Kiwis smash world speed records
‘‘Cookie’’ the Kiwi Nissan Coupe has broken four world land speed records in the past month at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
‘‘Cookie’’ is one of two cars taken to the salt flats in Utah, USA, by the CMR Bonneville team, and the naturally aspirated coupe now holds four different world land speed records.
It has claimed the naturally aspirated 2000cc petrol coupe record, in addition to the naturally aspirated fuel competition coupe and fuel altered coupe records, with the fastest record being 190.5 7mph (306.69kmh).
‘‘Cookie’’ boasts a 300 horsepower engine built by a team of Kiwis in a workshop near Clevedon. In 2011 ‘‘Cookie’’ broke the naturally aspirated production class record at 174.5mph (280.8kmh).
‘‘We are absolutely stoked to break this many records,’’ says team owner Reg Cook.
‘‘It was certainly a challenge for the team but they made it happen and I’m so proud of them and their Kiwi-can-do attitude.’’
The team’s other vehicle, ‘‘Wairua’’, is a custom built streamliner designed, engineered and built in a big farm shed in Clevedon. It has a Volkswagen 2000cc turbo diesel engine and broke the 2000cc diesel Streamliner record by 41mph (65.9kmh) lifting it to 188mph (302.5kmh) on Monday (NZ time) on the three mile (4.82km) course with ex-pat kiwi Steve Davies at the wheel.
Later in the day Cook piloted the streamliner on the course and continued for a fourth running mile recording a top flying mile speed of 210mph (337kmh), and max speed 219mph (352.4kmh). With a storm inbound organisers arranged back-up runs three hours later and the car mirrored the earlier run to set 210mph record (337.9kmh), 22mph (35.4kmh) over their earlier record.
This success followed some mechanical problems in August at Bonneville and the team had to fly back to New Zealand while repairs were made in the USA in Utah. The team then flew back last week to make more attempts on the salt flats.
‘‘This was truly a team effort and hope that by never giving up, we’re inspiring other Kiwis to get involved, follow their dreams, and never give up,’’ said Cook.
While the team is made up of over 20 people in New Zealand, only eight travelled to the USA on this journey.