8/26/2023 0 Comments Salt flat racer![]() The Camaro was mostly for the younger members of the team to qualify for the 130-mph class. The Camaro had a stock V-8, stock tranny and some suspension upgrades.ĭave hoped to drive the Firebird over 200 mph. The Firebird had a GM LT1 V-8, a beefed up THM 350 transmission, a full roll cage, a parachute, a nitrous oxide system, racing tires, racing wheel covers and a Ford 9-inch rear axle. That was the first of several loosely organized evening sessions during which a bunch of old salts and a group of young “shakers” got a bright red Firebird and a dark blue ’91 Camaro ready to race at the Salt Flats. “We’re having a work night at FVTC,” he said. Then August rolled around and he called me. Then Sarna got the idea to take cars, students and volunteers to Bonneville.īetween April and July, Sarna’s invitation to take a once-in-a-lifetime vacation seemed almost like a vision. Wheel wells had to be enlarged with snippers to accommodate One of the adult advisors helps two students chain the Camaro’s rear suspension to make the car sit The crew’s average age was probably 40 although half were students,įormer students and friends in their 20s. While the red car was being tuned, students and adult advisers worked on the Camaro in the school’s main shop area. Students raced the car at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna on specially designated High School Drag Nights during the summer. They built an ’86 Firebird that ran the entire Hot Rod Power Tour on E85 fuel. The Northeast Wisconsin Beat the Heat chapter was comprised of students, police officers, tech and high school instructors and adult volunteers. The powerful V-8 kicked to life in this small one-room shop at Fox Valley Tech. In his spare time, Dave rebuilt engines (like the one in my ’36 Pontiac), raced snowmobiles, taught Ford techs in Dearborn, Michigan, competed in the Great American race, served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, again returned to teaching and started a “Beat the Heat” kids-versus-cops drag racing program for Fox Valley Technical College students and local high school kids.Įarplugs allowed Sarna to keep tuning the engine while other crew members covered their ears as Dave didn’t stay in the advertising business very long and ultimately went back to sharing his automotive technology skills with students at Fox Valley Technical College ( ) in Appleton, Wisconsin. We met when he briefly left teaching to sell magazine advertising. His terse statement was the start of a journey that exactly five months later would have me lying under a Pontiac Firebird in Northwestern Utah helping a bunch of old hot rodders and about a half-dozen “Gearheads Under 30” rebuild a rear axle on the Salt! “You’re going to Bonneville with me!” Sarna said. ![]() Munro was 68 and riding a 47-year-old machine when he set his last record in 1967. On the label was a picture of actor Anthony Hopkins and the logo of the movie “World’s Fastest Indian.” That film tells the story of New Zealander Burt Monro who set records with an Indian motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the 1960s. Let’s Join Some Young and Older Motorheads There.ĭAVE SARNA WALKED into my office last May and threw a DVD case on my desk. Ap| By John Gunnell The Lure of Driving Flat Out at Bonneville Is a Strong One.
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