BONNEVILLE.... is it worth the drive????

One of the many mistakes I've made in my life, was to keep on saying, maybe I will go to Bonneville next year. Don't make the same mistake!
Get a car, or better yet, a van full of friends together, and GO! Although it would be nice, you don't have to go there in a hot rod. Don't wait until your hot rod is done ...JUST GO...THIS YEAR!!!
This year BONNEVILLE speed week is Aug.13-19, but if you can, get there on Fri.the 12th or at least try to be there Friday evening. Friday evening MOTORHEADS sit out side the hotels in Wendover drinking beer and talking HOT RODS. (Wendover is only a few miles from the Salt Flats) Sat. you can catch up on sleep, because in the A.M. they do tech. on the cars, and don't open to the public or start running until noon.
I went there in 2003, and it only cost $20.00 for a week pass!!!
The best days (excluding weather problems) are SAT., SUN., and Monday. You can tell that some of the racers leave after Sunday, and each day after Sunday, it winds-down a little more. If you are on a low budget you can camp outside the entrance to the track at the "bend in the road". I think it is free.
...........EVERYONE .... PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN OBSERVATIONS................

 

As an aussie I would near give my left nut to get the money to fly there and your asking about is it worth the drive!!!

 

Have been dreaming/lusting for years to attend......this year is IT!!

From Sydney(Australia) to LA to B/Ville or BUST!! Flying out August 5......

Looking forward to meeting some HAMBers and living a dream....

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

I drove right past it a few times, during my misspent youth. Figured I'd get there some day...Finally hooked up with Rocky and our dad one year, and we did it. I've read some pretty good stories about the salt over the years, by some great writers, and none of 'em were able to capture the magic of really being there, or even the anticipation of driving there, knowing you're headed to the holy grail. By the time we arrived, we were so stoked we just wanted to consume the place, ya know? All was nirvana until the storm hit on the 2nd day. It was bad - salt in every orifice, blown in by STRONG winds. I was so miserable...I was glad to have experienced it, but was sure I'd never EVER return to the place that done me so wrong (I was hurtin')...
The next year I returned with my own car, and have been back almost every year since. There's just no shaking the salt mojo.............................

 

I'm aiming at having my 27 T coupe done in time to make it. I cant wait to just stand on the legendary flats, then take the T on it's first all out, balls to the wall, speed run there. I'm getting antsy just thinking about it... going to the garage in 3,2,1... bye.

rjb

 

Amen, my brotha.........we'd better start planning right now! Start saving your pop bottles and old batteries. radiators etc etc. I'll drive the Poncho out again.
Rocky

 

A you will not be allowed back into this country unless you supply us Aussies ( read ME!!) with your usual standard of great photos!!!

iIvote I come in your luggage.

 

Don't go, you'll hate it. to much heat, wind, rain, sun and salt. oh, and last but not least, to damn many race cars. you will just get really bored looking at all that stuff, so you had better stay home.
well so much for that bull shit. i go to race a friends bike, so we just get stuck in the pits all the time. ha ha. while thinking about all that, it's a sickness. your sittin the the shade at over 100 degrees saying what the hell am i doing here. then you turn around and do it again the next year. it's the coolest place to go to watch races anywhere on the planet. i may have to take this year off, but i'll be back in 2006 with my modified, as the tow rig for sure. you just have to go for it. have fun.
p.s. don't forget to have breakfast at the salt flats cafe. better food and prices there than the stuff in town.

 

Yeah, Bonneville sucks!

 

Hell yes every hot rodder NEEDS to go to Bonneville at least once in their life.
I will never ever forget the feeling that I got (and still get) when the salt actually comes into view. It's like your entering another planet. I have never seen any picture or read any words that can describe what it is like. You just have to see it for yourself. And I doubt that you will meet any friendlier crowd on the planet. This includes the racers, the officials and the spectators.
Be sure you take sunscreen and water...........LOTS of both. The sun reflects off of the white salt intensifying the UV's. And if you wear short pants, make sure you have your tighty whiteys on cuz if you don't, Jim and the twins will be singin' the blues.

 

Amen, my brotha.........we'd better start planning right now! Start saving your pop bottles and old batteries. radiators etc etc. I'll drive the Poncho out again.


Bringin' the Big Pee back to the salt? Okay. I still have the salt gears for my hot rod. Doh! I can't run it at the big show (Speedweek) - only at the USFRA deal in the fall...(Any potential black line chasers reading this: you can run your street car in the Utah Salt Flats Racers Associations "130mph club" or the "150mph club" [my goal] for about three times less money than the SCTA race. USFRA is online, if you wanna check it out) But I'll be there with something...The Chili Pepper is down the road now, so I'll be free to jangle successfully with you all over the dang salt...Hmmm........How fast do you suppose the BTU will go before getting airborne???

 

I've been saying "Next year" for at least 30 years, maybe this will be my year to finally go. A friend is building a car to run this year (not a hot rod) and I could help crew for him. Jet Blue into Salt Lake City, rent a beater from a friend of a friend and drive to the Salt Flats and camp out at The Bend in the Road. There is something very special about Utah, if you ever get a chance drive Route 24 and 89.

 

The only thing bad about Bonneville is that it took me so damn long to get there for the first time. Worth the drive? You gotta be shittin' me. It would be worth the drive if you had to come all the way from Tierra del Fuego. It is as bitch'n as any automotive event, anywhere.

 

Loogy you got it, standing on the salt, all I could think was man this must be what it feels like to stand on the moon.
You said it, FRIENDLY PEOPLE...REALLY HARD CORE... HOT ROD PEOPLE!!!
I think it would be impossible to go there just once, because once you go YOU ARE HOOKED!!!...."SALT FEVER".

 

I drove out there in 2002 in my '57. It feels like it was yesterday. It is one of the highlights of my "hotrod" life. It was worth the drive.

I went there by myself. I didn't know anybody there. The people were great! As a New Yorker (who knows not to make eye contact on the subway), I was welcomed to the whole experience from staff, racers and spectators. I felt right at home with friends. It was worth the drive.

The sights and sounds continue to sink in even after you are back home. It is like nothing you can describe with words. The haunting sounds of an engine hauling balls out, changing pitch as it passes and going silent well after the chutes are out. The cackle of the race radio giving a time. The sunrise right before the mornings' record runs. I was worth the drive.

It feels like it was just yesterday. Next time will be even better because I'll have friends to share it with. But even if I went solo again, it would still be worth the drive.
Bil

 

Oh yes .....the yearly pilgrimmage to the salt for speedweek,gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.First went in 1992...flew all the way from 'sunny' England with 2 buddies just to go to speedweek,sold just about everything I had to pay for the trip and it was definately worth it.Been going most years since I moved over here in 1996.
This year fingers crossed I'll be there again but for the first time racing my own car.It'll be great to hook up with some fellow hambers this year.
Can't wait.....dammit , got me fired up now!!

 

bring a bicycle at the very least but a gas powered mini bike would be better. The pits seem about three miles long, so one trip on foot in the heat and you'll know what I mean. Oh yea the sun screen is also very. The first day I put off putting some on my legs thinking I would do it later and I paid the price.

 

We are busy on the redo of the “Super Stude” #974 “Just Glad to be Here”. http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/temp-pictures/hooley-2004.html The new engine block is at the machine shop, Hooley has been working on the roll pan, I have been dreaming about the new shape for the front end. We will be hard at work soon putting it all together again. This year we hope to set a class record and get Hooley his 200 MPH club hat. We are hoping to run in the 250 MPH range. Seeing Bonneville and then later returning as an entry has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I encourage everyone to go.

 

All the Popular HAMBERS go there too

 

My attitude too! My first trip out was the 50th anniv. and then again in 2003. Just bought a teardrop trailer and plan to camp my way out this year. That way I can stay longer.

Charlie

 

Very much worth the drive & in an old car. We drove the 34' hotrod in 01' and got hooked. It was the greatest time, that year it was the same time as Sturgis and we (my dad and I) were in the middle of nowhere and I look behind the hotrod and about 100 guys on Harley's were coming up behind us. They started to pass us and I told my dad who was driving at the time to try not to get to far on the right shoulder. They were passing on the right also and just nodding there heads (I don't think that they were lawyers-haha). And they just kind of surrounded the hotrod and just kept checking it out and then they went off down the road. We both just kinda' chuckled and I mentioned that that it looked like it was out of a movie or something.

Here is the North of 49' website and it has a excellent sound clip on it that I listen to every now and then. There is also some cool video on the SCTA site of Vesco going 458mph.

http://www.fsra.org/n49/Gallery/index.htm

http://www.fsra.org/n49/




Chris Nelson
Kansas

-BobK, I will email you this evening when I get home from work and after I talk to my dad.

 

In 96 Motormikey and I did the big east-west tour. Our first stop was Bonneville the we went on to Andy's picnic and Pleasanton. Bonneville spoiled us for the rest of the trip. Everybody on the salt was great. It was a great laid back time. When we got to Cali everybody was snobby and stuck up.

This year a bunch of us are coming from the east to Bville then to the drags. I can't wait!!!
Clark (SoWhat)

 

It's Mecca. I took the whole family last year and now none of us can wait til next year.

 

YEP, I learned this the hard way....boxers, shorts, and salt flats are a BAD idea!! ("honey will you rub some aloevera on my sunburn")

And YES, it is worth the trip. I love wondering around the pits/staging BS'n, listnening to motors, and watching the tuning....Nothing like the sound of twin Donavan SBC's....and I am a Ford guy.

 

Yep Bonneville Sucks... the money right out of your wallet.
In '98 I cajoled a bunch of guys to escortone of our buddy's down there. The buddy (Digger Dave) was an announcer there in the '70's and had been going through some problems, but he never quit talking about going back to the salt. So we went, and got Digger to the 50th, and now we've been back every year since.
Diggers health is better, testament to the curative powers of the salt and the gang of us who made that '98 trip after staring wide eyed and saying "maybe we could do this" ARE doing it with North of 49.
In 98 our pant were so full of cash they wouldn't stay up...


Now our pants stay up, 'cause we spent everything on a car.


A couple corrections to the first post.

Friday is Tech inspection all day
Saturday is tech in the morning, racing at noon.

mike

 

John, be on the look out for Gary Hart and his Fuel Injected Stude. He is wanting to go faster.
Can you imagine that? Like 213 mph aint enough, or a 229 pass. What is the world coming to with all this speed?

 

Now our pants stay up, 'cause we spent everything on a car.
Sure, If you say so Mikey...


Lots of HAMBers there.


And more trad rods than you'll probably see anywhere else.


Then there's always Saturday night at the bend.

And I haven't even mentioned the racing yet.


More wierd types of cars than you've ever seen.


Don't let em scare you btw. the pits are only 2 1/2 miles long.
Bring water, a sun shade, and a bike to ride. You'll need all 3.
If you can only make a day or 2, be there on Sat and Sun.

 

Thanks-- I changed the orig. post...RACING STARTS at NOON on SATURDAY!!!

 

it is very much worth the drive...i went out i think it was 97 and they ended up getting rained out so they didnt even race..but the atmosphere was intoxicating and seeing all the cars was even more so

 

Yup it is worth it. I was lucky enough to travel over for the '50th in '98 with a bunch of Aussies and 3 race cars. I was part of the Lynch Mob ( the crew working on John Lynch's belly tank). I could write pages and pages on that trip. Got to catch up with Aussie Steve and meet Brian Wright, who are both HAMB dudes. Not that I knew that at the time, hell I didn't even own a computer back then.
But at that time I was very much involved in the DLRA here in Australia, so I knew that Bonneville was going to be way special and it was.
I had better stop writing. Attached is 3 images. The Lynch mob, left to right Rex, Wayne, Judy, Whodaky (me that is) and John Lynch. Not in the image is Russ Aves, who we met at the salt and who offered to push the belly tank all week with his '40 pickup. Now that was special. John's belly tank and a shot of the car I am part owner of here in Australia. Geoff aka Whodaky