Nice article by Mike Kupper in the Times.
Wes
>From Roy Seppanen
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 6:59 PM
Subject: Nolan White
Just passing along the write up from todays LA Times, if you want to pass it
along to others who knew Nolan.
LOS ANGELES TIMES - OCTOBER 22, 2002 OBITUARIES
Nolan White, 71; Hot-Rod Driver Set Speed Records
>From a Times Staff Writer
Hot-rodder Nolan White of San Diego, who last August set a land-speed record
for piston-engine cars, died Sunday at the University of Utah Medical Center
in Salt Lake City of injuries suffered in a crash Thursday on the Bonneville
Salt Flats. He was 71.
White, driving Spirit of Autopower, a streamliner powered by twin
supercharged Chevrolet engines, averaged 413.156 mph for two runs on the
salt
Aug. 12 in the Southern California Timing Assn. speed trials. That meet was
not sanctioned by the Federation International de Automobile and White was
attempting to match or better that speed for that organization's recognition
when he crashed last week.
He had just gone through the speed traps at the end of the measured mile, at
422 mph, on the first of the required two runs. His three braking parachutes
were all on the same tether, which broke. White's car veered off the course
as he tried to slow it for four miles with on-board brakes and engine
compression, then, nearing Interstate 80 at the south end of the course, he
tried to turn the vehicle in wet salt. Instead, the car rolled several
times
and White suffered multiple injuries. He died without regaining
consciousness.
A longtime competitor on the Salt Flats, White and his son and partner Rick
were leaders in the quest for speed in piston-driven cars, although the much
faster jet-powered cars draw most of the attention. The world land-speed
record is 763.035 mph, set in 1997 at Black Rock Desert, Nev., by Englishman
Andy Green, a Royal Air Force pilot who broke the sound barrier in a car
powered by twin jet engines.
White's record-setting run in August also was not without incident.
Traveling
at more than 400 mph, with half a mile to go on the second run, a tire blew.
"I was not about to shut the car down and was adamant that I would get
through the [timing] lights,"
he said at the time. "I've had a half-dozen flat tires at 400 mph. It's a
real comfortable car. I've been
doing this for 45 years. Once you are comfortable in your car, it doesn't
bother you. If it bothered me, I'd quit."
White also lost his braking parachutes when the tether broke in that
incident, but managed to stop the car in slushy salt.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete Monday.
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