More than once, Craig Breedlove's obsession has nearly killed him, and still he can't let go.
Paul Trapani
The car's F-4 Phantom jet engine has more horsepower than the entire field of the Indianapolis 500 but, so far, nowhere to run.
Breedlove hopes to set a new land speed record -- over 800 mph -- in 2001, when he'll be 64.
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The last time was four years ago, when he set out once again to break the world land speed record by piloting his supersonic jet car across a Nevada desert at nearly 700 mph. He was 59 at the time, and it had been 31 years since he had run the car, when he climbed into the tiny cockpit of his beloved Spirit of America, a 44-foot, horizontal missile.
With the jet engine blazing at nearly full power, he lifted the ski brake that anchored the car to the ground and, in a roar of flame and earsplitting sound, sent himself screaming across the desert floor amid a giant plume of dust, pinned to his seat by 2 G's of acceleration. He was a mile down the course in five seconds, but it took less time than that for Breedlove to realize something was terribly wrong. As soon as the afterburner kicked in, he says, "I went, "Oh, man, we're way over the top.' I knew the car velocity was way too high."
But as he eased up on the throttle, a sudden 15 mph gust of wind caught the car and flipped it on its side. Breedlove found himself skidding across the ground like a giant Roman candle, the desert floor roaring by inches beneath him, careening at nearly supersonic speed toward a mountain range at the edge of the playa. Blinded by the dirt smashing against the windshield, and expecting any moment to be smeared across the desert floor, Breedlove instinctively managed to coerce the car into a 675 mph U-turn, carving a 2.7-mile-long parabola into the earth before the car miraculously righted itself and eventually coasted to a stop. When the dust settled, Breedlove climbed out of the cockpit unscratched and unfazed.
But perhaps the most remarkable thing about that story -- which Breedlove relates with an almost conscious nonchalance -- is not that he survived, but that next year, a few months after his 64th birthday, he wants to try it all over again.Craig Breedlove has one -- and perhaps only one -- need in life: to drive faster than any human being ever has. It is a need that has nearly cost him his life, wrecked four marriages, and maxed out his credit cards. It has also made him famous, though not nearly so much these days as in his heyday 40 years ago.
To many baby boomers, Breedlove was and remains an icon of the '60s, as much a part of the culture as bell-bottoms and flower power, Woodstock and weed. He was the subject of endless newspaper and magazine profiles around the world. The Beach Boys even wrote a song about him. Over the course of the decade, he established himself as the fastest man on wheels. He designed and drove his rocket car to five world land speed records, becoming the first human to travel faster than 400, 500, and 600 mph on land.
But as the age of muscle cars passed, and the cost of setting speed records rose, interest faded, and Breedlove entered something
like retirement. He went into real estate, where he made his private fortune, and was content, it seemed, to rest on his reputation. Content, that is, until the British stole the record from the Americans, and he found a way to get back into the game.
When a well-financed British team obliterated the United States' record in 1983, Breedlove saw it as an opening to appeal to American companies' sense of patriotism to sponsor his next run. Rumors began that the British were trying to break the sound barrier on land -- but Breedlove planned to be the first to do it. In 1988, after a 20-year hiatus from racing, he sold the boat he was living on and traded some real estate for an old car dealership in the small Northern California farming town of Rio Vista, which he converted to a workshop in the hope of relaunching the attack on the land speed record.
His obsession has resurfaced with a vengeance. Now, 30 years after his last land speed record, Breedlove aims to get back into his rebuilt rocket, fire up her jet engine, and push her to 800 mph in 2001.
So far, however, his mission remains frustratingly unaccomplished. Since that botched 1996 attempt, Breedlove has been foiled by technical problems and a lack of financial backing. Though he had a series of sponsors at one point, all funds ran out in February. Work on the car has screeched nearly to a halt, and the skeleton of the Spirit of America sits motionless in the cool darkness of Breedlove's immaculate, 12,000-square-foot workshop. The government-backed British team, meanwhile, made good on its pledge to break the sound barrier, with a record 763 mph run in 1997.
Still, Breedlove remains focused on the goal. He continues to tinker on the car, and pores over computer data that show the vehicle can easily go 800 mph. He is constantly pondering the nuances of gyroscopic forces and steering ratios, even as he showers and eats. He exercises every day to make sure he can fit into the cramped cockpit, and he has even assembled a crew of about 30 people who would temporarily abandon their families to help run the car.
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