27-472: Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) is a competition sanctioning body that maintains rules and record for Land Speed Racing events held at El Mirage Dry Lake , California and at the Bonneville Salt Flats , Utah . It is a non-profit, volunteer organization made up of eleven separate car clubs. SCTA has been in existence since its first meeting on November 29, 1937 and is considered to be
54-415: A Wankel engine is 3 times smaller than the physical displacement, but this is compensated by the fact that the shaft has 3 times the rotational speed of the rotor. The nominal displacement is the swept volume of a single chamber. Historically, many car model names have included their engine displacement. Examples include the 1923–1930 Cadillac Series 353 (powered by a 353 Cubic inch /5.8-litre engine), and
81-413: A comparative nominal displacement for variant engine types. In several countries fees and taxes levied on road vehicles by transport authorities are scaled in proportion to engine displacement. In countries where this is practised, vehicle manufacturers often seek to increase power output through higher-revving engines or turbocharging , instead of increasing the displacement. Examples of countries where
108-473: A list of current class records as well as history of prior record holders. The organization is governed by a board of directors that is made up of five elected members consisting of president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and sergeant at arms. The balance of the board, up to 17 total members, are appointed by the elected board members. Elected board members serve a one-year term and may be elected to one additional year. Thereafter an elected board member
135-473: A pass of 333.35 mph (536.47 km/h).< Any vehicle – car, truck, or motorcycle – able to meet the class requirements and safety regulations has been able to make an attempt to break the existing record. For automobiles running under FIA sanctioning, the record is set by averaging two runs (commonly called "passes"), one in either direction, within the space of two hours. All vehicles are separated by classes based on displacement . Vintage engines, like
162-403: A record of 308.506 mph (496.492 km/h) in 1965. According to author Rachel Kushner , Craig Breedlove had talked Lee into taking the car out for a record attempt in order to monopolize the salt flats for the day and block one of his competitors from making a record attempt. For 43 years, the world record was held by Kitty O'Neil with a speed of 512.710 mph (825.127 km/h), in
189-412: A timed mile and a new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated. Records are set in either the flying kilometre or flying mile. Motorcycle land speed racing requires 2 passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilo for AMA National Land Speed Records while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over
216-824: A timed mile/kilo completed within 2 hours. The sport's origins date to the 1930s with the Mormon Meteor at Bonneville Speedway in Utah and in California, when the Southern California Timing Association first held meets for a variety of hot rodded vehicles. The SCTA began hosting Speed Week at Bonneville in August 1949 (then called the Bonneville Nationals ), and have done so every year since, celebrating their seventy-fifth anniversary in 2023. Top speed of
243-575: A variety of different classes within Category A. In 2008 Tom Burkland broke the piston-engined wheel-driven record for the flying mile, recording a speed of 415.896 mph (669.320 km/h). He drove the Burkland family streamliner powered by two 450+ cubic inch- displacement supercharged Donovan engines (bought second-hand), with crankshafts bolted together nose-to-nose, running on methanol . In September, 2010 George Poteet made an attempt to break
270-611: Is calculated by multiplying together three values; the distance travelled by the piston (the stroke length ), the circular area of the cylinder, and the number of cylinders in the whole engine. The formula is: Using this formula for non-typical types of engine, such as the Wankel design and the oval-piston type used in Honda NR motorcycles, can sometimes yield misleading results when attempting to compare engines. Manufacturers and regulators may develop and use specialised formulae to determine
297-570: Is more than 10 mph faster than Kitty O'Neil's historic record. There is no "wheel-driven" category as such. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile validates records in a variety of classes, of which the "wheel-driven" classes are in Category A (Special cars) and Category B (Production cars). The accepted record is fastest average speed recorded over any one-mile or one-kilometer distance, averaged over two runs in opposite directions (to factor out wind) within one hour of each other. The most recent wheel-driven record holders have been from
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#1732851778349324-563: Is not allowed to seek the same office for at least one year. Appointed board members have no term limits. The SCTA elected board is also responsible for appointing the BNI Board that consists of a minimum of three members. The BNI Board oversees the organization of the two events at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Operation of the meets are transferred to the SCTA following the driver's meeting on
351-459: Is one of the measures often used in advertising, as well as regulating, motor vehicles. It is usually expressed using the metric units of cubic centimetres (cc or cm , equivalent to millilitres ) or litres (l or L), or – particularly in the United States – cubic inches (CID, cu in, or in ). The overall displacement for a typical reciprocating piston engine
378-420: Is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine , excluding the combustion chambers . It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as an indicator of the power (through mean effective pressure and rotational speed ) an engine might be capable of producing and the amount of fuel it should be expected to consume. For this reason displacement
405-472: The Ford Flathead , Buick Straight Eight , Stovebolt engine and others are raced in the vintage classes. These consist of: In 1906, Dorothy Levitt broke the women's world speed record for the flying kilometer, recording a speed of 91 mph (146.25 km/h) and receiving the sobriquet the "Fastest Girl on Earth". She drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar , a 100 hp (74.6 kW) development of
432-577: The 1963–1968 BMW 1800 (a 1.8-litre engine) and Lexus LS 400 with a 3,968 cc engine. This was especially common in US muscle cars , like the Ford Mustang Boss 302 and 429, and later GT 5.0L, The Plymouth Roadrunner 383, and the Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 and 454. However, trends towards downsizing and hybrid/electric drivetrains since 2010 have resulted in far fewer model names being based on
459-536: The 2011 Bonneville Speed Week, Poteet achieved 426 mph (686 km/h) In 2012, the Target 550 team of Marlo Treit and Les Davenport planned to raise the record for this class to more than 500 mph (800 km/h) in Viking 31 , built by Jim Hume . Powered by two Dodge hemis with Whipple supercharger , it has a frontal area of 8.61 sq ft (0.800 m ) and is more than 40 ft (12 m) long. The model
486-514: The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Speed Week is held in August and World Finals in October. The SCTA also holds six events at El Mirage Dry Lake in Southern California. It is responsible for ensuring compliance with BLM standards for use of public lands, safety regulations for competitors and spectators, technical inspection of race vehicles, timing recording of record attempts and maintaining
513-608: The K5, in a speed trial in Blackpool . In 1929, Frenchwoman Hellé Nice broke the female speed record. She reached 122.84 mph (197.7 km/h) in a Bugatti 35B on a 10 km course on the Montlhery track outside Paris . The feat was so great that the newspapers at the time named her "Queen of Speed". A subsequent record was set by Lee Breedlove, the wife of Craig Breedlove , who piloted her husband's Spirit of America - Sonic 1 to
540-456: The first day of each meet. Land Speed Racing Land speed racing is a form of motorsport . Land speed racing is best known for the efforts to break the absolute land speed record , but it is not limited to specialist vehicles. A record is defined as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs (commonly called "passes"). Under current FIA rules, two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour, over
567-504: The jet-powered SMI Motivator , set at the Alvord Desert in 1976. On August 20, 2019, 43 years later, American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator Jessi Combs attempted to break Kitty's long-standing world record at the age of 39 and at the same location. Combs died after her car suffered a mechanical failure on her second run from the opposite direction (used to establish an average to account for wind);
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#1732851778349594-402: The mechanical failure (located on the front wheel assembly) was speculated to have been caused by hitting an object in the desert. Despite dying during the execution of the run, her record attempt was eventually validated, and her new time was posthumously ratified by Guinness on 25 June 2020, ten months after the fatal attempt. Her time was recorded as 522.783 mph (841.338 km/h), which
621-538: The oldest operating racing organization in the United States. At that first meet between five and seven local car clubs met to organize lake bed races and to establish a set of guidelines to make dry lake land speed trials safer. Since its creation the SCTA in conjunction with its sister organization the Bonneville Nationals Inc. (BNI) have organized, sanctioned and recorded hundreds of meets and thousands of records. The organization holds two meets each year on
648-405: The piston-engined wheel-driven record for the flying mile and flying kilometer. His car, Speed Demon , built by Ron Main , is powered by a 299 cu in (4,900 cc) aluminum block 'Hellfire' V8, built by Kenny Duttweiler. Their effort was thwarted by a number of parts failures. The team stated their intention to return in 2011 to set a record over 450 mph (724 km/h), and at
675-404: The road taxes are based upon engine displacement: Wankel engines are able to produce higher power levels for a given displacement. Therefore, they are generally taxed as 1.5 times their stated physical displacement (1.3 litres becomes effectively 2.0, 2.0 becomes effectively 3.0), although actual power outputs can be higher than suggested by this conversion factor. The nominal displacement of
702-606: The year earns an SCTA tropy; for the inaugural year, it went to Alex Xydias and Dean Batchelor for the So-Cal streamliner, with a speed of 193.54 mph (311.47 km/h). Since then, the trophy has gone to Mickey Thompson , Art Arfons , the Summers Brothers, Don Vesco , Al Teague , and ten-time winner George Poteet , among others. The 2023 trophy was awarded to Chris Raschke in Speed Demon (the team's eleventh win), with
729-588: Was tested in the Western Washington University wind tunnel , with assistance from Michael Seal. In 2018 the Flashpoint Streamliner exceeded the record but was disqualified after being destroyed on its second pass, as two full successful passes are required to set a record. The car reached 436 and 451 mph on each pass, but was destroyed on the second pass as a result of a tire failure. Engine displacement Engine displacement
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