Established in 1972, the annual Virginia City Hill Climb (VCHC) is one of the oldest and quirkiest club races. Begot by the Ferrari Owner's Club, the 5.2 mile race snakes through 22 turns from Silver City on Route 341, ending at the door of the sheriff's department in Virginia City, NV. Few of the 22 turns have guardrails, but there have only been a handful of fatalities...
Amir Rosenbaum, adventurer
Only 70 entrants are allowed and while originally it was exclusively for Ferraris, the last 10 years have seen other makes allowed, from supercharged Vipers to Ruf Porsches.
The drivers compete in multiple runs but the times are kept secret until Sunday night, when the fastest are finally announced to all. For 13 years, Amir Rosenbaum battled this hill in an '86 Testarossa, a '93 512TR and, for six years, a leased '92 F40. Finally, he set the fastest time ever of 3:10:53 with an average speed of 98mph in 2002 driving the F40. At one time he was even radar'd entering a 25mph-posted turn at 140mph!
According to Amir, his secret was focus.
"I'd gone to enjoy myself so many times, but in the end I wanted the fastest time, so that's what I focused on. When you're in the groove, everything is silent and happens in slow motion, and that's exactly how it was."
Amir's never been afraid of a challenge. He panned for gold for three years until that get-rich-quick scheme panned out. He then attacked the VCHC for 13 years until he was king of the hill. Now, Amir Rosenbaum has set his sights on a land speed record at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats: all in a day's work for the owner of SpectrePerformance.com
So Amir decided to head west; 120 miles due west of Salt Lake City, to be precise, to the Great Salt Lake at Bonneville.
People have been setting speed records on the salt almost since the automobile was invented. Ab Jenkins made it famous in the '30s in his Duesenberg-based Mormon Meteor. The Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) arrived in 1949 and almost every outright land speed record has been set there ever since.
Bonneville Speed Week is the place to set a record and hopefully gain entry into the famed "2-Club." According to the SCTA, there have been more people in space than have gained membership of its 200mph Club.
To get in, you don't just go 200mph. Anybody can do that! You have to break a record at over 200mph.
Bi-turbo 2.9 liter V8 was fitted with bigger turbos to reach 650hp but Spectre air filters
In the case of the F40, it was placed in the F/BGTS (2.01 to 3.0 liter/Blown Grand Touring Sports) class, where the existing record is 224.458mph, set by Ken Carlson driving a twin-turbo Nissan 300ZX.
Two-twenty-five isn't all that fast when you say it quickly, but as any old salt racer will tell you, "Bonneville ain't easy."
The course is "mostly" hard-packed salt, but as the sun rises and the salt dries, the consistency changes. It's blisteringly hot, sometimes 120F, but it can rain just as quickly and on top of that, you can wait all day to make one run and if something goes wrong, you have start over.
We're getting ahead of ourselves, though.
To prep the F40 for Bonneville, Amir (who now owned the car, rather than leased it) turned to salt racing legends So-Cal Speed Shop in Pomona, CA.
Under the guidance of founder Alex Xydias, So-Cal has been setting records since 1947, most recently with a fleet of Ecotec-powered GM racecars. To comply with the SCTA rules, So-Cal built a seven-point rollcage for the F40, complete with Hans device. They also added dual fire suppression systems: one for the driver and one for the motor, along with a solid aluminum firewall. They then added twin parachutes.
Why the 'chutes? Well, big, wide Pirellis don't work on the slick surface at Bonneville. Experience has shown that records are broken on skinny tires made tractable by weight - and lots of it. In this case, 136 lb of ballast was added. Next year, Amir admits, as much as 1000 lb may be used to prevent the car from "floating" on the surface.