History Video: Mickey Thompson, Fastest Man on Wheels

Here's a little video about Mickey Thompson, one of the great car guys of all time.

Smokey Yunick described him this way: “There ain’t no way I can tell you really what this cat was all about. This was a very, very special human. He had the balls of a dinosaur and the persistence of a hungry tiger. His mode of operation was ’bout like a 95,000-pound, 600hp diesel tractor and trailer coming at you running 80. That man did not know what ‘It can’t be done’ meant.”

M/T worked 20 hours a day and slept the other four with a telephone on his stomach for when ideas woke him up. At the time this film was made, he was working three jobs; Night pressman at the LA Times, running his muffler shop, and managing Lions Dragstrip. And building his four-engine streamliner to run at Bonneville. The film, produced by Goodyear, is about the 1960 LSR attempt -- only 12 minutes, well worth the time.


Video: Mickey Thompson, Fastest Man on Wheels | Mac's Motor City Garage.com

 

Thanks Bill I really enjoyed that!

 

This is great !!!!

 

Cheers for that clip,have allways liked his racing.JW

 

Thanks, one of the all-time great hotrodders.

 

You're welcome. I always find M/T inspiring. Whenever I feel lazy I just look at what he accomplished before lunch.

 

Awesome video


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Thank you for putting this up. His book on the challenger is what got me first interested in the hobby.


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wow awesome video!

 

I remember the book well. Read it over and over as a kid.

 

As folks have probably seen, Danny Thompson is rebuilding M/T's old twin-engine Autolite streamliner for a run at the wheel-driven LSR. The story above contains links to his website and blog.

 

I saw this a few years ago but I couldn't locate that thread... thanks for bringing it up again!

 

this is AWSUM!! Thank you , there are alot of people that dont know this mans acomplishments or even who he was

 

He's one of my heroes. I still don't fathom how he did it all.

 

Alway's a fan of Mickey and Smokey two of my favorite Hot Rod icons.
Thanks for posting.

 

It's interesting that the two of them were great friends.

 

Be sure to check out the links to Danny Thompson's return to Bonneville with M/T's former Autolite streamliner. Great, great story.

 

Thompson and Garlits.... Greatest Hot Rodders in the world!

 

When Garlits cut his car in half and lost part of his foot at Lions in 1970, M/T was the first one to the scene.

 

As previously mentioned, Danny Thompson, M/T's son and an accomplished racer in his own right, is rebuilding the 1969 M/T streamliner for a new run at the wheel-driven land speed record at Bonneville. In the story there are links to his website and blogs where you can follow this historic project. Check it out -- it's pretty cool.