City Of Salt Lake - Athol Graham's Cursed Car
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
- Can a car carry a curse? The peculiar story of Athol Graham's home-built racer "City Of Salt Lake", which made several attempts on the Land Speed Record.
** ERRATA**
Well, this is embarrassing. At 2:05 it's an Allison engine from a P-38. Thanks to those who've pointed it out!
FURTHER READING (Disclaimer: I get a commission every time you purchase a product through my affiliate links below).
This book in particular has been a fantastic resource in researching this video. If you want to know more detail about Athol Graham and his incredible creation than I can fit into a 10 minute video, this one comes highly recommended:
Speed Duel by Samuel Hawley
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ALSO ON MY BOOKSHELF::
The History Of Speed by Martin Roach
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Thrust: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Quest for Speed by Richard Noble
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Goldenrod: The Resurrection of America's Speed King by John Baechtel
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Crusader: John Cobb's ill-fated quest for speed on water by Steve Holter
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Railton: Man Of Speed by Karl Ludvigsen
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Donald Campbell: The Man Behind The Mask by David Tremayne
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Bluebird and the Dead Lake: The Classic Account of how Donald Campbell broke the World Land Speed Record by John Pearson
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Leap into Legend: Donald Campbell and the Complete Story of the World Speed Records by Steve Holter
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Bluebird CN7: The Inside Story of Donald Campbell's Last Land Speed Record Car by Donald Stevens
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Parry Thomas: The First Driver to be Killed in Pursuit of the Land Speed Record by Hugh Tours
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Quest For Speed: The Epic Saga of Record-Breaking On Land by Barry John
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The Fast Set: Three Extraordinary Men and Their Race for the Land Speed Record by Charles Jennings
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Man Against the Salt by Harvey Shapiro
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Ultimate Speed: The Fast Life and Extreme Cars of Racing Legend Craig Breedlove by Samuel Hawley
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Infinity Over Zero: Meditations on Maximum Velocity by Cole Coonce
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Speedquest: Inside the Blue Flame by Richard Keller
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Archive: Pathe, Shutterstock, AP, University Of Utah, WSJ, Salt Lake Tribune, Wikipedia & Unknown Sources.
All unlicensed archive used under Fair Use / Fair Deal. Copyright acknowledged in all material.
The museum referenced is richardericksonfoundation.org
If you're planning a visit, please check before travelling as I have been unable to establish whether the City Of Salt Lake is on permanent display there.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:51 Building The Perfect Beast
2:44 Bonneville 1960
5:41 Bonneville 1962
7:00 Bonneville 1963
8:12 Ghost In The Machine - Auta a dopravní prostředky
P-38 lightning used an Allison V-1710, not a liberty engine.
It's frustrating to make mistakes like that! Can't believe I didn't spot that in my research - thanks for taking the time to comment.
The car of Ray Keech used liberty engines I do believe. They were WW1 era engines.@@ScarfAndGoggles
Not just an "Allison", but the Allison run in Bill Boeing's Unlimited hydroplane Miss Wahoo. When Boeing's team shifted to Rolls Merlin Power the race developed Allisons were sold.
Also, the canopy arrangement isn’t from a P-51. The Mustang canopy was pretty distinctive, and the one used on this car is quite different. Apart from that, this is certainly a fascinating story! Thanks much for sharing.
@@relectric69 You're right. I was thinking about the later design. :-)
Wonderful piece of work, as usual. You truly have the gift to tell their story.
Thank you!
And b29s don't have belly tanks.
And here I was thinking that you've already covered everything related to LSR. I'm thrilled that I was wrong. Hope to see more in the future. I love your content.
More to come!
Interesting to see in the newspaper clipping at 6.20, mention of Bert Munro, the worlds fastest Indian.
You bring these cars, drivers and those moments in time, to life again.
Absolutely fascinating! And yet another story of which I was unaware, despite following LSR activities for over 50 years (albeit casually). Thank you so much for keeping these stories alive, with your outstanding research and production. Cheers from Canada.
Thanks so much for your kind words - glad you enjoy my videos!
344mph is incredibly for a home built out of scrap machine .
The current world water speed record of 317.59 mph was set in 1978 by Australian Ken Warby in a home built boat with a jet engine from the scrapyard.
At the Italian F1 qualifying…350 kmh
We talk MPH
@@fredherfst8148 Was the car home built out of the scrapyard?
@@fredherfst8148That’s only 217.5 mph. There’s stock production cars that are faster.
In terms of sheer storytelling you are one of the best out there keep them coming 😊
Wow, thank you!
Thank you so much for this video. I remember reading about Athol Graham’s work and attempt in the Reader’s Digest, sometime in the early ‘60’s. I never knew about the other attempts or the final restoration for the museum. Thanks again.
Amazing story and beautifully told. I never tire of LSR content, thank you for continuing to tell the stories regardless of success and glory.
Glad you're enjoying the channel!
I am always amazed how Scarfe & Goggles finds these obscure and fascinating land speed stories. Great pictures.
Fascinating story, thank you. And a nice 'cameo' by Burt Munro on one of those newspapers from the 60s there!
Always enjoyable and thorough 😊
Excellent piece (apart from a little glitch in the engine department) on a man and his car that both deserve to be remembered.
Thank you.
Your dives into the history of these amazing vehicles are always respectful and informative. Thanks.
It's so great to see another great documentary from you. Thank you.🙏
Glad you enjoyed it!
Smashing the content out lately and as always it's of top quality 👏.
Much appreciated!
Incredible content and storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.
Fantastic as always! Love your channel.
Fascinating. The "nearly-but-not-quites" are often more interesting than the ones that actually break the records.
This is why I became interested in motorsport. Not just for the technology, but for the stories of the people and their creativity. There is still a lot that can be covered. Sterling Moss's records. The Cobra coupe 24 hour session. And a lot of motorcycle attempts as well. Looking forward to future videos.
Great story. Never heard of this guy until now. Thanks for the heads-up.
Amazing that the early racers were so aerodynamic, but didn't have a vertical stabilizer... Good effort by Graham!
If memory serves, The City of Salt Lake was featured in Rodder's Journal magazine a few years ago, with pics taken in the early 1960's prior to it's first crash
I do not know if you read these comments.
I just found one of your videos from my 4yo playlist and rewatched it, great content, and now going to check other videos while I am not interested in the subject matter beyond curiosity. I am surprised by low subscriber count compared to the quality of the content. Great job.
Hi - thanks for your comment! I read them all, glad you’re enjoying my content.
Very nicely presented and a great story...
That White Tri-plex Special at 4:04 looks very interesting!
Thanks for telling the interesting and tragic story of "The City of Salt Lake".
Well, that was first class! Thank you for your hard work.
Didn’t know the backstory to this car, splendid video.
My very favorite channel, thank you so much for celebrating speed racers of yesteryear❤ 👏🏻👍🏻
Please keep up the great work!
Thank you very much!
The car is now where it belongs
I always expect stories of speed records to be a combination of incredible achievement and gut wrenching tragedy, and sadly this was no different.
However, the sad passing of 20 year old Otto Anzjon from leukemia just felt so desperately unfair.
Speed pioneers and motorsports competitors understand and accept the inherent risks in their chosen pursuits, and ultimately no-one* should be able to tell them what they can or cannot do in realising their dreams.
(Obviously they have to consider the safety of others, whether they are participants or spectators, but I'm sure that's should be a given).
Even though the end result would have been the same it'd maybe have been marginally less awful if Otto Anzjon had passed in the pursuit of a dream, rather than of leukaemia...at 20 years old.
*When I say "no-one" of course I understand that speed pioneers have families and friends, and they are part of the decision making process.
I get quite angry when I see people saying that TT racers have a "death wish" - it's always people who've never seen anything other than a five minute clip, and they don't appreciate that the racer's families and friends are with them, and it's a huge team effort - certainly not what someone with a death wish would subject their loved ones to.
The pursuit of a dream can end in many ways. The gods of speed deemed the City of Salt Lake not worthy of a record, but instead gave it a story to pass on through history. The car came back to the family, was rebuilt to its glory, and is being presented to those who enjoy these amazing machines. Such a beautiful car needs to be shown off to the world!
A nice little extra was the paragraph about Bert Munro in the newspaper clipping.
Great story, amazing craftsmanship and engineering. Thanks for the video. Well done.
Brilliant ! I've watched in search of speed a thousand times and still get a tear in my eye, these people were truly special, different to todays F1 prima donners , still have mid sixties Hot Rod mags covering Bonneville, our only source of info over here in UK at the time , Art Arfons was my hero, still regret not traveling from London to Bournemouth airport to see him and Green Monster run , thankyou , Keith Powell.
2:05 The P-38 Lightning used the Allison V-1710 engine. Not the late WWI Liberty.
Thanks for your comment! I’m kicking myself over this - a few others have pointed it out. Hope the misinformation didn’t spoil your enjoyment of the video.
My uncle build a twin hemi engined car in the mid to late 60's that crashed at Bonneville I believe in 1972, killing his business partner. My understanding was it happened at 429mph. I got to sit in the cockpit shortly before this happened. Was a very snug fit.
RIP Noel Black. You left a huge impression on a 12 year old boy!
Fantastic thanks for posting
I enjoy these stories so much, I share the links to all my customers and friends. Keep up the excellent work. Ed.
Thank you very much!
Always happy to see a new video from you!
More to come!
Thanks for making videos again. I watched all your old videos and I need more, lol.
More coming soon!
Another excellent post from S&G. The City of Salt Lake's story was previously unknown to me and you told it superbly well, as per usual.
Another amazing tale! Well done sir!!!
Glad you enjoyed it
It's the rocket car jockeys that get me. Not content with getting mangled or burnt to death, they have a large bomb powering the car!...
Nice vid. Ta, much appreciated.
The greatest channel on LSR I have waited so long for this been a sub a fair few years now the only channel I get excited to watch
Thanks so much! Should have more stuff coming soon...
Lovely story and video guys. One of the best channels on CZcams this.
Thank you so much! Glad you're enjoying my videos.
Hello. I like watching your videos. Speed records on land and on water are remarkable especially in the golden era of records in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. However, there were also speed records in the sky, everything.. for example, a dramatic attempt to set a record on a gee bee z aircraft in 32, or a speed record on a gee bee r1 aircraft in 1933, which for the first time in history exceeded the speed of 500 km per hour .. these are beautiful cars are no less brutal and beautiful than Campbell's blue bird ..
A touching story, every bit as well told as we have come to expect from Scarf and Goggles. Thank you!
Thanks, a wonderful story well told, I knew nothing of this before this video.
Another good video. I wonder how this car would have done in a wind tunnel.
I've had a few possessed motorcycles. Just looking to hurt me.
Thank you for a great video. I often think the wrecked cars would be more poignant to see unrestored. Other old race cars that were not destroyed in a wreck are restored. To me it takes something away.
The water speed record, if not cursed, is definately bloody dangerous! Have you considered a video on Aussie Ken Warby, whose back yard built boat broke the record in 1978. A record that still stands to this day, with two challengers both losing their lives attempting to beat it. I've seen Ken's wooden boat the 'Spirit of Australia' on display at the maritime museum in Sydney.
Great story, thanks for the video 👍
Top quality channel. Perfectly presented.
Much appreciated!
Great story, thanks for posting!
Fascinating.
Thank you
You're most welcome!
its insane that the car was built well enough that it was able to survive wrecks at high speed and come back for more after some TLC
The Canyon Motors building is still there and houses the iconic snowboard shop "Milosport" in Salt Lake.
Thanks for the info! Good to know that it's still standing!
Another fantastic video! Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Another fabulous story ❤️. Thank you so much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great stuff, another obscure land speed car I'd never heard of. I hope there are plenty more, did you cover Challenger mentioned at the start of this video?
yet another super video thank you
Combining mechanical engineering, petrochemical ingenuity, aerodynamics, and the alure of high speed is an intoxicant many find hard to relinquish.
I was just reading about Athol Graham in my February 1960 issue of hot Rod magazine… it’s interesting because the article was written months before his crash when he was still sorting out his car and making his first attempts at the record… because he was a Mormon ex-missionary they called him an ex-missionary on a mission lol…
Interesting to See Burt Munro from NZ mentioned in the posted newspaper article. From my home town👍
What a great story - Indeed what drives a record breaker? - These men of the past were proper men - Really enjoyed the video - Just watched a few more of your videos - great work and very informative !
Thank you - welcome aboard!
That was a great video thank you very much.
Well done again 👍
Awesome.. more LSR facts
Ah maybe this will be one of the few times where it doesn't end in trage.....oh
You just look at the cockpit and say NAH
P-38s didn’t use the Liberty engine; they used a turbocharged version of the Allison V-1710.
It's resting place at The Richard W. Erickson museum is a Fantastic place for it to be.
I've seen this car. It's in a hidden car museum in the middle of nowhere in Utah.
Interesting as always
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting ! thanks.
Glad you liked it!
Thank you for telling my family story, well done.
Hi Butch - thank you for your comment! Glad you liked the video, hope I got the details right (except the engine, made a stupid error there!). Congratulations on finishing the rebuild, the car looks stunning!
@ScarfAndGoggles almost got everything correct, missed on the Allison and the picture of caynon motors . You did a great job telling the story, I've had people tell me it truly touched them . Thank you
I knew nothing of this car or drivers,.......this video was very interesting for me. ....thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Correction: The engine is a WW II Allison unit. The Curtiss V-12 Liberty engine had its origins in WW I.
It's almost a wonder many more speedheads haven't died of leukemia. The testside of Nevada's above-ground nuclear tests is less than 300 miles to the southeast. The Geiger counters of that time would sometimes have jumped in the triangle because of the high radioactive levels.
Athol Graham's car had no gearbox. Instead a torque convertor taken from a bus coupled the Allison engine to the rear axle.
Great , if tragic, story and huge respect to all involved.
It is screaming for a tail fin though - CoP in front of the CoG? No wonder it was unstable.
you can see the reason why it crashed so much with the design of the rear body of car,it would promote lift of the rear end with downforce reducing as speed increased.
Another good video & I shared it to the usual place. I relate to people like Athol Graham who pursued their dream without a bankroll. Al Teague was one of those people & I crewed for him for 15yrs up until he retired Besty. My own 4WD AA/BFS is ready to go after a long 13yr build in a short shed in Idaho, all we need is some dry salt.
Thank you so much for sharing! Fingers crossed the Bonneville weather is kinder next year!
Good luck to you, sir
I Enjoyed This One... So Much Determination... But Not archiving the Hoped For Results. Crazy
I belive there´s a race track up there where there´s no harm, just blue sky and a prime parking spot for all who died at the tracks. Where all the cars and bikes run just like intended.
Today,inflatable tires aren't used on the streamliners going for the top speed. Plain alloy rims are used instead. Also,most land speed racers are just people doing it on a very tight budget, the high dollar teams being the exception rather than the rule.
Outstanding!
Thank you kindly!
Not surprising the changes in design over the years for wheel driven LSR vehicles. Up into the 70’s they were all “flyers”. Al Teague was another Athol working on his own version of a streamliner which attained speeds of 430+ without a true stablizer like ones used today. Today Americans should be proud of the achievements in LSR with wheel driven vehicles by the Vescos, Danny Thompson, and George Poteet and their crews.
“Two words my boy; vertical stabilizer”
Side view clearly show the car resembled an aeroplane wing - and they are designed to fly.
Tail end bodywork should just extend to cover the differential and the rear wheels should have long fairings to act as stabilisers.
Not much room for safety equipment when every ounce is critical. Hope to see another attempt one day.
You just can't help wondering if that car is going to find it's way out of that museum and back onto the salt flats.
Some are old racers who never die...
At first glance it looks like that design might not be stable at speed. I'd have a vertical fin at the rear to give it stability, like an arrow.
Great reportage. Concise, informative, and what a story of failure and resurrection. Thank you.
Its amazing any thing at some point can maintain traction to have a driven wheel speed attempt on salt
Great look back at a brave pioneer of Land Speed racing. GOD BLESS everyone involved in Mr Graham's "City of Salt Lake City."
A beautiful car that looks like it has more lift than downforce.
Good video; but a 'Liberty' engine - in a P38? - an Allison perhaps? : )
You're quite right - it's an Allison. Kicking myself for making that error! Thanks for your comment, hope that mis-information didn't spoil your enjoyment.
@@ScarfAndGoggles Not at all, in fact you were close - the P39 Airacobra had it's engine behind the 'driver' too - the man built himself quite a 'salt-buggy'! : )
This is a fantastic story ,your information gathering us superb . I wonder how long it will be until we see the first 1000 mph car ? Or maybe the first 3600 mph car (a mile a second ). I don't think you could build a track long enough for that !!!!!!
All those years and they never added a tailfin for stability. Interesting.