The Nuclear Option
In the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) list of Bonneville LSR (land speed racing) record book, the Speed Demon Blown Fuel Streamliner (BFS) driven by George Poteet holds virtually all the top V8 speed records using Ken Duttweiler-built small-block Chevy or LS V8 engines, as well as a couple of outliers with four-cylinder engines. As of April 2020, the record list includes A/BFS, B/BFS, C/BFS, D/BFS, F/BFS (with a Dodge four-cylinder), and X/BFS (with a Ford flathead). However, AA/BFS—the top, and theoretically fastest “unlimited” wheel-driven, piston-engined class—is one record the team has never held, because it mandates a 501ci or larger engine or engines, which the team has never run. That’s big-block territory, and the record has been stuck at 417 mph since 2004 when it was last set by Burkland’s AWD (all-wheel-drive) Streamliner running two supercharged Generation II Chrysler Hemis on alcohol. But now there’s dust on the distant horizon, the ground vibrating with the pounding of hoofs: On the way are 3,100-plus rampaging horses and the roar of a Duttweiler 557-inch, twin-turbo, electronically managed Bonneville-bound big-block Chevy. The Speed Demon team (sorry, Rambo) says, “We’re coming for you!”—coming for that old AA/BFS record; coming for the two-way, top-speed, wheel-driven, internal-combustion engine record of 448.757 mph set in 2018 in AA/FS (unblown fuel streamliner) by Danny Thompson in his refurbished 50-year-old Challenger 2 running two normally aspirated nitro-fueled Chrysler Hemis; coming for 460-plus mph. Duttweiler has finally unleashed the nuclear option. Time to blow up the record for the next 20 years.
“We avoided the Chevy Rat motor in the past,” elaborates Duttweiler. “We didn’t think a big-block Chevy would fit between the Speed Demon’s narrow framerail width.” But conventional asymmetrical intake-port Dart big-block heads have evolved to the point they’re good enough to support the kind of boosted airflow necessary to do the job, making the extreme tall runner, symmetrical-port Big Chief Pro Stock-level heads no longer a necessity. With lower-profile heads, the overall big-block engine envelope is slightly narrower, able to squeeze between the existing framerails and bolt up to the existing front engine-mounting plate. A big-block is about 1⅞-inches longer than a traditional small-block, so the crew moved the Liberty seven-speed trans back to make room for it. If the team elects to tune up some of the lower-class small-block records it
