The 1933 Napier Railton special, only one made, 600 HP, set 47 world speed records

Thanks Mike!

On the lake in '48... awesome color photos of early El Mirage racers

These photos are all from http://www.scta-bni.org/EM_1948_photos.htm where about half of them have captions I'm not interested in, since I won't know the people, and I heard about that page from Dan at http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/02/06/four-links-bonus-edition-vans-trucks-roadsters-retromobile/

For 1947 color photos of lakes bed racing http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/chris-at-speed-seekers-foudn-more-1947.html

Von Dutch on the Mothersills Special of Carl Borgh, a 1948 Class A record holder at B-ville

The Roadster was the “Cover Car” for the Hot Rod Magazine in March 1949 and the “Hot Rod of the Month” with a feature article. The above photos are from the 1956 article about it's 2nd life when owned and raced by Carl Bough.

Spurgin & Giovanine once again raised their own record when they raced the two-way runs in an average speed of 123.655 mph, after having qualified at 125.52 earlier in the day.

This gave them a perfect score in S.C.T.A. class competition in placing first and setting a new record in their class at every scheduled meet of the season.

This most incredible feat brought them a total of 1800 points and won the Spurgin- Giovanine Roadster the title of Seasons Champion for 1948.

To win an event in 1948, one had to qualify at a world record speed, and run an A and B run at the world record speeds. The car was the Cover Car and the Hot Rod of the Month with a feature story in the March 1949 Hot Rod Magazine.

Featured as a Cover Car for the SCTA -First Annual Hot Rod Exposition in Los Angeles and was a feature car at the 1949 Second Annual Hot Rod Exposition in Los Angeles as the 1948 SCTA overall Champion. http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/heroes/landspeedracing/2009/09newsletter93/Spurgin_Information.pdf

" I would like any information and comments from anyone regarding what they remember of the Spurgin-Giovanine Roadster as it had quite a long run and it was one of the stars of the Albata Club. If there are any photos or historical information...it would be appreciated. I am going to have Tom Fritz do a painting as he is the ultimate master of the low orange yellow sun and swirling dust from the clay pan. Thanks and I will keep you updated. Ernie Nagamatsu " http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/heroes/landspeedracing/2009/09newsletter93/

The 103 yr old record for fastest steam powered car is soon to be broken

In 1906 Fred Marriot set the 127.66 mph record, and nothing in 103 years was intiative to make someone determined to break it.

I was recently reading something Jay Leno wrote about it, and he's a great writer I recommend... but I forgot to post a link to his column.

Read about the new contender here: http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/03/31/steam-power/#more-15803

Speed Week 2008 photography

http://www.diyautotune.com/racing/bonneville_speedweek2008.htm

http://customsickles.blogspot.com/2008/04/c4-volksrod-bonneville.html

Speedweek 2006 photo gallery... and one cool record holding AA/BGALT Stude

Record Holder as of SpeedWeek 2008 with a 240.984mph average... I love the air filter locations!

The flame job is sweet http://www.diyautotune.com/racing/bonnevile_speedweek2006.htm

via: http://stipistop.com/

World's Fastest Indian, 205.67 mph. Damn good movie

Cut right to the 17 second mark, (skip the ratings nonsense)



"Offerings to the god of speed" I dig that.

Think you have made concessions to speed before? Burt was able to sit 3/8" lower because of these rocker arm divots.
http://hooptyrides.blogspot.com/2006/08/gale-gearhead-banks-accidently.html

Burt set the under-1000cc world record, 183.586 mph (295.453 km/h), at Bonneville, 26 August 1967, on his 1920 Indian Scout. This record still stands today.
Look over http://www.indianmotorbikes.com/features/munro/munro.htm for more tidbits like these;
He used an old spoke for a micrometer
He made two new con rods from DC6 B propeller
He cast parts in old tins and pistons in holes in the sand at the local beach! He built his own four-cam design to replace the standard two-cam system and converted to overhead valves.
He made his own cylinder barrels, flywheels, pistons, cams and followers and lubrication system.
He effectively hand-carved his con-rods from a Caterpillar tractor axle, and hardened and tempered them to 143 tons tensile strength.
He built a seventeen plate, thousand pound pressure clutch and used a triple chain drive.
Burt still held the Australian sidecar record, as-late as 1977.