Farewell to Craig Breedlove, America's King of Speed

He was our earthbound Neil Armstrong. Craig Breedlove took giant leaps for us into the ethereal unknown on the salt flats of Bonneville, strapping inside handmade rockets that emerged from his mind, making history as the first human to fire past the 400-mph mark on land. Eclipsing 500 mph was next. And then it was flirting with the sound barrier as hurtling past 600 mph was achieved by this son of Southern California.

Born in 1937 in Los Angeles, Breedlove—Land Speed Record racing’s biggest and most enduring star—died this week at the age of 86, bringing an end to one of the sport’s most celebrated chapters.

Coming of age following World War II, Breedlove fell in love with the automobile in the exact place and time when hot rodding and drag racing cultures sprang to life. Before his first visit to Bonneville and his final run on the Black Rock Desert, Breedlove’s legend began when he purchased his first car at the age of 13, testing his mettle against others in straight line dashes on local city streets.

The Mojave Desert hosted Breedlove’s initial foray into LSR pursuits at 16; with his supercharged 1934 Ford V-8 howling and kicking up a dusty trail, 154 mph was achieved by the high school student. By 20, with Utah’s famous salt bed beneath his feet, Breedlove transitioned from child savant to serious competitor, raising his bar to 236 mph in a streamliner powered by a supercharged Oldsmobile V-8.

Increasingly drawn to the conceptual side of the sport, Breedlove found a perfect place to express his curiosity while amassing the mechanical, aerodynamic, and design skills required to chase loftier thresholds of speed. Taking a job at the Douglas Aircraft company, Breedlove’s immersion in aeronautics would inform the remainder of his life’s passion and pursuits as the limits of piston-engined creations reached its end.

Breedlove drew a proverbial line in the sand in 1959. For $500, he took possession of an ex-military jet engine and commenced the process of creating his legacy. Steeped in patriotism, Breedlove named his effort 'Spirit of America,’ which fit the wonderment-filled era as LSR competition captured the world’s imagination at the dawn of the 1960s.

In three- and four-wheeled hand-formed missiles–fashioned by Breedlove and friends in a growing assembly of hot rodders and aerospace veterans who cut, welded, and riveted the imaginative experiments together–the Spirit of America crew were our enduring explorers. Each adventure to a miles-long proving ground with the latest machine presented equal opportunities for failure or glory. An acceptance of LSR’s other participant, the ever-present risk of death and calamity that rides, waiting to strike with a structural failure or strong crosswind, was also required.

In a three-year span from 1963 through 1965, Breedlove’s successive conquering of the 400-, 500-, and 600-mph barriers made him a household name. Blessed with the looks of a movie star, his LSR exploits caught the attention of Hollywood and New York where television appearances and cover features in sports and lifestyle magazines and routine newspaper coverage brought him the same kind of fame that elevated fellow racers Dan Gurney, A.J. Foyt, and Mario Andretti to national acclaim.

Barring the infamous crash in 1964 that nearly sank Breedlove when the parachutes failed on the Spirit of America and sent him on a five-mile journey culminating in the vehicle knocking down a telephone pole and nosing into a lake, he escaped major injuries throughout a career spanning five decades.

Along with Walt and Art Arfons, Gary Gabelich, and other domestic land-speed heroes and record-setters, Breedlove took pride in defending America’s ownership of all major LSR speed titles. Breedlove’s 600.601-mph blast stood until 1970 when Gabelich’s Blue Flame moved the new standard out to 622.407 mph. As the 1970s beckoned, the country’s fascination with land-speed daredevils started to wane, but that didn’t stop England’s Richard Noble from chasing history at Bonneville in 1983.