Breedlove was a hell of an act to follow

Ray Keech was the last American to hold the LSR, he set the mark at 207.552 April 22, 1928 on the sands of Daytona Beach, driving his White Triplex.

Breedlove after setting the new record of 468.719 mph on 5th August, 1963.

Spirit in LA prior to departure to Bonneville.

Breedlove & Spirit of America on the salt at Bonneville.

Front side view showing the front mounted steering rudder.

The Spirit of America after sliced through a row of telephone poles at 400 mph and "flying" at 200 mph into an 18-foot-deep salt brine pond. Breedlove swam away unhurt and had again set another record of 526.280 mph.

It was a monster of a car powered by three Liberty aircraft engines mounted in a chassis made from railroad tracks.

Then came a succession of Englishmen; Major Henry O'Neill de Hane Segrave and his 1,000 horsepower Sunbeam, Sir Malcom Campbell and the 2,500 horsepower Bluebird and finally John Cobb set the mark at a lofty 394.2 in 1946 on the salt of Bonneville.

Interest in the LSR went into limbo until the early '60's when a bright eyed, bushy tailed youngster from Southern California, with nothing more than a strange looking model car and a big pair of gonads, showed up on the front steps of Goodyear headquarters in Akron.

Craig Breedlove wangled his way into see Vic Holt, who just happened to be president of Goodyear, and made his Land Speed Record presentation. Holt was impressed, Craig walked out of the office with $10,000 and the promise of tires that would stand at least 400 miles per hour.

Breedlove also made his pitch to the Shell Oil Co. and got another 10 grand and lo and behold in 1963 the brash young dare devil was screaming across the Salt Flats in his 38 foot long, rocket powered Spirit of America.

Goodyear and Shell both got their money worth when Craig not only brought the LSR back to the United States but became the first to exceed 400 mph when he set the mark at 407.45 mph.

He became an overnight hero touring the country appearing on TV talk shows, radio talk shows and getting his story, and picture in almost every newspaper in the country.

But his fame made some others envious, the Arfons brothers, Art and Walt, decided to cash in on the sudden interest in the LSR. Art, with the backing of Firestone, built his jet powered Green Monster and Walt, with some more Goodyear money, came up with his Wingfoot Express. Suddenly the Salt flats were very crowded in 1964.

Walt's Wingfoot Express, with Tom Green at the controls was first to set a new LSR when he tripped the lights 413.20.

Craig came back 11 days later and jumped the record to an unbelievable 468.719. But Breedlove wasn't satisfied, he wanted to be the first to hit the 500 mark.

Two days after his record run he was back to try to reach his goal. He climbed in the Spirit, pulled the canopy shut, gave his crew a thumbs up and hit the switch.

Like the song, in those days, said with a cloud of salt and a hearty hi-ho Silver Craig headed for the measured mile.

There was a five mile run to build speed, the measured mile and five miles to get the Spirit whoad, he knew something was bad wrong with the steering when he hit the measured mile.

He hit the button to deploy the drag chute, but his speed was to great the chute tore loose. He touched the brakes and they turned into cinders.

Craig, the master of understatement, tells the story, "here I was hurtling along at about 500 miles an hour with no steering, no chute and no brakes. I figured I was in trouble."

At 500 miles an hour the Spirit was covering a mile every seven seconds and the end of the five mile stopping run was coming up fast. But that didn't make any difference to the speeding Spirit as it sailed off into the soft salt at the end of the course.

Another mile or so in the soft salt there was a dike with a lake on the other side and the Spirit went over the dike and sailed out in to lake coming down nose first.

"As the car began to sink, I unbuckled my safety harness and tried to pull myself out, but I was stuck. I was under water and I couldn't get out. I thought, ' Damn all this and now I'm going to drown.' but then I realized I hadn't unhooked my oxygen mask, so I pulled it loose and floated out of the cockpit."

Craig didn't have a scratch, but he did have the land speed record of 526.280 mph.

And he held a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest slide in a vehicle... five miles with no steering, no chute and no brakes.