Chapter 2 This Needs SALT

My first exposure to land speed racing was by way of a fellow I had met purchasing my first Studebaker, a 5,000 mile all original R2 Avanti. Greg had found the car, stored in a garage for the last 43 years, and brought it to running condition. When I answered the ad I had no idea what chain of events would be triggered. You see, Greg had another Studebaker that he was racing at Bonneville. A 1953 coupe that was run with several powerplants and had already set several records.

Months later, when Greg came by our place to check in on my progress with the Avanti, I learned of the Salt2Salt race team. After a few war stories I was hooked. After meeting the rest of the team at a swap meet and, unbeknownst to me, passing the verbal interview, I was asked to join their effort.  Later that year I made the pilgrimage to the salt with the Salt2Salt team and the die was cast.

 

Very quickly, a plan I had been working on, namely running a GT Hawk at the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Races, was detoured to run the car at Bonneville first. In the 2 day drive back home we scoured the rule book for a configuration to run the Hawk on the salt. It didn't take long to decide to run as Studebaker did in the early '60's; a stock bodied car with safety and endurance modifications to represent the brand and follow the sales mantra of the 60's. "What wins on Sunday sells on Monday." Thus the Classic Production Supercharged class was selected. But what about engine size?

Studebaker as an engine manufacturer had a long and storied past of successful endurance engines. The last of the line was a group of V8's, the fastest of which were supercharged. But displacement was not their strong suit. The largest displacement V8 raced and sold by Studebaker was the R3 and R4 engines. With a displacement of 304.5 cubic inches, modern racing classes at Bonneville would place those engines near the top of D Class by Southern California Timing Association (SCTA). The destroked engine was 259 cubic inches which falls into Class E. Studebaker engines are raced to this day at Bonneville, many holding and breaking world speed records in those classes.

 

The Salt 2 Salt boys had built a 182 cubic inch V8 Studebaker engine.  In tech inspection, it was confirmed to be the smallest displacement Stude V8 ever run at Bonneville.  Always striving to be different and with a keen sense of symmetry, I felt it would be fun to build the largest displacement Studebaker that had ever been raced on the Salt. At the time, I was thinking about boring a block to the razor's edge. Enter fate.