Waikato man's mission to break Bonneville land speed record
Dave Alexander has spent almost nine years building a turbo-charged lakester speed machine in his Mangatāwhiri garage.
In July, 72-year-old Dave Alexander will head to the US to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah as part of a mission to break the land-speed record in that class of vehicle.
“Nine years is pretty long time to be working on it. My wife thinks I live down there, but, yeah, it is a labour of love. It's just one of the bucket list things, something you've got to do,” Alexander told RNZ’s Nights.
The two top classes at Bonneville are streamliner and lakester, Alexander says.
The car (front) that Dave Alexander will drive when he sets out to break the land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.
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“The streamliners you can build your own body, you can do whatever you like, and all they're really concerned about is your safety and the wheels can be inside the body work.”
With the lakester class, ingenuity is also encouraged, he says.
“The wheels have to be outside the body, which is a little bit of a disadvantage.”
It’s not Alexander’s first trip to the famous salt flats, he says.
“I built a I built a copy of a very famous American car back in 2000 and we took it to Bonneville. Broke the record three times in a week, which was sort of pretty well unheard of.”
For his second visit he wanted to set a record, not just compete, he says.
“I wanted a record that I thought was achievable, and the up to 3 litre class in the lakester class, the record had been standing since 1996.”
He got in touch with engineer Robbie Ward in Rotorua AKA the ‘Nissan guru’, he says.
“It was something that he hadn't done before, and he became very interested in it, and he ended up building the motor and he's actually coming with us.”
Out on the salt flats the aim is reach speeds of 260mph, he says.
“The existing record’s 262 mile an hour, which is about 437kmh I think it might be. It's bloody fast.”
He’ll be tucked into a a snug small cockpit for the attempt.
“It's all about aerodynamics. And you know you could have enough room to take a passenger, but it's going to take a lot more power to do it.
“Aerodynamics becomes very, very important, you're only in there for a short amount of time, does it really have to be comfortable? You're on a mission, once you're in, once you're going, you're just pumping pure adrenaline.”
He hopes to write his name in Bonneville history along with speed legends like Burt Munro, he says.
“When you get over there and you're sitting at the start line, a very, very proud moment to think that there's been Kiwis here in front of you.
“There's been some very famous Americans there in front of you that you've read about in magazines since you were a child.”
