Streamliner sets new land speed record on its 50th anniversary
Danny Thompson set a new (unofficial) land-speed world record for a piston-powered vehicle on Aug. 12, clipping 725 km/h in his father’s 50-year-old twin-Hemi streamliner, Hemmings reports.
Thompson’s Challenger 2 made a pass of 718.741 km/ h on Aug. 11 on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and backed it up the next day with a 725.668-km/ h pass for an average of 722.204 km/ h.
Breaking the record marks the culmination of a dream of Thompson’s father, famous hot rodder Mickey Thompson, who wanted to make an attempt for it in 1968 in the same car — then named the Autolite Special — but had to give up after the Salt Flats flooded.
Ford pulled its sponsorship of the land-speed record (LSR) car the next year, making it too expensive for Thompson to try again.
Mickey Thompson and his wife were mysteriously murdered in March 1988, a year before a prospective return to the Salt Flats, but in 2010, Danny decided to restore the Challenger 2 and set the record his father never could.
Attempts for the record in the newly refinished Challenger 2 began in 2014 but were thwarted by parts breaking under stress over and over. Nevertheless, he managed to break several class records at speeds exceeding 643 km/ h.
This year, one of Thompson’s earlier attempts in the car — which is powered by two naturally aspirated Hemi V-8s — saw it get “very sideways” at 482 km/ h.
However, the team pressed on to take the piston-powered world record, fulfilling Mickey Thompson’s dream.
The Challenger 2, having completed what it was (re)built to do, will finally be retired this season.