Goldenrod (car)
Goldenrod is an American streamliner car which held the wheel-driven land speed record from 1965 to 1991. It was owned by Bob and Bill Summers, of Ontario, California. Bob Summers drove the car to set the land speed record. The Goldenrod is powered by four fuel injected Chrysler Hemi engines, mounted inline and created a total output of 2,400 bhp. The car was originally built in Southern California and the team included James Crosby.
Before finding their final success, the two brothers contacted a fuel specialist and racing equipment pioneer and inventor named Tony Capanna, owner of Wilcap Co. (at that time in Torrance California). They were having trouble getting the speed they wanted with the 4 engines set in 2 rows side by side. Capanna suggested they put the engines in line and have it streamlined. In this configuration it was christened Goldenrod. Capanna advised them to get aerodynamic advice from a Northrop engineer. The brothers did and found success on November 12, 1965, when Goldenrod set the wheel-driven record (a class introduced due to the controversy over Spirit of America)[1] at 409.277 mph (658.64 km/h) over the flying mile, an FIA record which was held for 27 years. It was broken in 1991 by Al Teague with his supercharged Hemi-powered Spirit of '76, which went 409.986 mph (659.81 km/h) and later by the Burklands' 411 Streamliner at 415.896 mph (669.319 km/h) on 2008/09/26 (Class AI-I-11). Goldenrod was not supercharged, so it still held the class (AI-II-11) record[2] until 21 September, 2010, when Charles Nearburg in the Spirit of Rett increased this to 414.316mph.[3] The car went on tour for many years all across the U.S., then first ventured outside the country in 2000, when it was placed at where the cricket pitch is, in the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the other land speed record cars. The surviving Summers brother, Bill, attended (Bob died in 1992).
The Henry Ford museum bought the car in 2002, restored her via a US government grant (Save America's Treasures), and had her on display as of September 2006. The restoration was performed by John Baechtel of Landspeed Restorations and Mike Cook of Cook Motorsports, with grateful acknowledgment to the many contributors who supported the project.
“It’s about time it went away,” Bill Summers told "LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth during a interview on the new record, “It’s been a long time to have that record - 44 years, 10 months and 12 days. My brother Butch and did everything we could with that car and then sold it to the Henry Ford Museum. That he achieved those speeds with only two-wheel drive and one naturally aspirated engine is a phenomenal achievement, but they had good course conditions and when conditions are good, cars go fast." Bill Summers died on 12 May 2011.
Notes
- ^ Northey, Tom. "Land Speed Record: The Fastest Men on Earth", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 10, p. 1166.
- ^ "List of Records Category A" (PDF) (in French). FIA. 2008-06-05. p. 12. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
- ^ Terry Box (21 September, 2010). "Highland Park racer sets land speed record". The Dallas Morning News.
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