We continue our coverage of Bonneville 2013 with more pictures from the salt and a few words about the cars. Hit the jump for more pictures of some quality hot rods and motorcycles from Speed Week at Bonneville 2013.
There is something pure about building a car that is focused on unadulterated straight line speed. While drag racing is probably the most popular form of straight line racing, I would argue that land speed record attempts have a a certain purity that drag racing lacks. With nearly no factory involvement and very few spectators land speed record cars run solely for the purpose of reaching the highest possible top speed. There are no contrived “extreme” aspects, no manufacturer influenced regulation and no PR engineered media events it is simply about going as fast as you can with the car or motorcycle that you brought to the salt.
Sometimes speed isn’t exactly pretty. This might have been the toughest looking car out there. This home built beast managed a 166.995mph run during the event.
Not every home brewed land speed record car has to look cobbled together. This car is a restored/reconstructed version of the famous Class B record setting car of the 1950s. I didn’t have a chance to see it run but there is a website dedicated to the reconstruction of the car (http://www.bonneville2012.com) and it is a really interesting story.
Not everything at Bonneville 2013 was out there to set a record. Numerous hot rods and rare cars, like this Tucker, could be found all over the salt, in many ways Bonneville 2013 is one huge spread out car show.
It’s no surprise then that a number of the record attempting cars actually looked like they were show worthy. This Studebaker was gorgeous and one of a number of cars I wished I had time to really examine.
It’s not uncommon to see a push car/chase vehicle that is from the same era as the race car. This Nomad and Lakester combo from The Bean Bandits Car Club really looked the part.
Cars weren’t the only things out at Bonneville 2013. This bike, aside from looking awesome, managed to do 217mph before high-siding the rider. Thankfully, he was alright, albeit a little banged up. You can read about his experience on the Ironwood Racing Facebook page.
Sometimes you just want to drive around on the salt with your dog.
Other times you want to park it and show off your crazy looking Packard straight 8 engine. This car really had a great vibe but it was hard to get past the steampunk looking engine.
I’ll wrap up this post with a picture of the fastest car of the week as well as the fastest piston driven car in the world. The Speed Demon team set a new record at 451.933. The official two way record for the class is 437.183mph which is nearly 50mph faster than the old record. It really is an amazing car and there is a lot of great information about the car and team on their official website.
Somehow I still have more from Bonneville so watch for more pictures from Bonneville 2013.
