Riding the Washboard

One of these days, they may have to put traffic lights on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The silly season had barely started when Illinois' Tom Green shocked speed-jaded Bonneville buffs by piloting Walt Arfons' Wingfoot Express to a new record of 413 m.p.h. It lasted just three days--until Walt's brother Art, 38, clocked 434 m.p.h. in his jet-powered Green Monster. That was enough to bring Old Bonneville Hand (407 m.p.h. in 1963) Craig Breedlove hustling back to the flats for another try in his three-wheeled Spirit of America.

Breedlove soon boosted the mark to 526 m.p.h.--and nearly killed himself when Spirit clipped through a telephone pole, soared 35 ft. over a dike, and dived into a 20-ft.-deep drainage ditch.

Last week it was Art Arfons' turn again. His homemade Green Monster was nicknamed "the Garbage Truck" --because it was the ugliest and noisiest thing around. It cost Arfons only $10,000--$5,000 for the aluminum body, $5,000 for a J-79 jet engine (just like the one in F-104 supersonic fighters) that the Air Force apparently forgot about, put up for surplus sale. And, brother, could it ever go.

Lying prone in a cockpit perched on Monster's side, Art yowled past the timers at 515.98 m.p.h. on his first run, turned around and headed back. Down went the throttle, up climbed the airspeed indicator--to 500, to 550, to 575 m.p.h. At that speed, the seemingly smooth salt flats felt like a washboard, and the 6,500-lb. car bucked and yawed. The needle touched 600 m.p.h., and--pow! The right rear tire disintegrated; Firestone had warned him not to top 550. Arfons popped his braking chutes, fought Monster to a shuddering stop, clambered unsteadily from the cockpit. "Whew!" he said. "This is an animal, not a car." On his second run through the measured mile, dockers caught Arfons at 559.179 m.p.h.--for an incredible average of 536.7 m.p.h. Now he began talking about doing 600 m.p.h., or even cracking the sound barrier--about 720 m.p.h. at Bonneville. Nobody knows what will happen if a car ever does go faster than sound, but Arfons is game.

"I only used 12,000 horsepower this time," he says, "and there's 5,000 more horses in that engine."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.