Hot Rods and Hailstones – Bonneville ’54

If you haven’t checked your calendar lately, we are rapidly approaching another Speed Week (August 9 – 15). That means you might be making your plans to attend the annual pilgrimage, or at least helping somebody get their car ready to make it! I was just reading the December 1954 issue of Car Craft and the Bonneville coverage titled “Hotrods and Hailstones” when it hit me- It was ‘the Speed Trials’ of exactly 60 years ago next month, (the 6th running of) and definitely worth a look back at.

As the article’s title suggests, the weather that year was awful, with heavy rain showers, hail, and strong winds. Despite the tough conditions, 18 new records were set that year, and shockingly 10 of those entries were set by the new Hemi-powered Chryslers, DeSotos and Dodges. The Flathead era was rapidly coming to an end, and despite Ardun conversions, fuel injection and roots blowers, the Overhead valve V-8s had arrived in full force for ’54. So who was out on the salt that year? Denny Larsen’s Super Streetliner turned 187 mph on regular gasoline, Howard Johansen’s twin-boom streamliner was present (but not able to run), Leroy Neumayer’s 205 mph Ardun-Merc Belly Tank, Doug Rice brought his beautiful chopped & channeled ’39 to turn 126, and Mickey (Mouse) Thompson qualified a Ford Lakester at 195, but blew his clutch on the record run. The notable entries continue with Chrisman-Duncan gathering B and C competition coupe records, Bob Bowen running the gorgeous Shadoff streamliner to 248 mph, and the Williams Brothers’ Red Ram-powered ’29 A Roadster broke a B class record at 150.90. What a year it was, and here’s the records yet to fall this year…