Drivers race against the clock, one at a time, to an agreed-upon point and back again. There are many classes-right up to the ultimate “unlimited” world land speed record-so a diverse assortment of cars turns up at each of these events. In this section of our new racing exhibit, Driven to Win: Racing in America, you will experience the unique setting that is the Bonneville Salt Flats and feel a touchable material that simulates the area’s salt surface. Land speed racing is like a moonshot that never leaves Earth, and it answers the never-ending question, “How fast can it go?” In the quest for the prestige of setting a land speed record, highly specialized cars compete in flat, wide-open, isolated settings, without a lot of fanfare or spectators. A project to restore the hard packed salt has been initiated by the chemical company that mines the flats, and the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land.Archive Insight, Think THF Official Timing Stand, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, 1956 / THF126228 The hard-packed solid salt area which is used for the races has shrunk from 15 miles in length in 1950, to 10 miles today, and the quality of the surface has decreased. The raceway, which spends much of the year under water, is slowly disappearing, and many racers are heading to the Black Rock Desert and other dry lakes. Land speed records are classified a number of ways, and the current official land speed record, with a speed sustained for over a mile in distance, is over 700 miles per hour, obtained by the jet-powered car Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The Blue Flame, a rocket-powered four-wheeled vehicle, set the land speed record of 631.4 miles per hour in 1970, a record that stood for more than a decade, and the last of the major high speed records set at Bonneville. Numerous land speed records have been achieved at Bonneville, on the vast and flat natural pavement of salt: the 300, 400, 500, and 600 mile per hour land speed barrier were all broken here over the years.
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