In this wonderfully retro 1963 film Craig Breedlove breaks the land speed record at the Bonneville salt flats, driving a jet car named Spirit of America.
Breedlove lost the record in 1964 to Tom Green but returned to Bonneville in the same year and took the Spirit of America to over 500mph, reclaiming his record. After his record setting second run the Spirit of America lost its parachute brakes and hurtled out of control for 5 miles across the salt, then took out a series of telephone poles before crashing into a pond at 200mph.
Breedlove survived the accident miraculously uninjured and set both the world speed record and the Guinness World Record for the longest set of skid marks ever made, clearly making him one of the coolest men to ever walk the Earth.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
This article was written by Matt Strathern, who also provided the photography. You can follow him on Instagram here. It turns out that the racing at Bonneville Salt Flats was playing catch up to a…
Lotus Elise – The Inside Story is an insightful and highly detailed look back at the design, development, and release of the Elise – the car that would launch Lotus into the 21st century. When…
This 1912 Indian Board Track Racer is a pristine restoration by globally recognised expert Jim Prosper. Prosper is one of the finest restorers of Indian board track racers in the world, his restorations are considered some…
This is an engine cover from the Ferrari F2004 Formula 1 car that was driven by multiple World Champion Michael Schumacher in the 2004 season. Schumacher won both the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours and…
This is the hero car from the 1968 Steve McQueen film “Bullitt”, it’s a Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT and since the film was released this car has become one of the most famous…
The Lamborghini Miura P400 S was introduced in 1968 with a series of modest upgrades over the original Miura P400 which had been released in 1966 to global acclaim. The Lamborghini Miura – A Quick…
