This feat was accomplished on October 23, 1970, fifty years ago last month. Three states--Utah, Wisconsin and Illinois--celebrated the Half Centennial by declaring it Blue Flame Day.
The rocket car was designed, in part, by students and professors at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Enthusiasts at Reaction Dynamics in Milwaukee fabricated it to get it ready for racing by the Blue Flame Team in Utah.
The beast, weighing more than 6500 pounds, was 37 feet long with the aluminum cylinder nearly eight feet high and wide. For power, the rocket engine produced 58,000 horsepower with 22,000 lbs. of thrust by burning a combination of hydrogen peroxide and liquefied natural gas pressurized by helium. They say that this remains the fastest American hot rod and fastest vehicle ever driven at Bonneville.
The first land speed records were measured and set in France from late 1898 to Spring of 1899. All six of these were achieved with electric vehicles. In 1902 a steam-powered car shattered the previous record by achieving 75 miles per hour.
The first world speed record set in the United States was in 1904 in a Ford 999 Racer, driver by none other than Mr. Henry Ford himself. The internal combustion engine propelled the vehicle to more than 84 miles per hour. But by the end of that year cars driven by a Belgian and an Frenchman were flying faster than 100 mph.
In the 1920s and early 30's, while Babe Ruth was setting home run records, U.S. competitors were setting records at Daytona. It wasn't till 1935 that the Bonneville Salt Flats became the premiere place to showcase land speed capabilities, and in that year it was a Brit who did it. Malcolm Campbell became the first to blast through the 300 mph threshold. It must have been breathtaking at the time.
I used to subscribe to Sports Illustrated in the 1960s and remember reading about Craig Breedlove's efforts in the turbojet-powered Spirit of America. On one of those occasions his vehicle lost control and spun round and round in what must have been a terrifying experience for Breedlove. At the speed he was flying it took 6 miles to come to a complete stop. His best effort was 594 mph in 1965. Five years later the Blue Flame cracked the 600 mph barrier.
Congratulations to the Blue Flame team and their colleagues that helped design, construct and race this timeless vehicle.
As soon as I write these words, I find that additional records surpassing Gary Gabelich's have been produced, not at Bonneville but at Black Rock Desert, Andy Green's ThrustSSC being first to break the speed of sound, a jaw-dropping 760 mph.
For what it's worth here is the SEMA News account about the Blue Flame Day celebrated in three states. These are the proclamations honoring this event, from Wisconsin, Illinois and Utah.
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In his initial competition at age sixteen, Gabelich won first place in the stock eliminator drag racing class at Santa Ana, California. In 1959, when he was only seventeen, Gabelich won world’s first side-by-side jet dragster race, topping 250 mph.
ReplyDeleteOther accomplishments included his winning the first United Drag Racing Association in 1963 and being first man to break into drag racing’s seven second bracket, driving a Double A Fuel dragster at 7.05 seconds, in 1967.
In 1969, he drove the Beach City Chevrolet Corvette funny car to speeds over 200 mph, a first for a Chevrolet funny car. Gabelich also took second place in Mickey Thompson’s off-road race at Riverside, California in 1975; first place in the Toyota Charity Slalom at the Rose Bowl in 1979 and second place in the Toyota Pro Challenge Race at the Michigan International Speedway in July, 1980.
Twice narrowly escaping death in dragster and boat accidents, Gabelich ironically died in an automobile accident in Long Beach, California in January, 1984.
In 1985 the Long Beach City Council named a park in his memory, Gabelich Park. In 1975 at Turlock Lake in California, the drag boat piloted by Gary Gabelich disintegrated at 180 mph.
Although he was best known for his land speed exploits, Gabelich won both the American Power Boat Association Blown Fuel and Gas National Drag Boat championship. He was also the first person to win them both in the same year. In 1969 Gabelich was the first man to surpass 200 mph in a quarter mile drag boat.