1968 Challenger II sets piston-driven speed record
If you think 450mph in a 50 year-old car sounds scary, wait until you see the vid...
The story of Danny Thompson's Challenger II is a fascinating one; originally built by his father Mickey Thompson in 1968 (and replacing Challenger I, which went through 400mph), the car was meant to race at Bonneville in 1968. However, rain washed away the salt that year, and so Speed Week didn't run. In fact, the car never ran at all, and when Mickey Thompson was killed in 1988 the car was put into storage by Danny.
It wasn't until 2016 that Challenger II saw the light of day again, Thompson junior recommissioning his father's incredible vehicle to set a new record at that year's Bonneville Speed Week for an "unblown fuel streamliner" of 406.70mph. Confident that it could go quicker, Danny Thompson was back at Bonneville this weekend gone - 50 years since Challenger II was originally meant to be there - to break another record.
And break it he did, securing a 448.7mph average in the 5,000hp, Hemi-powered, four-wheel drive Challenger II to make it the fastest ever piston-engined, wheel driven car. It surpassed the 439mph set by George Poteet in his Speed Demon, the previous record-holding incumbent. The Challenger II reached 450.9mph on one run, 44.3mph faster than the Challenger I had achieved in its one-way record attempt back in 1960.
So bravo Danny, for restoring a piece of family and land speed record history, plus having the guts to do more than seven miles a minute in a 50 year-old car. Finally, if you're wondering just how crazy a drive that really is, there was a GoPro in the car... See below for one of the craziest onboards you'll watch for a while!
[Sources: Jalopnik; images from Danny Thompson on Twitter and ThompsonLSR.com
http://thompsonlsr.com/
- The streamliner is four wheel drive. Each engine drives one set of wheels. The drivetrains mirror each other exactly, so the front engine is actually mounted backwards in the chassis.
- The car's skin is made-up of 68 hand formed aluminum panels. They are connected to the subframe via Dzus buttons.
- The engines are dry blocks (waterless), which means all of the cooling is provided by the fuel. A single run will consume around 50 gallons of nitro/methanol blend. As a result, the car's weight drops by 500 pounds over the course of a run.
- The tires are a prototype nylon weave backed with banded steel. There is only 1/32 of an inch of rubber. Any more would spin off due to heat and expansion. They are custom made by Mickey Thompson Tires.
- Primary stopping power is provided by dual parachutes with four foot blossoms. The car is also equipped with carbon ceramic disk brakes.
- The Challenger 2 measures 32 feet in length, with a height of 27 inches at the tip and 37 inches at the canopy, and is 34 inches wide. It weighs 5700 pounds when fueled.
Great project and great achievement.
The tires are a prototype nylon weave backed with banded steel. There is only 1/32 of an inch of rubber. Any more would spin off due to heat and expansion. They are custom made by Mickey Thompson Tires
That's less than 1mm and made by the team it seems. Nice work. Length wise that must be the longest dab of oppo apart from Thrust SSC .
It's got a digital dash and loads of rivets, epic.......
Didn't expect it to get up to speed that quickly, what with the transmission having only 3 gears. But then I suppose 5000bhp and huge amounts of torque will make up for that...
Hoping to find some footage of the run from different angles; I'd love to see just how out of shape the car gets when he makes those sharp inputs.
I'd bet that the "full lock" translated to no more than a couple of degrees of steering turn for the road wheels.
ETA: I will agree wholeheartedly with "massive balls". That took some cojones...
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff