The cars showed up, but the speeds didn't.
There were a few records posted in the opening days of the World of Speed, but not many. Most drivers are looking at this race as a test-and-tune.Rain that forced cancellation of Speed Week in August, left the salt flats track a little moist and soft. Tires weren't rolling as easily as they should. Horsepower needed to get up to speeds was being transferred down to push the tires.
Clayton Steen, from Idaho Falls and driver of the Herbert four-engine streamliner, said he'd be happy to hit 300 miles per hour, "even through the car is capable of 500 (mph)."
Ben Strasburg, in the new Strasburg/Colani custom Corvette, made shakedown runs on Thursday.
Terry Nish, in the 36-year-old car of the Vesco family, made a nerve-wrenching run, then brought the car in for some major remodeling.
Last month nearly 400 cars canceled plans to come to the flats during Speed Week because of rain. About 120 of them returned for the second major event at world-record runs - World of Speed. Most of the surface water is off the salt, but the salt is noticeable moist.
Still the cars lined up and ran. It gets in your blood, drivers say, and even on a less than ideal track its world speed racing.
One car drawing a lot of attention was the new Louigi Colani Vet.
A follow-up to an earlier model, this one has a number of creative designs, not the least being a aerodynamic design, called a "reverse wing," which uses air movement under the car instead of over it to add to ground force, said Lindsay Strasburg.
The Strasburgs build the chassis in their Pleasant Grove shop, then shipped it to France. Colani added his custom body, then shipped it back to Pleasant Grove . . . "We got it about a month ago," said Lindsay.
"We worked day and night getting it ready. There were some things we wanted to do differently with this car. The supercharger is inside the cockpit. That took some work. All other superchargers sit on the engine. That creates a big drag on the car and when you're looking for speed, anything you can do to reduce resistance helps. I know a lot of people are very interested in what we've done."
Ben will be going for a record of 244 mph in the car. The power is there, wet track and all, to hit the mark. If he does, he would be the fifth Strasburg to become a member of the elite "200 Mile Per Hour Club." Lindsay, Ben's father, and his brothers Tim, Mike and Jeff currently hold seats.
It was back in 1957 that the Vescos first put their streamliner on the salt. In the years to follow the car set records in eight classes, the first in 1958 and the latest in 1986. It also underwent some design changes. Last year it was decided to bring the old car out of retirement and fit it with a new engine.
Nish, a former super modified racing champ on the oval-track circuit, happened to have an engine.
"It's out of my old car and it's quite an engine. It's a 440 cubic inch small block that will put out 745 horsepower running on regular gas. Fact is we had to send it back to where it was built and have it de-tuned. It's too much engine," he said.
On its first pass on Tuesday, the car cruised through the clocks at 252 mph.
"Everything looked good, then we made a run Wednesday and everything went wrong. It was the worst run I've had. First it wouldn't start on the line, then when we did get it going I lost it near the start and started going down the track sideways. I finally straightened it out and figured what the heck, and punched it. It broke loose two more time and I could only get 170 out of it," he said.
Under the right conditions, Nish believes this car, with the new engine, is capable of 350 mph.
For the last couple of years the Herbert car has drawn a lot of attention, albeit little success. The long, narrow car has four engines set in single file. Each is capable of producing 1,100 hp. Simply piecing this together was an incredible feat, but to make the run car . . .
Steen eventually hopes to break the 28-year-old land-speed record of 409 mph. Todate, although many have tried, no one has been able to go faster for the required two-way time - one down, one back, then average the two.
Despite it's potential the car has only hit 364 mph. For most of its time at Bonneville the past few years the car has been down with either engine, tire or fuel problems.
"Hopefully we've got them all worked out. If we can get up to 300 (mph) in the next couple of days we'll be happy. All of the big cars tell us they're running about 100 (mph) slower on this track. If we can do 300 on this track we know we can go over 409," he said.
Drivers will make their last passes on Saturday. If the weather hold they'll be able run in October for the last time.