![]() ![]() This is the story of Mickey Thompson and Danny Thompson and a car. But neither fame nor glory nor pride nor patriotism are bounded by the rule books, and Danny Thompson remained not very famous, even as he surpassed his father, the murdered American hero from the last great age of the black-and-white newsreel. ![]() Thompson’s Challenger 2-a 5,200-pound, 6,000-horsepower dagger with two V-8 engines, built by his father’s hands and by his own-did not break. Danny became the fastest piston-driven man in the world that day. This was August 12, 2018, on the Bonneville Salt Flats. In the middle of nearly the same course, over that same flying mile, under that same Utah sky, Danny Thompson’s speed was even higher than his father’s: 448.757 mph. But neither fame nor glory nor pride nor patriotism are bounded by the rule books, and that afternoon, under that high Utah sky, Mickey Thompson became a by-God American hero in the last great age of the black-and-white newsreel. Thompson’s car-the Challenger, an 8,000-pound, 3,000-horsepower streamliner with four V-8 engines he’d chalked out on the garage floor, then built with his own hands-broke on the return run. ![]() Unofficially, at least.īecause to earn the world land speed record, the car has to make two passes. He became the fastest man in the world that day, the first American to go over 400 mph, the fastest racer ever on land. This was September 9, 1960, on the Bonneville Salt Flats. In the middle of the course, over that flying mile, Mickey Thompson’s speed was about equal to the muzzle velocity of a bullet fired from a lightly loaded small-caliber pistol: 406.60 miles per hour. ![]()
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