So there’s this site, and I know I’ve mentioned them here before, called Oobject. They bill themselves as ” … Like A Billboard Chart For Gadgets,” and they ain’t lying.
They let anybody come along and rate what they think qualifies as the best “Abandoned Space Technology” or “Futuristic Ross Lovegrove Design” or “Collapsible Gadgets;” you get the idea, long on the aesthetics front, and sometimes short on practicality.
Recently, they decided to have a poll on, of all things “Most Beautiful Land Speed Record Vehicles.”
Well yee-haw!
I’ve got a real Jones for anything LSR related. When I was a kid growing up, Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove were raising the stakes on an almost weekly basis out on the Slat Flats, and that really put the hook in me.
Sure, things have calmed down a lot these days, but they still hold Bonneville Speedweeks every year, and every year, the place is (relatively) packed … well, as “packed” as a place so flat and large that you can see the curvature of the Earth with your naked eye can be.
LSR competition is probably the final frontier of motorsport. There is little to no corporate sponsorship, and there are no real established teams, just established individuals.
It’s run what ya’brung at speeds that Chuck Yeager would recognize and Rick Mears would shake his head at.
And the cars? Hell, they’re about as pure as a ground bound vehicle can get, most of them look like Century Series jet fighters with the wings clipped. Shoot, some of them ARE Century Series jet fighters with the wings clipped.
Go see.
Source: Oobject
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