Folks Of Interest ~~Craig Breedlove~~ Nov. 15, 1965

Here's a great story that was in the New York Times this past Sunday about Craig Breedlove.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/11.15.html

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/a...ide-open.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Bonneville&st=nyt

Slideshow.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/05/13/automobiles/13breedlove-slides.html

 

Lotta folks forget that Craig used to be just another hot rod crazy kid....

 

That pic with his car in the pond looks like something from the Twilight Zone....

 

probably my all time favorite Craig Breedlove related pictures

 

so who wants to tell the story of how they were mad and threw him in the brine pond being he lucked out on the crash !!!

 

cool story - very cool ride(s)- cool guy-hope he he achieves his dreams. I like very fast stuff.

 

I would drive it for Craig. One of my heros growing up.

That said, a serious person knows the gravity of that statement I just typed. This is for real, things can go wrong. I hope Craig gets his car into the books again!

 

Sometime about 1967 Breedlove's ex-wife and daughter lived in an area of Costa Mesa, CA. known as Mesa Del Mar and the daughter went to the same elementary school that I did. The school district asked Craig to come and give an "Assembly" for the students. Craig did come with a film of his salt flat exploits. After the film Breedlove was instantly surrounded by dozens of school kids who wanted his autograph, including me, and I got it. Wished I saved it!!! It was very cool to meet the fastest man on earth.

 

bchrismr, Cool shot.

 

I found it in the "vintage photos from days gone by" thread. That's one of my fav's on the HAMB.

 

Fearless.

 

Way cool post. Don't tell me that they built that car in a one car garage!

 

Craig Breedlove came from 'humble beginnings'. The window dressing came later.

 

Even worse-that house & garage was in South-Central Los Angeles, where the Watts riots took place in the summer of '65. They were frantically trying to move it to a safer place to escape the fire danger there.

 

Craig was a fireman in the Costa Mesa Fire Dept.

 

That's not completely correct. The shop where we built the Spirit of America "Sonic 1" (the 4-wheel car) was on El Segundo Blvd, between S. Central Ave. and Wilmington Ave, in the city of Compton. We moved into that shop in December, 1964 and started work. The Watts Riot began some time in July, 1965 and lasted a few days. We never attempted to try and move the car, it was far from finished at the time (had no wheels, etc.). We did protect our property by stationing guys on the roof with shot guns as structures all around us were burning. It was kind of tense at the time but we suffered no damage to the property. The funny thing was that the CHP Motorcycle officers that actually "initiated" the riots used to come into our place prior to the riots, they were "car guys". I remember their first names, Lee and Gale. Although I never talked to them after everything calmed down (they were re-assigned), the story goes that they pulled over some kid for a traffic violation. The "stop" was on a residential street, and in the middle of a heat wave that day. A lot of folks were apparently sitting on their front porches watching the take down by the CHP (they had to be about 6' 3 or 4", and very white in an all black neighborhood) and the onlookers had a problem with the way they were "handling" the traffic offender (a 21 year old kid about 5' tall). A few beer bottles were apparently thrown, Gale called for back-up, one thing led to another and the rest is history...