Craig Breedlove Wants To Break 800 MPH

In future news, Craig Breedlove is dead.

 

Interesting guy that built his first LSR car behind his fathers shop at the age of 22. As he is currently 74, he would not be driving the car, so your headline, while likely to be printed at some point would not be related to the 800 mph LSR attempt.


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Land Speed Record Legend Craig Breedlove Receives 2011 “Spirit Of Competition” Award At Simeone Museum

Craig Breedlove – the first person to exceed 400, 500, and 600 miles per hour on land – was the recipient of the fourth annual Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum “Spirit of Competition” Award at a dinner at the Museum on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011. Breedlove joins drivers Mario Andretti, Janet Guthrie, and John Fitch as an Award recipient.

“Craig Breedlove represents what you can achieve if you have a clear vision and determination,” commented Fred Simeone, executive director of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum. “With only a handful of volunteers and a shoestring budget, he was able to accomplish what many others could not. His achievements captured the country’s imagination and made him a household name.”

The Spirit of Competition Award that Dr. Simeone presented to Breedlove featured a model of the Museum’s Cobra Daytona Coupe, the car Breedlove co-drove to 23 international records in 1965, shortly before breaking the 600 MPH barrier in his Sonic I jet-powered car . The award dinner was sponsored by Wilkie Lexus, Haverford, Pa.

Breedlove used the occasion of receiving the Spirit of Competition Award to announce his intention to return to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2013 – the 50th anniversary of his first record – to attempt to break the 800 mile-per-hour barrier. He said preliminary engineering studies have been done for the new car and two surplus GE jet engines have been located.

“This time, however, I will let someone else do the driving,” commented Breedlove.

Fifty years ago, as John Glenn and the other Mercury astronauts embarked on a billion-dollar program to rocket through the Earth’s atmosphere and reach the Moon, Breedlove and a small group of dedicated supporters were building a car in his father’s garage with an equally ambitious – and dangerous – mission: to travel to the Bonneville Salt Flats and break the world land speed record of 400 miles per hour. Determined to reach speeds never before achieved, Breedlove bolted a surplus U.S. Air Force jet engine on the back of his homemade car, the “Spirit of America,” and built what was essentially a fighter aircraft without wings. Despite operating on a limited budget, Breedlove succeeded in becoming the first person to exceed 400 miles an hour on land and went on to become the first person to break the 500 and 600 mph barriers as well.

His quest for a speed record captured the imagination of the nation and his technological feat became a symbol of national pride during the Cold War. His achievements made him a household name in the 1960s, and the Beach Boys even wrote a song about him. Shortly before exceeding 600 mph in November, 1965, Breedlove set 23 international speed records – including averaging 150 mph for 12 hours - co-driving the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe (CSX2287) that is on display at the Simeone Museum.

 

I just think it's great to still have some in this country with a "can do" attidude instead of the defeatist one so many have in todays world . Hoist a cold beerage of anything up to the quest for 800 MPH !

 

Craig, it's time to hang it up. 800mph is crazy fast, and your reflexes have certainly degraded.

 

Craig was my hero when I was a kid. A lot of people don't remember how big a deal the land speed record used to be.

 

Snippet from 1st post -

 

Did I mention that vision also degrades as you age?

 

^Too long of a response, so I didn't bother to read^

 

And he is also in the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest skidmarks after his chute failed and he skidded for a very long time before the Spirit of America hit the surface of a small lake at the Salt Flats at about 200 mph......

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/world_land_speed_record_34.htm

I loved it when there was an attempt made each year with Breedlove, both the Arfons brothers, Gary Gabelich and others gunning for each other.......

 

800mph is just crazy cool and if anyone can do it he can.

 

Guys don't be so negative. There is no need to be. Let's hope that everything will be ok for both of them, Graig and Andy... ;-)

 

The problem is though, he's talking about going 37 mph faster than Thrust SSC went when it set the Land speed record.

The people who set that record are now aiming to go 1000mph (237 mph faster) in Bloodhound SSC.
(Which frankly sounds like a suicidal folly to Me but then again, they once said something similar about the steam train when it first came out!)

 

You lost me, whats the problem??

 

"Problem" was a bad choice of words in reality on My part but what I was trying to say is that as an attention grabbing announcement, planning on going 800 mph is dwarfed by plans of going 1000 mph as it is "only" 37 mph faster than the current Land Speed Record, whereas 1000 mph is 237 mph faster.

As ambitious plans to push the boundaries of speed go, it's not that ambitious (please don't read into that statement that I am dismissing it as being something easy to do though, far from it).


It's a bit like Ferrari saying that their next Hypercar will do 270 mph when Bugatti have already announced that their next hypercar will do 400 mph.

Or put it another way, it's a bit like meeting an old school friend and saying to him:

"Please, come to My wedding, I'm marrying the prom queen!"

And then he replies:

"Cool!, you must come to My wedding, I'm marrying Miss world!"



(I will add again that to Me, attempting 800 mph seems far more within the realms of the possible, whilst attempting 1000 mph seems to be the folly of lunacy that is surely impossible. There again though, a 100 years ago you would have been called a lunatic if you had said that road cars would one day be capable of 250+ mph)

 

Ah I see now as I was unaware of the 1000mph thingy, sorry.

 

no worries! , I just didn't want you thinking that I was putting down a national speed hero and a legend when it comes to Land Speed records!.

To Me 800 mph sounds plausible.

1000 mph on the other hand makes Me think: "What!??, surely that's just beyond what can be done?, isn't it?"

As it stands,500 mph, 767mph, 800 mph, 1000mph, anyone who even attempts to drive at those speeds: BALLS OF STEEL MAN!, I salute them all!.

 

I wonder if 1K mph is even safe concerning stopping distances and all?? Possibly someone can workout the numbers with the standing record and stopping distance and then what will safely be needed for a 1K mph attempt.

 

Running at Bonneville for a land speed record attempt is called a "Flying Mile" They do not start timing you when the car starts moving but after a runup to speed and then the timing starts. If you meet or break the record you have a specified period of time of one hour to do a backup run in the opposite direction to verify the accuracy of the record......And in stopping from those speeds,,,,,When Breedloves chutes failed he skidded for over five miles before still going in the pond at still over 200 mph. You cover a lot of land in a very short period of time and only have a black line on the salt to guide from since everything is so far away there is nothing to judge distance with.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

And did you know that Bob Norwood out of the Dallas area ran a 308 Ferrari to a new class world speed record?

http://www.bobnorwood.com/Ferrari%203%20Liter%20power%20on%20the%20salt.htm

 

That story ends with My favourite Craig Breedlove quote:


When Bill Neely, the representative from Goodyear Tires finally got to him, Breedlove pulled himself out—he was unhurt—and did his fear-and-disappointment thing: He smiled and said, “and for my next trick, I’m going to light myself on fire.”