To us in the team, we have a number of priorities.
The engineering behind turning a classic GT car into a land speed racer.
Trying to improve the top speed of our car by 155%.
Taking our opportunities in life.
Inspiring others to consider trying something a little unusual.
By far, the most important (to us at least) is the inspiration side of our story. As we have some down time, whilst the vehicles are on the water, we have decided to talk to a number of other racers to see what inspired them to go racing.
In the footnote to all our updates we mention the places we have been and the amazing people we have met. These are stories from just a few of the people we have met.
We met Paul in 2018 as our pit neighbour. He was our first contact with the spirit of racers. It was his first time on the salt and like us, he was truly living his best life.
These are his words
I got into land speed racing quite by accident. I had been drag racing for many years. I raced a 1967 Chevy Camaro with a 540 ci motor (approximately 8.80 liters) on methanol alcohol. As a teenager I raced other schoolmates on the street with whatever car I owned and could get running. I’m probably obsessed with being competitive.
So one evening the wife and I are trying to find something to watch and I came across the Anthony Hopkins movie “The Worlds Fastest Indian”. I had heard about the movie. After watching it, we decided that we wanted to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speedweek just to watch and see how things were.
We found out that speed week was many months away so we made our plans. As time passed, I thought about the event and decided wouldn’t it be fun to take a car and run it. And so I started the hunt for an old race car that was for sale.
I found the car that I now drive and started working on it. The car is a 1976 Chevy Monza.
I started my research and decided this car had a lot of potential and it currently held a record at Bonneville. I decided I could get more out of it so I bought it after I got it home went through the motor did some work.
The car was running great and speed week was coming up fast. We took it to Speedweek that year and that is the year that I met your team.
I beat the old record, the car held , and then I changed classes and broke a second record at that same event. I decided to make further modifications at the same meet, and that allowed me to run it in a third class, which I did and set another record. Since that time I have been in constant pursuit of additional records, and I’ve added a motorcycle to race as well.
So the bottom line is, I can’t stop my competitive nature.
We met Ken as one of the tech inspectors that was going through our car before we could race in 2018.
He has subsequently gone above and beyond to help us since our first meeting.
These are his words
Ken Coe was introduced to motorsports as a child when he would assist his father (a professional engineer) on car and motorcycle projects in the garage of the family home. The need for speed and the influences of his father led Ken to pursue a career in aerospace that spans over three decades.
Ken currently works for The Boeing Company in San Antonio, TX and is the director of product support for executive derivative aircraft. He still maintains residency with his Wife Mara Ergas in Valley Center California due to her employment as a healthcare professional with Kaiser Permanente. Ken was raised in New York as a child and then Connecticut for most of his youth.
A young car afficionado Ken would find himself competing with the neighborhood kids on anything with an engine, minibike, motorcycle, and eventually cars. In 2009 Ken was introduced to the Bonneville Salt when invited to participate as a member of the pit crew for AA/GL 9900 “Trojan Thunder”, where he developed salt fever and decided to build his own car and use the subject matter as the thesis for a company sponsored graduate engineering degree.
In August 2010 C/STR 6706 Doppler Shift successfully passed technical inspection and made three passes on the Bonneville speedway, only to realize that the Coefficient of Drag (Cd) equaled Traction Forces (Tf) at 173 mph. The car was upgraded over the years and ran as a D/STR and C/STR at Speedweek since then, achieving a top speed of 221.307 against a 229.991 mph record. The car continues to evolve and started racing at El Mirage in 2015 where it has secured the D/STR and C/STR land speed records.
The same year Ken received his graduate engineering degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), a Canadian production company filmed six 1-hour segments at the Bonneville Salt Flats, titled “Land Speed Heroes”. The 6706 D/STR team was featured in episode four “Beauty and the Brain, and Ken was definitely not the beauty. The series aired on the RadX channel in Canada December 2013 through February 2014. The series has since been syndicated and sold to an undisclosed US company and expected to air sometime in the near future. The producer has posted the episode on an unlisted YouTube link that can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcYy8pjCi3w
With a professional background that focuses on safety and wanting to give back to the sport that has provided a life passion, Ken became an SCTA inspector and will continue to volunteer at Land speed events in the spirit of safety and rule compliance. Additionally, Ken supports the education of new drivers and riders at El Mirage and Bonneville by volunteering as a rookie orienteer.
He currently resides in San Antonio, Tx and travels between San Antonio, Tx and San Diego, CA where his wife Mara resides. They successfully deployed two contributing daughters into the world, Dori and Tali. Ken holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M, and a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from USC.
Ken is an active participant in the San Diego Roadster Club (SDRC) and supports the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) as well.
To date, we have never met Daniele Restelli in person. We started corresponding via one of the social media channels and have been exchanging ideas ever since.
These are his words. (Very impressive for a non-English speaker.)
Glad to see how you want to know how people got inspired to visit the salt.
In my case it happened while watching the film ………… I was on vacation in the mountains in February 2014 and I was absentmindedly watching TV when I was struck by this strange motorcycle driven by this old gentleman … but while I was watching TV I was disturbed from visiting friends that I couldn’t send away… So I tried to watch TV and talk to friends at the same time.
I remember not having seen the whole film or in any case not having seen and understood the meaning of the story so once at home I looked for and bought the DVD which I watched several times, and it all started from there. I have always and only thought of emulating Burt’s feat but with a small engine cc and with a vintage motorcycle, so I initially looked for a Malanca Testa rossa which, when I was 14, was a very fast moped and was the dream of many teenagers. Then I focused on a Gilera that had and still has a more noble brand and above all the possibility of making major changes.
In 2016 I found a Gilera Touring 50 4V and started looking for mechanics, sponsor and friends to organize the trip to the US.
In 2017 the “Challenge at Bonneville” (Sfida a Bonneville, in Italian) officially started, which materialized with my first experience on salt, even if with poor results in terms of speed due to wrong engine preparation.
However, the desire to return to break the record hasn’t cooled off and after various postponements due to health and pandemic problems, this year we want to try again.
New mechanic, new engine, new team and new challenge: this time we planned to participate in the AMA – FIM event, the prerequisites for breaking this record are all there. Fingers crossed
As these responses came in, we were surprised to see the power of the film and story that also inspired us.
If you are unaware of the story of Burt Munro, then we highly recommend watching the film based on his life. The World’s Fastest Indian is a truly insprational tale.
Not to mention a good name for a project!
