Land Speed Legends
Conversations with men & women who make land speed racing legendary!
Land Speed Legends
From Model A Engines to Turbine Power: How the Vescos Revolutionized Land Speed Racing with THE LEGENDARY RICK VESCO
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:Today I have the legendary Rick Vesco with me and we are going to. We started talking about the beginning where it started for you, it was really with your dad.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, the first time we ever went to Bonneville was in 1953. I was seven. Don, of course the oldest, and my brother, chuck, was with us, and that was the first. And my dad started racing out there in 1949, one of the 49ers.
Speaker 2:I mean, and that's a big deal, so explain what the 49ers are.
Speaker 3:It's the first organized group, wally Parks and Alex Exidious and others decided to go to Bonneville because you could go faster and that the Europeans had shown up and they've gone nearly 400. And anyway, it's the best place to really go fast and fast safely. Yeah, relatively safe, rel fast, safely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Relatively safely, relatively safely, yeah, so that's a pretty big deal to be part of that 49er group. Do you know how many were there originally? Like how many people?
Speaker 3:There was about 50, as far as I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, close to 50.
Speaker 3:50 competitors Somewhere around there, that's awesome, and the motorcycles back then were kind of invited, but there was only a few people. Yeah, they were kind of outcasts I think. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Today it's a different world, yes, but the motorcycle and car people are still. You know, it's still a different world, but at least it's friendly.
Speaker 3:No, they're all working together and it's serving the public. Yeah, Part of saving the salt, putting it together.
Speaker 2:And they, yeah it. It just you know, motorcycle people are motorcycle people, but you're a motorcycle person, oh yeah, and a car person, you crossed over.
Speaker 3:We're one of the only families that have been doing cars and motorcycles for a long, long time. Oh yeah, Don, the true legend, is the only person to have ever held the motorcycle land speed record and the automotive land speed record. That's just the way it is. It's really unusual. My goal originally was to get Don holding the car record while he still held the motorcycle record, but then Teague got it in 2001. Oh Al that 409.
Speaker 2:No, alague got it in 2001. Oh, Al that 409. No, al, no, I love Al Everybody loves Al.
Speaker 3:I know Al and Don were one of a kind.
Speaker 2:Oh that's awesome, I know, yeah, they really were. Don was a unique character. Yes, he was. So what did your dad race when he first went out there?
Speaker 3:Well, he took out his Lakester, which they called Streamliners back then, but it had this same Model, A Ford four-port, Riley, four-port conversion head on it, Same one we have today, and we're going to try to run this next season, 2025, at Bonneville and hopefully we can get it all done and back together. The car is ready to go. I've had the engine in it but we're doing a lot of cylinder head work. So anyway, we're going to take my dad's original real streamliner, the 444 car, which he put out there in 1957. And they made him run it experimental and it was. Hot Rod Magazine called it the thinnest streamliner because it had only a 24-inch tread width, where nowadays that's considered fat. With the streamliners my turbine car has a 17-inch tread width in the front and 12 inches in the back and it's 36 feet long. It's kind of crazy but it handles beautiful. We've had it sideways at well, Don had it sideways at 437, and it didn't tip it over. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the first year you went out you said 1953?
Speaker 3:53. I was seven. I was out there riding a bicycle and stomping beer cans with my feet. I know what that's like and you never back. When you were seven years old, you didn't know you were going to have the world's fastest race car. You always wanted. You loved the sport. You loved all the people.
Speaker 1:You loved racing.
Speaker 3:You didn't know what you were going to be doing.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:How does anybody know they're going to be president of the United States when they're seven years old?
Speaker 2:Right, you can't dream, but, yeah, yeah, dream, dream on. That's right. And you wouldn't, it would just back. Then it would have just seemed so impossible, 500 miles an hour. You'd just been like, no, I mean.
Speaker 3:well, first off, land speed racing was at about 403 for Donald Campbell, and today I would have never, ever thought that. Well, back then everybody was saying, oh, cars can't go any faster than that with wheel driven. They just can't get traction. And that's why Breedlove built the jet car. That was it. And that's why Breedlove built the jet car. That was it. But now the turbine car here we've gone as fast as the jet car did originally out there with Breedlove. So you know, you just got to keep plugging away at it and you'll figure out a way. But you know, the save the salt issue was what I was really worried about, and it's still a big problem.
Speaker 2:It's not fixed. No, it is not fixed. It's definitely not fixed. Hopefully we can work on that and get it going. But so in 53, when you went out there, or even in just between the years, as you were young going out there, what was some of your like cars that you really looked at and really admired?
Speaker 3:Well, usually the streamliners, whoever was going the fastest, that seemed to be the most important, and that's what Don and I you know we always well, you don't want to go slow, and that's kind of why we retired the 444 car. We're going. Man, this thing with a Model A isn't very fast. So anyway, yeah, you dream on, you want to do something better, you want to make it safer and of course, the rules change over the years, so you always have to modify the vehicles for different things.
Speaker 2:And it was you and the three brothers, right, yeah, three brothers. So you and Don and Chuck.
Speaker 3:Yeah, chuck's the middle one. He and I had a motorcycle shop in northern Utah for 30 years and we had Honda, yamaha, suzuki and Kawasaki. And when we got up there we rebuilt the 444 car and went to the salt flats with everybody from the Utah club and in 76, dave Spangler came up. He was my boss at Hooker Headers. I worked for him from 70 to 73. And now he's driven the Turbinator 500 miles an hour. So he's our hero and legend.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, I didn't realize you showed me this little video of him, of what he did. I didn't know, I didn't know all of that about him, which was really amazing. He's really impressive. He's really impressive.
Speaker 3:He's really good. Nobody can believe If you look at Dave now. He's getting older. But when he was younger, he was quite the athlete and he bronxed bulls, motorcycle racing, drag racing, you name it off-road stuff, and we did all that together when we were working with him down in Ontario. But anyway, it's been quite a history and it's been really, really hard to explain the Vesco family history.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to try to explain it so everybody can know what's going on. So when did you guys start actually building your—well? When did your dad pass away? What year was that? 83. Okay, so he was still out there for—.
Speaker 3:Oh, he was right there, he knew I was building the—not turbine car, but the Project 425. Okay and anyway. Yeah, I talked to Bruce Crower about making a four-wheel drive and all the racer people were always involved and you know, it's like the tire situation. The Birklins got tires for us to go fast and even on the motorcycles we're sitting next to a motorcycle here that actually beat all the cars Only motorcycle to ever win the Hot Rod Magazine trophy. Hardly anybody knows that, but the thing is he did it with. Don was quite an innovator, but he did it with stock motorcycle engines that he modified himself. Today you can buy any race motor you want. In fact, the guys that are holding the land speed record made their own engines. They're not even motorcycle engines anymore. But the tires, for instance, that's always been a headache for everybody If you're going real fast yeah, Well, yeah, you're right for everybody.
Speaker 3:Everybody this motorcycle here has Goodyears on it. Goodyear made them for us. It has a traction patch of about one square inch of traction and it just burned the tires off. He went 330 to win the hot rod magazine trophy.
Speaker 2:wow and what year was that?
Speaker 3:that was in uh 1978. Okay, this the inspection sticker still in this bike. By the way, I'm restoring. I'm restoring this motorcycle we're talking about well, um, what so?
Speaker 2:when did you and when you guys kind of went on your own or was your dad still, like, had the car and you were working on it, like after when you guys were old enough to kind of start going after your?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, the kids took it over. Don started racing the 444 car After 57, my dad had one of his partners in a. He had a body shop and he was the driver of it. And then in 57, don took over and of course, don and I and my dad was one thing about my dad. He said don't worry about cutting the car up, make it better. Oh yeah, improve, so yeah. And there's so many people now that, oh my God, you're tearing up a legendary car. You know it's famous and I go. Well, it's still getting more famous.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We need to make it better. Get the hacksaw out, let's change it. There's no end to that.
Speaker 2:I like that philosophy though. Yeah, so you guys. So how long did you guys race the 4444? I mean, you're still racing it, but how long did you race it until you started doing some other things?
Speaker 3:I raced it right up to 1981 when I turned it over with a blown tire and that was with Dave Spangler's engine out of his Jeep. He was driving to work. That's crazy. Anyway, Dave was supposed to drive it after I got done with it, but there was nothing left of it. So that ended his driving career for a while. But that's when I decided to build a safer, faster car, and that was Project 425, which is now the Terminator.
Speaker 2:Dave's getting his ride now yeah, no kidding, you're like, I got a better ride for you, dave, a faster ride at least.
Speaker 3:So it all, it's all worked out, it's gone full circle.
Speaker 2:I guess you say yeah, yeah well, in between, like the 60s and 70s, what were you guys doing?
Speaker 3:you were don was racing motorcycles no, we were both racing motorcycles and still campaigning dad's car up and through. I think we yeah, 81 was the last time we drove it. But yeah, that was it. But I built motorcycle streamliner. I had a 100cc motorcycle that I was out there, jinx and I my wife was out on the salt flats with burt monroe and my motorcycle looked like his because I thought his was cool. And uh, I went, I went 113 out there and set a record with 100 cc on gasoline and uh, anyway, burt went, I like 160 or something that day. So big contrast, he has a 1,000cc antique motorcycle, so we're familiar with antiques anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2:What year was that that you did that? That was 68. That's so cool, yeah, yeah. And so you were racing those motorcycles. And then what about Don?
Speaker 3:Don was racing. He started, he was a road racer. He won Daytona Road Racing in 1963 and gave the first win to a Japanese company and it was Yamaha. And he became a Yamaha dealer after that and he built a little motorcycle streamliner that he broke his collarbone in right off the get-go. So he anyway, he said, well, he's going to build something faster and better, and so that's his legacy for getting up to be the world record holder for motorcycles Just keep building, you have a problem?
Speaker 2:you build a better, build, a bigger, better one, better mousetrap. So you guys were kind of just doing those. You guys were mostly doing the motorcycle stuff in the 70s.
Speaker 3:My dad was pretty much all cars and of course when we were younger, in the 50s, you know, you could hardly afford a motorcycle. Oh yeah, yeah, my brother, we had Mustangs and we had old Cushmans, cushman motor scooters that used to give you a shin splint because the starter never worked on them and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3:I went drag racing with my brother, chuck, when I was 14. My mom didn't know that I did, but I took Don's drag bike and went to Mexico, to Tijuana. Oh yikes, we drag raced on the Tijuana Raceway, which was an airport on the beach with a big bump in the middle of it.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, so I?
Speaker 3:was 14, and I was in Mexico racing.
Speaker 2:Of course you couldn't race in the US unless you had a driver's license. So anyway, good thing your mom didn't know, that would never have happened for sure. Well, there's a lot of things they didn't know. Oh, that's pretty cool though. So you guys, you're doing other kinds of racing as well in between. Oh yeah, we do a lot of off-road racing.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we do a lot of off-road racing and I took Steve McQueen's place in 1968 at the Las Vegas Mint 400 off-road race. And how this happened was the Husqvarna magazine guy at the Mint and he had to have two riders and it was a long race, 12 hours or whatever it was. Anyway, the guy called me because I was winning a lot of races in San Diego off-road with a 100cc motorcycle, with a 100cc motorcycle, and he said, wow, he says man, would you go?
Speaker 1:to Vegas and take his place.
Speaker 3:So it was the funniest thing ever, because all the pit stops or checkpoints at the races had 9,000 women there to see Steve McQueen and I'd come pulling in and they're going. That's not Steve McQueen, they lied to us. That's a real tall guy. Long story short. We were running in ninth place, which was in the money. My lap time was faster than the magazine guy. He was mad but he crashed. I started the race and then he finished it but he fell down in the powder and we got 19th. I think, oh my, that's so cool, but it was really funny. That's my claim to fame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding. So what year was that that you did that?
Speaker 3:68, 1968. And what?
Speaker 2:year did you get married 67.
Speaker 3:67. Yeah, we'd been married a long time, but it wasn't for Jinx, this whole thing would have folded, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:Jinx is a big part of this whole operation. So you guys got married in 67. But really do you think your land speed racing like when did you get real hot and heavy in that?
Speaker 3:Well as soon as we started putting small block Chevys in the 444 car. And then Don was getting powerful motorcycle engines from the factory as road racing progressed. So yeah, Don was the first person to go 250 in a motorcycle, 300 on a motorcycle, and then again held the motorcycle land speed record for Yamaha, and again later with a Kawasaki, and his top speed was 333 in 78.
Speaker 2:Wow, what class is that it?
Speaker 3:was a 1300 Streamliner at the time.
Speaker 3:So, is this like in the? It was a two four-cylinder 1000 Kawasaki's turbocharged four-cylinder, 1000 Kawasaki's turbocharged, and he used to have a little cable over his shoulder because the Kawasaki gearboxes wouldn't hold the power that it was making and the only way he could do it was he gave it no turbo boost. He had a little cable that he had a wheel on it. It had a little electric motor that changed the boost of the engine and so he'd get it up to about 150 in high gear and he'd just start screwing the boost up.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness so he was gearing it up with the horsepower, or so.
Speaker 2:So he had to go one-handed to turn the boost up. Yeah, he's driving a motorcycle with one hand and turning the boost up to get 300.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, yeah, any other way he would go up as fast as he could go in low gear and it would break the gearbox and it'd shift. Then it would break the gearbox. Could never make two runs.
Speaker 2:And this is for that. Did you say it was 300 that he went in that one or 200? 233, what did you say?
Speaker 3:Well, let's see His early. Yeah, he was over 300 when this thing was breaking gearboxes. It was 27 days on. The salt flats is all I can tell you oh, my goodness he would drive back to California. Have guys make new gears for him, come back up, put it together and then run it. Don was an animal when it comes to racing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was a character. Yeah, he was a character. So is this like in?
Speaker 3:the late 70s, early 80s, that would have been. Yeah, 78 area was about the end of the turbocharged Kawasaki thing. And then he did this Offenhauser-powered. He converted his motorcycle into a car which did not work and crashed severely, and that's what I'm putting back together today. But anyway, then that's how we got hooked up together. I started sending him drawings of parts I needed made and he would make the parts and send them to Brigham City and that's how we got the thing done and we ran it in 88.
Speaker 2:Okay, in 88. Yeah, and this is the Project 425 that you ran in 88? He started that.
Speaker 3:That's the one that's now the Turbinator Right and the Turbinator 1 is the one Don's current, still to this date holds the FIA wheel-driven land speed record at 458 with an exit speed of 470. And that now is in the museum in San Diego and we're trying to get his motorcycle finished up and then when we get done with the 444 car hopefully this year or next it'll go into a museum. We're trying to decide what museum, because most museums are either car or motorcycle and I want to get the motorcycle and car together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be perfect for your family. You guys got to be in a museum together.
Speaker 3:And we were born and raised in San Diego, so it's just a natural to have it there. But San Diego, I found out, is trading or somehow connected with the LA Peterson Museum. Oh, because they trade things back and forth. So I'm not letting them own anything, I'm loaning it to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So then, if you're going to get something out there that people have never seen, you need to switch it around to different museums in the family, and I don't know what Calvin's going to do, but I don't think he's going to be wanting to run cars around to different museums in the future, but who knows?
Speaker 2:So we were talking about Project 425. That's when you guys really kind of hooked up back together, is that right? Project 425 was started when I crashed the 444 car Right and you wanted the safer, faster car, faster car.
Speaker 3:Four-wheel drive was the goal. We were trying to accelerate. I knew we had to accelerate quicker. You know there's a real problem with bigger tires you get better traction, but the wind resistance is horrible. So I'm trying to put together a 24.5 tire, which was what Birkeland got built, and they're perfect size tires for this. The first run we made we're on some old Firestones and we took the rubber off on them. It was like gone instantly. This wouldn't work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, and that's kind of where your focus has been ever since is on this car. So, on Project 425, what was the original engine that you had in it?
Speaker 3:Well, we had two small block Chevys. They were 355 small blocks and just Holley, four barrel on gasoline and we figured we would shake it down. We ran it two-wheel drive first and then we hooked up the four-wheel drive to make sure it handled good and anyway everything seemed to be working pretty good on the car. And then Edelbrock was our sponsor and it was a handshake, a typical racer thing, and he called and said that they had an embezzlement of $3 million and that he couldn't support the project.
Speaker 3:After we just got it finished, oh yeah, cubic inch turbo offies that were kind of outlawed at Indy in the 70s and they put out for Indy, for the race, about 27 pounds of boost, about maybe 800 horsepower. But those engines would put out 1,000 horsepower with about 55 pounds of boost and they were quite the little muscly engine. But the problem was they were antique, obsolete and we couldn't find parts. After we made our couple of runs and got it up pretty fast, we dropped an intake valve and Don had put a turbocharger, a big turbo, on for both motors, sharing one plenum chamber for the intake, sharing one plenum chamber for the intake, and the valve that broke in one engine went to the other and it ate the motors up before it got shut off. And so then we had to abandon the office thing and boy Don worked his butt off getting those. I don't know how he got them in that car, but anybody that was out there was going holy cow, how did you do this? The car is really small.
Speaker 3:I mean it's long but it's narrow and there's no place to stick your fingers to work on it either.
Speaker 2:Well, how narrow is it?
Speaker 3:It's 36 inches wide and 36 feet long. Oh wow yeah 36 by 36. It weighs 5,000 pounds. It's the weight ratio front to rear. We're about 51% heavy on the front. It has about 400 pounds of lead in the nose. Nobody knows about it because it's hidden up under the frame. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we can talk about why that is. But so that's because you switched to the turbine engine, just because it was hard to get these offies Yep, the turbine. So that's because you switched to the turbine engine just because it was hard to get these offies.
Speaker 3:Lance Morris was one of our—he worked for Hooker Headers too. That's where I met Lance and he was an automotive guy. He worked for Keith Black for quite a few years when he was younger and he and I were working in the engineering department at Hooker, had two dinos running. Working in the engineering department at Hooker had two dinos running and my job there was to develop exhaust systems for motorcycles and snowmobiles at the time. And anyway, lance, he was a character. He fit right in with our group. So he actually got hooked up with Bernie Little in the Budweiser Unlimited Hydros and he was the crew chief for them and he would actually haul the boat from city to city quite a deal. He parked in my cul-de-sac in Brigham City with the Budweiser.
Speaker 2:Unlimited Hydro behind it.
Speaker 3:All my neighbors were freaking out.
Speaker 2:Giving you the stink eye about that, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:Anyway, there was a race in San Diego. They did Unlimiteds every year and Lance invited Don to be part of the crew at that race down there. And I was at my motorcycle shop in Brigham City and Don called me. He says we got to get one of these turbine engines. They're doing 200 miles an hour in the no-wake zone.
Speaker 2:He says I got a plan here.
Speaker 3:I got a plan. So Lance hooked us up with Art Arfons and his brother and we bought a turbine engine from him and we didn't know squat about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say how was that?
Speaker 3:Let's put it this way we know a lot about it now, yeah, that was going to say how was that?
Speaker 2:Let's put it this way we know a lot about it now. Yeah, that's a big transition between the two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, it's a shaft turbine, I mean it's an internal combustion engine, so it's like a carbureted small block or a supercharged one. And then there's a turbocharged one, I mean the turbine engines. They keep building them better for the helicopters, and the one Don set the land speed record with had 3,750 horsepower. The one we're using now corrected for altitude, but at sea level 5,300 horsepower, and at Bonneville we're at about 4,700 horsepower.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. So when you guys switched over, what did you do Like the first time you went out, was it?
Speaker 3:We twisted stuff off.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Drive shafts Real learning curve here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, tell us about that. That's what you were saying about how you guys got it all together and you had to go back because it was going.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, well, what happened is? Don asked our Fonz which way the engine turned clockwise or counterclockwise? Well, he said clockwise and Don says, okay, that's cool, that's the same as my car. Yeah, yeah, that's the same as my car, yeah, yeah no problem.
Speaker 3:It's not true. No problem, not true at all. So anyway, we had to build our own gearbox and everything to transfer the power to the four-wheel drive. And Don had a friend from England that was an engineer and that's what he did, is built gearboxes. So Don was calling him in, he set a dummy motor in and measured everything as to what centers are for the driveshaft and on the engine and how we had to fit it in the body. And, oh my God, it was a major project and I called Carpenter Steel and Alloy and they had a turbine steel they developed, it was called Air Mat 100, and they sent us 900 pounds of steel and we made gearboxes and we made driveshafts and everything else.
Speaker 3:But what we didn't change. Well, we've got to get back to this. The first time we went out with a turbine started it up out there. We were out there with Nish in October and it was snowing. It was a nightmare. We started it up and the wheels went backwards. Yeah, because an airplane clockwise is from sitting in the cockpit with the motor in front of you, with the propeller pointing forward and a car. You're looking at the front of the engine, the crank shaft. That's where the old Model A and Model T cranks, you know. So basically we put the gearbox together backwards too. Because it's a full-pressure, dry sump gearbox, it's got oil sprayers on the gears because of the amount of torque that goes through them. So Don and I went into town the Nish guys. They just cracked up over there. It was running, fire was coming out of it. They were roasting weenies and hot dogs over it. Oh my.
Speaker 2:God, it's fun when it's somebody else's mistake.
Speaker 3:So we went into town. We found a guy that had a garage in town In.
Speaker 2:Wendover.
Speaker 3:In Wendover and we worked all night on it. I couldn't stand it anymore. At 3.30 in the morning I went back to the hotel, went to bed, but he went back out to the races. And about nine in the morning here comes Don. He's headed back together.
Speaker 3:Luckily we had industrial 50-horse gearboxes. That's what I think Berkland ended up putting in his car. Similar thing, maybe one grade higher. And anyway we were starting to twist the original drive shaft for a 50-horsepower gearbox. It was a one-to-one ring and pinion and it had inch and three-eighths shafts which would normally be pretty stout, but they were made out of mild steel and it was Browning Gearbox Company. And it was Browning Gearbox Company and we called Browning and said do you have blueprints we can have of your gearbox Because we need to upgrade it? And the guy asked what we were doing. He goes there's no way you're putting turbine power through this motor, through this gearbox. It can't do it. So anyway, the shafts were twisting so that we solved right away and uh, oh, my god, it just ended up being one thing after another and uh, uh, learning, learning curve the hard way and eventually, after don set the land speed record, we did, don blew a gearbox bearing out in the gearbox. But he did set. We did set the land speed record with the original gearbox that we built.
Speaker 3:But when we got ready to make Turbinator 2 here I knew the problem with the gearbox. So my friend Lance took it to the gear works which did the. We did all the hobbing Jiffy Machine. El Cajon, california, did all the rough work for the gears, cut them to size and everything. Then we sent them up to the gear works up in Seattle and in Portland there was a heat treat company that did the heat treating on them. But I had to send it back up to Portland to have them change the nozzles to the right side of the gear because they were on the wrong side of the gear for oiling it. Anyway, it's just one of those things that happens. It's really discouraging because you go no man.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, this is a bunch of work coming up here, yeah yeah, and you've already put a bunch of work into it and you're just like, oh goodness, so, but Don did eventually get the record in that 458 FIA and that book that's still in the books today hasn't been bumped.
Speaker 3:The USFRA with Turbinator II, 2018, October. That event, we went 482, and that's the current fastest record on any books. And, of course, Dave Spangler, driving the first human with a wheel-driven car to go 500 miles an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's impressive. What is the class? I mean like is it?
Speaker 3:does Turbinator have its own engine class like a turbine engine?
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 3:Turbines are the same as electric. They do it by weight. Okay, amount of batteries is like horsepower, and bigger turbine engines more horsepower, like small blocks to big blocks, chevys or Fords or whatever you're doing. There's no fuel issue. I mean, it's just turbines run on kerosene. But we did water inject it for a test run we made in 2021. And that bumped the horsepower up about 200. And it dropped the exhaust gas temperature down. So we were very excited about going out in 2024 and going really fast, yeah.
Speaker 2:Didn't work. What happened? What happened?
Speaker 3:Well, to this date we don't know, but we broke a driveshaft in it, which to me the second. They said that the thing this is the dino man that was the dino man and the fuel control guy were in our pits and when the thing got right, about a third of a mile from the starting line, it made a big bang. I mean, dave said it was a loud thump and shut down the engine automatically shut down anyway. Uh, we got into the pits and when they were talking about it, the engine guy said, uh, the dino man that they worked together on the engine fuel control guy and the dino man, uh, they broke one engine on the dino, so they had history with it. But the dyno man said it had a compressor stall which we've experienced early on, because we cut the salt spray off the front tires, cut holes in the bottom of the car and the salt got in the engine and it did a compressor stall and they make like a sonic boom and when that happened to us, uh, we were doing about 437, that was in 99 that you could hear it coming boom, boom, boom and that was the end of that. But it did this compressor stall in 2024 at Speedweek and the dyno guy said it was a compressor stall. And he said compressor stall and I said we broke a driveline.
Speaker 3:The first thing I thought of, because the amount of torque when a compressor stalls, the engine's trying to run backwards. Basically when a compressor stalls, the engine's trying to run backwards, basically the pressure in it isn't where it's supposed to be for that low a speed. It's just got too much fuel. There's probably a combination of things that made it happen. But anyway, I said I'll check, see if the gear, if we broke something in the drivetrain. So it's real easy. We jacked this car has hydraulic jacks we jacked it up and I turned the rear wheel and the front wheels turned and the turbine engine turned. So I'm going. Okay, it didn't break a driveshaft.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so we decided, okay, we started the motor up again and anyway, they went through all their data. It's all computerized and it's far beyond me how to actually take a turbine and put it in a race car.
Speaker 2:Nobody's ever really done that before, so you guys are one of the first ones to really do that to put the turbine in.
Speaker 3:Well, there's guys been doing tractor pull stuff, you know, but nothing at Bonneville but land speed racing. Well we got. Bruce Linsmeyer has a little turbine out there and Lance Morris with Dallas. Dallas went into town to pick up Lance at the airport one day. Dallas went into town to pick up Lance at the airport one day. Lance has his two-club hat on when he jumps in the truck or the car, whatever he picked him up with. And Lance is talking about how easy it was to get in the two-club.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:He drove Bruce Linsmeier's little turbine car to 200 miles an hour. He drove Bruce Linsmeier's little turbine car to 200 miles an hour. And the best part of that whole story is Lance was a real fair-skinned, kind of a freckly guy and he had—the car was flat black, he had a black fire suit on and we went into—Dawn and I went into impound. After he got his 200-mile-an-hour record, Lance had the top of his fire suit unzipped and it was tied around his waist. He was bright red, sweating, and he was all excited. He just did it. You know, blah, blah, blah. Don hands him a snow cone. The snow cone got down his throat here before it came back up. Don had taken fender salt, went to the snow cone shack and had him put syrup on the top. It was all salt. Oh my gosh, it was salt. Oh, Don, yeah, but Don that was all salt.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it was salt, oh Don.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but Don, that was always something. And then we went into town to celebrate that night. Lance Don got up to go to the bathroom. Lance Don always had to have little eclairs, little desserts. He brings back about three eclairs. He has them on the table. But he went to the bathroom, lance took the salt shaker, took the lid off and poured salt in each one. And all of us at the table there are like 20 people there right Watching this whole thing Don ate them all and didn't flinch.
Speaker 2:He knew what was going on.
Speaker 3:No, you can't get back to that, Don no way.
Speaker 2:Oh, he was so funny, yeah. So going back just a little bit before we, what year? I was just thinking this like what year did you get in the two club?
Speaker 3:2000,. Take that back. What year was it, jinx? I got to think about this 76, I think it was yeah. What did you get in 213 with 80 cubic inch Yamaha on gasoline?
Speaker 2:Oh, so you got in on a motorcycle? No, it was motorcycle engines on the 444 car. Oh, in the 444, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Huh, and then what year did you get in the 300 mile an hour, chapter 09. 09.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Huh, and then, what year did you get in the 300?
Speaker 2:mile an hour, chapter 09. 09.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When would you do that in?
Speaker 3:That was a Duttweiler motor, 372, small block on 20% nitro. And yeah, it was really interesting, duttweiler, he heard the speed. I went out the back door at 350, and he comes over Because that engine, duttweiler built it for us in 97, and Dave Spangler got in the three club with it. Okay, okay, well, we put that engine away and in 09, we decided, well, we'll put it back. I had a guy in Vegas go through the motor and anyway, the thing goes down there. Dottweiler comes over to our pit. He goes what engine was that? I said that was your motor. No way, no way. He said it's impossible. He said that thing's so obsolete.
Speaker 2:And how fast did you go?
Speaker 3:A 350 exit. Well, the mile was 340, I think. But on the return run it blew a valley gasket and anyway it caught on fire and my average was 335. It's still in the books, I think. I don't think anybody's broken it. What class was that? It was C Fuel, Strimliner, C Fuel.
Speaker 2:Strimliner. So what year did Don get in the 200-mile-an-hour club?
Speaker 3:He got in the 444 car in 63.
Speaker 2:63?. What did you say, James?
Speaker 3:63.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what was his—do you remember how fast he— 322. So he went to—he got in the two-club on a three. 322 is half a 444.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's so cool. What was the other part of that story, Jinx? Wait, you mean 2.22. He went 2.22. It's half. The speed was half of the number 4.44.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Okay. Daytona that same year that Grand Prix. He did what he won Daytona. Well, he won Daytona that way, but oh I know what it was. Something about 1-1-1. Huh, well, that was a real coincidence.
Speaker 2:Hey, I think those numbers there's stuff in numbers. Yeah, that's cool, though. So he went 222. That's how he got his record on 222.
Speaker 3:It had a 180 cubic inch Offenhauser in it, okay, and it was just injected on alcohol.
Speaker 2:Cool, and the three chapter wasn't even a thing at that time.
Speaker 3:No, there was no such thing.
Speaker 2:And what year did Don pass away?
Speaker 3:80, 2002.
Speaker 2:Okay, 2002. So, and he was racing. Was he racing the Turbinator up until that point?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were racing it. He had already in 2001,. He set the land speed record, the FIA land speed record.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's when uh-huh land speed record and then we were going to modify it to get more air to the engine, because the whole thing, our goal was to go 500, and we didn't think about a 500 mile an hour record, we just thought we'd go 500. But what happened in 2001 when we were out there at Speed Week? There At Speed Week, Don went 400 or 470 first run at Speed Week and he said it'll go 500. He comes in the pits, he's all excited. He says this thing will go 500.
Speaker 3:He wanted to go back out and go 500 at Speed Week and Lance and I Lance was kind of our crew chief on- the turbine at the time. We're going wait a minute. The English hold the turbine record at 403. I said, don, let's go 403 FIA at the next meet, because I prepared the course for Dawn that year. Oh really, yeah, I had my own course out there.
Speaker 2:Oh, on the FIA.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fia thing. Anyway, I talked the Bonneville National guys to run my course because, larry, your dad said that my course was better and it wasn't far off of the other course. But it was like hard as a rock and anyway I talked them into running their world finals there. And then Nolan and I don't know, we got about 14 people together to share the FIA costs, but that's the only. Then Jinx and I and Lance jumped in our van and left Don signing autographs at Speed Week. And then we came back and that's when Don—he set the land speed record and that 461 speed in the last mile. That's where the Zeus fastener came out of the body and went through the engine. That was on the return run. Yes, ah. So he came that close to not setting that land speed record, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:But anyway, if I would let him keep dinking around at Bonneville trying to make it go at Speed Week, which is hard to do, it's just so many people and stuff there. Yeah right Logistically. Yeah, that's how we found this property down here to build. We just came through Zion National Park on vacation with Lance and found the property, so this is the new home of the Vesco Team Vesco.
Speaker 2:Racing. I guess that's so nice, it's so cool down here. Well, can you explain? I mean, I know, but an FIA record, like, what's the why it's different? Well, it should it?
Speaker 3:really? It doesn't mean much of anything anymore because when it started out, guys, the first records were like what? 30 miles an hour. So downhill, you know, having the same flying mile, and headwinds and tailwinds, you know. So they made a two directional run situation. Well, the clocks nowadays are accurate, accurate, accurate. I don't care whose event you're at, there's no cheating, no, everything's surveyed. And as long as you do it across the same mile, then you can't run a speed week doing both ways anymore. I mean there's too many people out there. The races are slow enough. It's the fastest slow sport in the world.
Speaker 2:That's true. There's a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of hurry up and wait. So that was the original concern with FIA is like oh, the clocks might be off or the timing might be changed.
Speaker 3:Originally they used to use a flag, believe it or not, in the real early days back there when, before the chemical companies out there stealing the salt, they did the big circle thing and all that, but they were doing it with a stopwatch. Well, you can't do a stopwatch in Bonneville, you can't see over the horizon, right? Anyway, I know that today, as long as it's a backed-up run and you impound the vehicle, I think right now Bonneville Nationals and the USFRA and everybody is working on the right thing. We just need to save the Bonneville salt flats for future generations, and that's a whole other story.
Speaker 2:That is a whole but you have a lot. You're a big part of the Save the Salt, birth of the Save the Salt. You know whole initiative. You.
Speaker 3:Dad. Well, in 1976, the Bureau of Land Management took the salt flats away from the state of Utah. That really aggravated everybody, even the racers from Speed Week coming up from California. Once a year prior to that, from 49, everybody recognized that something's going on with the salt flats. And then they put the freeway through in whatever year it was 73, something like that and then it got worse and worse. I mean, it was obvious that it was man-caused problem. Well, the racers are the ones in the 50s that go. Well, we're drilling holes out here to put stakes in. And it's not the same every year. That's really different.
Speaker 3:And even when I was out there when I was a young kid, I was mesmerized by the fact they used to always have the bell tent out there parts place and they brought out a water truck from Wendover. That water truck always leaked and it made a cone-shaped hole in the salt about 13 inches deep. There was no mud, none. It was crystal blue sky reflecting on the water. And now you can't, they won't even let a motorhome out there and drip water out of their you know, out of their RV without putting them in jail. Yeah, but it was obvious that the industry was the only thing out there that was the common denominator for salt loss, and the freeway didn't help, b-way didn't help. The BLM giving out federal leases to the mining industry all around the salt flats Right.
Speaker 2:It just procrastinated the whole situation. But then you as racers kind of came up with a solution that worked.
Speaker 3:Larry and all of us guys got together and we started Save the Salt and luckily NHRA got involved. But I'll tell you what the mining industry has the lobbyists. It's all about money.
Speaker 2:But if the BLM did its job, because the BLM's job is to make sure that the mining or the stocks or whatever they have are to leave it as good as you found it, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Well, they don't have that in the situation with the mining industry out there. When World War I happened, the federal government gave the mining industry 100 square miles of property out there. That's what started it all. Well, then they gave them federal leases and even though the Bonneville Salt Plats early on when I first got up in Utah in the early 70s I was on the Bonneville, I was on the advisory board for the BLM for the district that the Salt Plats had and that group of people there, Frank Snell and the guys that were running it, they love the sport, they love the history. They were our friends, the mining people.
Speaker 2:No, this is the BLM people.
Speaker 3:They understood what was going on. They created a recreational management plan. It was a book about an inch thick that talked about racing, how to prepare the course, how long the course was, how many 200 hours to prep it, black lines had to put oil down and as of now, after all these years, they've discarded that Bonneville plan that we had. So it was historical for racing, the US Historical Society Racing is what it's historical for, and it's on an area of critical environmental concern, and they have ignored all of their duties.
Speaker 2:Right, that's the bottom line Right and it's the only one, like you were saying, in the Northern Hemisphere, the only place like it. The other two are in the Southern.
Speaker 3:Hemisphere. No, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:And it's the only one with easy access to it.
Speaker 3:Well, it's easy access to services. You know the town, the economic situation, but it's just a sad situation that it's getting ignored by the locals.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But politics yeah, but politics yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and we can listen. Yeah, I think. Yeah, if you listened to the last podcast, you should listen to it. I know you haven't had a chance to, but yeah, and like I said we just talked about, I think there's. I think there's. I mean, I think, if we did the, the, what is the project that you guys did in the early 90s or late 90s, maybe I can't remember where it started, the reclamation? Is it called? No, what is it called? You're talking about the pumping project? Yeah, but you guys had a name for it, didn't you? No, maybe not.
Speaker 3:Well, it was a test it was a five-year test to see if we could bring early geologists said the simple solution out there, when people were normal and they had common sense was to reverse the mining project, because they can't mine in the winter and make money so they could pump salt back to the raceway Right, Because salt's a byproduct Right to the raceway, Right, Because salt's a byproduct Right. And in 1997, I came up with this pumping project to test that idea. Well, it worked really fine and that's why we got in 2001,. I got a. That year there was an inch and a quarter of new salt over the whole area that we were racing on. I had an 11-mile course. Don said it was as smooth as a bowling alley. Yeah, Anyway. Then they said, oh no. Then we got to study it more. Oh, always a study, Always a study. And it didn't really work according to them. And of course we're not geologists, so we don't have any say about anything.
Speaker 2:You're not an expert, no, we're not an expert. You only just go out there all the time, but yeah, the racers are really responsible for.
Speaker 3:you know making the government aware that there's a problem there and they touch on it. You know you'll see a TV show about it the history, and then nothing.
Speaker 2:Right and you can actually see. I mean, I think I can see a difference from even just coming out on the access road where it used to be salt all the way in, right Even from the gas station. It was salty and now it's not even close.
Speaker 3:Even Brenda Bowen right now, which is our worst enemy actually. She said that it's really changed fast over a short period of time, but still she just wants another study, right.
Speaker 2:Well, yep, yeah, I wonder why, yeah. And then the latest one that they did I can't remember the guy's name, it's Jeremy, something. It was basically like he said that it didn't come, which I don't even care, like it didn't come from Lake Bonneville, it was from somewhere else. The water's coming from the other mountains, and who cares? Who cares how it was formed? I mean for me, for us, for racing? And then he just said, basically it's like disappearing and there's just nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 3:It's just kind of like it's going to do that. There's all kinds of things you can do. First off, if you Google Earth, the Bonneville salt flats, all of the federal leases that the federal government gave the mining industry, there's erosion ruts. You can see it plain as day from the racetrack right into the ditch and they have yet to fix that. So rain is what makes everything work out there. It melts the salt, it blows back and forth, levels it, it dries up. Wherever the water dries up is usually the best salt. Anyway, everything is so obvious.
Speaker 2:Well, and my question is if it's just disappearing because that's just the way it's going to go and it's not really anything to do with the mining or the BLM managing it, then why is it not doing that in Australia?
Speaker 3:The government takes care of their land over there.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm sure they don't have mining projects either.
Speaker 3:No, they do not allow mining on their treasure. It's a treasure each one of those salt flats, Bolivia and everything.
Speaker 2:Right, right, you're absolutely right. It is a treasure.
Speaker 3:So hopefully maybe we can— the BLM charter in Salt Lake City at least it was was to protect and preserve the Bonneville salt flats. Well, they're so far away from that it isn't even funny, right, right, I agree.
Speaker 2:Well, I think maybe we can start. I think, like we said, I think the wind got knocked out of their sails after COVID when they had something set up and Chris Stewart Congressman Chris Stewart at the time really lied to us and said that he was going to go and get some $5 million. Just $5 million is all they need for this pumping project. I mean, come on, it's like a drop in the bucket.
Speaker 3:Well, right now, with Trump and common sense people in there, I think it's time that we can get this handled. There's no reason the mining industry and the racers can't work hand in hand.
Speaker 3:It isn't like you're going to cut jobs out. That was our original proposal in 89 is let's just reverse the process. But as droughts come and go, the water aquifers are important and they need management and it really is all about management. I mean, right now we see our whole government is upside down Right, and when you start digging into where did the money go, and this, that and the other, you find out real quick who's telling the truth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think you're absolutely right with this news. Check every senator.
Speaker 3:See where he got his money from.
Speaker 2:It's going to be from big business. Yeah, yep, it's just the way it works. Yeah, I agree, but if you get enough attention on it from everybody, I think you can get some pressure going, and that's what really makes them.
Speaker 3:Well, if you can get a government person that thinks through how things operate right now, it's going to be real easy to get them to do something about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the fact of the matter is is you can't go as fast as you want to go.
Speaker 3:No, Because of the salt, right I'm totally shocked that we did 500 out there, right, I mean we have to pull a half a G for five miles to get to 500 with that 5,000 pound car. Right, to get to 500 with that 5,000-pound car. Yeah, I'm lucky, I've told Dave. When we went 500, I said I'm happy right now. Do you want to keep going?
Speaker 2:He goes oh yeah, I want to get a record. Of course he does, but think about if you had. What was the longest track? Do you think that they had at one point?
Speaker 3:Well, we know. The thing is we have the documents from 1947 when the mayor of Salt Lake City invited the Europeans, john Cobb, out. In 1947. The tire company Dunlop, which we ran Dunlop on stuff. Over the years they made racing tires for Bonneville. They sent their engineers to look at the Bonneville salt flats and try to decide what kind of a compound and whatever. They literally drilled holes all the way and measured the salt. It was 17 inches thick in the middle, oh my gosh, and 13 and a half miles of raceway. Wow, yeah, and they explained. It tapered out at the edges to mud because it's a lake bed and the salt settled. All common sense and that's the way it is. And that it was they said in their brochure for the race. Which was what in the hell is the guy's name, the mayor? Oh, ab Jenkins.
Speaker 2:Ab Jenkins. Yeah, thank you, Ab.
Speaker 3:Jenkins. They had a program. They had people invited out, they had a souvenir program and it wrote all about the salt flats and how it was made and that it was hard as granite. Wow, or no, as smooth as granite, hard as concrete. That was in the press release, so it's been documented and that was done by geologists that came over here.
Speaker 2:Right, so when?
Speaker 3:they talk about. Oh, that isn't true. They were talking about layers of salt, because you know how you go down and the earlier it builds up over the years Right, yeah, it grows.
Speaker 3:At one time it was really good. That's all I can tell you. Yeah, see, even when they put the highway in if you know the Victory Highway for World War I they had a column over it to open the two-lane highway through the state, not the interstate, but the old highway and there was blocks of salt, this big cut. They were perfectly clean salt over the road, wow, and that's all in.
Speaker 2:Utah.
Speaker 3:State history.
Speaker 2:That's public knowledge. Victory Highway that was the Victory Highway.
Speaker 3:Victory Highway, yeah, highway 50, I think it was it just gets you so upset yeah no.
Speaker 2:Frustrating, and it's just. You know, we're just the little guys, Just don't want to go out there and, you know, do big things really.
Speaker 3:Well, when Jinx and I moved down here in Stewart, I don't care, I don't care.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did hear that Like figure it out, you guys of stuff, and oh he's, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really important, you know, blah, blah, blah blah, and then nothing happens.
Speaker 3:Yep, you know, I said wow, we got a guy here that's really going to do something maybe. And we found out later.
Speaker 2:We hired a lobbyist right. Yep, mike, yeah, I can't Mike?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can. Whatever, anyway, mike, whatever the lobbyist, yeah, I said man, I said that guy told us that he was going to take care of this and blah, blah, blah. And he said to me how much money did you give to his campaign? Yeah, that's the answer. So if you go look at everybody's campaign and where the money came from, you're going to find the mining industry shoveling money, right, and our representatives.
Speaker 2:But with that whole thing, the mine was going to get an upgrade with the whole. When you guys created this, where the Utah was going to give so much money, the racers were going to give so much money and all we needed was the federal government to give us $5 million. That was it.
Speaker 3:And the mine was going to get an upgrade. Here's the story too, on the project in 97, it was a 20-year project the mining industry started Pond 5, a new pond. Pond 5, at the end of 20 years had 119 million tons of salt in it and the mining industry had to abandon it because it was too thick and this is because of the pumping project.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think we need to get this back up.
Speaker 3:If we could get the government to go over and investigate the mining project on site without anybody but geologists and engineers, the answer would come back in two seconds. Stop this or do something to get it back.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, which would be the best solution, right Like if everybody could just kind of get along and we could just do it to get it back the bottom line is race cars were out there before.
Speaker 1:Mercedes was out there before the mining industry?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the government of course had to have minerals to make gunpowder and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And even, as far as I know, lithium for batteries. Yeah, they're taking it and selling it, but I don't think it's in their contract with the government. At least it wasn't years ago, so you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right now we got Ukraine big deal going on with minerals. Well, we got our own minerals here that nobody even knows what they're taking anymore.
Speaker 2:Investigate what they're really taking. Yeah, that's a good point, yeah, well.
Speaker 3:Your drinks made me do this.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're looking at a legend. Oh, we need to get those made. We need to get more of those made.
Speaker 3:I love it. I stole this from Don.
Speaker 2:Oh, is that his no?
Speaker 3:it's really not. I don't know who gave.
Speaker 2:Somebody gave this to me, that's a great shirt. It says you're looking at a legend is what his shirt says. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, I got my three-chapter shirt on, but I had to unveil it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love it. You are a legend, Rick.
Speaker 3:Look at all this. You've been out here since you know what. I don't feel like a legend.
Speaker 2:Nobody does. I asked Mike Nish to do one with me and he said I don't feel I'm not a legend, I'm like, oh, that's not the point. The point is is that even people that are this you know, I've interviewed people that have been like you, that have gone, you know that have a car that goes 500 miles an hour, probably one of the biggest names out there and I've interviewed guys that just are, or girls that are smaller, and the whole point is is that you are a legend. The fact that you have made, you have dreamt something and you've made it happen and you've gotten out here, which is more than the majority of people that think about it, that makes you, I think that's pretty legendary, don't you think?
Speaker 3:It's hard work it is yes, it was hard work.
Speaker 2:But you're definitely one of the bigger. Yes, you're one of the bigger legends out there. No, the women couldn't even race out there. I did not Until the 70s.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Oh yeah, marsha Hawley Vesco in this right here, right First woman right there.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, we didn't even touch on that. So you had one of the first, the first woman racers out there, the first one to go 200. Three, well, she's the first woman in the 200-mile-an-hour club.
Speaker 3:I remember when Marsha Hawley—.
Speaker 2:You guys have done so many things, I've totally forgot about all of them.
Speaker 3:Marsha Hawley. Vesco got in that on the starting line and I'm standing with—.
Speaker 2:And this is Dawn's wife at the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Dawn's wife right, and Gordon Hoyt. She goes down the course and she went 227 miles an hour. First time out with it and Gordon goes. I don't care what they say.
Speaker 2:She's got balls. I'll never forget it, oh that's awesome, and so that was 1978 that she got in.
Speaker 3:That one was, I know.
Speaker 2:Well, she got in the two club in 78, because that's the year I was born?
Speaker 3:Yeah, because everything happened in 78. Dawn crashed this, that and the other.
Speaker 2:So what? And she got in this? What is this that we're looking at, just so people can see.
Speaker 3:This was the Lightning Bolt Uh-huh Kawasaki, twin turbocharged Kawasaki's in it, and anyway, I don't know what her average was, but we can look it up. She came to the two club banquet once not too long ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I introduced her.
Speaker 3:Well, that's right when we, when Landspeed, did the ladies book, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, ladies rule, huh.
Speaker 2:Jinx. Nope, these women are a big. These women are a big part. I mean even somebody like jinx who is support, I think, is really important to her. I just remember your mom. I'll be so glad when the salt is saved. My mom, here we are. Here we are. Oh yeah, she's out there working in the trailer. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I hope, before Larry and I die, that somebody saves the salt.
Speaker 2:That's what I want. You guys can go rest in peace, knowing the salt is saved. So Marsha got in, and then there's a couple other cool things that you guys did. You guys did well. Wyatt pointed out on the picture the skier on top of the car. That was kind of different.
Speaker 3:Car. Top skiing was done on the Autobahn in Germany on a Mercedes or something. It was 127 miles an hour and then Sean Cridlin came and him and his girlfriend wanted to break that and anyway we bumped it up to 152 at Bonneville.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And then we did the bicycle and speed record.
Speaker 2:That's another one I was going to bring up, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it was around 100-something, 120-something miles an hour.
Speaker 2:Was this all on the 444 car?
Speaker 3:444 car. Yeah, they got used up. It did the bicycle and the car top skiing.
Speaker 2:So the bicycle was interesting too.
Speaker 3:I mean, that was a big deal yeah that was John Howard, that was another friend of Dave Spangler's, anyway, from the Olympics. Okay, Hooker Headers made the Olympic bicycles back in the early 80s and so that's how we got hooked up with the bicycle thing. And then Dave rode velodrome and did all types of events running events, triathlon, whatever they do and anyway we did the. I think they went 160. The girl went 152 and the guy went 162. It was like 10 miles an hour difference. Standing on the back of the 444 car with their ski outfit on and skis, oh yeah, and the bindings.
Speaker 2:That's right, it was a guy and a girl.
Speaker 3:The bicycle was John Howard and we went to Mexico to do it because the salt got rained out in 82 and 3, whatever it was in there. We couldn't go there. So the Mexican guy told them they just paved the highway from Ensenada down to wherever and it was perfectly smooth. Well, on the way down it was so rough that it kicked the cruise control out on my old Ford truck and we got on there and we got up to about 130. We were over the record. But there was a bridge that we had to go over and we were going fast enough that the car kind of got airborne and when it came down the belly pan hit the asphalt and it covered the guy with yellow paint all over his face. He was trembling, he was so scared.
Speaker 3:But we had a friend of mine from Brigham City, scott Spittler, flew a helicopter down at night, which you're not supposed to do. He was going to do the filming for Salomini Films out of New York City and the Mexicans, they blocked it off. Let us do the runs and everything. It was really kind of cool and he landed the helicopter behind the race car and he was all shaken and he didn't want to say that he wanted to quit. But we knew he wanted to quit. And anyway, scott says well, I'll take you back to the pits in the helicopter if you want. That was a mistake. Scott was just like the rest of us. He took that helicopter up into a dead fall, turned it upside down and flew him back to the pit.
Speaker 2:Oh, that poor guy. He was already terrified. He's probably like get me away from these people. They're crazy, these racers. So when they do that with the bike, do they just let go of the cord, like it's probably like, get me away from these people. They're crazy, these racers. So when they do that with the bike, do they just let go of the cord, like it's just like they're on a cord and then you let go?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're supposed to let go on their own. We found out they were cheating on that some.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's good Anyway so anyway. What were you going to say, though?
Speaker 3:You're going to tell me something, something else about the electric car.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We set the electric car record with Eddie of Revolt Systems from Riverside, california, or Lakeside, oceanside. I'll get it right Somewhere it's a side of something, something by water.
Speaker 3:Oceanside by water. Anyway, when we set the records and we had our driver in there, eric Ritter, oh yeah, anyway, we broke the record like the second time out 353 with the Tesla motors. Wow, anyway, they were all excited at the other end, like everybody gets when you set a record. And when we got in the car, eric was back in my car and the electric car motor guys were in another car. I told Eric I said these guys had it too easy. I mean, they didn't pay their dues.
Speaker 3:So we figured out that we were going to fake a call from Elon Musk to Eddie B, the owner of the company, right, to Eddie B, the owner of the company, right. So I had my phone, my cell phone, on me and Eric had his. And we come up with a plan. Eric went over on the other side. We were pitting together the 444 car and the Turbinator. He goes over on the other side of the Turbinator and gets down on the salt and he calls me and we're looking at the motor package and stuff on the electric car and Eddie B's right next to me. Of course I stage that to make sure he's there. So my phone rings and I'm going. Yeah, yeah, this is Rick Besko. Yeah, we did, we just did. You want to talk to Eddie here? Yeah, okay, hold on. It's a guy named Elon. It went on. That conversation went on for 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:Was Eric on the other side.
Speaker 3:Eric was acting like Elon Musk. We got it videotaped. You got to see it. Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't have to give it. Oh, dear.
Speaker 3:We chumped him so bad.
Speaker 2:Oh, what was he upset after?
Speaker 3:Well no, everybody knew except him.
Speaker 2:Mr Elon. Mr Elon, he was probably thankful it wasn't him at the end of the big.
Speaker 3:I'm glad I remembered that, because it's really good at the end of the big. I'm glad I remembered that because it's really good.
Speaker 2:So well, and I forgot about Eric. How many people do you think that you like between your cars that you've gotten in the 200 mile an hour club?
Speaker 3:How many people? Yeah, because you got. You got, ronnie, or 300.
Speaker 2:You got Ronnie, you got Marsha, you got Don, you got did. Well, dave did it in a different car. He got in the two club separately.
Speaker 3:We got Bob Blakely. He got in the three club. Uh-huh, three chapter, I should say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's three chapter.
Speaker 3:God, I don't know, I don't keep track of that stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like it. That's interesting, that's a lot. I mean, it's a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Somebody. Land Speed Louise was trying to figure all that out not long ago, Jinx.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:People you got in the club yeah. Yes, she was.
Speaker 2:Well, it was something about runs over 400, I think, oh, runs over 400. Well, you're too busy, just trying to go faster.
Speaker 3:I think Poteet had that one. Yeah yeah, that's so dumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm glad we remembered Marsha at the end there, because that was cool. You know you've done so much, we don't have to do it Well. That's why I wanted to have you investigate some.
Speaker 3:I can't remember it all.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, I know it's a lot, so, okay, we're done. Well, thank you, we're done. Thank you so much, thanks for listening to Land Speed Legends.
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