Speed Week 2o17 is only a short while off now, so we’re getting into salt mode around here. One of the most fascinating things I have ever seen is watching a car spin at Bonneville. I had never seen anything like it before my first visit to the salt on on my second visit it was literally spin city due to the conditions that the year presented. In this video that was taken in 2010 we get to see the awesome Thundersalt Ford Thunderbolt lose its grip on the Earth and spin at 200 mph or more. By watching the reaction of driver Celia Dean, you know that she is a salt veteran because as soon as it becomes an unrecoverable situation the parachute is deployed and we get to see just how well that system works to keep the car pointing in the right direction.
But wait, we said it spun. How did the parachute help at all? Basically you wills the ‘chute catch air as the car is plowing backwards and pull the thing into a straight line again. Also, whenever that thing is blossomed out, speed is dropping rapidly and the danger of the machine taking flight is being exponentially reduced by the second.
Thundersalt is an awesome car with a 557ci Ford big block that makes something like 900hp. It was one of the first cars I ever saw at Bonneville and the men and women with it were super cool. Distance and speed are two things that are weird to figure out on the salt. You get a sense of how fast this car is going once it veers off of its trajectory down course and starts to head in directions that it shouldn’t.
Here’s to hoping for Bonneville conditions that favor huge speeds and big records in 2017!
It looks take from a distance, but I know my pants would be full of doo doo had I been in the driver’s seat.
Sorry but hardtops ARE NOT THUNDERBOLTS and never will be.