My
name is John Weatherwax, and I am the owner of Cutting
Edge Metal Specialties in Costa Mesa, Ca. As our name
implies, we are a high end metal fabrication facility
established in 1993 when I started working out of my
garage in the evenings and weekends while working full
time for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers. During
this period at AAR, we designed, built, and campaigned
the Toyota GTP sports car that won the 24 Hours of Daytona,
the grueling 12 Hours of Sebring, and three straight
IMSA GTP championships.
| I am in the early stages of the construction of
a 1934 Ford bodied gas/fuel roadster to be run
at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August of 2009.
During this event, known world wide as “Speed
Week”, we will be attempting to take this
C class (306-373 cubic inch) roadster to a world
record speed over 230 MPH. The current record
is 229.308 MPH, set by a team from New Zealand
in 2006. I have been thinking about doing this
Bonneville roadster for over a year, and I feel
the timing has never been better for this project. |
 |
| Todd
Haas' '34 Ecotec Roadster |
|
| (To
see more shots of Todd Haas' '34 Ecotec Roadster,
please visit Jimmy Shine here.) |
I
have a number of innovating ideas for the building of
this car, which I think will generate a great deal of
interest. Not only will I be promoting this endeavor
on our Bonneville web site, but we’ll also be
detailing the engineering, fabrication, and testing
of the car. The website will also list sponsors and
supporters of this project.
|
 |
| Steve
Bells’ ’36 Roadster |
|
| (For
more 2006 Speed Week photos, please click here.) |
Speed
Week is like no other speed event in the world. The
atmosphere at Bonneville is totally unique, and truly
an unforgettable experience. The salt flats have a great
deal of land speed history. For the past 58 years, men,
and women, have brought their cars, trucks, motorcycles,
hot rods, lakesters, and streamliners to this historic
venue in the hopes of setting speed records. Since the
release of “The World’s Fastest Indian”,
starring Anthony Hopkins, interest in this event has
never been greater. This past August, a record number
of entries, over 500 participants from all over the
world descended on the salt flats with all types of
machines, from million dollar efforts to back yard projects,
to compete for world records in their perspective classes.
Most participants are serious racers, but many just
come to have fun, “run what they brung”
and be a part of the experience. In the evenings after
the sun goes down on the salt, many participants and
spectators gather in the Wendover hotel and casino parking
lots with their cars, trucks, hot rods, and rat rods
for hours of bench racing and show and tell. For the
most part, this is an amateur speed event, but large
corporations are now realizing the interest in Bonneville
and using the salt flats for both promotional purposes
and as testing grounds for their businesses and products.
Both Ford and Chevy have been involved in Speed Week.
Ford was there this past August with the Ford Fusion
Hydrogen 999 Fuel Cell race car which set a world record
of 207.297 for a production based fuel cell car. Also,
the Buckeye Bullitt 2, a hydrogen fuel cell streamliner,
designed and built by students from Ohio State University,
made attempts at the 300 MPH mark. Boyd Coydington and
his wife Jo were at Speed Week this year shooting a
segment for American Hotrod. Last year, British American
Tobacco, former sponsors of the BAR Formula 1 team,
promoted the successful attempt of a Honda powered Formula
1 car to a record speed of 250 MPH. And in August of
2006, the British designed and built JCB Dieselmax project,
a multi million dollar diesel powered streamliner, was
driven by Andy Green to a world record speed of over
350 MPH for its class. This October, Dodge will be taking
one of its Nextel Cup cars from the racing stables of
Evernham Motorsports to Bonneville to try to set a world
speed record for a cup car.
For our Speed Week effort in 2009, we will be constructing
a 1934 Ford bodied gas/fuel roadster. Most of the cars
in this class are ‘32 Ford roadsters because of
their popularity. I feel the ’34 will make a sleeker
Bonneville roadster. Its front grill shell is raked
back 10 degrees, and the rear of the car is aerodynamically
cleaner than the ’32. In addition, the ’34
is allowed 9 more inches in over all car length which
will give it a longer wheel base. The driver’s
compartment is also lengthened allowing a driver to
recline a little more and get down into the car thereby
reducing the height of the roll cage and reducing drag.
Fabrication of chassis and other components will be
done at the facilities of Cutting Edge Metal Specialties.
For
the power plant, I was very fortunate in January to
acquire a genuine Nextel Cup Chevrolet motor from Dale
Earnhardt Inc. This 358 cubic inch engine was built
in June 2006 and had one race distance on it when I
purchased it. With a single four barrel carburetor,
it produced 813 horsepower on the dyno of Van Dyne Engineering
in Huntington Beach, California. If this years results
with this motor in another gas roadster is any indication,
I feel confident this engine will take us to a new world
record in this class at over 230 MPH (see 2007 Bonneville
Results for how this engine performed at Speed Week
this year).
Man’s
quest for speed has never been cheap. With today’s
technology, the high cost associated with auto racing
prohibits most individuals from participating in almost
all forms of motor sports. Bonneville Speed Week is
probably one of the last speed events in the world where
an average guy, thru hard work, determination, and innovative
thinking, can build something himself and then climb
in it and prove what he can do with it. I will be seeking
product sponsors and supporters of this endeavor in
the hopes that the end result will be rewarding for
all involved.
To date the following companies that have supported
and sponsored this effort include Bosch, Redline Oil,
Full Bore Race Products, K & N Air Filters, California
Cycle and Design, and Stuttgart Performance.
With
a great deal of effort, a winning attitude, and working
with the right people, I feel strongly this project
will both exciting and successful, and provide a life
time of memories.
I
hope you can be a part of it!
John Weatherwax
Cutting Edge Metal Specialties
For more information
about John Weatherwax, and Cutting Edge Metal Specialties,
please go to www.CuttingEdgeMetalSpecialties.com.
For more information and pictures from this past years
Bonneville Speed Week, please go to www.SCTA-BNI.org.
