Congratulations to Ron Main & George Poteet on becoming the world’s first turbocharged car to go over 400 miles per hour. Speed Demon goes 401.285! They say that if you have an ounce of motorsports in your blood then you have to get to the salt once in your life. I would like to think that I would qualify as a worthy representative and was looking forward to attending my first Bonneville speedweek this August. Unfortunately another tradeshow and logistics prevented my travel plans and I continue to dream of setting the cruise control on the rental car and letting go of the steering wheel, for 10 minutes at a time. The reason for going originally besides to take in the incredible diversity of people and machines was to support our sponsored race team of Ron Main and George Poteet who were chasing the incredible record of the fastest piston driven vehicle on earth. Set at 417.02 mph, the record is currently held by a twin 417 cid HEMI combination that runs on a tasty cocktail mix of nitromethane and methanol. Ron and George arrived at the salt with a Kenny Dutteweiler built 299 cubic inch V8 small block powered by a Turbonetics TNX-115mm Forged Billet/Ceramic Ball Bearing turbocharger that came right off the shelf! If it sounds crazy to go up against nearly three times the displacement then you may not be familiar with the magic of Duttweiler powerplants and tuning and the shear resolve, willpower and dedication of the Poteet & Main crew. Here’s the thing… Ron piloted a four banger flathead to a still standing record of 302.674 and the team went 345 mph last year to set another world record for fastest 4 cylinder in a more modern GM then Dodge engine. You got that right? A FOUR CYLINDER… at 345 mph! So going into this past meet the odds looked pretty good to me.
A 350+mph pass on the flats
There were 560 Entries: 381 cars and 179 bikes including 56 Class Changes for a total 504 vehicles. There were 3,108 timed runs over the 3 courses and sometimes no matter what you do there is still this dude named Murphy that really wants to stick it you. And this time he stuck his business right into the teams rear end. Literally. Four rear ends were lost from the tremendous amount of torque generated by the Turbonetics TNX-115mm turbocharged, Duttweiler tuned and built engine. The team was unable to use all of the cars power in the low gears and had a difficult time getting the car to reach its full speed potential. On Thursday August 13th, 2009 the team got a final clean pass in for the week and the read end lived to go 401 mph exit speed from the course.
Besides the big record there was the matter of Speedweek bragging rights and the HOT ROD trophy was at stake. The trophy has been awarded since the first Bonneville Nationals in ‘49 and was originally visualized by Wally Parks as the honor for the fastest one-way time at Speed Week. Winning this perennial bronze has remained the crowning achievement to land speeders at the Bonneville Salt Flats. And this year it went to Ron Main, George Poteet and the entire Speed Demon crew for their amazing 400+mph pass.
We can’t wait to see what this team is going to do when they can actually use all of the potential in this incredible machine at the FIA meet in September and gun for that “World’s fastest piston driven car” record that looms just in front of them. Good luck Ron, George and the rest of the team.
Keep it in boost,
TurboT2
Poteet & Main's Speed Demon Booneville Streamliner
