Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah is the dried bed of an ancient lake. Its climate is almost unbearable. In winter, heavy rains flood the flats, creating deep ponds. In summer, the sun beats down mercilessly, drying up much of the water and leaving a blinding white stretch of salt. The twelve-mile stretch of hard salt has only one use: it is the “course” used for attempts to break the world land speed record.
In a way, this is not really an automobile race, since cars do not compete against one another. They race against the clock. A car gets off on a flying start, and then it speeds through a measured mile in one direction. Both times are averaged out, and the result is recorded by officials of the United States Auto Club.
Three monster cars came to Bonneville in 1964 to make a run at the world’s record. Walt Arfons owned the “Wingfoot Express” which was 24 feet long, weighed 4,800 pounds, and was sponsored by Goodyear. His brother, Art Arfons, had a 21-foot racer that weighed 6,000 pounds and was sponsored by Firestone. The car was named “Green Monster.” Craig Breedlove was the third man. His car, “Spirit of America,” was sponsored by Goodyear and Shell. It was 34 feet long and weighed 8,000 pounds.
The only one of the three who would not drive over the course was Walt Arfons. He had been ill, and his partner, Tom Green, was at the wheel.
Tom Green made his run on October 2, 1964. He zoomed over the salt flats at 406 miles per hour one way, and 420 miles per hour coming back, for an average of 413 miles per hour. It was a new record.
The record lasted exactly three days. Art Arfons streaked 396 mph, and then 479 mph, for an average of 434 mph. As he finished the run a tire blew, and the car’s rear end was damaged. But it came to a stop safely.
Art Arfons’ record did not hold up either. Eight days later, Craig Breedlove hurtled over the course at an average speed of 468.719 mph. In eleven days three new records had been set. But there was still more to come. Tom Green had gone as fast as his car would go. But Breedlove and Art Arfons knew their cars could go still faster.
Breedlove gave it another try, and for the fourth consecutive time another record was set, this time 525 mph. Then the car began to swerve. Breedlove pressed the parachute button, and the twin chutes popped out behind the car, but they were ripped loose. He went out of control at 500 miles per hour, heading straight for a telephone pole. Breedlove expected the car to flip over, but miraculously it didn’t. His axle cut through the pole like a hot knife through butter, and then the car went up over a hill and nose down into a brine pond. Breedlove freed himself from the car and swam to shore. Jittery, thankful to escape with his life, Breedlove joked, “For my next act I will set myself on fire.”
A couple of weeks later it was Art Arfons’ turn to break the record. He knew that Breedlove’s car could not run again until it was repaired. Arfons gunned his “Green Monster” to a two-way average of 536.71 and the record was his again.
The five heats had produced five straight new records! Now the rainy season came and there was no more racing at Bonneville that year.
In 1965 Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove were at it again. On November 2, Beedlove, with a repaired and improved car, fairly flew over the course of 555.127 mph, and he had the record again.
Art Arfons was not to be denied. He wanted that record and he got it, at an average speed of 576.553. As he was trying to slow down the car swerved and hit a surveyor’s post in the ground that somebody had forgotten to remove. The front end of the “Green Monster” was smashed and the tire flew off. The car veered and swerved and careened as smoke and fumes enveloped it. Somehow Arfons brought the car to a stop and jumped out. The “Green Monster” was a mess, but Art Arfons had his record. It was the seventh consecutive time the world land speed record had been broken.
Now only Breedlove was left. Art Arfons would not be able to challenge any more, at least not that year. On November 15, Breedlove bulleted his car 593.178 mph one way, and then, like a guided missile, he tore over the course at 608.201 mph coming back. His average was 600.601. Craig Breedlove became he first man ever to drive a car through the 600-mph barrier!
And between them, Breedlove, Arfons and Tom Green had broken the record eight times in eight consecutive starts!
For Craig Breedlove, there was only one more world to conquer. He asked his wife if she would drive his car and try to set a new women’s speed record, which was then 270 miles per hour. Although she had never driven a car in competition, Mrs. Breedlove agreed. It wasn’t hard, as she found out. She drove her husband’s car an average of 307 mph to set a new record.
The Breedloves were the fastest-drivin couple in the world.
From Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2013/06/21/walt-arfons-speed-pioneer-dies-at-the-age-of-96/
https://jalopnik.com/art-arfons-three-time-land-speed-record-holder-dead-a-329606
The current land speed record was set in 1997 by British racer Andy Green. His speed was recorded at 763.035–which was the first, and only, land based vehicle to break the speed of sound.
what was the telephone pole doing there?
I can only assume that it was well beyond where anyone would expect a 3-ton machine traveling at 600 mph to wind up. They were wrong.
Breedlove tried to be the first at 7000mph, the first to beat the supersonic land speed record, and the first at 800mph. All in the 90s: