QUOTE: "“That crash was actually a good thing,” he says, looking back, “because it slowed me down. It made me respect those things [race cars]. I didn’t think I was invincible anymore.” I have had 9 lives since birth, and also really did some very dumb things with hot cars as a teen. The event that "slowed me down" or in better terms, made me stop doing these things was me alone at midnight, on a totally empty highway... wanting to see just how fast my new lightweight muscle car could go... no booze, just stupidity....or was it not thinking of what might happen to me? I watched the speedometer needle climb and climb, with no end in sight...it got to 115, and in a split second, air got under the car and it was just like hitting black ice. No steering feel at all. I never lost it, and I was scared beyond shitless. That event changed my reckless high speed driving forever. 48 years later, I'm still here, but some of my fellow rebel classmates never made it to adulthood. .
I can't wait to get this book! Some may find it hokey, but this is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs:
One of my all time favorites, Craig Breedlove was the quintessential embodiment of the American spirit with guts, know how, determination and movie star looks.
@Ryan - Thanks for posting! ... Breedlove is one of my Hot Rodding heroes ... I just ordered a copy via Amazon. I'll be curious to see if the book has any pics or info about Craig's 1961 ride in the "Super Cutlass Kart" Streamliner: images from my 1961 Bonneville National Speed Trials ... PICS !!! thread
Imagine getting thrown out of a car at that speed! Invincible when we're young, that wears off too quickly.
be a Cool name for a book/movie - Craig Breedlove being covered in this book is great - real easy guy to talk to - terrific history
Good book to ask for around Christmas time, still have all my issues of Hot Rod that covered his early 1960's racing. If memory is correct he was a fireman at one time, what did he do to finance all the builds? Bob
Lemme get this straight.......he's going over 100 mph when the car does an endo, he flies out the roof hole and into a field. Gets up and runs back to town with his girl. Then gets stitched up and has a broken neck in 2 places but doesn't know about 'till over 10 years later. ...wow.
I'm looking forward to reading it. I always loved this picture of Breedlove and team getting Spirit of America out of his garage. Not too many 500+ MPH cars have been built in a home garage!
I received my copy of Ultimate Speed a few weeks ago, and it's a great read. Last Wednesday I spent the day with Craig at his new home near Ventura, CA. We had a great time BS'ing and reminisced about the past. In late 1964, I lived in Craig's home for several months, during the time when the Sonic 1 (Craig's first 4-wheel jet car) was under construction. I felt I knew him very well, working for him for almost 5 years, and yet I learned some new things from Sam Hawley's new book...
In the well known "Summer of '65" at the Salt Flats, the back and forth LSR attempts between Breedlove and Art Arfons was the primary "story", with Breedlove finally coming out on top with the two way average of 600.601 MPH. This car, built by Art's brother Walt, and driven by Bobby Tatroe, didn't get that much attention since it was considered by the media to be a failure. The story of this car, the "Wingfoot Express" is documented in both of Sam Hawley's books about the LSR activity of that year, in "Speed Duel" and also his new book, "Ultimate Speed". There was a lot of contention in our camp over this car, it made it appear that Goodyear didn't have that much faith in Breedlove, and decided to back a second car. There were those that had a laugh at this car, especially the design of the rear wheel pants (fenders) and the power plant(s). When Walt showed up with this car, it had 15 JATO bottles in the back (1,000 lbs of boost per bottle). The additional 10 bottles (5 on each side) were eventually installed to boost the thrust to 25,000 lbs. of boost. I watched the first few runs that Bobby made in the car with the original design with interest. But after they installed the other bottles facing out at an angle, I had serious safety reservations and although I did watch the attempt with the 25, I gave the car a lot of room between me and it. My concern was that if one or more of the bottles on one side did not "ignite", the car would not go straight with the uneven thrust (more on one side than the other), and no way to shut off the power on the other 24 bottles. As it turned out, they only made a single attempt at running with the 25 bottles, as several bottles did not fire correctly (some in the rear and some on the sides) and the car eventually partially melted from the tremendous heat generated by the JATO bottles. It was not a pretty sight to see. Breedlove's J-79 engine produced abut 15,000 lbs. This is what the car looked like before the added bottles were installed. I never laughed at this car, I thought it was a very interesting design. It was the very first "3-wheel LSR car" equipped with 4-wheels, as far as I could tell, and that idea was copied by several other LSR projects over the years since 1965, including Breedlove's next jet car . I admit that the goofy looking fenders in the back would cause plenty of drag, but that drag being in the far rear of the car did keep it going straight (like the aero drag on the feathers at the back of a dart keep the dart going straight). I think that if this car had been built around the J-79 jet engine, the same type of engine that both Breedlove and Art Arfons used, it might well have been a serious contender. As it was, it had more thrust than either the "Spirit of America" or the "Green Monster" had. The problem was that the thrust of the jet cars could last all through the 5-miles of run-up we were using plus the timed mile, whereas the thrust of the JATO bottles would last for less than a 1/4 mile. So, in the end the "Wingfoot Express" failed, but I never felt that the car was a bad idea as a concept...
As long as I've posted something about Walt Arfons, I should post something about Art Arfons. Walt was not the easiest guy to be around, he was more brusk, not quite as nice to hang with as compared to brother Art. Art was great (and a little younger than Walt I think). I guess most know that Art and Craig were buddies. They both realized that they needed each other since they were both sponsored by competing tire companies. When one of them set the LSR, the other would get corporate money to go out and beat the "competitors" record. This went on that way for about three years. Craig and Art could talk to each other as friends, probably because it would have been hard for either of them to find anyone else to talk to that had driven faster than 500 MPH. At the time, they were the only two humans on earth that could say that. I met Art long before I met Craig. I met Art at the drag strip, him and one of his Allison engine drag cars. Over the years I ran into him several times, he always seemed to have some kind of dragster powered by an aircraft engine. As a young pup, I had summer jobs working on Allison and RR powered Unlimited Hydroplanes up at Lake Tahoe, so we had something in common. Drag racing paid the bills for Art, and at some point he built a LSR car using one of his Allison engines, and took it up to Utah. This had to be in the very early 1960's. About the same time as the early LSR jet cars came into being, they came into being on the drag strips too. Here is Art and an early jet dragster, the "Cyclops" on the salt. Once bitten by the bug, it never stops. The building of the Green Monster" LSR car. This car, powered by a General Electric J-79 had much more power than Breedlove's 3-wheel car, which was powered by a J-47 engine. This car broke the LSR several times, but there was something wrong with either the car or the engine. Over time, the car torqued over to the right once the speeds got pretty high, causing the right rear tire to blow up. Blowing a tire when you are going 500+ is not just an inconvenience. The only avenue for Art at the time was to double up on the rear tires. Unfortunately, the exploding tire problem continued, and dual tires exploding on the right rear was more devastating than having only one blow out. Nobody survives cart wheeling down the Salt Flats at over 500 MPH, nobody but Art of course. Although Art did not exactly "walk away without a scratch", he did live long enough to pass away of old age (81 years of age) in 2007...
Two interesting and innovative Hot Rodders, and the sad reality was that they could not get along with each other. They basically lived next door to each other, built their respective cars across the street from each other, and refused to ever talk to each other...
The Jalopy Journal
