I got to go to Bonneville, "Grumpy Old Men" I thank you!!

Seth's daughter is the driver, she spun around and around for about a mile and was headed for the pit area which was real scary. The scene became busy as rescue personnel arrived.





I took these photos only minutes after the spinout as we were one of the first SCTA Official vehicles to reach the site.




Seth's daughter, in the red fire suit, after she climbed out of the lakester. You can see the pit area in the background which is probably a mile away from the course where the run was made.


The fellow in the orange hat and white shirt is the SCTA official that gave us the ride along.

 

why are there so many spin outs there?



Looking at these photos is misleading, it appears to be a solid surface. There is somewhat of a crust on top but it is far from solid. If you get down on your knees and rub your hand on the salt it comes apart in granules. The salt feels cool and it holds quite a bit of moisture which helps keep it packed down. To say the least it is a bit tricky to accelerate with out breaking loose and that can happen at high speeds as well as when you are trying to get the m*** of your car moving up to speed.
The tires that are used are specifically rounded to reduce drag and offer very little in the way of side bite. Therefore there is less control to prevent a spin trying to keep the car on course.
Downforce from spoilers and wings are truly an ***et when allowed by the clasification of the vehicle. Downforce by weight is key, most of the cars are extremely heavy compared to drag cars. An example of this is the 911 Blown Fuel Roadsteer which has a top fuel Hemi for power, weighs 6200 pounds and runs 304 mph on the salt with out fairings, wings or spoilers.





This cl***ic altered coupe is leaving the starting line without the aid of a push truck. He gave it just a little too much throttle while feathering the clutch and it began to black track the salt. Tricky traction for sure!!!





Here is a close up picture of the salt surface, notice that it is 105 degrees but the salt is damp and able to be rolled up into salt balls.



I am not an authority by any means, this is the first time I ever went to Bonneville. I am just sharing my experience and what I learned while I was there, taking it all in.

 

The next place that the race director took us was in the announcer booth trailer which was right next to the tent where you would pull up to get your timing slip after a run. Here is a picture from inside that trailer. Bear in mind that there is no Public address system as you are used to at the drags.
This announcer is on a radio frequency and you have to tune into a radio station to get the broadcast. So at Bonneville while you are watching you don't have a clue what is going on, unless you have a portable radio or sit in your truck.

 

Back to the pit area where you are welcome to walk around freely, you can walk into someone's pit area and talk to them. No at***udes, no dirty looks, just smiles and a willingness to share the salt experience. I walked into this pit and met Gene Windfield, and this is the T model compe***ion coupe that he built. Gene is a very famous car builder from way back, he must be in his eighties.








A thirty four Ford 5 window coupe similar to the # 134 that we run at the drags.





another shot of this cool # 904 chopped coupe. "C" engine cl***ic blown fuel altered.

 

One of the mottos that NHRA used in the early years was "Ingenuity in Action"
Now it is "certification before any action"
The Salt Flats and lake beds are where the NHRA came from, and at Bonneville you still get to see a lot of ingenuity. Here is a screw compressor (supercharger) that has the injector body cast into the front of the compressor.



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Belly tanks were plentiful after WW2. A lot of aircraft manufacturers were located in southern California. Surplus parts and equipement sales included the auxillary tanks that were attached to war planes. Some ingenious racers decided they would make a perfect structure for a lakester and they have been popular ever since. Here is a tanker with it's upper schell removed.

 

The belly tanker is a vintage type of lakester. The modern lakester is a special constructed race vehicle that looks nothing like a belly tank. A lakester has exposed wheels, a similar constructed race vehicle that has inclosed or coverd wheels is called a streamliner.

Here are some pictures from Seth Hammond's pit area. His #77 Lakester is powered by an electronically injected Big Block Chevrolet design engine.



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The engineering on this lakester is second to none. Check out the retractable canopy.





While they were warming up the engine I took this shot of the digital dashboard as the gauge readings were changing. What a masterpiece of equipement.

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Seth's daughter who drives this lakester stands by the side and looks things over. The trailers for these cars are also used to transport the cars to the starting line and follow the car to the end of the course to bring it back. This picture is taken right before they take it to the starting line.





The #77 Seth Hammond lakester leaving the starting line, his daughter at the helm going for another record attempt after her spin out yesterday.

 

This Lakester is getting ready up near the starting line, lakesters usually start their engine on the line to get some heat and then pushed by their truck to help them get up to speed for the run.





Pushing off for the run!! The SCTA official gives the signal to start the run.








All shapes and sizes of lakesters





This lakester made the trip to Bonneville from Flemington,New Jersey. Flemington is only about 25 minutes from my home in Southampton, Pa. Nostalgia Fiat Racer lives only 10 minutes from them. Dauernheim, Bigelow and Davis entry is making attempts at a record well over 300 mph. Bob Dauernheim was a dragster ch***is builder in the hey day of front engine top fuel dragsters.

 

some awesome pics ,and info from the salt ,thanks for all

 

The "Got Salt" entry is appropriately named.



This entry is powered by a vintage Buick straight eight, overhead valve engine. "The Salt Cat II"

 

Some old school belly tank lakesters.




The famous "Bean Bandits"




This is an old school hand crafted lakester fashioned after a belly tank. EJ Kowalski's creation hold the record for the vintage 4 cyl. engine cl*** lakester.

 

Streamliners are the fastest machines on the salt that are cl***ified by SCTA. Usually they are low sleek slender and smooth vehicles that have the wheels covered to reduce drag. The rule book states that they must have 4 wheels but not necessarily next to each other. Some choose to have the wheels in tandem. For the streamliner cl*** at least two of the wheels have to be covered. Sometimes when a lakester is running fast enough for a streamliner record, the team will put covers over two rear wheels to fit into the cl***.






Here is a streamliner entry from California. The driver actually lays down in this skinny little machine.




This entry is powered by a motorcycle engine.






A beautiful red streamliner pushing off for a run on the long course.

 

This famous #444 team has been racing on the salt since 1933







During inspection the #444 is opened up for the inspectors to check the equipment.

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A gas turbine powered streamliner at tech inspection









More streamliners get the going over during tech inspection

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I took this picture in the impound area. When you make a run that is fast enough to qualify for the record you must put your machine into impound.
At the impound area the tech inspectors will check the entire car and engine for cl***ification. The streamliner body for this motorcycle is hanging above the motorcycle. After p***ing tech they will run again within 24 hours to back up the record for a two way average.




This is also a streamliner, a motorcycle streamliner.

 

The fastest streamliner at the 2013 Speedweek event was the Poteet and Main "Speed Demon". "Speed Demon" is powered by a single LS Chevrolet small block that is twin turbocharged on alcohol. They run various size motors for different cl*** records. I watched them make run with the "B" motor. They ran 430 mph at the marker and 443 mph out the back door.

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The "Flashpoint" Streamliner will be giving Poteet and Main a run for their money when they get it sorted out. Supercharged Alcohol Hemi powered entry has plenty of power potential, just needs to get some traction to hook it up.

 

How many of you folks read Hot Rod Magazine? I have been reading it for 60 years, although I was pretty bored with it by the seventies and did not follow it much until recently when it changed hands and is now operated out of Florida. Now I have a subscription to Hot Rod again.
Hot Rod Magazines first editor was Wally Parks, that was when Wally was driving race cars on the lake beds and salt flats and he was also an official for SCTA. Wally founded NHRA through Hot Rod magazine articles and formulated a lot of the original NHRA rules, from the rules that he learned from SCTA.
Hot Rod magazine today is much about getting back to it's roots, where it all began. The editor now is David Freiburger, and he has reinvented Hot Rod magazine back to where it has been.
Like back to the future, David, the editor of Hot Rod magazine is driving the "Roadkill" Camaro on the salt flats of Bonneville.



Getting ready the "Roadkill" Camaro is moving up in the staging lanes toward the starting line.







Engine fired up, belted in, David Freiburger is ready to go down the course







Another Hot Rod Magazine "Where it all began" continues !!








Motorcycles have always been a part of land speed racing on lakebeds and Bonneville salt Flats. Motorcycles have always interested me, when I was about 13 years old I bought an old bike built in the 1940's. I rebuilt the engine in my cellar next to the coal furnace. In fact I would use that furnace to heat up screw drivers to solder the wires together.
One day while I was riding the police caught me, of co**** I had no drivers license or registration and my father had to go the police station to get the bike back for me. After that I had to sneak it out, late at night to ride. Later on after I grew up, - well - really I never did grow up, but when I got older, I rode a Triumph 650 TT, it was factory built for road racing, it had Bonneville cams and a single carburetor with both pipes down one side. Except for the Zener Diode that I hated, it was a pretty cool machine.
So where am I going with this story about Speedweek ? As I am walking through the Impound area at Bonneville I come across a bunch of guys tearing down a vintage Triumph. Wow !! This thing is like right out of Hot Rod Magazine from the early sixties. This dual engine, 650's, Triumph is built like a drag sled, old skool style !!
The color of it is Candy Apple Tangerine and it is badd*** !! So I get talking with these guys, and of course I had to say " I had a 650 " and that is all it took, I was in, they adopted me. They are the team for Lowbrow Customs and I became an "Honorary Lowbrow" !! Of course I had to get a Lowbrow T- shirt and share some Jack Daniels and Coke, No Problem! So I hang out for hours while they tear down the engine and the SCTA tech inspector measures the bore and stroke and checks the bike for other rule requirements. They p*** the inspection and they are legal and good to go for a record.
Before I leave they say, "That T shirt is not enough, as an Honorary Lowbrow you must wear our team jumpsuit for the rest of Speedweek". So that is how I came to wearing the jumpsuit which is actually a fairly protective garment out on the salt.



These guys are the Lowbrow Customs team under their tent in the impound area, the bike is all torn down for tech. The tallest guy with the with the tan hat is the rider. The guy opposite him, holding up the cylinder head, is the engine guy and the one with his back facing us it the guy who gave me the jumpsuit.





Jack Daniels, Lowbrow Customs crew, and me !



Bonneville is not only the holy grail of hot rodders it is an awesome experience!!

 

The "Flashpoint" streamliner was running on Alcohol. No Nitro.

 

The "streamliner from France" is Tim Cunha and Jack Costella. Tim is a HAMBer and they both are from the West Coast.

 

Rich Fox, thanks for the correction, I did not get to see or hear the Flash point make a run. I ***umed that it was running some nitro. All of the parts on that machine were of top fuel caliber.

Tman, also thanks for the correction, I got them mixed up with another group that I was watching during tech. Was the name of their streamliner Nebules N something ??? There was a group from France there, I got them mixed up. I'll go back and change my post so that it is more correct.

There is a whole lot of information to absorb in just a one week visit.

I welcome any corrections, I really did not write any information down and I am trying to describe things from memory. It is my desire to have correct information. Thanks.

 

Nebulous Theorem VIII.

 

Goldy, no worries. Lots of folks to see and remember during Speedweek and we are only spread out across a small desert!

 

I'm with Trent on that. Thanks for all the pictures.

 

I just had to take a picture of this flawlessly prepared Indian motorcycle. One of my favorite movies is "The Worlds fastest Indian" starring Anthony Hopkins. The film is about Burt Munroe from New Zealand and how he accomplishes setting world records on his ancient Indian after sailing to America to race at Bonneville. He made all his own parts and traveled to Bonneville on monies raised at his local bar. Although Burt Monroe's motorcycle was a Streamliner, I though this Indian would be somewhat of a tribute to Burt.

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Here is a modified motorcycle ready to make it's run on the salt

 

Nebulous Theorem VIII Streamliner Motorcycle

 

Just like the the motorcycles that lose their identy as they add streamlining, so do the compe***ion coupes. Sometimes it is hard to see the lines of the original production body amid all of the areo modifications.



This is a Fiat Topolino Coupe





# 125 "C" engine Blown Fuel Compe***ion Coupe





With the body panels off and the engine exposed




I was particularly interested in this #125 car because I help Joe Morrison with his Altered Fiat Coupe that we run at the drags.





How about that wing !!

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