Hello salt fans,
Glen Barrett posted a message to the land-speed mailing list on Jan. 15
about the new book by Peter J.R. Holthusen, "The Fastest Men on Earth: 100
Years of the Land Speed Record." The photos are nice and I enjoyed them,
but list members should beware of the factual errors in the text.
I took a look at this book in the store, and read a review in Fast Facts
Issue 35, November 1999, The Speed Record Club Quarterly
Newsletter. <http://www.soft.net.uk/speedrecordclub/>
Holthusen authored an earlier book, "The Land Speed Record: To the Sound
Barrier and Beyond" in 1986, which I have. Large sections of that book,
errors and all, have been simply carried over into his "new" book. E.g.,
according to the new book, Bob and Bill Summers are still waiting for
someone to beat Goldenrod's wheel driven record, so they can run Goldenrod
again (no mention that Bob died in 1994). Also, no mention in the book of
Al Teague's 409.877 mph FIA record, or of Al or his streamliner
whatsoever. Also according to the book, the McLaren Maverick will be
making an attempt in the year 2000--but this project has had no reported
activity for over 5 years and is presumed dead.
The table in the book, "The Evolution of the LSR" includes a couple of
Malcolm Campbell runs that were never ratified as records. It also lists
Mickey Thompson's 406.60 as a record, and it was not, being only a one-way
run. Andy Green's first LSR of 714.144 mph, set September 1997 and
ratified by the FIA soon afterwards, is not listed in the table.
For a book subtitled "100 Years of the Land Speed Record," it is worth
noting that, of the four vehicles on the cover, only one, ThrustSSC, ever
set a land speed record.
In late 1996 or 1997, Mr. Holthusen was quoted in a U.S. magazine, maybe
Hot Rod or Popular Mechanics, as saying that the Khadi-9 car from Ukraine
would soon return to challenge for the LSR. This car was last reported by
the Speed Record Club as badly decayed in a junk pile, and the project
leader, Nikitin, died a number of years ago.
Again, the photos are nice, and may make the book worth having, but with
errors such as these, I don't see how Mr. Holthusen can claim, as he does,
to be the "world's leading authority on the land speed record." He doesn't
seem to do the necessary research to gather and verify facts. Just my
opinion. ;-)
Charley Shaffer
LSR Fan, Historian, & Photographer
Seattle
P.S. There are better books. IMHO, the most authoritative and
comprehensive treatment of the "unlimited" LSR is "Land Speed Record: From
39.24 to 600+ mph" by Cyril Posthumus and David Tremayne,
1985. Unfortunately, it needs updating, and is now out of print, but there
are places on the Internet where one can search for used
books. <http://www.bookfinder.com/>
The autobiographies are thrilling reading, "Thrust" by Richard Noble and
David Tremayne, 1998, and "Spirit of America: Winning the World's Land
Speed Record" by Craig Breedlove with Bill Neely, 1971
<http://www.spiritofamerica.com/book/book_index.html>.
P.P.S. Glen, I briefly met you at Speed Week in 1997 when James Rice was
showing me around the timing trailer. Keep up the good work!
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