THE FASTEST TRACK

The last time Craig Breedlove and his Spirit of America were at Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada, they were sliding on their side at 675 mph in what was certainly the world’s fastest U-turn.

Breedlove, 60, was in the early stages of trying to regain the world land-speed record on the desolate dry lake bed last October when a gust of wind tipped over the 9,000-pound missile. Breedlove, already the first to break 400, 500 and 600 mph in man’s quest for the ultimate in ground speed, was not hurt, but extensive damage to the Spirit of America temporarily ended the quest.

This week, both man and machine are back. And depending on the weather in the desert north of Reno, in the early dawn hours one day this week or next, Breedlove will attack Richard Noble’s record of 633.468 mph, then 700 and later perhaps the sound barrier.

Noble, who took the record back to Britain in 1983 after Breedlove and other Americans had held it for 19 years, will also be at Black Rock with a new seven-ton monster called Thrust SSC.

Having the two speed freaks at the same site at the same time evokes memories of the Bonneville Salt Flat duels between Breedlove and Art Arfons when the record changed hands six times in 13 months in 1964 and ’65.

“I’ve done it before, and ever since Richard came over here and took the record . . . I’ve ached to get it back,” Breedlove said shortly before leaving his headquarters in the Sacramento River hamlet of Rio Vista with his refurbished Spirit of America.

Making some modifications, Breedlove needed a year and spent about $2 million repairing the car.

Breedlove, to whom high-speed slides in land-speed record attempts are nothing new, discusses his 600-plus mph slide as clinically as if he were explaining how to back down a driveway.

“When the wind hit from the side, I didn’t know what was happening but the car did what it was supposed to do,” he said. “It got into the wind. That pointed me left, heading off course. My normal reaction was to turn right and make a correction.

“The wind lifted the left rear wheel, causing it to yaw to the left. When I corrected to come right, the right side came up and it went on its side very quickly. I had dirt in the windshield, so I couldn’t see what was happening, but I knew we were well over 600. I thought I’d probably had it. I expected to start rolling, but the car stayed on its side, stabilized in that position.

“I decided to do nothing until I got a point of reference. I shut down the engines, but I didn’t want to put the [para]chutes out. The car kept turning right until it got to 90 degrees to the course and then started swinging around and suddenly flipped back on its wheels.

“That’s when I put the ‘chutes out. It happened so quickly, I was confused but I didn’t get excited. When the car stopped, I still didn’t know what had really happened, I didn’t know about the side wind. If I had known, I would not have made the attempt.”

Why he didn’t know turned out to be a problem of communication. It sounds simple after the fact, but it came down to whether “one-five” meant 1.5 miles or 15 miles.

Breedlove explains:

“As I was making final checks for the run, the wind changed and I was not apprised of it. Or maybe I should say, not apprised correctly. Conditions at the starting line don’t always reflect conditions down course, so when I checked, I was told ‘1.5,’ which would have been fine.

“Going over the check list took about 40 minutes, so when I asked for a wind report a second time, I was told ‘one-five’ again. I assumed it was 1.5, like it had been, but it had changed to 15, far too much side wind to make an attempt.

“We’re going to change our way of communicating, I can assure you that.”

Once Breedlove succeeds in surpassing both Noble’s record and 700 mph--he says it’s not a question of if he can, but when he can--he may climb out of the cockpit and put the car on autopilot in an attempt to go supersonic.

“There is really no way to ascertain exactly what will happen when a car hits the sound barrier,” he said. “What we want to find out is if the car will stay on the ground. It will be the ultimate wind tunnel test--without the dummy in the seat.”

Stan Barrett, in a rocket-powered car designed by scientist Bill Fredrick, recorded a terminal speed of 739.666 mph at Edwards Air Force Base in 1979, but it is not accepted by land-speed record authorities because official records are the average of two one-mile runs from opposite directions. Barrett’s run, which equaled the speed of sound, was one way only and measured in a 52-foot trap.

Speeds necessary to break the sound barrier vary with temperature and altitude. Barrett’s 739, for instance, was made in 20 degrees. At 32 degrees, it would need to be 741.8 mph, at 100 degrees it is 792.

To prepare himself for the unknown, Breedlove sat for hours in the cramped cocoon that is his safety capsule.

“I sit in it to familiarize myself with all the controls,” he said. “It’s important to be adept at finding things without having to look. Vibration is something you cannot escape with solid, graphite wheels, so everything that can happen inside the cockpit must become automatic.”

Age, he says, is not a factor, although it has been 32 years since he came out of Venice to set records five times in earlier jet-powered Spirit of America cars.

“When we ran last year, I felt more comfortable in the car than I have in my whole life,” he said. “I’m much more emotionally fit than I was back in the old days. Of course, as I get older, I have to keep putting instruments farther away.”

One major difference from his earlier cars is that this year’s model, instead of jet fuel, will use 92-octane unleaded gasoline to power the turbojet engine.

Noble’s Thrust SSC, which will be driven by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green, will be powered by two jet engines capable of producing 110,000 horsepower.

“We’re going to need separate runways, maybe side-by-side, because the English machine is so heavy it will make deeper tracks in the desert floor than the Spirit of America,” Breedlove said. “It should be no problem, because we have 14 to 15 miles available for our runs and it is wide enough for about 14 lanes.”

Breedlove plans to use about a two-mile run-up to the measured mile in his shakedown runs, about half what he used last year.

“Four miles turned out to be way too long for a 650-mph run,” he said. “We might have been headed for a 750 based on our tapes, which would have been way too early in our planning to get up to such speed. By using a shorter approach, we can gradually move the car back as we gain confidence.

“Both cars are in their infancy stage, so it’s hard to say what will happen, either with the Spirit of America or Noble’s car. It’s going to be like a baby growing up. We must crawl before we walk, and walk before we run.”