For more than a century the Bonneville Salt Flats has drawn motoring enthusiasts to its vast open plains for its annual Speed Week, and for more than half a century one father-son duo has eyed a history-making run at the event. That dream has now come to fruition, with Danny Thompson setting a new land speed record in his dad's refurbished streamliner.
Mickey Thompson first set his sights on the land speed record at Bonneville in the '60s, going close with his Challenger 1 hot rod in 1960 but then breaking down on the return run. Another attempt in 1968 with the Challenger 2 was then brought undone by a rainstorm that turned the salt flats into a lake.
Mickey retired from racing but kept the dream alive, partnering with son Danny to launch another attempt, though this collaboration came to a tragic end when Mickey and his wife were murdered in 1988. Now, on the 50th anniversary of the Challenger 2's construction, Danny has completed the job, riding the very same vehicle to glory.
Well, mostly the same vehicle. After being left untouched for more than 40 years, Danny pulled the Challenger 2 out of storage and began the restoration process. This meant leaving the exterior mostly as it was, but making some modern upgrades to bring the car up to speed with today's standards.
It uses the same chassis, aerodynamics and exterior madeup of 68 hand-formed aluminum panels as the 1968 version. The Ford 427 engines, however, have been replaced by two dry block nitro-fueled Hemi V8 engines that pump out 2,500 hp (1,800 kW) apiece, more than double the output of the original.
With a total curb weight of 5,200 lb (2,360 kg), the Challenger 2 burns through around 50 gallons (190 L) of its nitro/methanol fuel on each 5-mile (8-km) run, which sees it wind up 500 lb (227 kg) lighter than when it began. Another change is the addition of carbon ceramic disk brakes and dual parachutes with four-foot blossoms, which replace the outgoing braking mechanism: deploying parachutes by first blasting away a section of the rear wing with compressed air.
Now all that hard work has paid off. At Speed Week 2018, Thompson kicked things off with a 446.605-mph (718.7-km/h) run on Saturday, followed by a 450.909-mph (725.6-km/h) run on Sunday's return. The two-way average of 448.757 mph (722 km/h) outstrips the 439-mph (706-km/h) record set at Bonneville in 2012, and makes the Challenger 2 the world's fastest piston powered car.
You can ride along with Thompson's record-setting run in the video below.
Source: Thompson SLR
