Editor's Note: All the folks at DRIVE! were very sorry to find out about the passing of Ed "Big
Daddy" Roth. An Estate Fund has been set up to help his wife, Ilene, protect Ed's trademarks and
copyrights. If you're interested in contributing, send a check or money order made payable to Ilene
Roth to: Ilene Roth, c/o Automated Entertainment, P.O. Box 7309, Burbank, CA 91510). For more
information on Ed, please click on the Ratfink links below.
By Ed "Big Daddy" Roth
Oh
my heck. It's good to hear the name Bonneville again. This time it's
in the form of a book "Bonneville Salt Flats" written by Louise Ann
Noeth, or "Land Speed Louise" as she is known by all of the
Bonneville nuts around the world. Man! Whenever I even hear somebody
say "Salt Flats," I get chills up my spine...and for some strange
reason, I get hungry for hamburgers with onions.
I thought I knew a lot about racers and their cars, but Louise has done some research into things I never even knew about "The Flats." The salt addicton that Al Teague talks about in the foreword of the book is curable only by a trip to the flats during Speed Week. It's like nothing else &emdash; ever. Even I, a street cruiser nut, am hooked on the racers and their cars. Can ya dig it? These guys spend all year in the garage building a car that they will only run three or four times during Speed Week. The innovations that are in these cars spread throughout the racing world fast. I started browsing through the book, and I came across pictures of Arfons and Ron Benham (World's Fastest Trailer &emdash; he towed for Hertz at 158 MPH) and all the early guys of hot rodding &emdash; like NHRA founder Wally Parks, Bob Petersen, hot rod photog Eric Rickman, etc.
The stories and the photos are far beyond normal, because Louise digs into the heart of the matter with family involvement, sacrifices of the racers and the dedication that these 21st century speed demons have to the racing sport.
Dig this piece o' Land Speed Louise's prose: "The people who go to the Bonneville Salt Flats are a fascinating bunch. They are people who follow a skinny black oil line, trying to go faster than anyone else has gone before. Some "speed wrinkles" have been doing it quite well for 50 years. Many will tell you it is better than sex, but they have a hard time telling you why. It's a driver's game, not a ride you take shackled to a computer program. Strapped in the car, hurtling along the Salt, it is just you, the machine and the Almighty. Time slows down and the empirical becomes spatial. Bonneville is the ultimate speed laboratory where you can spin out at 200 MPH and not hit a darn thing. The Salt Flats have had more land speed records broken on its surface than any other spot on earth. This is high speed, baby. Not just a few seconds of tromp-your-foot-on-the-throttle and hope you don't get arrested speed, but all-out, flat-out speed, a ragged-edge rapture that only the determined few will experience. On the salt you find the limits of your courage, you learn what daring greatly is all about, and understand why a Bonneville speed record is an internationally respected pedigree."
She also divulges a lot of very valuable "speed secrets" that make engines go faster. Many of you guys that know me have me pegged as a "know-it-all" type of guy, and I don't mind tellin ya I love to pass on stuff that I see or hear…a sort of know-it-all. But here it is, all in one big hardbound book, written only as a woman with boundless resources and energy and a touch of "MAGIC" could do. It's all in there…and if ya gotta have a copy of this coffee table masterpiece, why not get the particulars at 1-800-826-6600.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and Rat Fink are trademarks of Ed Roth (C) 2000.
(Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Rat Fink, Beatnik Bandit, Road Agent, Mysterion, Stealth 2000, Surfite, Wild Child, Mothers Worry, & Dragnut are all trademarks of Ed Roth (C) 2000 / 2001.)
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