My favorite Metal maestro Michael LeVeque...Michael did the build on my CE..... is the worlds formost expert on racing Corvairs. About a year ago a fellow came up to him and said he wanted to build a corvair to run at Bonneville in a class where the body has to be stock but the engine can be modified. He wanted to run 140 at Bonneville for this record. Michael said "I've run 146 on the back straight at Road America so that shouldn't be a problem".

So they built this car up in 8 months. They took it a week or so before Bonneville to a track in Maine where they set times of 136 for a standing mile and 140 something for a standing 2 mile.

It has a stock body including lights and front bumper, a corvair engine, much modified running one Holley 600, and the stock chin spoiler from a 66 corvair. It makes at least 300 hp.

Since you have a few miles to speed up and stop down for a flying mile at Bonneville everything looked rosey.

So they went to Bonneville. Did I mention the first time the car was driven was to load onto the trailer to go to Maine...?

At bonneville some guy with loads of experience said to Michael "You cannot come here and get a record on your first trip."! Michael said "I think we are well prepared".

So they went out and ran 130 plus on their first run. Then ran 141 and seemed to be hitting a bit of a wall. Did I mention that the salt is 7000 feet above sea level? So they were pushing a bit of a headwind and they discovered through the magic of telemetry that on their fast run they had 6 mph of slippage?

So they ran over the record but darned if I can remember if they backed up the run for the record or if something went astray.

Cool stuff!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.