By Jethro Bovingdon
The vast, alien salt flats near Bonneville, USA, have been the setting for land speed record heroics since the early 20th century. It has seen man and machine pushed into the unknown time and time again.
Sir Malcolm Campbell exceeded 300mph back in 1935, then the bar was raised through 400mph in 1963 by Craig Breedlove and then again to more than 600mph in 1965… These were the golden days of the land speed record wars, with the UK and America battling for supremacy.
That battle rages to this day but as the machines have got faster still the stage has moved. The Hakskeen Pan desert in the Northern Cape of South Africa will be the site where, in 2015, the British-designed and built Bloodhound SSC, powered by a Eurofighter jet engine and a rocket, will attempt to be the first supersonic (1000mph) car.
For the people addicted to pushing the limits, Bonneville is still the centre of the world. Every August it hosts Speed Week, where hundreds of competitors and enthusiasts arrive with their own personal mission.
See how people like Doug MacMillan is using Honda power to write records of his own…
