Mickey Thompsons '69 Mach 1 and 211mph Fairlane

[Gud T.B. Blown]

I thought I'd restart this thread with a different title.


This is Mickey Thompson's original 1969 record setting Mach 1, it even smelled like an old Mustang inside. They let Brian Thompson, Mickey's son, do the inaugural run down one of the courses however he had to keep it below 120 (I think) because it didn't have the proper safety equipment for today.

Here is the Mustang the Brian drove for a record:

This is my brother-in-law Brian's(not Thompson) car. He went 211mph (209 average) and held his class record for a day.

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[zookeeper]

Nice pics indeed! Thanks for posting them, I for one love seeing and hearing about vintage Ford stuff, especially Mickey's stuff or anything to do with B-ville.

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

I've got a ton more pics. The guy in the pits next to us had a Lakester with a Boss 429 and a solid block. They had teething problems with the car and a roll cage issue so they were limited to 175 however they got it to over 200mph which got the ire of the SCTA officials. I'll post some more pics tomorrow.

 

[zookeeper]

That'd be great if you could. There's a guy about 90 miles from here with a 351C-powered streamliner that as far as I know still runs it. It may just run at El Mirage these days, but I think he still goes to Bonneville. It's a maroon car with RWS (Redwood Welding Service) lettered on the side. It also may be blue these days, but either way, it's all home-built and a neat car. Really looking forward to more pics!

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

This Mustang was ahead of us in the line. The entire way up the line they were working on the car but in the end they set a record in their class at 232mph.
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This is a Fiat X 1/9 with a 1500cc Suzuki Hyabusa in it. He made one run at 149mph.

You see a lot of old cars driving up and down the pit lanes.

Sunrise on the salt

A 200mph Mistu Galant

From what little converstion I had with the builder of this engine is that this was put together will vintage '70's era drag racing and one off parts. This block on this is solid, no water passages. The only coolant runs through the head.

This super cool caddy was a push vehicle. The paint on was a mile deep.

Walking up to this 240sx I was a long silver cam cover and thought they had an I6 Z car engine in it. Was I surprised to see and Buick straight 8.

 

[GNN60GT500]

too ****in cool

 

[fast_back_gta]

Really really nice!
That blue Mach looks sweet, what color is that, acapulco blue?

 

[zookeeper]

Thanks for posting more pics, that sunrise on the salt looks like heaven. My very first vehicle was a Model A pickup, the same year as the rat rod toting the bikes, except mine was full fendered with a 289/C4 and American 5 spokes. Pics like yours really set the hook and make me NEED to be there, I also gotta ask, you haven't posted any pics of your B-ville car, don't be shy, I'd love to see it!

 

[66blue mustang]

very cool pics!

 

[StangDreamin']

Lotsa cool cars in these pics - I can't make up my mind whether my second favorite car is the Thompson/Ongais Mach; of if it's the Caddy "push-car".

Right now, the one that I'm lovin' is that 240SX! After "Flat and Curious 3" brought us a Mustang with the Nissan six-banger bolted in; the thought of a 240SX powered by 1940's American muscle just gets me goin'. A Fireball 8 - I love it!

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

Thanks for posting more pics, that sunrise on the salt looks like heaven. My very first vehicle was a Model A pickup, the same year as the rat rod toting the bikes, except mine was full fendered with a 289/C4 and American 5 spokes. Pics like yours really set the hook and make me NEED to be there, I also gotta ask, you haven't posted any pics of your B-ville car, don't be shy, I'd love to see it!

There were tons of rat rods there, every night they had an informal car show at the Nugget Casino and the one time I walked thru I didn't bring my camera. One of the cars had a Packard straight 8 that was quite a sight to see.

You won't see any pics of my car because I don't have one, I was crew on the Fairlane. Yeah, you need to go. This was my first time and even though I was only there for 3 days I'll never forget it and I plan on going back next year. People from all over the world come there. In the line to the front I talked to a couple of Aussies and Kiwi's that flew over just to attend and see the show. The cool part is you can walk thru the pits (I'll post a pic) and everybody will talk to you. Even in the line to the start you can wander around as much as you want and even get up front to the start, very informal.

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

Here are some more random pics:

The Royal Purple streamliner ran the fastest time last year
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This bike just took off on a 200mph+ run. As you can see you can get right to the starting line. There are only two officials up front and they're dressed in white, everybody esle is a spectator.
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This is the CarJunkie special, formery the Hot Rod special
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Frieburger schmoozing with vendors
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According to the wife of the owner this engine was in the car that won the 24hours of Lemans a few years ago

This Opel had an I6 GM engine in it
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An overview of the long course
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Pits on the first day, it filled up quite a bit more
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Twin engined Harley
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One more sunrise pic
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The Mormon Missile and as far as I know this is a close as it got to the salt. I took this pic late Wednesday.

The University of Ohio Buckeye Bullet getting put together
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George Poteets streamliner in impound after it's record run
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[zookeeper]

Hey, thanks a bunch for posting the pics, I truly enjoy the variety of cars and quality of pics. So, how did you get involved with the Fairlane crew? Any stories? How many runs does a particular racer get to make in a week? Sorry for being a pest, but I've been a fan of Bonneville my whole life and it's nice to get to hear some first-hand stuff.

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

My brother-in-law Brian owns the Fairlane. One his good friends has been running a Studie Hawk for an number of years and he caught the bug from him. Last year he ran 197 in the Fairlane breaking the record but he was challenged in the impound lost because his side glass was mounted 1/8" to far out. On his next run for fun he blew a tire a 198 plus and had a heckuva ride.

This year he came back with a 100% legal car and broke the record with a 2 way average of 209. Unfortunately the CarJunkie guys ran their Camaro in the same class and broke the record in what was originally illegal car. Brian challenged the car and they grumbled but made the car legal and officially broke it. The Car Junkie guys came to the pits after they were protested and apparently there was a little discussion (I wasn't there so I really don't know all the details) but they went away a little mad. Brian tends to speak his mind.

There was also a team trying to run last years Nascar Cup car and were getting hassled over their roll cage and the fact that they didn't have any side windows. Think about it, a Nascar roll cage protects a driver from 200mph rollovers and collisions. The back story I heard is that the SCTA doens't want to officially sanction these cars with a class because they think they'll overwhelm the meet. As it was they could only do TO (time only) and run the short course but they did multiple runs at 205mph. I have some pics of this somewhere and I'll post them later.

You can make as many runs as you want, or they have time for. The Fairlane ended up making at least 6 runs. Some cars run more often, as an example that Cup car did 6 runs in one day, also the course they had to run had shorter lines.

 

[joedokes28]

Neat pics. Thanks for posting!