Is Bonneville still being used for speed runs

[yellowperil]

or has the weather finally washed it away? Never seem to hear much about it any more.

[GH85Carrera]

If it rains much, it becomes a wet lake. It does dry up eventually and become a dry lake salt surface.

It may be out of commission for a while in rainy years, but it willl dry up and return as a race surface.

[herr_oberst]

Yes it is. The salt changes year to year, but people still prepare cars in the hopes the track can be raced.

[yellowperil]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

If it rains much, it becomes a wet lake. It does dry up eventually and become a dry lake salt surface.

It may be out of commission for a while in rainy years, but it willl dry up and return as a race surface.

That's good to hear

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Hope so, Speedweek is on my 2nd bucket list

[Bob Kontak]

It's not what it was. There is a Speed Week but it's not getting the nod from the big boys as the best place to run 500+ mph. The length of the run has been cut in half to seven miles for physiclal reasons. I did not watch the video in it's entirety.

[yellowperil]

Me too, always wanted to go there. Kinda late now though.

[rwest]

I ended up there by accident. Was driving out to California in the 911 and noticed some salt lake sort of stuff and tried to remember what state the Bonnevile salt flats was located in.

Had to take a piss(could be the subtitle of my life story!) so pulled into the next rest stop and did my business, noticed a huge sign, so decided to walk over and see what it said- yup, it pointed out that I was on the edge of the salt flats!

[Zeke]

Rained out in '22 and '23.

[unclebilly]

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=is+bonneville+still+being+used+for+speed+runs

But yes the SCTA still reigns supreme.

[javadog]

I know a guy that lives in Canada that tries to run there whenever they are open. Last 10 years, it hasn’t been very often.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by yellowperil

Me too, always wanted to go there. Kinda late now though.

Bring your dark glasses. It's a white out.

[otto_kretschmer]

One of my nieces got married there last year.

[GeorgeK]

Was there in the 90's, maxed out a rental Buick on the salt.
While doing that, met up with very french sounding people. Turns out they were filming a Peugeot ad with Ray Charles driving their new cabriolet. They told me they only put half a gallon of fuel in the car to make sure he wouldn't drive off too far.

[GeorgeK]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpgNYiqBpo

[Captain Ahab Jr]

My biggest career regret, missed out on the chance of helping run this on the salt.

British American Tobacco gave us $1 million and said go do something interesting

Only found out afterwards the team would have grabbed my offer of help with open arms

Slight consulation was I helped design it

Article is interesting read,
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.the-long-read-chasing-400km-h-in-the-worlds-fastest-f1-car.4KJFHbfjaU8GgqUEgsKQeU.html



Top speed was limited by the final drive diff ratio, wasn't enough budget/resource to design a new carbon gearbox to fit a taller gear

As it wasn't F1 it was seen as an unwanted distraction within the team but I was all over the project like a fat kid on a cake because reading about Salt Flat racing in Hot Rod magazines really inspired me to chase a career working on fast cars

[yellowperil]

Great article, thanks for that.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Record was set under SCTA rules, car was classed as an unblown lakester, set a new SCTA record too

Cool thing was it was a record that had been held for many years and the old record holder was there to witness

Guys had to work extremely hard, very hostile environment, especially for a F1 car

Racing was hard, guys on intravenous drip in the back of an ambulance Honda engineers were awesome, turned the engine up to max revs, 19,500RPM from memory. Ballast was cable tied to the rear crash structure, team threw everything at it to squeeze out every 0.1mph for max. speed

Believe the old salt flat racing veterans were expecting some delicate F1 types to turn up but the guys did a real hard core job, never giving up

[1990C4S]

From my favorite YouTuber....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFQ_x9cBEt4&ab_channel=SuperfastMatt

Some (not very) high speed some, some Bonneville stuff...

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=is+bonneville+still+being+used+for+speed+runs

But yes the SCTA still reigns supreme.

That's pretty funny because this is what I got,

"There are no results for is bonneville still being used for speed runs"