With all the hot and heavy action ready to get fired up on the salt in a couple months, we got to mentally bench racing with ourselves and started dreaming about the LSR rig we would build. There’s the side of us that would want to build something very nostalgic using a drivetrain that was initially blessed with small amounts of power, braced up with modern technology, and then there’s the other side of us that gets the sweats when we think of the 300mph roadster running a nitro burning blown Hemi. The both have their merits, mainly the sheer terror of the nitro car and the sheer guts of the little one.
Obviously the beautiful thing about land speed racing is that the options are virtually wide open, depensing on the restrictions and rules of the particular class you are looking to run. As out photos show, the sky is the limit with respect to mechanical creativity. While there are certainly easier ways to make horsepower than a highly worked flathead, few are cooler.
So which way would you go? A belly tank with an LS-engine? A tiny car with a wee-displacement engine hunting a record in the 100mph range? A full tilt, Captain Insano blown, injected, nitro-burning scream machine wrapped in a streamliner body? Spill the beans!
I have been a spectator and a participant at Bonneville Speedweek and I would trade in my Mustang for a lakester! An open wheel, rear engine, 8500 rpm N/A small block running 250 mph would be a bucket list kinda ride!
Belly tanker with a Suzuki GSXR1300
I wouldn’t mind getting an extra W-body Buick Regal and see how it does in Production Supercharged.
I’d like to do something similar with a 2000ish Eldorado.
88-98 Chevy truck. Go as low buck as possible. Junkyard LS with used or hand me down parts. I think just making the event and passing tech would be the goal to start, worry about the records later.
Or. The 78 Nova I have set aside for ECTA LSR. Again with a low buck LS.
Belly Tank powered by a Arctic Cat Thundercat engine
What to build is crucial to land speed success. One needs to study the current records and find a spot that isn’t so far out of reach that you can’t even get close. Know that the more common the combo, the more competent racers you’ll be up against. That is why you find so much weirdness at B’ville. If you think you’ve got the chops to compete on the world stage with a single four barrel SBC in a common chassis, the records are all pretty lofty.
If you are paying the expense of Bonneville, you’d better make sure you either set a record, or come back with one Hell of a time slip.
I always liked the SunDowner C3 Corvette, something like that, start sbc and work my way up.
I don’t need a record. I do need a ’53 Studebaker. So I’ll go with that.
Maybe with a first gen Hemi while we’re dreaming.
A Bristol 401 powered by a twin turbo bored out original Bristol motor running a rare six port head and EFI!
Mid to late 60’s imperial or 300 with a worked over 400 B block..