more experts Bob bubonic and this many I can name that help us with such cars it's Los Angeles where we are now living is this the seat or the home of most of the racing car activities it is the electronics industry I would say very definitely it is the home of a racing of course the only other places Sebring Florida and in Annapolis Indiana however the majority of the cars for those races are built right here in Southern California now you have some samples of tires over there I presume this is a an idea of how we benefit people like myself from the kind of work that you do well I might mention the fact that this is a tire here that costs I would say about 25-30 dollars of premium tire and this tire right here costs almost a quarter of a million dollars are developed about $30,000 a set this is what Goodyear spent or it does spend each year in developing tires for our Challenger those are special tires that were used on your car similar to that yes I might say that a lot of the kick off from these tires were used to land are faster Jets and so on and so forth so as you can see it's very definitely has helped passenger miles by going 400 miles an hour on this car good years overcome many many thousand problems what what are the significant differences this has no tread on it I noticed and it to be that yes as you can see this has approximately a half inch of tread seven sixteenths a tread and this has approximately 20,000 which is about the thickness of a business car turists like cardboard the centrifugal force from this tire spinning actually makes one ounce of rubber weigh over 9,000 pounds Wow difficult force carrying over a hundred pounds of air pressure and it's very very good well now I think we'll give you an opportunity to actually see this tire and Mickey Thompson as he made the sensational run we'll turn now back to our story which we call the fastest man on wheels Mickey Thompson 9:30 a.m. the wind which had blown up 12 miles per hour is died away conditions are as good as they're going to be today Thompson and the chief steward confer then make the decision try for the bigness [Music] when Mickey hangs the Challenger down that black line he will have just four miles in which to decide whether to drop a lead foot on the accelerator or to abort and try some other time four miles passed very quickly in this business for driving he wears a leather suit this helps protect him in case of fire but in the desert heat it also gives him a portable steam bath especially after he's locked in the confines of the cockpit right now the actions are deliberate the need for speed comes later there is a ritual of shoehorning into that seat that borders on the superstitious and it's a ritual tinge with safety at every step the seat belts have a purpose the position of the driver as we said to have a purpose even the steel headrest as unique as we'll see Judy is on hand for moral support and one last kiss Mickey always wears a small breathing mask in the past this precaution has saved his life locked in as he is there is no escape from smoke or fumes in case of an emergency now his helmet is fitted in behind an armored steel retainer he virtually becomes a part of this car in the course of his career Thompson has fractured most of his bones and has been given up by doctors as a hopeless case on at least one occasion he estimates that he has traveled about 300 miles at speeds over 350 miles per hour before he leaves this cockpit again he will have claimed the title fastest man on wheels and now ride with us and watch how it happened [Music] observers that the mile markers reported by telephone judy traces is unseen progress with a stopwatch he's decided to go for broke [Music] the camera had to move fast to keep up with them and then it's over the drag chute sees the Challenger down to manageable speeds his fob speed four hundred and six point six miles an hour a record for the one-way run misfortune struck on the return trip a driveshaft broke and Thompson was unable to qualify for the two-way record but on that day and I remember it well the nation was proud of Mickey Thompson in 1960 it takes a special mixture of skill of judgment and nerve to be the best in the racing business someday his record will be broken possibly by himself but the point remains that by pushing machinery and materials to their very limit valuable information filters back that helps improve our automobiles of tomorrow and so from the fastest man on wheels a legacy of progress for the sunday drivers of Los Angeles and the world can add an addition to holding that record Mickey just made another record I believe it was last week and that was he won in his class and the Mobil gas economy rung run and his wife Judy whom you saw in the pictures was also in the Mobil gas economy run and also on in her class so you just can't say what you say about the lady drivers well now that you've made some more records what are you going to do in the near future you mentioned something about racing cars for Indianapolis well our immediate plans call for nationally we're trying to design a completely different type of car for the Indianapolis races which is May 30th and it's a new spectacular thing using a Buick engine or stock production engines that you're having your compact cars of course is a project that everybody is sort of laughing at because you know the often houses have arranged and been the winner since 1927 but we have a lot of faith and the other thing I think will be this is time we don't know whether we can make it give it the cars ready in time but we're certainly trying do you know who will drive it yet yes we have just named the Chuck D as one of the drivers for the Harvey aluminum special and then we right now are [ __ ] with two other drivers and I can't mention their names I think in the next week we'll have them signed up well any of them be local fellows from this part of the country yes we hope that want to be very local very close well I don't want to pry because this sounds like dealing with opera stars apparently and it's considerably more dangerous than singing in the Opera I have only one last comment left now that I've met you next week I would like to bring in my car because I need the brakes adjusted and the only thing left to do is to let the program get adjusted and to do that I turn over to Peter Hanson Thank You Mickey Thompson thank you very much the program you have just seen is based on fact 100% no fiction news no fiction necessary the clock is our only time machine do be with us again next time for adventure tomorrow with dr. Martin L Kline director of research communications control corporation

Channel: PeriscopeFilm

Views: 12,770

Rating: 4.9736843 out of 5

Keywords: Periscope Film, Stock Footage, 4K, HD, 2K, Challenger 1, Mickey Thompson, Bonneville Salt Flats, Land Speed Record

Id: iCxSPXDxAMQ

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2018