The Great White Dyno

USAutomotive has been going to the Bonneville Salt Flats since the company was founded in 1997. But what is Bonneville and why is it known as “The Great White Dyno?”

 

The first races and records on the flats

The Utah State Historical Society says the first recorded race on the giant salt lake due west of Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah, was on August 14, 1914. Travel promoter Bill Rishel, who had tested the lakebed in 1907 in a Pierce-Arrow, convinced promoter Ernie Moross to bring eight race cars to SLC headlined by ‘Terrible Ted’ Tetzlaff driving the “Blitzen Benz.” The railroad agreed to haul the cars to Wendover (the nearest town to the salt flats) if the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce could sell 100 train tickets. The event was successful; 150 people turned out and although Tetzlaff apparently went 141.73mph, no records were recognized. Rumors of Moross paying off the timekeeper did not help.

The next big proponent of racing on the salt was David Abbott ‘Ab’ Jenkins. In 1931, Ab was approached by Pierce-Arrow who, at the height of the Great Depression, was struggling to sell its new V-12. In 1933, Ab took the Pierce-Arrow to a cruising speed of 117.77mph on a 10-mile circular course. By the time he had finished, Ab had set 66 American Automobile Association (AAA) records and 14 FIM records.

Ab’s success on the salt was noticed in England where three would-be record holders: Sir Malcom Campbell, John Cobb, and George Eyston all looked west. Having set the record on March 7, 1935, at Daytona with a speed of 276.818mph, Campbell arrived at Bonneville on September 3 and became the first man to exceed 300 mph with a record of 301.129. It was the first official land speed record set at Bonneville.

Two years later, on November 19, 1937, George Eyston arrived with his ‘Thunderbolt.” Powered by two supercharged 36.7L Rolls Royce aero engines—twice as many as Campbell—the ‘Bolt’ bumped the record to 311.49mph. Less than a year went by before August 27, 1938, when Eyston returned and pushed the record to a staggering 345.49mph.

There ensued a battle because on September 15 Cobb came back and became the first man to go 350 mph with a record of 350.2mph. Cobb’s glory was short lived because the next day Eyston upped it to 357.5mph. Not to be outdone, Cobb returned on August 23, 1939, and went 369.74. However, in less than two weeks Europe would be at War. Cobb’s record would stand until he returned on September 16, 1947, when he pushed his own record to a staggering 394.196mph. In just a dozen years the land speed record had risen by almost 100 mph and the hard packed, seemingly endless Bonneville Salt Flats became the place to do it.

An optimal military range

In 1940, the U.S. Army decided the area around Wendover provided ideal bombing ranges and at almost 2 million acres it would become the Army Air Force’s largest gunnery range and work began on Wendover Air Force base on September 20, 1940. In April 1942, Wendover Air Force Base became the primary training site for B-17 and B-24 crews and in 1943 preparation began for the use of B-29s and atomic bombs. It was there that crews of the ‘Enola Gay’ practiced dropping both ‘Fat Boy’ and ‘Little Man’ bombs. The salt also became a gunnery field where you can still pick up the odd 303 shell—if you’re lucky.

 

The rise of hot rodding

After the war, hot rodding boomed in the U.S., and Bonneville was seen as the Mecca for speed—The Great White Dyno—but it took until August 1949 before hot rodders got access to the salt. Conducted by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), the Bonneville Nationals was open to all types of competition cars. Despite the hype, there were just 47 pre-entries listed in the program and 44 of them were from California.

Fastest speed of the meet was set by journalist Dean Batchelor driving Alex Xydias’ So-Cal Streamliner that went 193.54 with a return run of 185.95 for a two-way average record of 189.745 mph—it was the fastest any hot rod had gone anywhere.

The Bonneville Speed Trials were off and running and the following year pre-entries totaled 90 and the fastest record was set, once again, by the Xydias & Batchelor streamliner with a speed of 208.927.

Starting in 1952, the MG Car Company decided to build brand awareness in the lucrative U.S. market by attempting to break records using various four-cylinder “Sprite” engines. First out was “Goldie” Gardner and subsequent drivers included Sir Stirling Moss, Phil Hill and Ken Miles, among others, however, it would be Moss who set the bar in EX-181 at 245.91mph in 1957. Not well publicized, because he was American, driver Phil Hill returned in 1959 and went 254.762mph (410.23kpm).

A British connection

Brits have suffered “salt fever” since Campbell first took the land speed record and in 1997, the year he founded USAuto, Stewart Bassett attended with his new best friend American racer Ron Hope . Ron began racing at Bonneville in 1961 and soon drove into the record books setting a land speed record in 1964 with partner Jerry Tucker in a Chrysler-powered, ’32 Ford Roadster at 165 mph.

During his time working at Chrysler, Ron had acquired a FWD ’84 Dodge Shelby Charger and an 4WD ’85 Dodge Daytona that became his wife’s Dianne’s car as well as a guest car in which friends such as Goodwood’s Earl of March and Stewart could experience flat out fastness. The Charger, on the other hand, was a bit more special as it was the only vehicle to set a record at every SCTA El Mirage meet of the 1984 and ’85 seasons—11 in total— and in ’85 earned the SCTA season points championship for Ron’s brother Steve Hope and his partner Scott Harvey. It’s the little car that could.

With the addition of a turbocharger late in the ’85 season, terminal speed jumped more than 20mph to put them in the 160mph bracket. Speeds have steadily increased but Bonneville is a tough place to race where adverse weather can return the great salt lake to, well, a lake. Weather notwithstanding the USAutomotive Dodge has achieved a best speed of 199.732mph with Jere Teepen driving.

 

USAuto and the salt flats

Stewart is not the only person representing USAuto on the salt though. In 2009, Lynn Davies was easily persuaded to don leathers and climb aboard a 1800cc Honda powered trike. Lynn achieved a terminal speed of 87.748mph.

The USAuto logo is not confined to the ’84 Charger, it is also affixed to the Hope’s other three land speed cars including Ron’s record setting ’29 roadster, Dianne’s Daytona and Brian Hope’s record setting rear-engine roadster.

Another car carrying the USAuto banner is Geoff Stilwell’s 277mph record setting nitro-burning roadster. “I got my start with Ron Hope and the Lil’ Dodge’s,” said owner/driver Geoff. “He turned me on to land speed racing and I have been hooked ever since.”

A starring role

Besides the racing events the lake bed is regularly used for filming commercials and movies. The most famous, from a gear head’s perspective, is the biopic The World’s Fastest Indian starring Anthony Hopkins playing New Zealand Indian motorcycle land speed racer Burt Munro.

 

Save The Salt!

Not all is rosy on the lake bed though. There is a potash mining operation that grew out of control and almost destroyed the lake bed. According to the SaveTheSalt.org web site: the two activities (racing and mining) existed in harmony until the 1960s, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began issuing leases allowing salt to be transferred south through miles of ditches north of the highway without scientific proof that there would be no damage to Bonneville. Potash is extracted from the salt through solar evaporation, and the salt is a waste product of the process.

Until 1997, the salt transfer was a one-way street. the BLM allowed an estimated 50 to 75 million tons of salt to be removed from Bonneville and not returned. In fact, much of the salt is currently located in a huge mine evaporative processing pond that sits on land controlled by the BLM. The racing community and mine owner created a salt brine return program in the 1990s that was implemented with BLM approval. When pumped at average levels of 1.2 million tons/year, the program stabilized Bonneville’s crust and demonstrated small increases. However, in recent years, the pumping has been severely limited.

The racing community, represented by the Save the Salt Coalition and the Utah alliance has issued a comprehensive plan for restoring Bonneville but like anything to do with government bureaucracy, implementation is a slow process. Bonneville is listed on the National Register of Historic places and deemed an area of Critical Environmental Concern. Yet, the BLM has allowed its health to reach critical condition despite these designations.