Our first run of the day started off beautifully. The day was clear, the salt was fast and the launch was perfect.
As Kenny went to shift the Speedliner into 2nd gear, there was a puff of smoke and the liner shut itself off.
Kenny pulled off just before the two mile marker and we hauled the stricken streamliner back to the pits.
Back in the pits we discovered that what we initially thought was a transmission issue was actually a different set of gears; our rear end housing cracked, and the gears inside are now toothless. No good!
Luckily a spare rear end was in our luggage, and the team swapped it in. Unluckily, the engine did not appreciate the extra revs that it experienced when the rear end gave out, so it looks like the B/BGS record is out, at least for this week.
What is it about sunrise on race day? It just seems a little better than any other early morning.
The Speedliner is being loaded on the trailer as we speak, and the team is heading down to the fuel trailer to get gasoline and an inspection sticker.
We mentioned in an earlier post that we’re trying for records in several different classes. Our first attempt will be BGS – B.
Blown Gas Streamliner means that we are restricted in our fuel choice to race gas provided by, and checked off by the SCTA inspection team. This is to prevent teams from sneaking any power adders in to the tank and cheating the record.
After the car is fueled and marked by the inspectors, we’ll be ready for our first run.
The schedule says we run at 10:30, but there will be a driver’s meeting and course check before any competition runs, so we don’t expect Kenny to make his first pass until mid-day.
We are in Wendover, Utah and it is time again for Bonneville SpeedWeek.
We have big plans this year, but we realized that the many different cars and classes of SCTA and FIA land speed racing might be confusing, so here’s the basics of our plans (best laid of mice and men) for the coming week.
You can follow along here for updates, or check in on our Facebook page. We’ll also be meeting up with some great photographers and writers on the Salt Flats, so check in on coverage on Bangshift, Speedhunters, My Ride is Me, Wired and Hot Rod magazine to get the full SpeedWeek experience.
SpeedWeek Records:
Although Amir went 415mph during the Mike Cook Shootout last year, that event, regulated by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) – the international sanctioning organization for motorsport and world speed records, runs a different course and has different rules than the SCTA monitored SpeedWeek.
At SpeedWeek, a team makes a run and if it’s record-worthy, goes in to impound until the next day when they try to back it up.
Blown Gas Streamliner (BGS) A Speed by Spectre A. Rosenbaum 08/10 356.645
Blown Gas Streamliner (BGS) AA Speed by Spectre A. Rosenbaum 08/10 348.342
Our goal at Bonneville this year is to do the following:
Better the records in AA BGS and A BGS
Set records in AA BFS and A BFS (currently held by Burkland and Teague)
Set record in B BGS
Go faster than 427.83 and become the fastest wheel driven car at Bonneville.
The class “BGS/BFS” refers to the engine, fuel and type of car.
A, AA and B refer to the engine size, so yes, we are taking numerous engines and will be taking them in and out of the car during the week.
B (blown, as in not naturally aspirated, so, turbocharged or supercharged.) F/G (what the engine runs on, “Fuel” which can be methanol or other fuels or “gasoline” which is, well gasoline) S (streamliner, the shape of the vehicle. in this case, the long submarine type shape as opposed to a stock car shape or an open roadster hot rod, etc…)
Can we beat our run from last year? Follow along and let us know you’re rooting for us!
At Spectre, we work closely with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) as well as with the automotive media. We were able to catch up with both industry and editors at the 2011 MPMC Conference in El Segundo.
MPMC stands for Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council, and they are an amazing group of people who work tirelessly to arrange time for manufacturers and journalists to meet and talk about project cars and new products without the distracting background of the SEMA show. We’ve attended the conference since 2007 and find it extremely valuable.
As always, our marketing genius, Brandy, transformed our hotel room into a complete showroom experience. The display featured some of the new 2011 Spectre parts, the Streamliner at Bonneville and photos from the Spectre 341 Challenge. Did you know an upside-down hotel couch makes an excellent product display when covered with black cloth?
During the conference, we sat in our decorated hotel suite and had meetings with automotive magazine editors, filmmakers, freelancers, TV shows, and websites. It’s fun to hear all about people’s project cars and trucks, and to tell them about our upcoming events and products.
The Spectre 341 Challenge was a popular topic during all of our meetings. Most people we spoke to either wanted to come out to the event themselves, or knew of someone they planned to invite. It’s going to be an amazing race this year.
Every year there is an afterparty mid-week. Last year we hosted at the Spectre facility but this year Source Interlink Publishing (SORC) held an open house at their new offices and workspace in El Segundo. It was a great night. Their workshop is very cool, and they had many of the legends of publishing and motorsports signing the latest SORC book, HOT ROD Magazine: All the Covers, with the profits going to charity.
SORC also invited us to display the SpeedLiner in the massive white photo bay. Amir came out and had such a good time he didn’t leave until early the next morning!
Overall, it was a very worthwhile week, and we are looking forward to getting all our magazine subscriptions this year. We know there are going to be some great stories.
Like all celebrities, the Spectre SpeedLiner has no off-season. When the menacing black landspeed car isn’t on the salts of Bonneville, it is drawing attention at trade conference or providing a conversational focus point in a TV interview.
The SpeedLiner started off the year surrounded by a different kind of white groundcover, snow! The Spectre team set up at the Advance Managers Conference in Nashville in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years!
Despite the weather, many other manufacturers were present, including our friends at Peak and Mobil. The SpeedLiner got a lot of attention, and spirits were high, although attendance was down from previous years.
After the show, Mike packed up the parts and the car and headed for the TV studios of RTM Productions in Franklin, about 30 minutes from Nashville. The crew dropped off the SpeedLiner in the garage at RTM to await Amir and Brandy’s arrival a week later.
If any of you are unfamiliar with RTM, it is a television production company specializing in automotive, outdoor, and entertainment programming. They shoot many of the automotive shows seen on Spike and Speed TV, and they asked Amir to come do an interview about landspeed racing.
We were worried the Speedliner wouldn’t fit in the studio, but amazingly it did, with just a little room to spare! More amazing yet is that Amir sat still for the make-up lady, although as the pictures show, he was less than thrilled about the leopard print bib.
The interview with RTM host, Courtney, is great. They talked about everything, including how Amir got involved with Bonneville, why he does it, what was it like to go over 400mph and how setting a landspeed record helps us make better airfilters for our customers.
Don’t miss the first airing of the Horsepower TV interview February 26th & 27th on the Spike TV Network!
It’s not quite a late night TV appearance, but Jay Leno’s car themed website, jaylenosgarage.com, has a new video up from SEMA. Once you get to the 2:09 mark, things might start to look familiar. We’ll have to see if Jay and Justin want to join us on the salt this summer!
A little over a year ago, comedian and car guy Adam Carolla started podcasting from his Gulf Oil liveried warehouse in Southern California, recording a weekly show with his sidekick Sandy “The Professor” Ganz. Adam, Sandy and producer Matt D’Andria invited Amir out to the shop to record one of the first episodes, and he brought the Spectre El Camino.
At that point the ‘Liner was still under construction, just a few weeks from its first run at Bonneville. We told Adam about the Caddy powered LSR car, and he said if we set a record we should com back and talk about it. So here we are. One year, several land speed records and three runs over 400mph later and we were back in Glendale, try to wrestle the nearly 40-foot ‘Liner into the studio’s driveway. We did it, Adam and Sandy loved it, and were as friendly and cool as ever.
It’s a great interview. Watch the video below for the vehicle walk-around, or go to the CarCast page to see pics and listen to the entire podcast including the in-studio portion (click the GT40 that says “click here” for audio).
We’ve featured some pretty unusual cars in our customer profiles, but Mac and the #47 Landspeed, Demo Derby Art Car might be in class all their own. After all, most customers are restoring cars and Mac, jokingly referring to himself as a “Deconstructavist”, spends most of his time smashing them up!
We met Mac and the team at the Bonneville FIA test, where they were trying for a record with their 1972 Cadillac El Dorado Demo Derby Art Car.
What is a Demo Derby Art Car? Well, according to Mac, the Caddy will make one last land speed run at the Texas mile, and then begin a new campaign of destruction in demolition derbies.
“Finally,” says Mac, “The car will take a parade lap in the famous Houston Art Car Parade, and maybe one last Bonneville run.”
Mac’s car has the same basic engine as the one in the ‘Liner, built by the Cad Company, sans turbos. He also is running Spectre filters – Spectre 8132’s which he bought at AutoZone.
Team crew chief Stu-Man sent us a link to their Bonneville video, and promises updates from Texas Mile soon.
Wow. We did it. It took 11 months of hammering, welding, worrying and sunburns but we can finally see 400mph in our rear-view mirror ( well, we could if the streamliner had a rear view mirror…or a rear window for that matter.)
Here are the official details:
Less than 30 days after making six record setting runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah, the Spectre SpeedLiner has done it again. At Mike Cook’s Top Speed Shootout regulated by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) – the international sanctioning organization for motorsport and world speed records, Spectre Performance founder Amir Rosenbaum drove the SpeedLiner through the “flying mile” at an average speed of 408mph and an exit speed of 415mph, becoming only the 12th person in history to eclipse 400mph in a wheeled vehicle and earning the team a place in history as the fastest gasoline fueled, wheel-driven car in history.
“What really makes this special is how quickly we were able to accomplish the goal,” said Rosenbaum. “The car debuted 11 months ago at the SCTA World Finals, where we set a record. We came back in August 2010 and set three more. Now we’ve broken 400mph on gasoline! All of this was accomplished with a stock Cadillac engine using off-the-shelf aftermarket speed parts, some serious engineering from Performance Fabrication and The Cad Company, and standard Spectre hpR Air Filters. That’s what blows everyone away – this car has no exotic parts or custom engine pieces, they’re all obtainable and available to the average gearhead.”
Even though the short time frame made the team’s achievement look effortless, the results didn’t come easy for the Spectre SpeedLiner, nicknamed “The Infidel”. The first run was cut short by an electrical fire, and the second by a glitch in the intercooler system on the Cadillac powered streamliner’s turbocharger system. On Wednesday the 8.8L Cadillac engine broke when it lost a valve and wiped out a turbocharger in the process, shutting down what would have been a fast run. After an all-night engine change on the salt, the team installed its backup 8.1L engine and a used turbocharger and on Thursday, Sept 23rd, Rosenbaum squeezed into the cockpit, and drove the matte black racecar down the 12-mile course through the “flying mile” with an average speed of 408mph, exiting the course at over 415mph.
According to FIA rules, the average of a pair of runs set within 60 minutes of each other and going in opposite directions must eclipse an existing record by at least 1% to count, making SpeedLiner’s 408mph average just short of the 410mph average needed to beat the existing 406mph record set in 2002 by racing veteran Al Teague.
“The car made its public debut less than one year ago at the World Finals in Bonneville, where we set a record with Kenny Hoover at the wheel,” Rosenbaum explains. “We learned a lot from that experience, came back in August for SpeedWeek and set three more records. Then with less than a month’s notice we came out here for Mike Cook’s FIA Top Speed Shootout and ran over 400 three times on used motors. We’re not done – we fell short of breaking the world record by the tiniest of margins, and we did it on our smaller motor with mismatched turbos after an all-night thrash on the salt. We’re coming back next year, with more power, and we’re going to go FASTER!”
Yes, you read that right, we’re back on the salt. Less than a month ago we were at Bonneville for Speed Week, where we set three records and reached a max velocity of 366mph. Salt flat and racing Guru Mike Cook came by the pits at the end of Speed Week, accompanied by George Poteet from the Speed Demon team, and invited us to the very exclusive, FIA regulated Top Speed Shootout a month later.
We had to think about it, see if it was in the cards, and decided to go for it. Courtney and the Cad Company crew did their best to freshen both the AA and the spare A Cadillac engines, and the Performance Fab crew cleaned up the car and prepped for another shot at top speed glory. The good folks at Stable Imaging also sent us three of their new RePlay XD video cameras to mount on the car – and they’re fantastic.
So now we’re back… we made a run on Monday and two runs Tuesday, which culminated in a 398mph pass. Then yesterday the big AA motor let go with a bang and hurt a turbo in the process. The crew pulled an all-nighter, at by 12:30 we had the smaller A motor in the car with two new turbos.
Today’s first run the car sounded good, but some gearing issues with the smaller engine meant the car only ran 385mph. We’re working on getting that tuned up now and will make another pass shortly. In the meantime we are surrounded by some of the fastest hardware on the planet, including Speed Demon, the Royal Purple car campaigned by the Nish family, a jet powered bike and the Top1 streamliner. Charles Nearburg already ran his Spirit of Rett streamliner and broke a four decade old record running over 420 mph. The Nearburg guys have already gone home.
So here we are. The crew is hustling, and as of now we’ve already gone faster than 368mph, the documented fastest speed for a gasoline powered, wheel driven vehicle. We’d like to break 400mph, and we’re still working towards that goal. We’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, we made a good friend named Murph, who is camped near our pit and is on a fantastic motorcycle adventure around the country and beyond. He sat vigil all night with us during the swap, and documented the entire ordeal on his great travel blog. You can check it out here along with great photography: Where the Hell is Murph?
A few weeks before we loaded up the Spectre Speedliner for SpeedWeek, we spent some time working on a very different sort of Landspeed vehicle.
David Bloomberg is well known in Studebaker and Landspeed racing circles as “The Avanti Kid”. Dave entrusted us with the installation of a ram air kit on his 1963 Studebaker Avanti. We’ll let Dave describe the process and plans for the quick Studebaker.
” These photos show my Avanti with the new ram air intake system installed at Spectre Performance R & D shop in Ontario, CA. They really upgraded the system to ensure good clean ram air going into the mechanical fuel injection system.
I met Amir at Bonneville in 2006 when he raced his F40 Ferrari to a speed of 220mph. We helped him with the F40 because we had experience with my brother’s Pantera.
We’ll be racing ourselves in September, and this was the biggest item we needed to get done for Bonneville. We also need to add 150 lbs of ballast. I can’t wait to September to see our driver Mike Benbennick set a record and get into the Bonneville 200MPH Club!!!
I really appreciate what Amir and his staff did for my race car to ensure more hp from our engine.”
We’re happy to work with Dave and his super fast Avanti and we look forward to seeing the car run in September.
The last few days of our Bonneville Speed Week experience were marred with intermittent storms and rain, so on our last day at the salt we were racing both the weather and the clock in an effort to inch closer to the 400mph mark. After strapping into the car, Amir got up to speed, made a good run and pulled the chutes. Then things went sideways – literally. A problem with a parachute caused the car to go airborne and jump sideways. Amir got it straightened out and slowed down, and the team is hard at work getting the chute system redesigned for our next run in a few weeks.
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