Wow! We just got back from a celebratory dinner. We went really fast today. The car is in impound having run a flying mile at over 328 MPH, with an exit speed of 336 MPH. We are so excited it is truly hard to believe and it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. There are highly skilled and talented people who come to Bonneville year after year, for many years, and still aren’t able to get their car into the impound area. But here we are, and after only two runs in two days. Amazing.
While in impound we got a chance to fuel the car and it turns out it didn’t need that much fuel, it’s getting great mileage for going well over 300 MPH……. maybe we’ll call it the fastest eco friendly car in the world? Nah… We also cleaned up the salt build up, inspected the tires and all safety systems, then went to dinner early, with the sun still shining, something we haven’t done in months.
This feat is a showcase for the fantastic talents of Steve Schmalz and his crew at Performance Fabrication in San Carlos Ca. I mean, let’s face it, to build a car and throw it on the salt and get it into impound on it’s first pass after an initial safety shakedown pass is really and truly incredible. Hats off to Kenny Hoover who pedaled the car with the professionalism and experience that you get from having set 39 world records. Here’s to #40 for Kenny tomorrow.
In order to set a certified world record, you have to run faster than the existing record, then come back the next day and do it again, and the average of those two runs is the record. If something happens and you can’t run the next day, say, due to bad weather, you go back to square one and the run from the previous day doesn’t count. They sure don’t make it easy to set a world record, that’s for sure!
The car is kept in an impound area, so there is no cheating, like changing or modifying the engine. About all you are allowed to do [ in 4 hours ] is to service the car, which is what we did.
Tomorrow morning, we go out first with all the rest of the cars in impound to try and get ourselves a world record. If we do run fast enough, the car then goes to Tech where the engine is pumped to verify the cubic inches, the gasoline is verified and after that, we get a record.
I hope Kenny leaves something in the car for me, and that there is still time left in the day, and that the weather holds out, as I need to make two more licensing passes in the car to get my Unlimited License so I can go and break the record Kenny will [ hopefully ] set tomorrow. I am only licensed to rive up to 249 MPH. I need to make a successful pass at over 250 MPH, but not to exceed 299 MPH to get my AA license. Then after that, I need to make another successful pass at over 300 MPH to get my Unlimited License.
But the overall priority is to get into the record book, and that’s what we will be focussed on achieving tomorrow. We already have the worlds fastest Cadillac. Now we want to be the worlds fastest Blown Gas StreamLiner in the top Unlimited cubic inch class. Hope to write my next update from the Winners Circle.