Ultimate Speed ― The Fast Life and Extreme Cars of Racing Legend Craig Breedlove

In the 120-year history of land speed racing, no name looms larger than that of Craig Breedlove. An L.A. hot rodder with a high school education, a family to support and almost no money, he set out in the late 1950s to do something big with his life and break the speed record. The car he designed was not powered by an internal combustion engine like the British machines that had dominated the LSR for decades. Craig planned instead to harness the thrust of a jet. With a growing obsession that would cost him his marriage, he started building the car in his dad’s garage with the help of his friends. Its name: Spirit of America. Through perseverance and endless hard work, Craig completed Spirit and broke the record on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting a new mark of 407 mph in 1963 and bringing the LSR back to the USA after 36 years. He then became locked in a speed duel with land speed rival Art Arfons. Over the next two years Craig and Art would trade the LSR back and forth in a series of whiteknuckle rides and experience some of the most spectacular crashes in motorsport history, Craig wrecking his original Spirit and building a replacement, Spirit of America–Sonic I, along the way. When it was over Craig had broken the record five times and become the first person to drive 400, 500 and 600 mph. In the early 1970s he turned to rockets and set an acceleration record at Bonneville that stands to this day, surviving another crash in the process. He was repeatedly burned by the cutthroat nature of the motorsport business and suffered financial ruination and repeated heartache in marriage, including the tragic death of his third wife. And he built a new jet car in the 1990s, Spirit of America–Sonic Arrow, to go head-to-head against Britain’s massive ThrustSSC to be the first to Mach One. Craig’s subsequent crash at 675 mph remains the fastest in history. Even today, at the age of 80, he is still going strong with plans for yet another Spirit of America racer, this one powered by a rocket. The ultimate goal: 1,000 mph. Ultimate Speed is the authorized biography of Craig Breedlove, a complete and candid revelation of one of motorsports’ most interesting and elusive figures. It is based primarily on countless hours of interviews that Hawley conducted with Craig and dozens of people connected to his life. It is an exciting and inspiring true story of ingenuity, perseverance, hard work and courage—of what one man with a big dream and boundless drive can achieve.

 

Samuel Hawley has an MA in history and spent 18 years teaching in East Asia before becoming a writer. His books include Speed Duel, The Imjin War, I Just Ran and The Fight That Started the Movies. Craig Breedlove is a five-time world land speed record holder, the first person to drive 400, 500, and 600 miles per hour.