Wind main enemy in speed quest

Art Nadler

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

AS soon as Craig Breedlove hit the one-mile mark going 500 mph, he knew his "Spirit of America" jet-powered car was running too fast.

Later, he discovered it was set up to run at 800 mph.

But that was a minor point compared with the 15 mph wind gust that unexpectedly kicked up Monday. Breedlove found himself skidding across the Black Rock Desert north of Reno at 675 mph. Helplessly, he waited -- hopefully -- for the vehicle to flip back onto its wheels.

"I thought I was told I had a head wind of 1.5 mph at the end of the course," Breedlove said Tuesday at a Shell Oil Products Co. convention in Las Vegas. "There was miscommunication. It was 15 mph. If I had known that, I would have never made the run."

When he flipped upright, barely missing a van and several spectators, Breedlove regained control and threw the vehicle into a skid to avoid a mountain.

Miraculously, Breedlove, 59, walked away from the crash with only minor bruises from his seat harness. The $2 million vehicle, however, wasn't so lucky. Its left airduct was ground off. The rear portion of the frame was bent, and possibly the rear axle.

"It's a bad sign when you have dirt in the windshield," Breedlove said of his kissing Mother Earth for six miles.

Breedlove estimates the vehicle sustained about $250,000 in damage. In six months, he hopes to be back at the Black Rock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno, for another go. The five-time land speed record holder is confident he can break Briton Richard Noble's 1983 record of 633.468 mph.

"I am very confident we will get the record with this car," Breedlove said. "This car can easily go supersonic."

His ultimate goal is to break the record, then go more than 700 mph and then break the sound barrier.

This Californian is confident he can do what he says he can, having set the 400, 500 and 600 mph records between 1963 and 1965.

"Breaking the sound barrier won't be a slam dunk," Breedlove said.

"It wasn't easy in an airplane, and it will be 100 times harder in a car. It will be a scientific crapshoot as to what will happen at that speed."

To break the sound barrier at that altitude, Breedlove will have to travel close to 750 mph.

The land speed record is determined by averaging the speeds in two runs measured through a mile stretch. The runs must be done in opposite directions and completed within an hour of each other.

"I like Black Rock Desert," Breedlove said. "It's a very good surface to run on. We should be back there in May."

Breedlove set his previous records on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

Noble is expected to try to break his own record in about a month in the desert outside Amman, Jordan. British fighter pilot Andrew Green will be driving Noble's 100,000-horsepower twin jet engine "Thrust SSC" car.