Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Pictures from the Salt Flats If you're looking at this car and wondering... "What is that!??" then welcome to (said in your biggest fanfare voice) "Continuing coverage of Bonneville Speed Week!" You're looking at a future "Baddest Hot Rods of Speed Week" in the 71 Triumph GT6 decked out, maybe ironically, in red. It just so happens that this bad Triumph is also the "Fastest Sports Car in the World." In a white gloved smack in the face to the Ferarri team and their Enzo and on-site helicopter, the Black Salt Racing team piloted by Keith Copeland made this front wheel drive, small block Chevy powered, C/BFMS (blown fuel modified sports car) throw down a 305.597 mph record on the salt flats. Wow! Know what else? On the back-up run, Keith was on fire at nearly 300 miles per hour! Much more on this beautiful hot rod disguised as a sports car, very soon. It may be no contest for the "Best Push Truck of Speed Week" trophy when you see the cool Nomad above. The Bean Bandits always bring out fast cars and have...

Speed Week 2011 Results - Bonneville Salt Flats Out at Bonneville Salt Flats there's been racing all weekend as Speed Week 2011 is well underway. The days are flying by during Speed Week 2011 as land speed racers race all types of vehicles down the Bonneville Salt Flats. Streamliners make up some of the wildest (but fastest) record breakers of the bunch. Cars that have more of a stock body (or modified like this one) are common as well. This 1953 Studebaker is one of my favorites - but then again I'm a little partial since I drive a Studebaker myself. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SYV3jB6j-0[/youtube] Seeing these cars is one thing - hearing them is another. In case you've never experienced Bonneville Speedweek for yourself, check out this video. It gives you a sample of starting line take-offs - the Studebaker, a streamliner, and a motorcycle. One of my favorite kind of racers are belly tankers, like this one. This belly tanker is especially unique in that the driver is fully enclosed. The driver nearly lays down inside and looks down past their feet and out the clear part you see at...

Bonneville Salt Flats -Speedweek 2011 I wasn’t sure I’d be able to come to Bonneville this year. Studie didn’t get to come with me, but by 3pm Thursday afternoon my boyfriend Ethan and I were headed out of So Cal. By 9pm we were zooming across the empty desert underneath a full moon. By 3am we’d passed through Wendover and found an empty space at “The Bend”(the aptly named bend in the road just before getting to the Bonneville Salt Flats.) Early the next morning the sun woke us up to the sight of an amazing sunrise out over the salt flats – it was time for Speedweek 2011 to begin. Although the racing doesn’t begin until Saturday of Speedweek, Friday is full of activity as salt fever builds toward its breaking point…exploding as each participant racer zooms away from the starting line. Here’s some of the things I found going on in the pits as I wandered around on Friday… As racers arrive they register and begin lining up cars to get through tech inspection. This year has seen a number of safety changes – from head restraint...

2011 Bonneville Speed Week - What Could Go Wrong? 2011 Bonneville Speed Week sponsored by Spectre Performance Cruising onto the salt for the first time this year at just past 6AM, I'm greeted with this stunning sunrise. My new friends from Spectre have some big, BIG goals, but with a start to the morning like this, I'm thinking, "What could go wrong?" Then, standing in the media line chatting with the Hot Rod Magazine crew, I can just hear a racer explaining, "... and then it spit this out right onto the salt!" I turn around to see him proudly holding what's left of a twisted exhaust valve. Ahhhh... it's like a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut in my still warm coffee. This 1969 Plymouth Barracuda owned by Paul Ogden of Redding, CA looks fabulous in the still low sun. Similar to the 69 Cuda from George Poteet and the Rad Rides by Troy crew, this AA/BGC features an unlimited size motor and retains it's factory shape. Things are looking up! I'm ready for a fabulous day on the salt. It's not too hot, there's some clouds adding variety to...

Salt Flats Racing: Everything we got! Bonneville Speed Week 2012: (Updated as new stories are added) Hot Rods at the car show happening with Bonneville Speed Week All Smiles for Record Setters at Bonneville Speed Week Record Setting Bombshell 1952 Buick Super Riviera 2012 Speed Week Warm-up – Old Friends and New Friends on the Salt 841 Cubic Inches and 1,850 Horsepower to Bonneville for Fun, Records and Charity Bonneville Speed Week 2011: Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Record Breaking Plan Coffee and Salt – Bonneville Morning at Speed Week 2011 Heating up at Speedweek 2011 – Bonneville Salt Flats Day 1- Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Spectre Performance Blowfish Swimming Upstream – Speed Week 2011 Hot Rods of Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Day 2 – Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Spectre Performance Day 2 – Speedweek 2011 at Bonneville Salt Flats More Speedweek 2011 at Bonneville Salt Flats Record Breaking Runs – Speedweek 2011 Chasing 400 mph – One Mile at a Time Bonneville Speed Week 2010: Bonneville Speed Week 2010 – Baddest Race Cars Bonneville Speed Week 2010 – First Look More Salt Please - More pictures...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Speed Week 2010 Preview: ...ok, ok, for those counting (who, me?) its actually 100 Days, 19 Hours, 34 Minutes and...wait for it, wait for it...53 seconds! For everything about Bonneville and Speed Week, check this out: Bonneville Salt Flats – Speed Week, Records and Pictures Or, see for yourself at the LandRacing.com homepage, where they have a countdown clock for Speed Week.  It's going year 'round for those with Salt Fever. Here's a little taste of the Salt from Speed Week 2009.  Dig this flamed 5 window coupe hot rod and yes, oh yes, a Studebaker Avanti.  That's a teaser for a feature coming up on another certain Avanti you guys will love. Speed Week is THE coolest car show around! One of the great "unofficial" events at Speed Week is the first 2 nights (the night before races start is night #1), there is a big gathering of all those racers, crew and hot rodders who've made the trip out.  It goes down at the Nugget Casino (across the street from Montego Bay Casino as you can see in the pic above) in Wendover (about 5 miles...

Bonneville Hot Rods Yearly Car Show:     2009 Bonneville Nugget Casino Car Show Picture Gallery is now online!   After the Salt closes on the first Friday and Saturday of Speedweek, hot rods, street rods, a street-driven belly tanker and any ride that made the trip to Bonneville congregate to relax at the Golden Nugget Casino parking lot.   This is not your typical car show, these cars are driven hours and hours to make this show.  There were numerous cars from California and as far as Nebraska. (any farther?)  Make sure to check out the Nugget Car Show at next year! Check out the Nugget Car Show Gallery for more pics!...

Bonneville Salt Flats Tragedy: With all the excitement about Bonneville Speed Week, before I post my first blog and pictures, I want to show my respect following the tragic death of a great family man and land speed racer, Barry Bryant. Unfortunately, I only knew of Barry Bryant of Anderson, California by his race car.  I told some friends about a sinister looking, long and bad, silver and black competition coupe that stood out as one of my favorites on the salt.  After describing the car as best I could, I learned it was the Bryant family's "Tom Thumb Special" Late in the afternoon of 8/9/2009, Barry Bryant crashed near the 5 mile marker on the long course at Bonneville traveling close to 200 mph. MyRideisMe.com would like to express our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Barry Bryant. If you knew Barry, please leave a...

Bonneville Salt Flats - Our First Trip For over 61 years the Bonneville Salt Flats have been giving people "salt fever" during its annual Speed Week each August. This year Pikesan, Hetchspeed, and GreaseGirl met up at the flats to bring everyone at MyRideisMe.com a little taste of the salty stuff! And are you guys in for a treat!!! Not only is Speedweek home to land speed racings biggest event but its also one of the most amazing mix of cool people and cars you'll ever experience. So check back into MyRideisMe.com soon to catch a glimpse of some of the nearly 1000 pictures we took, coverage of build stories, records broken, life on the salt, and the people that make it all happen. We had the time of our lives out on the white stuff and we can't wait to share it with...

Save The Salt Foundation Gets $40,000 from "Century of Speed"   For those of us who have been honored to walk on the surface of what is known as The Bonneville Salt Flats, there is a myriad of terms used to describe the experience. Common words like magic or mystical or speed heaven are almost immediately used and usually accompany a kind of far-off gaze that comes over the face of the person relating their experience. It’s as if this specific part of the planet was put aside just for speed addicts.     For 100 years we speed addicts have pushed, pulled, carried or driven our mechanical mounts out to one of the strangest places on earth, where little survives and even less is welcome. Here on The Salt we’ve sought the ultimate prize of speed, shooting first for that magic 100 mile per hour plateau but today taking all sorts of racing machinery to 200, 300, 400…heck, let’s just go for 500 or 700 miles per hour. At Bonneville, though the limitations can place great obstacles in front of the speed demons that shoot across the shiny...

Rare 1968 Saab Sonett II makes up the base of this land speed record holder   The temperature is about 100 degrees, there’s no wind and what shade there is comes from an overhead tarp stretched from the side of a trailer. But Tom and Patti Donney are busy moving around their race car, methodically checking it over and getting ready for another trip to the starting line last August during Speed Week 2013.   Getting the couple to break away and actually sit down to talk about their passion for speed seems, well…awkward. You learn right away that Tom and Patti aren’t just talk. They DO. With no reservation.   The little ’68 Saab Sonett II sits at center stage of this passion that began just three short years ago and has culminated each of those three years during fabled Speed Week which happens each August on the Bonneville Salt Flats, a desolate, but perfectly flat expanse of salt outside Wendover, Utah.   A full cage and chassis was built to fit the Saab plastic body. (Phone camera photo)   The head is off the Sonett’s three cylinder...

Hot Rods & Race Car Photography from the Bonneville Salt Flats     Don't know about other amateur photographers, but I've learned tons from studying other photographer's work.   I learned from my friend Chuck Vranas' hot rod photography and shared some of his work from years of shooting for magazines like Street Rodder. He's also become a good friend.   Ever heard of Peter Vincent? Vincent is also a well known automotive photographer, and we're in luck! He loves Bonneville Salt Flats, just like we do! I carefully sort through Vincent's work too... I don't want to copy what he does, but observe the style and composition of the photo. I politely ask myself... "What makes this guy famous!?" and know that it's something he's doing better than I am.   It's great to be able to find some many pictures in one place to quickly learn from one of the best! To help announce his new book, I asked Peter Vincent for his thoughts about why he made this book. Here's what he had to say:   "This book was important to me for so many reasons....