Land Speed Legends
Conversations with men & women who make land speed racing legendary!
Land Speed Legends
THE LEGENDARY JERRY KUGEL discusses building the first 300 MPH door slammer, setting a world record in 1968 in the Autolite Lead Wedge electric racecar and building a Muroc Roadster that drove to the Bonneville Salt flats then raced over 200MPH!
What ignites a lifelong passion for speed? Let's journey back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, where a 1940 Ford coupe sparked an unquenchable thirst for racing. From joining the Roadrunner's Car Club to the electrifying moment of witnessing Mickey Thompson's streamliner at Bonneville in 1959, we explore the early days of land speed racing. Hear about the camaraderie and the challenges faced during those formative years, racing at the lakes and then moving on to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Ever wondered what it takes to build a high-powered engine that can break records? In this episode, we recount the thrilling experience of creating a "Frankenstein" engine in 1967, with invaluable help from Ack Miller and Art Chrisman. Discover how a homemade fuel injection system and meticulous tweaking led to an impressive 466 horsepower, ultimately resulting in a record-setting run at Bonneville. The story doesn't stop there; we delve into the late 60s and early 70s, recounting the achievements with a 29' Roadster and a Pontiac Trans Am that became the first door slammer to break a record over 300 MPH!
But land speed racing is more than just the pursuit of records; it's about innovation and community. We discuss transitioning into custom car production, detailing the creation of unique metal-bodied cars inspired by 1932 Roadsters. Learn how a thriving component shop evolved into building the sought after Muroc Roadsters that led to building a street legal race car that drove to Bonneville and then raced over 200 MPH there. This episode is a tribute to the legacy, innovation, and community spirit that define the exhilarating world of land speed racing. Join us for a celebration of speed, passion, and the bonds formed on the track.
Welcome to Landspeed Legends, a podcast talking to the men, the women, the legends that make land speed racing great. Discover the stories of these ordinary people whose passion for land speed racing has made them legendary. And now here's your host the Bonneville Belle, the High Boy, honey, the salt princess, alison Volk-Dean.
Speaker 2:Were you into racing or were you?
Speaker 3:Well, I really wasn't into racing so much. It was mostly getting through school, after high school, you know, going to JC, getting through, getting over that, and then after JC, that was around 1958. That's when I bought a 44 coupe, okay, okay, and I kind of like racing. So I joined Roadrunner's Car Club S-E-T-A Roadrunner's Car Club to Roadrunner's Car Club, s-e-t-a Roadrunner's Car Club, ran the lakes and ran the lakes for about five or six years just with the 40 Ford.
Speaker 3:And then while I was in the Roadrunners I got acquainted with a good friend, red Holmes, lowell Holmes. We became really close and we decided, gee, maybe we should go to Bonneville. Well, okay, that sounds good. At the time I had a job at Ackmiller's Garage and it was 1959. And I was reading Hot Rod Magazine and I reading about Mickey Thompson and his streamliner, building the streamliner. So I read it, read it, read it, and it was so, so cool. I said, hey, red, I call him Red Holmes, red, let's go to Bonneville. Okay, so we'll go to Bonneville. And, um, so we'll go to Bonneville.
Speaker 3:But he couldn't make it so a good friend of mine that I'd gone to high school with, we drove up my 44 coupe to the Salt. I had no idea what the Salt flats were, nothing. I thought I was going to Salt Lake City, maybe, so I'm heading out. I thought I was going to Salt Lake City, maybe, so I'm heading out, going the wrong way, of course. And then we finally get here in 1959 in my 40 coupe, and I mean I'm looking around at the holy crap, this is really something. This is amazing. So I'm in the pit area and at the time the pit area was only from here to that flag. It was nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there were maybe 50 cars, but Mickey Thompson was the center of attraction so I was in their pits the whole time. So he's getting the car all ready and pushing it up to the line. We followed it and everything. I thought, okay, they're going to be running pretty soon. So we jumped in my 40, went to the three-mile mark and we're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Nothing happened. No CBs, no radios, no, nothing. So we're just sitting there waiting.
Speaker 2:The silence of assault. Hot sun no AC no, nothing. So we're just sitting there waiting. The silence of the salt Hot sun no AC, no nothing.
Speaker 3:Not even a shade Bro, nothing. So all of a sudden I heard something Sounded like a kind of low-pitch noise and I'm looking, looking, looking. Couldn't see anything Pretty soon. I see a little dot, a little dot, and it was three miles away, of course. And it's getting bigger and the sound. And here comes Mickey Thompson, right at the three-mile mark, and I'll tell you, I was hooked. I saw that car come through and it was a hesitation. He was shifting into the high gear, it was going. Oh oh, you know oh, my god, I still get you, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was hooked big time. So I came back and, um, I still was still running the lakes because I couldn't afford to build a car or anything. So so I'm working at Eckmiller's, make a fairly decent money.
Speaker 2:That Strasburg Motors loud.
Speaker 3:I always like that. So anyways, I thought, well, okay, let's buy a car and go up to race. Okay, let's do that car and go up to race. Okay, let's do that. So looked in the LA Times for a race car At the time they had, you know, canteeks and stuff. We bought a 34 Ford for 400 bucks and so we built that car, put a Chevy motor in it and came up here in 1962. That was my first year of running competitively. What class were you running? It was competition coupe. It was D Okay, it was a 300-inch. Well, it was a 274-inch small block, Okay, Okay. And I was running against Dannenfelser. Fred Dannenfelser, he had a competition coupe and he had a competition coupe, I had a.
Speaker 3:Chop 34. There was no contest. So he was going 200, 220, 230, whatever it was, and I managed to go 162. So we were tickled with that. We had no troubles, everything was fine. So we come home and I'm working at Ackmiller Garage and Ackmiller was a Ford guy, he was a performance advisor for Ford Motor Company and he says Jerry, you're running a Chevy in that car, we got to get you a Ford.
Speaker 3:So he talks with his Ford people and here comes a new Ford, 260 cubic inch. The little 260 Ford small block. And at the time it was new, it was brand new. They didn't know this. What kind of a distributor was in the front? And the Chevy distributor was in the back. Nobody could. So he said what's the record in that class? The record was 160, 160. 160, 160. So, okay, we put this motor in there.
Speaker 3:At the time nobody made speed equipment for a 260. Nobody made it. But I had the old remember the old Dumour grinders. I ground off the heads and the ports and put Chevy valves in it and I thought you know, I think I need a fuel injection. Call up Hilborn. Hilborn says what he says. We don't make prototypes for a 264. Okay, well, here comes five Hillborn fuel injections. Dan Gurney got four of them and I got the fifth one. So I had fuel injection for a 264. Man, I was on seven, so it was really cool.
Speaker 3:So we come up to Bonneville and, as luck would have it, the record was 60 and I went 63. Set a record with a 264. Act Miller was beside himself. He thought this was great, this was super. So after that, here comes all the Ford motors. I had 289s, I had everything. And then I sort of got. I sort of thought with the 34 Coupe it was so crowded I felt claustrophobic in that. So we sold the 34 and got a 32 Ford Roadster and so I put the 289 in the 32 ford roadster and we went fairly decent hunt in the 70s 75. We never set any records with that.
Speaker 3:But then act miller was uh, he was a pike speak guy and he ran a Pikes Peak with a Devon-bodied sports car with 427 Fords in it and he went up there and blew a couple of motors and he came home with these motors and he says Jerry, take one of these motors and put it in your Roadster. And there was an open record at the time in the gas class. And so we put the 427 in there in the roadster and I couldn't afford to buy a fuel injection so I made one. I made a homemade fuel injection and Popular Hot Rodding followed me on it and they put it on the cover of the magazine. This 427, it was a conglomeration, it was a plumber's nightmare, but anyways it worked. And Act Miller was an Autolite guy and Autolite was in Long Beach and Art Crispin was there. Autolite was in Long Beach and Art Crispin was there.
Speaker 3:And so here comes my—I built the engine with two four-barrel carburetors and then I took the two four-barrel carburetors off and went to the surplus store and found an Army surplus helicopter intake with three big butterflies, three giant butterflies about about this size. Wow and uh. So I I drilled the manifold eight places and put nozzles, fuel injection, hillborn fuel injection nozzles, went to the swap meet and got a flathead barrel you know the barrel valve fuel injection. And so I made this up, made all the linkage and everything and got the fuel pump. Everything was just a nothing fuel pump, but it was a Hilborn.
Speaker 3:So we take the motor.
Speaker 3:Jack says, take the motor, we'll take it running on the dyno. And okay. So I said, how about if we run the motor on the dyno with two four-barrel carburetors and then we'll take the two four-barrel carburetors off the motor and put my fuel injection butterflies on, and I made the manifold and everything. Fuel injection butterflies on, I made the manifold and everything. So here we do. We run it on the dyno.
Speaker 3:It went 420, it went around 427 horsepower with the two four barrels Ran pretty good. So Ak and Art Crispin go out to coffee and Red and I are in the dyno room changing from the two four barrels to the fuel injection. Okay, so they come back from dinner and coffee it was about an hour hour and a half and they come back to the dyno room room and we're just putting the fuel injection back together and it's working, everything is looking good and they okay, let's fire it up. So okay, here's the button and it started I don't know who was more surprised me or Ag or Art and it sat there and ticked them off at about 1,500 RPM with the fuel injection and Ag looks at Art, christman and Christman looks at Art and they both shake their hands.
Speaker 2:Were you like hot dog. I'm a genius.
Speaker 3:Yes, I said what is this? What is this? So Art started to run it on the dyno. The first pull was a little bit lean or something, and he didn't want to run it, he didn't want to hurt it. So he says, okay, jerry, where's the pill? Where's the pill container? Oh, here, right there. Okay. So, where's the pill? Where's the pill container? Oh, here, right there. Okay.
Speaker 3:So we changed it, ran it again, ran up to 390 horsepower and it was still a little bit lean. So we put more fuel in. Finally we get it running pretty decent. He put a full pull on it and I was ready to die because you know, if you've ever been in a dyno room with your engine on the dyno, it kills you because you think it's going to blow up. You're standing there. Anyways, we wound up putting 466 horsepower and they were both happy as hell, and so was I. I couldn't believe it. So that's the car that came to Bonneville with me in 1967. And we set the gas record at 192 something and we set the fuel record at 205. And that's when I got in my club, okay.
Speaker 2:It was 1967. On your engine that you built your Frankenstein engine. It was a Frankenstein.
Speaker 3:Plus, and the car was. I remember in those days you had to qualify Mm-hmm, and then the next morning you went down and back, yep, it was, and back, yep, it was. Three runs, yeah, unlike today. So I made my down run I've qualified. And then made my down run and I'm sitting there at the eight or nine mile, whatever it was, and that was the longest hour I ever spent in my life Just waiting. My wife Judy, was there. We had gotten married in 64. So we were together and so she was there, you know, supporting me and everything, yeah was there, you know, supporting me, yeah and uh.
Speaker 3:So, anyways, the I had two big tubes coming out of the front of the grill shell for air and they were. That was a conglomeration. Also, they were actually four barrel, the little bells you put on top of a four-barrel carburetor, you know. So I had them out there and I went to the hardware store, got some plastic ducts and everything, and one of them was flying off, so I put tape on them and everything. So on the way back we got the job done, making our return run. So that's how I got it.
Speaker 2:Nice, and that's in the Roadster. Right, you're in the Roadster doing this 32 and run. So that's how I got it nice and that's in the roadster.
Speaker 3:Right, you're in the roadster. 32 roads, nice, 32 roads. Okay, I didn't know. You got it in a roadster, I guess. I mean, I just always know you from having the, the coops. Well, yeah, I uh. Well then, it was the roadster and built the modified right, there's. Judy.
Speaker 2:Knows just as much, because Ford.
Speaker 3:now I was gold with Ford Motor Company and they gave me a Cammer. Wow, the single overhead Cam 427. The single overhead cam 427 and, uh, I thought holy crap they're gonna give me this motor.
Speaker 3:I can't run it in this jump 32 ford rooster. I'm gonna build a new car. So you remember that, judy, we were. We were in our living room and I was sitting on the living room carpet on the living room and I just drew a couple of lines, you know, and where the motor would go, because I measured the motor and everything and we drew a car on the carpet with chalk and that's how it started with the modified Okay.
Speaker 3:And we came up here in 60. And then Rod and Custom followed that on the build and everything and, uh, okay, we had a wonderful time building that car. It was, you know, a modified yeah and and now, not that modified it, it was they're long, they're, they're 20 feet long.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, but in those days they were very short. Anyways, that was the Cammer in the 27. And we had a great time with that. We were on 240, 243, 244. We never set the record with that car, but we always got a first place in it. Yeah, yeah, because it was the record was pretty high, but we always got a first place in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because it was, the record was pretty high, but we had no trouble, everything was fine and that, uh, and that took care of the 30, the uh, the 27. Now, I forgot to mention before that, um, there was a, an electric car, auto light was, um, I set a record with an electric car oh really, and what year, yes, that?
Speaker 3:was a 1968. Yeah, auto light. R chrisman and danny ames and Ak Miller were having coffee one day and they were it was. They were saying you know, autolite's coming out with a brand new big battery for the East Coast, for the. You know winter, and winter comes in East Coast, the batteries are no good. So they're coming up with an electric car. And it was the Autolite lead wedge. Okay, it looked like a wedge, it was a glorified go-kart.
Speaker 2:No suspension.
Speaker 3:And it had 20 batteries, 10 on each side. I sat in the middle with switches and the switches were like a four-speed transmission the third, fourth, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:So we had to be towed. We had to be towed and I had the tow line in the car and I could release the tow line so it wouldn't take juice out of the batteries to run the car. So he said, okay, I'll go as fast as this station wagon will go and I'll hit the brake lights, touch the brake lights and you release. Okay, so I'm going here. Touch the release brake, I go. I hit the first switch Boy. It was pretty good, and I had to look at the gauges, the voltmeter, because the voltmeter started dropping off, I hit another one.
Speaker 3:So anyways, we go, all four switches and we went 138 miles an hour, which was a record. The record had been in the books for decades at 64 miles per hour. It was an electric car, 64 miles per hour, set in 19-oh-something, whatever. So here we are 30 or 40 years later later and in this call electric wedge, auto light wedge, car, and we set a record. And that was another thing why I got the camera as well, because they were so tickled with that car setting a record. And so they said here we're going to give you anything you want.
Speaker 2:Anything you want, man, I was there, you were loving it, it was great, it was wonderful.
Speaker 1:It was a world dance.
Speaker 2:It was what? Was it A world dance? Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it was USAC Joe Petrelli.
Speaker 2:I have the framed, and this is the electric one. The electric one yeah, this was big deal. This was an FIA. Oh, yeah, I didn't know that they had that. It's in the FIA books. Yeah, oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 3:I mean, this is major stuff yeah. And anyways, that car today is at the Speedway Museum. Oh the.
Speaker 2:NHRA Museum Okay, yes, the Victoria Museum Okay.
Speaker 3:Yes, for about 20 years it was at the Indy Indianapolis Museum, okay, and it was on display there at the Indianapolis Museum. The electric car, yeah, and the electric car at the Speedway Museum they rotate the cars and sometimes it's in the basement, sometimes it's out on display and I've had a couple people say, gee, I was at Indy and all the Indy cars here and I saw a car electric auto, light, lead, wedge, and it had your name on it, driver, jerry Kugel, and I said, well, yeah, I know it's at Indy, but I didn't know it was on display. Yes, it was, but when Judy and I went there about 10 years ago or so, a long time ago, it wasn't, it was underneath.
Speaker 2:So we didn't get it. So you never got to see it.
Speaker 3:We couldn't see it, but anyways, it just went on auction here about two years ago. They got rid of anything that was not Indy Indy. So, bill Smith from Speedway Motors, they bought the car, okay, and it's on display. It's Speedway right now, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh cool, Very cool.
Speaker 3:So that's how the camera came about. And then we ran the modified for three or four years. Then I got tired of that and sold the modified to Gordon Hoyt, who runs the car, and he put a Chevy in it. I sold it without the engine and then let me think. Now I've got to think.
Speaker 2:Where are you at?
Speaker 3:Then we built my 29. Okay, the 29. And then, of course, then I got acquainted with you, Larry and all, because now we were in the same class again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We were in that, and so that was you know. I don't know how much you want to.
Speaker 2:I would keep going, man, let's keep going. So we're just into the 60s. We haven't even gotten into the 70s yet, or the 80s or 90s.
Speaker 3:We're in the late 60s, early 70s yet, or the 80s or 90s. We're in the late, early, late 60s, early 70s, yeah and um. So we decided to build a car for um, you know regular nice roadster. So we built the 29 on deuce rails and, uh, we started running that in the early 70s and worked our way up to set a couple of records and they were set back in 78. Good year, yeah, the year I was born.
Speaker 3:One was 245 was a fuel record, and 230 something 236, I think was the gas record. You, Larry, well knows, because we were all in the same class.
Speaker 3:You guys are kind of I ran turbochargers and we started I believe the record holder at the time was Bardinoli I believe the record holder at the time was Bardinoli and it was a 213 or 18 and first set the record at 220. Then kept working up our speeds up to 240s and 245 average and that held for 15 or 20 years. It was there for a long time and it was just broken here within, oh gosh, the last three or four years from the um. Mangali, mangali.
Speaker 3:Mangali and water like yeah, those guys you know, and uh, would they blew it away? They're in the fifties Now.
Speaker 2:that record is in the fifties and and so.
Speaker 3:But in the meantime, um that we put, we parked uh the roadster and then we're looking. Then the boys were looking for a faster car, so we started the Pontiac, the Trans Am.
Speaker 2:And boys, you mean your sons, right? That's what you're saying.
Speaker 3:Yes, Joe and Jeff. Yes and so, but they had both gotten into the club in the Roadsters. Oh, okay, yeah, they already were in the club. But we wanted to go a little faster, a little later model car. But we wanted to go a little faster, a little later model car. So we saw McDonald Bits Pontiac Trans Am and we had a for sale sign on it. We should buy that.
Speaker 2:That one looks fast.
Speaker 3:Everybody in that class was trying to go 300. Everybody Mike Cook, gil Banks, lingenfelter, all of the heavy hitters were trying to go three bills and they came close. Lingenfelter, I think, was the closest, I think he went 290, high 90s and then the windows blew out of it, the hood blew off of it and everything. And Mike Cook tried it. He was in the close to 2 also when the back window came out of that Cook's car. But that was more of a. The engine was set back. It wasn't, it was a standard car, though they wanted a door car to go 300. Yeah, a door car.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so we bought McDonald-Pitts cars and totally went through it Everything New chassis, everything and put a small-block Chevy turbocharged and twin turbos, and we've been watching what they did. And the engineers at General Motors gave McDonald-Pitts two new cars they were getting close to 300, and they said if you set a record, we want you in a new car, we don't want you in an old Trans Am Pontiac 90, pretty much. So they gave McDonald's two cars and so they built those cars too and they went fast and we went fast. So we were friendly competitors because they were so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We owe a lot to McDonald, dave McDonald. He was such a nice guy yeah, he still is, they still run the car and so we finally got the job done. We went 300. Yes, we were the first ones to do.
Speaker 2:First in a door slammer to go 300.
Speaker 3:Yes, we were the first ones to do. First in a door salon to go 300. Yes, first door car to go 300 with an engine in the stock location. You know, didn't change a thing. The headlights worked, the electric windows still worked. I mean it was a stalker. Yeah, except it the the ground effect stuff that were standard you could buy them from chevy. Yeah, you know the little you know thing on the little tiny wing in the trunk okay and so.
Speaker 3:So we did the 300 there and everybody was happy about that. So, um, you think, now you got to think that's a big moment.
Speaker 3:So 300, but we went 300, for we and we drove and ran that car for a number of years. Yeah. So we and we were having fun, the kids were driving it, and everybody went over 300 with that car. Yeah, I even went over 300 with it. Wow, we were going, we're all set to go home. One one year we had set, you know, bumped the record up just a tiny, and Jeffrey said, or Joe said, dad, you want to take this, take it for a ride? Yeah, I guess, then we'll go home. Okay, so it was done. I wasn't trying to do anything, but I qualified. But I went 303, but I said let's go home, we're going home.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, yeah, I'll go home, you're like that was enough for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was enough, Well and then after that we parked the car. Yeah, I said you know the laws of averages before you get in trouble sometimes you get in trouble. We hadn't had any trouble. We were so lucky with that car. It was like a bracket car. It ran so well, and so we parked it.
Speaker 2:It was a cool car.
Speaker 3:And it's never going to run again. I never want to have that car run again.
Speaker 2:Are you going to put it in a museum?
Speaker 3:I still have it. I'm going to donate it to Speedway.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Now did both your boys get in the three chapter?
Speaker 3:Joe is.
Speaker 2:Joe, is Okay, joe is.
Speaker 3:Jeffrey missed it by well. He qualified 306. Yeah, he made a heck of a run. He was coming back and something happened to the motor. He didn't quite make it. He missed it by that much, but they were both we all went 300.
Speaker 2:We had fun, yeah.
Speaker 3:We had fun, very cool. So then we parked the Pontiac. So now what do we do? We went to Muroc and my shop was going great guns, you know components and I had Marcel DeLay. I put a contract with him to build 20 cars for me, metal-bodied cars, handmade metal-bodied cars that duplicate a Roadster, but they're not 32 Roadsters, they're changed. You look at a Muroc, one of my Muroc cars. I called them Murocs, yeah and you look at a stock, or that's when you notice it, but if it's sitting here it's a 32-wheeler.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we built 20 of these cars and we were doing great Selling just rollers. We didn't build complete cars, we just had them fabricated by Marcel and I built a nice chassis, all independent, suspensionependent suspension without engine, without trance, without paint, without upholstery. I sold them as rollers. That way I didn't have to worry about registration. It was parts Okay.
Speaker 3:Sold parts. Yeah, so we did that and we didn't have a car at the time. So the kids said, well, let's learn one of the Murox. Okay, we'll take one, take one of those roads and that'll be my car. Because I wanted to have Marcel build me a nice car. But I went to Marcel's shop and they wanted oh my gosh, what they wanted to build a car was just crazy. So I went home all disappointed. On the way home I thought, well, maybe if I build more than one, it might pay. So next time I said how about if we built 10 high boys? How much would that cost? So, anyways, I worked it out where, if I could sell eight or nine, I could have one for free, maybe, okay, so anyways, we built 10. And then that was going so well.
Speaker 3:People said, well, what about you build fender cars? I said, well, no, just high boys. Finally, I got talked into putting fenders. So I had Marcel build fender cars. So I built 10 of those and they. So in the meantime I took one of the high uh, the high boys and we put the roll bars in the school cage and all the systems. You know what it takes, all the systems, but it was still a car I could drive on the street. I mean, truly, it was a car on the street. So Duttweiler had an engine that he was building for Magnuson to test his superchargers, magnuson superchargers. And so they said this engine is wearing out, we're going to build a new one. You want the old one? I said, hell, yes, I'll take the old one. So they gave me the old motor. It was an LS4.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh.
Speaker 3:So that's the engine and blower we put in the Muroc Uh-huh, and it had run, it put out 700 or 800 horsepower. I mean it was a stout motor but it was still a street motor.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, okay, let's go to Bonneville. We'll drive it to Bonneville, drove it up, judy and I drove the car.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:It was an enjoyable drive. I mean you, yeah? Well, we all drove it the whole family drove it.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. The whole family drove it. That's so cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we got up here. It was 2008. I it was 2008. I think it was 2008. Yes, anyways, we make it up here. And the car ran like a champ, no problems, 19 miles to the gallon, wow.
Speaker 2:So you drove it up and you raced it. How cool is that? I brought it in the pits, you know, like this Took the windshield off, wow.
Speaker 3:So you drove it up and you raced it. How cool is that? I brought it in the pits, you know, like this, took the windshield off. I had a tonneau cover made for it, so we had all that in the trailer. Took the windshield off, took the headlights off, took the front disc calipers off and tires. I brought Fodderbill wheels and tires, brought a parachute, took the license plate off, bolted the parachute on the back. I had it all pre-made, so it wasn't a very big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the Magnuson Superchargers has an intercooler. It's a water intercooler, pretty cool. So I made a big tank to go into the passenger seat, took the passenger seat out, put this tank in fix it full of ice water.
Speaker 3:And we come out here and went my first run off the trailer. I didn't have it on the trailer but the very first checkout pass 192. Oh, wow, 192. And I shouldn't say this, but I drove it back to the pits. I pulled in the pits. I mean it's against the law, you shouldn't drive a car, but I did, I was cruising, cruising it, man, and I pulled under our canopy and I said it's going to go faster.
Speaker 3:So we made another run. This was more serious, but we got another run in and we went 200. Wow, the first time 200. That is 200. That is that's what we wanted to do. We could go 200. So that was the end of the week. We almost wore the motor out for making so many runs. So we finally got 200 and I let everybody drive it, everybody. My daughter, my daughter, she drove it.
Speaker 2:Your granddaughter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my granddaughter.
Speaker 2:Very cool. I was not younger when I drove it. No, I had to wait in line.
Speaker 3:I was 23 when I drove it. Oh dear.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But anyhow. So everybody had a nice time with that. We ran that for three or four years and finally, you know, driving it back and forth and everything, we finally got it up to 225.
Speaker 2:Wow, this is so cool 225.
Speaker 3:And still a streetcar. That's awesome. Right today it's still parked at the shop in another building I have and it's just there. Yeah, every now and then I, you know, go in there, hit the button, start it up, and you know it's got electric cutouts and everything so and I let people drive it. Yeah, I, you could, anybody could drive it. Just, everyone has a automatic. It has a 400 turbo, hydro, but you've got to shift it. Yeah, yeah, and it held together for some reason Never had a minute's trouble with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's the story.
Speaker 2:Was that your last?
Speaker 3:car Pretty much up to date.
Speaker 2:Yeah, up to date. Is there anything else that you're planning on doing, or are you kind of just?
Speaker 3:You know what we're trying to think of that.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you're not done.
Speaker 3:You know I'm going to run the 29 that had sat for so many years when we were doing the Pontiac and during the Muroc, it was just part, yeah. So in 2018, I thought this is my project, I want to rebuild it. So I restored the coal car and I'm going to 2018, I brought it up here, but it was a terrible year. It was just bad. Yeah yeah, and I just drove it. I thought, gee, this is going to be cool. But the course was so bad it didn't have suspension in it.
Speaker 2:I know that's the year my husband got in the club and it was that year it was rough.
Speaker 3:It was a killer. Yeah, I mean I said I'm not going to ride this car. I mean I couldn't see the gauges and I was 80 years old, anyways, so that then we decided forget that, we're not going to run that until it's good. So now this but the salt is good. This year we're going to run it, okay, in October.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice Okay.
Speaker 3:It'll be up here in October.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:If the gods, I mean, it's a crapshoot.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes, In October.
Speaker 3:You never know.
Speaker 2:If the salt gods are on your side.
Speaker 3:You're going to be running it. Exactly, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I am looking forward to seeing that then.
Speaker 3:Well, we'd like to. I'd love to go 250 with it, but it's got the same motor. I mean the same size motor, turbo, I mean just like it was when I set the record in 78.
Speaker 2:So cool, yeah. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 2:You came out. You delayed your trip to come do this, and I'm sure everyone who hears this will be, super appreciative.
Speaker 3:So thank you. Well, this was fun. Yeah, it was kind of scratching my memory bank. I should probably put all this on.
Speaker 2:Well, now it's in.
Speaker 3:Well, there's been a couple of magazine articles, you know kind of a biography, but they're out there, yeah. But anyways, I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Okay, great Well, thank you so much, Sherry.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Land Speed Legends. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. In the meantime, keep up with the show on Facebook and Instagram under Landspeed Legends. Until next time.