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The Team Vesco Turbinator II driven by 76-year-old Dave Spangler eclipsed 503 mph while holding an eye-popping 493 average in the measured mile on Oct. 2 2018 at the Bonneville SaltFlats in Utah. “I finally hit the sweet spot,” said Spangler. “Stability is not a problem. The car was planted in the fifth mile; I was stopped by the 7.5-mile marker. There is certainly more left in this car.” However, a land speed record -- national or world -- requires two runs with the record speed the average of both. For an FIA world record, a car must complete both runs in one hour over the same measured mile -- down and back. National records are an earned average going the same direction over a two-day period.
National events normally have too many vehicles to swap directions in less than 60 minutes, so any racer who breaks a record on a first run is invited to “impound.” The next morning, all the impounded vehicles are the first to the starting line for the second run and a chance at the record book. Rain and wind, however, canceled second runs and meant no official record this time. “The course was the best we had seen in more than a decade,” said Turbinator co-driver and crew chief Eric Ritter, of Queens, New York, of the 503-mph run. “The thin surface was rock hard, without soft or loose spots that allowed us to lay in more power. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, and I now believe 600 mph is plausible.”
