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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.09.11 17:39l 56 Lines 2604 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Sep 20
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<F6CDD<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110920/1619Z 12083@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Sep 20, 1960:
Mickey Thompson tries again to become the fastest driver in
history
On this day in 1960, California hot rodder Mickey Thompson takes
another shot at the world land-speed record. A few weeks earlier,
Thompson had become the first American to travel faster than 400
mph on land when he'd piloted his Challenger I (a car that he
designed and built himself) across Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats
at 406.6 mph. This drive had made Thompson the fastest man on
wheels, but not officially: In order to win a place in the
land-speed record books, racers must make a return pass within
the hour, and Thompson's car broke down in the middle of his
second run, necessitating a follow-up attempt.
At the time, the world land-speed record was 394 mph, set at
Bonneville in 1947 by the British driver John Cobb. On his first
run across the flats (403.135 mph), Cobb became the first man to
go faster than 400 mph. (His second run only reached 388.019 mph;
the record speed was an average of the two.) To set a world speed
record, drivers must make two passes over the same measured mile,
one out and one back (to account for wind assistance), and beat
the previous average by at least 1 percent.
After Thompson's first pass across the Utah flats on September 9,
he refueled the 7,000-pound, 2,000 horsepower Challenger and
pushed off for the return trip. As the car gathered speed,
however, something went wrong. For years, Thompson told people
that something was the driveline: It had snapped, he said,
forcing him to stop accelerating and coast back across the
desert. In fact, one of the car's four supercharged engines blew
when Thompson shifted into high gear. ("When you're sponsored by
an engine company and you blow an engine," one expert on the
Challenger I explained, "you don't say that you blew a Pontiac
engine. You say that you broke a driveline.")
On September 20, Thompson tried again. This time, he only managed
to coax the Challenger up to about 378 mph on his first run and
368 mph on his second. But it hardly mattered: The Challenger's
speedy trips across the desert won worldwide fame for the car and
its driver, and by the time Thompson retired in 1962, he had set
more than 100 speed records.
In 1988, two hooded gunmen murdered Thompson and his wife in
their driveway and fled the scene on bicycles. Almost 20 years
later, one of Thompson's business acquaintances was convicted of
the killings; he is serving two life sentences without parole.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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