Bonneville Salt Flats

What can I say.  The Bonneville Salt Flats are the Home of Land Speed Racing.  Hallowed Ground for gear heads.  Any utterance of the name is done with reverence and brings forth many of the greatest names in not just Land Speed Racing history, but in ALL RACING HISTORY.

A marker errected by the GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY in June of 1972, will tell you a brief history of Utah’s famed measured mile positioned approximately seven miles beyond the marker, well in front of the mountains on the horizon.  The elevation of the course is approximately 4,218 feet above sea level.  The course length that includes the measured mile varies each year.  A course path 80 feet wide and about ten miles long is laid out with a black reference line along the middle.  Over this length, the curvature of the earth makes it impossible to see the course from end to end.

World land-speed record times are representative of the average of two runs over the measured mile, taken electronically, within a one hour period.

The first world land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats was set on September 3, 1935 by Sir Malcolm Campbell.  His speed was 301.13 miles per hour.  Craig Breedlove holds the honor of being the first man to go faster than 400, 500 and 600 miles per hour.  His record of 600.601 miles per hour, set on November 15, 1965, was finally broken on October 23, 1970 by Gary Gabelich.  Gabelich’s new record was 622.407 miles per hour.

Both Gabelich’s rocket engine ‘Blue Flame’ and Breedlove’s jet powered ‘Spirit of America’ were equiped with specially designed inflatable tires, pre-tested to speeds in excess of 800 miles per hour.

Lots of sights and sounds to be found no matter what your taste be it Customs, Cruisers, Street Rods, to Stream Liners an Racing Cycles.  No matter it be a Chev, Ford, Dodge, European, Harley or Honda, Italian, Japanese or some other creation, they are all here, and they are all on level ground (or salt as the case may be)

I’ll get this years images up as quickly as possible.  Will also try to get up some of the past years up. The first gallery, containing ‘some’ of the competition cars is in place. Additional galleries containing motorcycles and street machines will soon follow as will the story of this years travel and time spent on the salt..

Enjoy.

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