Tag Archives: speed trials

This Sunday I shall be at El Mirage dry lakes for the SCTA Racing.

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
13 Jul

Well, this weekend seems to be coming up fast and on Sunday I shall be heading off to El Mirage to check out what is running on the dry lakes there under the sanctioning body of the S.C.T.A.

 

 

Sponsors of the Worlds  FASTEST  Speed Trials

Since 1948 Sanctioned races have been held at this Lake and 61 years later they still run Time trials for world records, for what is a pre-cursor to Bonneville Speed week, this event is a 2 hour drove for me and something I look forward to seeing every time.
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It hot, its dirty and its dusty, but this is exactly how it was back in 1948- Nothing had changed on the lake bed and thats what gives me some of that Nostalgia Tingle when I reflect on who raced out here over the years in Hot Rods and Motorcycles.

Saturday is registration, so I shall be driving up at about 5am as its a 2 hour jaunt from me and I shall take my White Traansit 250 with my Royal Enfield in the back, an Easy Up, generator and a cool box full of fluids, I shall also have a radio to tune into 88.7 so I can hear the control tower informing me who is up on the line and ready to make their pass and attempt to break a record, or- at least give it a real go.

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Hope to see some of you out here, next year I hope to drive up for the weekend in My Model A Roadster as It has a 1940’s look with a 39 Motor and box on 35 rims etc I cant wait to drive that on this infamous Lake bed.
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if you are into Old Hot Rods or Classic, Motorcycles or unique machines that haul their arse as hard as they can in a straight line, then this is the place for you, the sound of a motor flat out is a unique sound, the dust plume or rooster tail as it is mid track is a great visual, you hear the motor and you listen for the commentator to tell you their name and speed, I love it.
Its like its back in 1948 and I am reliving what the “Original Hot Rodders ” did back then just after WW2.
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Come by and say hello as it will be great to meet you, I am a huge fan of dry lakes racing and get a kick out of sitting there watching.
 You can text or call me on 714-598-8392 if you are out there and I will tell you where I am, most probably halfway up the track, Big white Ford Transit 250 and a Red and dusty Royal Enfield.

21 liters of snarling Four cylinder power and that was back in 1919

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
28 Jul

 

 

Just imaging listening to twenty one and a half liters of motor firing up back in 1909, people must of thought that God had come down in his chariot!
What amazes me as even back then, this motor could get over 140MPH and back then, you were lucky to get a Plane to hit 70 MPH!

 

 
This WAS the FASTEST mode of transport anywhere in the world!!!!!

 
So I thought I would blog about it being its Monday and get your week off to a thumping start.
Four 5.3L lungs, worth 50 hp each… Look how long it takes to get the monster to fire up! That’s about 10 Horsepower per liter. Thats about 200 Horsepower, and its only today that they have JUST reached that achievement. Just an amazing piece of running engineering. Thirteen Hundred Cubic inches was just unheard of back then. it raced all over the world, and of course at the infamous BROOKLANDS and then across to the united states,Daytona had the pleasure of seeing this beast in action, as well as BONNEVELLE and many shows and fairgrounds that were on at that time of year.

 

 

 
Enjoy!

 

 

Thundering History: Listen To The Sound That The First Bonneville Racers Heard in 1914 – The Fury Of The Blitzen Benz Four Cylinder

 

 

 

 

This is an important year at Bonneville as they all are, but this one has a little something more in the tank and that’s history. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats and BangShift has a pretty epic ace up our sleeve to help celebrate and educate you about that first Bonneville gathering a century ago. The details will emerge tomorrow, but safe it to say that this is the most ambitious series of stories we have ever run and they’re written by one of the most well known and dogged land speed historians in the world. But we’re off the plot here.

 

The merits of the “records” set at the first Bonneville meet are dubious at best and we’ll get to those in the story we just teased you with but the equipment, that’s a well known and established fact. The steed that Teddy Tezlaff drove at Bonneville was one of the ultra rare, and incredibly powerful (for its time) Blitzen Benz cars built in Germany and shipped over to the USA. Powered by a 1,312ci four cylinder and making a robust 200hp, these things had set records at Ormand Beach and other places where long stretches were available for the car to really stretch out. Amazingly, a few of them survive today and this video shows that 1,312ci four banger running on a test stand outside of an engine builder’s place in Pennsylvania after being refurbished. Now, the normal starting procedure on this thing is MINUTES long. We’re talking about five or so. This video picks up right when the thing is starting.

 

 

 

 

The sound you are about to hear is the exact same one that assaulted the ears of the small group assembled at Bonneville (then known as the Salt beds of Salduro) in 1914. It is beautifully ragged now but can you imagine what people thought of it in 1914?! Hit the link below for some auditory learning about land speed history and stay tuned for tomorrow as we roll out exactly what the “big story” is that we’ve got in the pipe!

 

 

 

 

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A 1,312CI FOUR BANGER THUNDER THE GROUND AS IT DID 100 YEARS AGO –

So good to be able to see stuff working and experience at least the noise of that engine today, it must of had people running scared when they first fired it up.