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.
The 1988 SCCA Trans Am Niagara Falls Grand Prix would be the only race ever held on the street circuit that was created specifically for this event. The race itself is fascinating, it includes amateur racing driver and former Olympian Bruce Jenner taking on the likes of Walter Röhrl, Hurley Haywood, Willie T. Ribbs, and many…
This Ford Model T Track-Nose is one of the most well-known hot rods of its era, it was built by Jack Thompson with help from Claude Hampson, and it appeared in the August 1958 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Track-Nose hot rods have a distinctive look that sets them apart from their more traditional counterparts,…
The Jeep Commando was directly based on the outgoing Jeepster Commando, however it featured a series of modifications designed to allow it to accommodate the AMC 232 and 258 six-cylinder engines and the 304 V8 engine. The Jeep Commando – C104 American Motors Corporation (AMC) bought Kaiser in 1970, they immediately set about ensuring the…
The Austin-Healey 100 The Austin-Healey 100 is one of the most beautiful British cars of its time, in fact I’d go so far as to say that it’s one of the most beautiful cars of its time regardless of origin. Amazingly the designer behind the low, sweeping roadster wasn’t actually a designer and he had…
This 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake was a one-off build with a 600+ hp Ford GT40 Mk II 427 V8 – the same engine that had won against the best in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the year before. Goodyear Thunderbolt The car was built as part of a Goodyear marketing stunt for…
The Meyers Manx was the original fiberglass beach buggy, designed by Bruce Meyers in the early 1960s. This film tells the story of both Bruce Manx and his Meyers Manx, it’s a fascinating watch and it includes some great footage of Bruce as well as the early (and very successful) racing efforts in the Manx. The…
