October 20, 2010
For Sale: Potential Speed
Ready to roll (Photo: Stuart Radnofsky Project 100)
Project 100 Communications is selling the car that Steve Fossett had hoped would set a land speed record. “Over $4 million is invested in this project,” says the sales brochure, which translates: No aluminum wheel kickers.
The vehicle is based on racing legend Craig Breedlove’s late 1990s Spirit of America Sonic Arrow, which was designed to reach 800 mph. Breedlove last set records in November 1965 (600 mph) in his Spirit of America Sonic 1. (See our feature on the Bonneville Jet Wars.) In 1997, Great Britain’s Andy Green reached 763 mph in his Thrust SSC.
Fossett bought the Sonic Arrow project, which employs an engine based on the General Electric J-79 turbojet, from Breedlove in 2006. The Target 800 mph team was approaching the testing phase when Fossett disappeared in his Super Decathlon in Nevada on September 3, 2007. The crash site was finally located at 10,000 feet in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range a year later.
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