High Speed

Words: Roger Meiners

“The last four years we’ve been trying to get traction,” says Chrysler engine engineer Ken Hardman, “But we are still spinning the tires at 280 mph.” The spinning tires are the ones on his land speed racer, a pencil-thin 25-foot-long car, powered by a turbocharged 2.1L four-cylinder Dodge engine that makes well over 700 horsepower. His search for traction is the key to his quest for 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, a desolate 44,000-acre speed paradise near Wendover, Utah. Hardman has been making the annual pilgrimage to Bonneville (the “Salt,” to veterans) for the last 18 years—a time span during which he has already set 20 land speed records.

It all started in his junior year at Santa Clara University near his home in California’s Silicon Valley. He was considering a fresh challenge for his senior engineering thesis. His thoughts turned toward land speed racing—an intriguing motorsport he heard about from a fellow ski racer. Hardman saw the Southern California Timing Association’s rulebook at his friend’s house. It contained a tantalizing list of current records in each class. “I saw huge implausible numbers and wondered, ‘How can this be?’” he said.

Hardman called the SCTA and obtained a current copy of the rule book. It listed scores of opportunities to set records. Hardman along with three other students decided to build a car as their theses for mechanical engineering degrees.

Despite all that is written in the SCTA rule book, Hardman says, “There really are no rules; anything goes, as long as the vehicle meets the safety regulations.” A look at the photos on the SCTA Web site (www.SCTA-BNI.org) bears this out. Displayed there are hundreds of different ways to go fast. But what is “fast?” Fast at the Salt Flats and dry lakes can be whatever speed gets your heart pounding; but, there is another kind of “fast” in land speed racing: fast enough to set a record.

Hardman and his team settled on a “lakester”—technically a specially-constructed streamlined vehicle with exposed wheels—to run in class “K” (for 500 cc engines). As part of the selection process; he created a math model—“did the math,” as he terms it—to predict performance potential. “Why build a car without knowing whether it has the ability to meet the goal,” he says.

The result of this engineering exercise was a record on the very first run the car ever made. The scene was the El Mirage dry lake in California in 1992. The speed: 120.578 mph. Fast? Sure. But the meaning of “fast” would be ever-changing over the next 17 years as Hardman sought more and more speed and more records. “Like any addiction, you always need more,” he says. “Part of the attraction of Bonneville is going fast,” says Hardman, “but it is also a real significant engineering exercise. That’s what makes it so interesting. The problem of speed is totally open ended. The solution is not defined because there are no rules.” The other aspect of the sport is the friendships that are made along the way. “I couldn’t do this without all the help I have gotten from the volunteer crew that helps to build and run the car. It isn’t all me—it is far too large a task for one person.”

He and his crew transformed the lakester into a “streamliner” for 1997 at Bonneville by moving the wheels inside the bodywork (he has two front axle assemblies—to put the wheels either inside or outside the body in order to run as a lakester or a streamliner). He went 178.895 mph to set another record, but he fought stability and traction problems.

In 2001 Hardman set a record at 194.248 mph. Suddenly 200 mph looked quite possible. A record above that speed would qualify Hardman for the 200 mph Club, a very exclusive honor at Bonneville. Among other things, members receive a red hat signifying their accomplishment. It’s a highly-prized possession for a land speed racer.

Hardman went back home and “did the math” to come up with a combination he thought had the potential to put him over the top. A turbocharged 750 cc four-cycle engine would do the trick, according to his model. It worked. He went 211.888 mph in 2002 to get a life membership in the “Two Club.”

While continuing his quest for speed, Hardman earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois in 1994, and then came to Chrysler’s engine development and calibration group in Auburn Hills, Mich., in 1995, where (one of many examples) he did the dynamometer development and calibration work on the 6.1L HEMI®.

The current car configuration made its debut in 2005—with a two-liter four-cylinder Dodge Stratus racing engine from the late ‘90s North American Touring Car Championship. Hardman and his team turbocharged it (among a lot of other things) to get over 700 horsepower and attached it to a used Viper GTS-R Tremec T56 six-speed transmission—a veteran of two 24-hour races—and added an Aston Martin hydraulic shift mechanism. Hardman’s father, an electrical engineer, designed and built the first transmission control system. By the way, Hardman’s mother, a successful businesswoman, is in charge of logistics, food and hydration for the team during Bonneville outings. His late grandfather, Ed Hilton, fabricated the first car’s wheels.

Hardman celebrated the new Dodge Stratus turbo package’s 2006 debut by getting sideways in the fourth mile of Bonneville’s Long Course at 250 mph. The resultant aerodynamic side lift tore the canopy from the car. After that, he built a new double tail fin and rear wing assembly, which has helped, but traction remains a continuing problem.

In 2008 Hardman began thinking about really big speed when he went over 250 mph without being able to stay on the gas for a full run. That big speed came the next year, 2009, when he hit 291.673 mph for a new record, and went out of the speed trap at over 300 mph. “300 mph! That’s crazy,” says Hardman, “But I still want to do it.”

His goal is now to get a 300 mph record in the 3.0L Blown Gas streamliner class. This will get him a new hat. A very rare blue one that says he is a member of the Two Club’s 300 mph Chapter.