FOSSETT LSR


Two careful T


Opportunities like this don’t come along very often – the chance to buy a ready-to-go World Land Speed Record contender. Better than that, one with provenance…


he Thrust SSC team were worried. Richard Noble had poured vast resources into what he had hoped would


ALL PICTURES DAVID CALVERT/PROJECT 100 8 www.racecar-engineering.com • January 2012


be the world’s first supersonic car and they were struggling to get it to handle. Wing Commander Andy Green, the designated driver, had nearly lost control of the huge, black, twin jet-engined machine more than once. It turned out the rear wheel steering was dynamically unstable at high speed but, with no time or budget to change the design, Wing Co Green just had to deal with it. To make matters worse, a rival team had set up camp on another part of the Black Rock Desert.


BY SAM COLLINS Craig Breedlove had already


set the World Land Speed Record five times in his series of Spirit of America cars, and was the first to achieve more than 600mph. His latest car, Spirit of America – Sonic Arrow had already run at Bonneville and Black Rock in 1996. During a 675mph run (already well over the record pace) Breedlove lost control, resulting in a spectacular crash that saw his car go into a speed wobble, fall on its side, describe a 180-degree, high-speed u-turn and, luckily for its occupant, right itself again. The incident badly damaged the


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