Some 30 years ago, Craig Breedlove ran with a fast crowd. At one time he was the fastest of them all. No one in the whole world was faster.
He was the first to drive a car more than 400 mph, then 500 mph and eventually he hit 600 mph - all on the Salt Flats of Bonneville Speedway.Now he's back with a new thirst for speed and a new goal - to break the sound barrier and break the land-speed record.
Two of his old running mates - Richard Noble, the current land-speed record holder, and Art Arfons, a former record holder - have the same plans.
Their insatiable drive for speed has pulled three of racing's most famous adherents back into the driver's seat. All three have built new jet-powered cars. All three plan on being the new king of speed. All three are in a race for time against each other and the weather.
Breedlove will be testing his single-engine car on the Salt Flats at Bonneville this week. Noble is testing his two-engine car in California. Arfons is hoping to get on the salt at Bonneville this year with his one-engine car but woefully admits he's not too optimistic.
The record is 633 mph. Both Breedlove and Noble will be trying to better 700 mph. Arfons built his car to go at least 650 mph, "maybe more. We'll see."
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In the early part of this century, it was the British who ruled high-speed racing. Of the 54 times the land-speed record has been bettered, a British driver did it 31 times.
It was in 1959 that Breedlove, then only 23, decided he wanted to break the 394 mph record held by Englishman John Cobb. He bought a military surplus J47 jet engine and built a car he named "Spirit of America." In 1963, he set the record at 407 mph and became the first American in more than 30 years to hold the title.
The following year, Arfons - then a noted drag racer - built one of his early jet-powered "Green Monsters." Pushed by a surplus J79 jet engine, he bumped the record to 434 mph. And so began a classic battle for speed between the two men.
That same year, Breedlove returned to Bonneville and ran an average of 468 mph, which Arfons then bettered. Breedlove responded with an astounding 526 mph record. At the end of this run, Breedlove lost both drag parachutes and brakes, sliced through a row of telephone poles and ended up, nose down, in an 18-foot-deep brine pond.
Breedlove and Arfons went on to build new cars.
In 1965, Arfons pushed the record to 536 mph. Breedlove, using a more powerful J79 jet engine, went 555 mph. A week later, Arfons went 576 mph. That same year, in one of the latest runs made on the salt, with some standing water frozen by the November weather, Breedlove set the new land-speed record at 600.601 mph.
Arfons was never able to break that record, but in 1970 another American, Gary Gabelich, drove his "Blue Flame" 622 mph. That record stood for 13 years.
In 1983, the English returned to high-speed racing when Nobel, driving the Rolls-Royce-powered "Thrust 2" jet car, set the current land-speed record of 633.468 mph on the dry lake bed in Black Rock Desert, Nev.
In order to take the record from Nobel, Breedlove or Arfons will need to break his record by at least 1 percent, which means setting a two-way average speed of 639.804 mph.
(To be officially recognized as a world land-speed record, a drive must make two passes on the same course within a one-hour period. The average of the two runs is the recognized speed.)
In 1979, Hollywood stunt man Stan Barrett drove a jet-powered car 739.666 mph - slightly over the speed of sound at Mach 1.0106 - on the airstrip at Edwards Air Force Base. The problem was, only Barrett's crew and the U.S. Air Force were there to time the run, and it was on a single pass and not the required two runs.
The sanctioning racing community does not recognize Barrett's mark as a land-speed record. Barrett has said his objective in the beginning was not to set the record, but to break the sound barrier. That he did.
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After a successful career in California real estate, Breedlove revived his thirst for speed. In 1990, he purchased a warehouse in Rio Vista, Calif., and began building his latest edition of the "Spirit of America."
The car is about 8 feet wide, 44 feet long, 5 feet high and weighs 9,000 pounds. It is powered by a modified J79 jet engine which burns, of all things, a premium unleaded gasoline. It produces some 22,650 pounds of thrust or 45,200 horsepower, with afterburner and water injection working.
Noble's new car, called the "Thrust Super Sonic," is powered by two Rolls-Royce-Spey Phantom jet engines, one on each side of the driver. Together, they produce 110,000 horsepower, or about the same as 950 Honda Civics. The car weighs seven tons and is 54-feet long.
Arfons' car - his 27th edition of the "Green Monster" - is the smallest of the group, "which is why I think I can go faster." It weighs only 1,800 pounds, is 25 feet long, three feet high and two feet wide. His single engine produces only 9,000 horsepower.
Noble, now 49, is testing his car in California. Instead of coming to Bonneville, he has opted instead to stay on the alkaline lake bed at Black Rock. Because of the physical stress, however, he will not drive.
Breedlove, 58, will spend three days testing his cars this week at Bonneville - Thursday through Saturday. He said he's worked hard to keep himself fit for just this run and he will drive. If all goes well, he plans to return later this month for a full-out record attempt.
"This will be the first time we've run the car, so it's hard for us to say how it will do," said Breedlove of his test runs this week. "My goal is to break the sound barrier (733 mph at sea level), and I know this car is capable of that speed.
"The car has been designed to be pushed across the Earth faster than anything has gone before." The speedometer in his car is calibrated to 2,000 mph.
Arfons, 70, tested his car last year. He said he had some handling problems, which have been corrected. He has no plans to run this year, although he would like to. Despite his age, and the physical stress involved, he said he wouldn't dream of letting anyone else drive his car.
"I'm not a good salesman, though, like Craig and Richard," he said. "I need a sponsor on the salt, and I haven't been able to get one. I called Craig to see if I could run with him. He never returned my calls. I thought we were friendly, but I guess not. I'm just waiting for something to happen now."
There are, in fact, two other cars being built for the purpose of setting the land-speed record. One is in Australia, and the second is currently in the planning stages of design.
The problem Breedlove faces on the Salt Flats this week is distance. Because of the deteriorating condition of the Salt Flats, the track is confined to a section eight miles long. For a high-speed attempt, Breedlove will need at least 11 miles - five to get up to speed, one mile for the record, and five miles to stop.
Hopefully, if conditions remain dry through the end of the month, Breedlove will have his track and his record.
The problem is not only reaching a speed that is "terrifying, violent, dangerous, stressful," but the shock waves triggered by breaking the sound barrier. And, of course, staying on the ground. At these speeds, a simple mistake could send the car into flight.
Barrett called his Mach I run one of the most terrifying experiences of his life.
They say, though, that once high speed gets in your blood it's addictive. Nothing satisfies but more and faster speeds. It's obviously true for these three men.
To the winner will go the title of the "Fastest Man on Earth." And, at least for now, relief from the need for speed.