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Goldenrod (car)


Goldenrod is an American streamliner car which held the wheel-driven land speed record from 1965 to 1991. It was owned by Bob and Bill Summers, of Ontario, California. Bob Summers drove the car to set the land speed record. The Goldenrod is powered by four fuel injected Chrysler Hemi engines mounted inline and created a total output of 2,400 bhp. The car was originally built in Southern California and the team included James Crosby.

Before finding their final success, the two brothers contacted a fuel specialist and racing equipment pioneer and inventor named Tony Capanna, owner of Wilcap Co. (at that time in Torrance California). They were having trouble getting the speed they wanted with the 4 engines set in 2 rows side by side. Capanna suggested they put the engines in line and have it streamlined. In this configuration it was called Goldenrod. Capanna advised them to get aerodynamic advice from a Lockheed engineer, Walter Korff. The Goldenrod configuration was refined during a wind tunnel test in the Caltech 10-foot wind tunnel. The resulting drag coefficient of 0.1165, with a front area of 8.53 square feet, is one of the lowest ever achieved for a car.

The brothers found success on November 12, 1965, when Goldenrod set the wheel-driven record (a class introduced due to the controversy over Spirit of America) at 409.277 mph (658.64 km/h) over the flying mile, an FIA record which was held for 42 years 9 months and 14 days. It was unofficially broken in 1991 by Al Teague with his supercharged Hemi-powered Spirit of '76, which went 409.986 mph (659.81 km/h) which was short of the one percent increase required for an official record which would have been at least 413.36977 mph. Later the Burklands' 411 Streamliner set the official new record at 415.896 mph (669.319 km/h) on 2008/09/26 (Class AI-I-11). Goldenrod was not supercharged, so it still held the class (AI-II-11) record until 21 September 2010, when Charles Nearburg in the Spirit of Rett increased this to 414.316 mph. The car went on tour for many years all across the U.S., then first ventured outside the country in 2000, when it was placed where the cricket pitch is, in the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the other land speed record cars. The surviving Summers brother, Bill, attended (Bob died in 1992).


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