Charlie Nearburg and the rest of the Spirit of Rett landspeed racing team are on cloud nine this morning as they have broken a 45 year old 409 mph record set by the Summers brothers back in 1965. At 414 miles per hour, their two way average on the Bonneville Salt Flats was over 1% higher than the previous record which makes them the fastest naturally aspirated single engine wheel driven car on the planet. Major kudos goes to the crew, the family, and all involved. We spoke to Charlie within minutes of the record breaking run and he said that words could not describe how happy the team was.

“We got here and didn’t realize that an FIA record required you to beat it by 1%. After finding that out we changed gears, tuneup, and a bunch of stuff just hoping we could make it go that fast.” With a 416.9 mile per hour mile, we’d say they hit it. Their return run was “only” 411 miles per hour, but Charlie said he knew it could do it. “I want to thank Lee Ryan, my crew chief, and all the guys that work on the car. We couldn’t have done it without Reher Morrison, Brad Morgan, and Bruce Allen. And the Redline Oil was hot on the return run, but it didn’t seem to car and we got the record.” 

The Spirit of Rett is named after Charlie’s son Rett Nearburg who died in 2005 after battling cancer. The entire effort is in his memory, and you can check out a site in his honor, that includes plenty of cool cars Rett and the team are involved in, by clicking here on www.rett.org.

The Spirit of Rhett features a 523 cubic inch Reher Morrison built Big Block that clearly makes big boy power. Charlie couldn’t say enough about RMs willingness to help them and said that the engine was at their shop last week getting a few more tweaks to go after the record. 

Congrats to all from BangShift.com. We know how hard it is to go fast on the salt, and this is a milestone nobody has been able to hit for decades. Word is that Team Nish is also eyeing the record and wants to take it from the Spirit of Rett today. We’ll keep you posted.

Major thanks to Mike Cook Sr. and Mike Cook Jr. for sending us photos and setting up a phone interview with Charlie. they are true BangShifters. 

To check out Reher Morrison Racing engines, click here.

To check out Redline Oil, click here.