Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Renault Étoile Filante: A Shooting Star on the Salt Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Saw that thing parked near Saturdays driver's meeting. Didn't see or hear it move under it's own power. I would have liked to hear the french Batmoble sound It wasn't as interesting as the 3cylinder Honda built streamliner. Honda even brought a ch***is dyno to the salt in the many tractor trailer loads of equipment ....wowwwzerz
I'm the guy who brought Etoile Filante back to Bonneville in 2016 (in a white shirt and black pants near the car). It was a great honor and a huge pleasure to do this and to be on the salt with this beauty. A few details: 1- L'Etoile Filante still holds the record set in 1956! 2- The car was functional, but it's normal that @Nacifan didn't hear it: unfortunately, it no longer has its turbine and it was equipped (of course, without destroying anything from the original car and having made everything reversible) with a small electric motor. Yes, it's less cool (and fast!), but it was the only way to see it running again. Premonitory? At the Rétromobile cl***ic motor show last February, Renault presented a new Etoile Filante... electric! 3- The Renault Dauphine, which was also present in 2016, was driven by Alain Prost's son, Nicolas, and he set the (small) record in its category.
More pix I shot that day And just 4 funn... 1 of the Thompson family Hot Rod headin' 2 the startin' line the same year.
Great photos and history. To me that has always been the great thing about land speed racing in that you build a car (or truck or bike) to fit into a certain cl*** and race against the record in your cl***. The guy in the Renault Dauphine is working to achieve his record jst as Danny Thompson was working for a much faster record.
The Jalopy Journal
