Inside Scoop: Bringing a Speed Record Back to Dodge (Part 1)

By Ryan Isabell
Lead Chassis & Simulation Engineer, Dodge Motorsports

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, Utah — Back in 1971, two men went to Bonneville with the goal of setting a land speed record using the #71 Dodge Daytona NASCAR stock car. They accomplished that goal by going over 216 MPH. The Dodge and those drivers held that record for nearly 35 years until 2006 when that record was broken by a Ford Nextel Cup car at 222 MPH. Not only did Dodge want to reclaim that record but we wanted to set it to a high enough level to where it would stand for another 35 years. We wanted it and we did it!

This all started in late August 2007 by a chance encounter between Russ Wicks (AKA Speedking) and myself. Russ is the only living person to hold speed records above 200 MPH on both land and water. He holds the world water speed record for a prop driven boat at 205 MPH. As Russ was the driver of the Ford that broke the long standing record, I wasn’t sure he was the one that should be driving our Dodge to re-break this record. When Russ told me his intentions to not only bring the record back to Dodge but to do so in the honor of the 1971 team I was convinced that this was a project worth tackling. I had only seen Bonneville on television and had always wanted to go to Bonneville to take part in a speed record attempt. This challenge was right up my alley especially when you tie in the NASCAR aspect of this project.

After presenting this proposal to the Dodge Motorsports marketing and engineering groups the excitement for this project quickly grew and they gave us the financial and technical support we needed. The record attempt was to happen the week of October 8th, 2007 and we were off and running.

The timing for this project was incredibly tight. We had less than 4 weeks once the financial backing was in place and we had nothing but our goal to start with. Our plan was simple (yes, that’s sarcasm): Purchase a super speedway car from a Dodge Nextel Cup team, digitally scan the vehicle, modify the body and chassis for a straight line speed attempt, build a purpose built NASCAR approved Cup motor, wind tunnel test, chassis dyno, perform tire testing and get to Bonneville with all the required tools, parts, tents, trailers, etc. required to do this successfully.

An invitation by David Letterman to have Russ Wicks appear on his television show had to be declined due to the tight timing that we were all under to make this happen. What started out as chance encounter was taking form and the excitement around this project grew as well. Our team consisted of several people that were close friends with the previous record holder, which made our intentions of doing this in his honor even more special. Spectators at the salt flats included film crews with helicopters, local news crews, Guinness Book of World Records and many volunteers.

Find out how the team fared in on the Flats in Part 2, coming tomorrow…