Bonneville World Of Speed Part II: 200 MPH or Bust!

Bonneville World Of Speed Part II:  200 MPH or Bust!

By Chuck Johnson
Photos by Joe Lu

In our last update, we left off having just set a new Bonneville H/PS land speed record at 184.1 MPH.  (Click here to read about part one of our Bonneville World of Speed adventure) On the second of the two record passes, Project 240SX LSR and its 600 plus horsepower 1.5 L engine, had recorded a fastest speed of 191.9 MPH.  With more than enough power on tap, our goal of pushing the record to over 200 MPH seemed well within reach.

Since we had pushed the record to over 175 MPH, Project 240SX LSR was now qualified to run on the “long course.”  This meant we had several more miles to work with to achieve our 200 MPH goal.  Before the next pass though, we dialed more toe in into the rear suspension in attempts to tame Project 240SX LSR’s tail happy attitude.

With more toe in dialed into the rear suspension, we headed off to the starting line.  Check out the video below. 

While you’re checking out the video, keep an eye on the mountains in the horizon and use them as a frame of reference.  In doing so, you’ll begin to understand just how much of a handful a high horsepower rear wheel drive car is on moist, traction-less salt.  
 
If you watched the video carefully, you may have noticed the digital GPS speedometer reading 193 MPH right before the spin.

Just a month before World of Speed, Bonneville was completely covered in water resulting in the cancelation of Speed Week.  Although no longer covered in water, the salt was still super moist and in all around terrible condition.  This made accelerating more of a fine ballet requiring a combination of precise footwork and delicate steering wheel inputs.  Was the poor traction what caused the spin at 193 MPH though?