A month later, I beat it with a junkyard Buick Skyhawk at 201 mph. Gale wasn't very happy about that. Ingenuity and dedication are in ample supply at Speed Week. Although the participants all say they're here just for the fun of it, chances are they still spend most of their time fiddling with a new intercooler, sweating over a finicky transmission, or stripping an engine down to replace a burned piston. It's dirty, sweaty work, but to the Bonneville gearheads, it qualifies as serious fun.
Opinion seems divided.
On one hand, speed is the Supreme Good, and the pilots of these vehicles are admired for their guts. Doc Jeffries doesn't mince words. Then he sets me straight on what Bonneville's all about. Al holds the world record for a wheel-driven vehicle. This guy's a machinist, and, I think, an instructor in Cerritos, California.