Bloodhound is looking for the "right stuff":
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67349595
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Bloodhound is looking for the "right stuff":
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67349595
But I would rather be in MICKEY THOMPSON'S Challenger 1
The article listed cars that have gone 600 +. It did not mention the Spirit of America, driven by Craig Breedlove, which was the FIRST and set a long standing record of 600.601 mph...
Spirit of America, driven by Craig Breedlove.
Collected up after its crash, restored and shown proudly on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, here in Chicago, until 2015. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/fb...100545fcd2.jpg
The car which set the 600 mph record was Breedlove's second car, the Spirit of America Sonic 1, which is in the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. It held the record for just under five years.
The first Spirit was returned to Breedlove by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in a badly damaged condition in 2015. Apparently, Breedlove reached a settlement with the museum in 2017 which paid for a cosmetic restoration. The Spirit of America is currently at the Museum of Speed in Wilsonville, OR.
I thought the Museum of Speed in Oregon shut down. They failed to survive the financial distress caused by the pandemic. I'm glad I got to go before then.
The article where I obtained the info was dated April, 2023. I read an earlier article from another source that said the current location of the Spirit is unknown. It seems the earlier article was correct. The museum closed due to Covid and the Bod of directors voted to close it permanently. As of October 2022, the museum was being converted to a virtual reality museum, whatever that is.
Photos from July 2022
Lynn & Lastminuteracin,
Thanks. Corrected my post. Haven't actually been to MSI since 2011 & didn't know Spirit of America had departed.
Glenn
As a life-long metro Milwaukee native, I have to give a 'hat tip' to the Blue Flame, which held the land speed record for almost 13 years (1970-1983), piloted to 622 mph by Gary Gabelich. Hemmings did a nice write-up and linked a couple of cool videos:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/202...nic-run-or-two
The Blue Flame was constructed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Reaction Dynamics, a company formed by Pete Farnsworth, Ray Dausman and Dick Keller, who had developed the first hydrogen peroxide rocket dragster, called the X-1 and driven by Chuck Suba. The car used a combination of high-test peroxide and liquified natural gas (LNG), pressurized by helium gas. The effort was sponsored by the American Gas Association, with technical assistance from the Institute of Gas Technology of Des Plaines, IL.
Blue Flame is now on permanent exhibition at the Auto and Technik Museum Sinsheim in Germany.
An aside Jon, I knew Jim Jeffords a little when the RA programs used dozens of my photos from the late-‘70s into the ‘80s, credited to Autocomp Graphics and/or my name, then my cousin’s also.
Living in Milwaukee and then Oconomowoc from 1960 to 1980, we made an annual pilgrimage to the Chicago Auto Show. The day always included a stop at the Pickle Barrel, where they made kids a custom, animal-esque balloon as you walked in.
Though us three kids were animals, I never got past that none of the balloons resembled us. Funny, I have no clue about the food but instead reveled at the pickles and popcorn atop the table — and the trick balloons!
Anyways, sometimes we hit the Museum before the show. Mostly I recall the Breedlove car and the biplane hanging from the ceiling. But that rocket car sure got my brain wandering.
About a dozen years ago, I almost had my karting sponsor convinced into buying the British land speed record-holding kart. I think it had gone well over 200 at an airfield there, I was in a bored phase, and proposed we run it at Bonneville. Perhaps I should thank him for not buying it, but I absolutely would have driven that thing.
Someday, we hope to attend an attempt, to likely be held in the Black Rock desert. It seems attempts have stopped since covid, sadly — and the death of Jessi Combs, a friend of a good friend — though I’d been getting emails for years from Roscoe McGlashan and hope they can continue. Their emails have stopped, and I fear the effort has as well.
Sorta on topic, this is a favorite video that gets my brain wandering again. Just flat AWESOME. As a near-lifetime photographer I’m especially drawn to the impossible attempt of pan-shooting this amazing creature:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-z5CsY...BoZWxsIG9mIGl0