Just A Handful Of Hours On The Bonneville Salt Flats Were So Overwhelming I Tasted The Salt

For over a century, gearheads have descended onto the Bonneville Salt Flats in the northwest corner of Utah to run their cars and motorcycles as fast as they can. While the flats are not the only place in the world where speed records are made, nor the place where the fastest land-speed record was broken, it’s still a Mecca for fans of machines built solely to achieve maximum velocity. This week, I’m experiencing Bonneville for the first time, and I’m already obsessed. I even tasted the salt! Here are all of the awesome things I’ve seen in just a handful of hours.

The lovely folks of JCB invited me to this year’s Bonneville SpeedWeek to watch the firm’s hydrogen-fueled, digger-engine-powered land speed racer hopefully set a new record. But I’m also here to experience everything that SpeedWeek has to offer. Bonneville is packed with, so far as I can see, hundreds of people vying to set all sorts of records.

I’ve seen so much in my short time here thus far. The variety of cars and motorcycles here is greater than most car shows, and the teams running these vehicles are so happy to invite you over for a chat about how they built their machines. Then there’s the salt flats themselves. I’ve been finding myself breathless just standing still on the salt, and it isn’t because of the oppressive heat that keeps pummeling Utah right now.

(Full Disclosure: JCB invited me to Bonneville SpeedWeek to hopefully watch its Hydromax make history. JCB paid for my travel, lodging, and some great meals.)

A Teenage Dream

I had no real idea what to expect. The only time I’ve ever been by the salt flats was back in 2020, when I drove home from the Oregon Gambler 500. I drove by the Bonneville Speedway on I-80, but never did more than stop at a rest stop and take a picture. I never even drove out onto the salt.

I have long known that Bonneville is the home of speed freaks like myself. I’ve even been told countless stories about how, once you experience racing a car down the salt, you become addicted, and you cannot stop thinking about coming back and doing it again. One of my favorite episodes of Top Gear was the American road trip where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May took a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Dodge Challenger SRT8, and a Cadillac CTS-V out onto the salt. Click here if you don’t see the embed:

Going to Bonneville has been a bucket list item for me ever since I was a teenager. Now, I’m finally here, and I cannot get enough of it.

The adventure began on the approach road to the speedway. I always sort of thought that access to the flats was gained simply by driving off the road. While you technically can do that, there is a paved road that leads into the flats that terminates at a sign that tells you where you are. I didn’t even know that this sign existed!

The sign isn’t even where the speedway is, either, as you have to drive pretty far past the entrance just to reach the pits.
I was surprised that the salt leading to the track wasn’t as smooth as images might suggest. Instead, it was sort of like driving on a damaged road in Michigan, or on a desert trail. I suppose that last one isn’t too surprising, since Bonneville is pretty much a 12-mile by 5-mile swath of salt-encrusted desert. Either way, the shuttle vans driving us to the pits of SpeedWeek had to do some legitimate off-roading in areas, and honestly, that made it even more fun.

Also a delightful curiosity was the chaos of people driving to and from the event. While the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals, Inc., the organizers of SpeedWeek, try to create something resembling a highway in the salt, people sort of just do their own thing.

As a result, if you look out your left window, you might see some heavy-duty pickup truck with a long trailer crawling slowly. If you look out your right window, you might see someone on a stock Honda CBR sportbike going way faster than everyone else. Then, there might be some guy on a tuned minibike going even faster than the Honda.

Technically, there are speed limits during SpeedWeek, but people seemingly just go their own pace.

This year’s SpeedWeek is a little different than usual because much of Utah is on fire right now. The smoke is somewhat thick in the air, and visibility is low enough that the mountains in the background are somewhat obscured.

Still, even with the smoke in the air, the salt flats are almost indescribable. Once I stepped out of the JCB shuttle van, I was stunned.

Photographs of the flats do not prepare you for what you will actually witness. I found myself standing still in a seemingly endless sea of salt. Whenever there was a brief moment of not hearing an engine, a generator, or an impact ugga-dugga-ing away, there was a serene quiet that I just haven’t experienced anywhere else.

In a normal quiet environment, you still hear trees, wildlife, and the wind rustling through whatever’s on the ground. But that doesn’t happen in Bonneville because there’s nothing but salt out there. It’s a dead quiet where the sounds in your head are louder than anything else. Honestly, I cannot remember experiencing quietness quite like the salt flats at any recent time in my life.

Then there was the vastness of it all. A part of me feels like this is the closest I’ll get to standing on the Moon, though I know that the Moon is not a mammoth ball of salt. In every direction, the salt continued to seemingly infinity, and all I could see were mirages.

Something I learned rather quickly is that the heat is unending and relentless. The thermometer reading has started with a nine for the entire time I’ve been out on the flats, and there have been no clouds, no real shade, and only minor breezes. If you want shade, you have to bring it yourself. Thankfully, JCB gave me a hat that puts a small shadow on my face, and there’s an air-conditioned tent to run to if things get particularly oppressive. I also came armed with my trusty hydration pack, which has been a rather genius decision. I’ve found myself just sipping on water throughout the day, and I think it’s been a lifesaver.

Need For Speed

Once I snapped myself out of salt hypnosis, I got into SpeedWeek fever. During SpeedWeek, teams from all over America gather somewhat loosely into the flats, making a sort of makeshift pits. The pits go on as far as the eye can see, and everyone has something interesting going on.

I walked only a portion of the pits and saw a little bit of everything from vintage motorcycles and rat rod cars to high-tech streamliners and even pickup trucks. Seemingly, if someone thought they could set some sort of speed record at Bonneville, they brought their vehicle here.

Devotees of the salt told me about some of the craziest cars out here. Some people, I was told, will run Ford Model A engines in their hot rods. These engines aren’t capable of breaching 200 mph, but they’re still special because, technically, these engines are basically a century-old design.

Then there are the guys running cars that have been coming to the flats for longer than their drivers have been alive. These old rides have been around the block for so long that there are black-and-white photos of them hanging from the walls of local bars.

I was able to learn the stories of some of these cars, which you’ll be able to read about soon!

There are also extremely experimental types. I mean, look at the transformation of this Metro:

I’ve been told that there’s also a Rotax 50cc supercharged scooter trying to set a record at SpeedWeek. Sadly, I have not found it yet. I hope I do locate it, because I have so many questions to ask its rider, and I just want to see the wonderful creation.

My mind has been constantly getting blown and re-blown during my time on the salt thus far. There have been surprises around every corner, such as colossal push vehicles or the awesome appearance of Nolan Sykes of Donut Media.

I’ve been told that this year’s turnout is much thinner than most SpeedWeeks. Because of that, there are times when drivers can pretty much run laps of the course because the line is so short. Some folks seemed to have been bummed by this, but honestly, I’m so happy to be here that I am not concerned about the scale of it.

I found myself having so much fun that, admittedly, I scooped up some salt with my hands and tasted it. Was that a bad move? Probably, don’t tell my doctor. But I tell you what, that salt tasted better than what comes out of the Morton canister at home.

Between gawking at the wonderful cars out here and chatting with their drivers, we’ve also had moments of watching JCB’s Hydromax get worked on and raced.

JCB Hit A Little Snag, But Isn’t Stopping

I briefly talked about the details of the Hydromax in my opening article, which you can read about by clicking here. I’ll absolutely provide the juicy details once I’m back home and on my proper computer.

The JCB team has been working around the clock in an effort to reach three goals. First, they want their hydrogen racer to beat the 350.092 mph speed record set by the JCB Dieselmax in 2006. When they do this, JCB also hopes to set a hydrogen car record, too. That, JCB hopes, will happen by Thursday afternoon. Then, next week, JCB hopes to set an FIA world hydrogen speed record.

I got to watch the car launch on Monday, as the Hydromax’s driver, former RAF pilot Andy Green OBE, qualified for the license he needed to actually perform the land speed record runs.

The Hydromax’s engines started with a thunderous roar, and the wild part is that these musical hydrogen engines weren’t polluting Utah while they sang.

Throughout the day, Andy’s speeds increased until he hit a little bit over 300 mph. He succeeded in qualifying for the speed runs, but the car did encounter one unfortunate issue. During the last run of the day, the forward engine’s monitoring system detected what it believed to be low oil pressure. The engine’s computer, acting just like a heavy diesel, shut the engine down to protect the internals. Andy then slowed the vehicle down, deployed the vehicle’s parachute, and completed the run safely.

The many engineers on hand believe the issue traces to the front oil cooler, and while the issue has been rectified, engineers aren’t sure if the front engine had been damaged from potentially having low oil pressure. JCB isn’t taking any chances.

The engine crew pulled a practical all-nighter to disassemble the front of the Hydromax, remove the front engine, and replace it with one of the four spares.

The engine concern delayed JCB by about a day. The expectation was that the car would set the first record run on Tuesday, then lock in the record with a second run on Wednesday. Then, the goal moved to doing a shakedown run on Tuesday with the first record run on Wednesday.

Not even that happened on Tuesday because the engine replacement procedure is so delicate. Not only does the crew have to replace the engine and rebuild the car, but they also have to perform an alignment, make sure all of the systems work, and perform initial testing. Since salt racers had a curfew of 5 p.m., JCB just didn’t see itself making it back to the salt in time. So, JCB wasn’t on the salt on Tuesday.

Now, JCB will do both the shakedown run and its first speed run on Wednesday. Hopefully, everything with the car will be sorted enough that the oil issue will be no more than just a hiccup on the way to victory. I hope I get to witness history in the making.

Until then, I have been fully embracing SpeedWeek culture.

The more I talked to drivers and owners, the more I wanted to be one of them. I’ve seen more passion in going fast on salt than I’ve seen in some romantic relationships. These people truly love what they do, are proud of their work, and are obsessed with every little gain in speed. The salt addiction I’ve been hearing about is so true, and I think I’ve been infected with it.

Later in the day, we went to a bar near Bonneville that’s famous for its patronage by SpeedWeek racers. It felt a lot like that bar from Top Gun, where everyone had a wild story about going fast in something. Many of the guys in the bar were covered in grease and oil from hours of wrenching in the salt.

After only a handful of hours as media and as a spectator, I now have a new bucket list item. Alright, so I achieved my dream of going to Bonneville. Now, I want to be a part of Bonneville. I want to be one of the ones going all out for as much speed as possible. I want to, as drivers describe, feel like I’m on another planet and be one with my vehicle as I hit speeds that not even cars on the fastest paved racetracks go. Oh no, I think I have salt fever.

Seriously, I have spent much of yesterday thinking about what I’d take out onto the salt. Maybe my Genuine Stella? Maybe a Yugo? Shoot, maybe the CrossCab? I’m not sure, but I feel like I will keep thinking about this until it happens one day. Maybe the Autopian should do a land speed car, but in the wacky way that we do everything.

Yes, all of this came from maybe less than 10 hours on the salt in total. My heart has been racing since the moment I stepped onto the flats, and it pretty much hasn’t stopped since. Dare I say? This is even cooler than Watkins Glen, and that was already a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Yet, I still haven’t seen everything yet.

If you have been on the fence about coming to Bonneville, just do it. You won’t regret it. Even if you aren’t into ludicrous speed, there’s going to be something for you out here. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll even see my crazy self out there.

All images: Author