Speed Duel The Inside Story Of The Land Speed Record In The Sixties

Download or read book Speed Duel written by Samuel Hawley and published by Firefly Books. This book was released on 2011-12-23 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quest for the land speed record in the 1960s and the epic rivalry between two dynamic American drivers, Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. "Interesting and complex. . . .The best job I've seen done on the subject so far." -- Craig Breedlove Until the 1950s, the land speed record (LSR) was held by a series of European gentlemen racers such as British driver John Cobb, who hit 394 miles per hour in 1947. That record held for more than a decade, until the car culture swept the U.S. Hot-rodders and drag racers built and souped up racers using car engines, piston aircraft engines and, eventually, jet engines. For this determined and dedicated group, the LSR was no longer an honor to be held by rich aristocrats with industrial backing -- it was brought stateside. In the summer of 1960, the contest moved into overdrive, with eight men contending for the record on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Some men died in horrific crashes, others prudently retired, and by mid-decade only two men were left driving: Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. By 1965, Arfons and Breedlove had walked away from some of the most spectacular wipeouts in motor sport history and pushed the record up to 400, then 500, then 600 miles per hour. Speed Duel is the fast-paced history of their rivalry. Despite the abundant heart-stopping action, Speed Duel is foremost a human drama. Says author Samuel Hawley, "It is a quintessential American tale in the tradition of The Right Stuff, except that it is not about extraordinary men doing great things in a huge government program. It's about ordinary men doing extraordinary things in their back yards."

Download or read book Ultimate Speed written by Samuel Hawley and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An L.A. hot-rodder with a high school education, a family to support, and almost no money, Craig Breedlove set out in the late 1950s to do something big: harness the thrust of a jet in a car. With a growing obsession that would cost him his marriage, he started building in his dad's garage. The car's name was Spirit of America. Through perseverance and endless hard work, Craig completed Spirit and broke the land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting a new mark of 407 mph in 1963. He went on to be the first person to drive 500 and 600 mph, breaking the land speed record five times. In the early 1970s he turned to rockets and set an acceleration record at Bonneville that stands to this day. He built a jet car in the 1990s, Spirit of America–Sonic Arrow, to go head to head against Britain's ThrustSSC to be the first to Mach 1. Craig's subsequent crash at 675 mph remains the fastest in history. Even today, at the age of eighty, he is going strong with plans for yet another Spirit of America racer. The ultimate goal: 1,000 mph. Ultimate Speed is the authorized biography of Craig Breedlove, with a foreword by Craig himself. A candid revelation of one of motorsports' most interesting figures, the book is based primarily on countless hours of interviews with Craig and dozens of people connected to his life.

Download or read book Hockey Fight in Canada written by David Shoalts and published by Douglas & McIntyre. This book was released on 2018-09-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late 2013, Canadians were intrigued to learn the NHL chose Rogers as its exclusive national broadcaster over both CBC and Rogers’s bitter rival, Bell Canada. The decision was met with equal parts fascination, shock and anger. When CBC rank-and-file employees came to believe their leaders missed a chance to hold on to at least a part of Hockey Night in Canada—a move that could have saved some of their jobs—their disappointment turned to outrage. This is also a story of great irony, as the win proved to be costly for the victor in the first years. When Rogers sealed the $5.2-billion, twelve-year deal, it looked like the audacious play might just pay off. The Toronto Maple Leafs, with the biggest fan base in the country, appeared ready to shake off years of mediocrity and become playoff contenders, drawing legions of fans to Rogers’s broadcasts in the process. In anticipation, Rogers gave Hockey Night in Canada a facelift, bringing in hip George Stroumboulopoulos to replace veteran host Ron MacLean. However, in January 2014, the Maple Leafs crashed hard and so did the ratings for Hockey Night in Canada. It was crushing news for Rogers, with cable-cutting already shaping into an existential threat. On top of everything, “Strombo” bombed as host and the network had to bring MacLean back. Then things got even worse—by the middle of the 2015–16 season, the rest of the seven Canadian NHL teams missed the playoffs and ratings fell further, chasing away even more advertising dollars. Simultaneously, viewing habits were changing so quickly no one could predict what would happen next year, let alone in the next decade. Shoalts covers this story from the beginning, and Hockey Fight in Canada details every fascinating play in this intersection of sports and business.

Download or read book Quest for Speed written by Barry John and published by Evro Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Land Speed Record historian David Tremayne states in his foreword, "Quest for Speed is a wonderful book that celebrates passion." In a remarkable first book, Barry John has celebrated his life-long passion for the quest for speed by writing, illustrating and designing this fascinating history of record-breaking on land. Along with his informed and detailed text, his beautiful artwork shows all significant record-breakers in their immense variety, each illustrated in profile and accompanied by a cameo portrait of its driver. From the start of it all in the late 19th century to today's challengers seeking to reach "the last frontier," 1,000mph, the story that unfolds will enthrall not only enthusiasts for the subject but anyone appreciative of innovative engineering and brave human endeavour.

Download or read book Catch 22 written by Rick Vaive and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER Rick Vaive sets the record straight as he tells his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles. In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82--and he did it three years in a row. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as more recent stars like Gilmour, Sundin and Clark? You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media... but Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.

Download or read book America's Man in Korea written by George Clayton Foulk and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's Man in Korea is the story of America's initial involvement in Korea as told through the private family letters of U.S. Navy ensign George Clayton Foulk, Washington's representative in Seoul in the mid-1880s. "The Hermit Kingdom," as Korea was known, was no ordinary diplomatic posting at this time. Emerging from centuries of self-imposed isolation, Korea was struggling to establish itself as an independent nation amid the imperial rivalries of China, Japan, England, and Russia; anti-foreign violence remained a simmering threat; the Korean government was a hotbed of intrigue and factional strife, its monarch King Kojong casting about for help. Foulk, fluent in Korean and the foremost western expert on the country, was an astute observer of this country's transformation. In his private letters, published here for the first time, Foulk recounts his struggle to represent the U.S. and to help Korea in the face of State Department indifference.

Download or read book Inside the Hermit Kingdom written by George Clayton Foulk and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Navy ensign George Foulk made a 900-mile journey through southern Korea during which he kept a detailed record of everything he observed and experienced. This travel diary, part of the George Clayton Foulk collection in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has been almost entirely overlooked by scholars and yet is of inestimable value. First, it is an account of a trip no Westerner had ever undertaken before or would ever experience again: a long-distance sedan chair journey in the manner of a Choson-dynasty government official. Containing his private thoughts, penned in the heat of the moment, Foulk's diary is immediate, raw, and honest, laying bare his experience. It gives readers is a superbly descriptive and perceptive record of Korea. Inside the Hermit Kingdom stands unique as a firsthand account of the kingdom of Choson in its pristine condition, before the intrusion of the outside world.