More than anything else, it takes a team. I feel so fortunate in finding the guys on our team. I trust them with my life. The car started out as a 1995 Fjastad [ as in Roy Fjastad, the guy who makes the Full Bore fasteners ] streamliner. This provided us with a great foundation to start building on, to take the car to the next level; 400 MPH. The guy responsible for that is Steve Schmalz, the owner of Performance Fabrication in San Carlos California. I’ve known Steve a long time. He’s the one who built the Dave MacDonald and Lionel Pitts 308 MPH Firebird, the fastest stock bodied car ever. He also built the previous fastest Firebird before that. Steve will not compromise on safety, and he hates to lose, and he’s intelligent enough to know an awful lot of race car building stuff, and also smart enough to ask the right people when he doesn’t. No one knows everything [ personal advice: be afraid, be very afraid of those who claim that they do ] so what you want is a car builder who asks and learns and keeps asking and never stops asking and is always learning. Over the last few years Steve has modified and improved the car to the point that less than 5% of the original car is left. So now it’s really a 2009 Schmalz SpeedLiner. We also have a great aerodynamicist and nostalgia drag racer Ken Rappaport. Ken was responsible for the design of the back end of the car. If there’s one thing that Land Speed Racers do know it’s that speed is made at the back of the car, and Ken has done an incredible job.
Our Stock Block Cadillac engines come from Courtney Hines, owner of The Cad Company in Albuquerque New Mexico. These engines are late ’60’s to early ’70’s Cadillacs, stock iron block, stock iron heads, stock iron cranks. I will repeat that last one, stock iron cranks. Yes, we went 366 MPH on cast iron cranks and haven’t gotten anywhere near the limit of the engines. What does that mean? It means that Courtney builds one hell of a Cadillac engine, and that we are tremendously fortunate to have him on our team. Shameless plug: you should seriously think about putting one in your street rod or street machine instead of another 350 Chevy. Be different. Be fast.
Last but not least, when I bought the car from the guy that Roy sold it to, I got some extra parts as well as what is probably the best bonus a guy could ask for, yes, even better then finding spare change under the rear seat cushion; the car came with its own driver. Kenny Hoover drove the car for Roy and the guy I bought the car from, so naturally he came along as part of the package. Kenny has been Land Speed Racing for over 35 years, has set dozens of records, many of which still stand today. How about 280+ MPH in a front engined roadster. On a dry lake bed. In less than 1-1/3 miles? And so that is why I was able to get up to speed so quickly. Kenny has been and continues to be a great mentor, teacher, advisor and a valuable asset to the team. How do you repay a guy like that? Well, when I finish setting all the records I want to set we’ll stick Kenny in the car and he’ll break ‘em!
