Has the smell of the salt and sound of thunder from the land speed record setting cars at Bonneville put that sparkle in your eye and yearning in your heart to pilot your own racing machine on the Bonneville Salt Flats? Nitro methane is an addictive to a gearhead, there isn’t a narcotic available that can give you a rush like the roar of engines running flat out with the crackling of the nitro. Racing flat out across the salt is more demanding that the likes of NASCAR where an engine has to stay together for however many laps a race is set for. The one demanding part of land speed racing is the salt itself, it gets in everywhere and then there is the heat factor that is unmatched with most all other forms of racing save the cars an trucks racing off road in races such as the Baja.
Maybe you’ve already got the makings for a land speed record setting ride out in the back of the shop and you might have even started laying out plans to race at an upcoming Bonneville Salt Flats event. If you’re in the planning or building stages of your land speed racer you know you’re going to need parts and services from sources that are deeply involved in the land speed racing family and know their stuff. A great many of the vehicles and teams you will encounter at Bonneville cars were built with parts designed for drag racing and or the teams have an extensive drag racing background. That being the case you will want to do some research on the Internet for speed equipment directories or for companies specializing in chassis parts, engines and transmission parts, and safety equipment.
Building a great racing vehicle capable of breaking the land speed record for your classification can only be done with planning, good engineering, and quality performance parts. You can pretty much build a racing vehicle utilizing the race components available on the Internet today, what with the various engine builders, chassis designers, transmission and driveline specialists, and the electronics needed to run your vehicle. Some racing teams actually build their own components as mentions previously but there are many how just want to go racing and go the quicker method of building something out of the performance parts already available. Be sure of the quality of parts you purchase for your land speed racer, you don’t want to trust your safety, or that of others around you, to a part that saves you a couple of bucks. Good racing parts aren’t cheap parts, cheap racing parts aren’t safe racing parts. Do some background checking on the vendors you deal with, especially online parts vendors (most especially for eBay® purchases) , check out the Internet for more information about lesser known sources of racing parts.
You can be sure of the quality of parts you are using if they come directly from the parts manufacturer themselves, this is the proven method of obtaining genuine racing parts for your land speed record racer. The major players in the performance parts field may be willing to work with you and put together some sort of sponsorship package for you and your race vehicle, it never hurts to ask. Just because a part or component supplier isn’t one of the larger suppliers does not make them less attractive to those of you building your own vehicle for a run on the Bonneville Salt Flats, a great deal of the time they are specializing in a certain niche part of the performance parts industry so don’t rule out the smaller companies.
These aren’t all of the companies and individuals out there that can help you in your buildup but they are a good starting point.
So here they are:
Barkdoll Racing — no known website
1029 Harrop Street
Ogden, UT 84404
(801) 392-4140
Specialty: aerodynamic consultant and hand-laid fiberglass
Deist Safety — http://www.deist.com/
641 Sonora Avenue
Glendale, CA 91201
(818) 240-7866
Specialty: safety equipment for any type or motorsports racing
Hoffman Metal Products — http://www.hoffmanmetal.com/
1007-A Bransten Roadv
San Carlos, CA 94070
(415) 592-5506
Specialty: custom metal fabrication
Krem Engineering — http://www.krem-enterprises.com/
10204 Perry Highway
Meadville, Pa 16335
(814) 337-2992
Specialty: engineering services, racing engines, race cars, restoration services
Summers Brothers, Inc. — http://www.summersbrothersracing.com/
530 South Mountain Avenue
Ontario, CA 91762
(714) 986-2041
Specialty: streamliner axles, chassis and bodies
