Editor’s Note: Time flies when you’re having fun. As we close out another year, we’re spending the last week of 2016 looking at our top stories of the year. Today, we’re re-examining some of our most-read, most-popular feature articles of the year-gone-by.
Chasing 500 MPH: Land Speed Racers Use ‘Secret’ Track to Stay Ready for Bonneville
(Image/OnAllCylinders)
Pop Quiz: Where would you go to test a land speed race car capable of reaching speeds north of 500 miles per hour?
Right. That’s the same problem every land-speed racer has.
Rob Freyvogel, who built an LSR Streamliner designed to crack 500 mph, needed to find a place outside of the Salt Flats themselves to prepare for Bonneville. Using Google Maps, he scouted a 7.2-mile stretch of flat land in Nevada.
It was perfect. Except for the wild donkeys.
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The Bandit is Back: Burt Reynolds Introduces the New Bandit Trans Am
Because leaving well enough alone isn’t a concept car people acknowledge as valid, the folks at Trans Am Depot built a modern-day version of the legendary “Smokey and the Bandit” Trans Am based on the fifth-generation Chevy Camaro’s Zeta platform.
Burt Reynolds got involved. Bandit fans freaked. Good times were had by all.
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Crew Chief Confidential: A Longtime Crew Chief’s Perspective on the NHRA’s Pro Stock Rule Changes
Rob Downing celebrates another Team Summit win at a race in 2015.
NHRA bid farewell to carbureted engines in Pro Stock heading into the 2016 season, requiring the Pro Stock teams to make wholesale changes to their cars and fundamentally changing the entire category.
We caught up with longtime NHRA crew chief Rob Downing to discuss.
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Driving Like a Girl: A Winning Trend 50 Years in the Making
Shirley Muldowney in 1971 (Image/Automotive Hall of Fame)
It was a banner year for female NHRA racers in 2016. But after 50 years of female success at the highest levels of the sport, one wonders why it remains a novelty.
Racing legend Shirley Muldowney had thoughts on the matter. That conversation with Muldowney was among the year’s most interesting for us. Good times.
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Toy Story IV: The Resurrection of Grumpy Jenkins’ Original Grumpy’s Toy IV Camaro
We had a chance encounter with a Pittsburgh, PA-based couple who claimed to have acquired and restored an original Grumpy Jenkins Z/28 Camaro. Enter Grumpy’s Toy IV, which dominated drag strips in the late-1960s, and was brought back to life by Dale Carvender and Vicki Bolla.
We were convinced of its authenticity. Are you?
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