Bonneville isn’t just about streamliners and radically altered lakesters, in fact many of the classes that run during Speed Week have strict limitations in regards to what they can do aerodynamically.
B C Racing’s Z28 is a good example of a production based land speed record car. In 2011 the team came to Bonneville and managed a 235mph average which wasn’t quite good enough for a record. This year they came back with a new ProCharger equipped 588c.i. engine that puts out somwhere in the neighborhood of 1600hp at around 25lbs of boost.
They’re hoping to hit 250mph which would comfortably give them the class record (AA/CBGC). Their class limits them to basically a stock body, aside from the front spoiler and modified hood. Even the headlights buckets have to remain closed, something they found out at the El Mirage event while trying to solve a cooling issue.
Their weekend began when they drove all night from Pheonix, about eighteen hours, and broke down along the way, limping into Wendover with a bad air line on their tow vehicle’s brakes.
That wasn’t the end of their day, they then needed to fab a new intake for the ProCharger which they managed to do by working into the wee hours of the morning, in the parking lot of one of Wendover’s hotel/casinos.
When I talked to them on Saturday morning they were getting ready to put the car through tech and looking forward their shakedown run on Sunday morning, finding a place to take a nap was also discussed.
I managed to catch back up with them late Sunday morning and they were already working on a fueling issue that cropped up during their shakedown run. When you’re expecting to drive the car at 250mph a “slow” 175mph pass must seem almost boring.
As of this post the SCTA hasn’t released any official times on their website but the B C Racing guys seemed pretty confident that the Z28 had the speed to set the class record. Good luck to them and everyone that was out at Bonneville last week.
I’ll have a few more Bonneville profiles next week and if you missed out on any of our ongoing Bonneville coverage you can catch up here:
Speed Week at Bonneville Part 1
Speed Week at Bonneville Part 2
For more about Speed Week and Bonneville check out:
Southern California Timing Association