Dr. Jekyll’s Land Speed Record Links and Ramblings

I have been a fan of land speed record racing ever since learning as a young child that my Aunt Mary Glinsky had babysat Art Arfons, a great competitor in the land speed record wars 40 years ago, when he was a child. I have maintained that interest over the years. There were lean years of course. Land speed record racing seems to go in spurts. But the news in the early 90s, that Richard Noble intended to build a car capable of breaking the sound barrier got me going again. When his car was on the Black Rock Desert 6 years ago I used to come home from work and go right to my computer, which was in a room on the unused side of my house, and go online to see if Andy Green had done the deed. Before supper and anything else I wanted to know if the crack of a sonic boom had been heard on the Playa outside of Gerlach Nevada.

Land speed racing is mostly a solitary sport, but once, in 1960 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, there was a group of five land speed racers together at the same time, the legendary Great Confrontation. They were:

1. Nathan Ostich, a California surgeon whose Flying Caduceus, was the first jet powered land speed racer
2. Mickey Thompson, whose Challenger I, powered by 4 blown Pontiac V-8s would come so close to the wheel-driven record
3. Athol Graham, whose City of Salt Lake was powered by a huge Allison V-12 aircraft engine but was hampered by 2 wheel drive.
4. Art Arfons, whose Anteater, so named for its long snout, was also Allison powered but had 4 wheel drive. He would go on to set numerous records with a car powered by a huge GE J-79 jet engine.
5. Donald Campbell son of the great Malcolm Campbell, with his gas-turbine powered Bluebird, which, when rebuilt after a disastrous crash, would actually hold the world wheel-driven record set in Australia.
6. While he wasn't yet setting land speed records, I am sure Craig Breedlove was there too. His day would come very soon.

Never since has such a Great Confrontation of land speed racers occurred.