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| Home > News Articles > "Spirit of Rett" Land Speed Racing Team Sets New World Record |
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| October 19, 2009 |
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Charlie Nearburg drives Red Line Oil Sponsored "Spirit of Rett" Streamliner to new World Record at SCTA World Finals; First single-engine normally aspirated car to break the 400mph barrier.
 | The Spirit of Rett, a 35 foot long single-engine Streamliner campaigned by Charlie Nearburg, became the first single engine naturally aspirated car to break the 400 mph barrier on October 11, 2009, at the SCTA World Finals at the Bonneville Salt Flats. |
Bonneville, UT (Oct. 11, 2009) - Thanks to near-perfect weather, pristine salt conditions, skilled driving and a finely-tuned pit crew, Champ Car and land speed racer Charlie Nearburg drove the Red Line Oil sponsored Spirit of Rett streamliner through the 400mph barrier to a new world record at the SCTA World Finals at the famous Salt Flats.
On Saturday, October 10, the team re-qualified its own record with an average mile speed of 390.9 mph, and an exit speed of 396.7 mph at the end of the five mile course - fast enough to put the car in tech impound for inspection before a mandatory backup run the following day to lock-in the new record.
"That first run included the added excitement of the canopy opening 2-3 inches at 385 mph at about the 4.5 mile marker," Nearburg said. "I knew it was killing our speed so I momentarily reached up and tried to pull it down, before realizing that probably was not the best idea at the time. We went back to impound and the crew did a fantastic job of turning the car around, and we focused our efforts on keeping the canopy closed for the backup run." | | |
 | Named after Nearburg's late son Rett, the car has set a series of SCTA and FIA records over the past five years. At the World Finals the car set a two-way average of 392 mph - a new AA/FS record for unblown "fuel" cars. Its course exit speed was 402.955 mph. |
Sunday morning Spirit of Rett was one of the first cars to run, and it set an average mile speed of 394.1 mph and exited at 402.955 mph. This established the orange streamliner as the first single engine, normally aspirated car to ever go over 400 mph, and locked in a new AA/FS (unlimited cubic inches, naturally aspirated "fuel" streamliner) record at 392 mph - the fastest run on record for a single engine, normally aspirated car - and gave Nearburg the honor of being only the 8th person to ever drive a conventional racecar at over 400 mph.
"These results are a testament to the hard work of all the guys on the Nearburg racing team," Nearburg said. "Lee Ryan, Roine Andersson, and Dave Tate, the quality of the Brad Morgan/Reher-Morrison built engine, and the performance of our key supplier, Red Line Oil.
Adding this last set of speed records gives the Spirit of Rett the four fastest normally aspirated records possible at Bonneville, and makes it the fastest single engine, normally aspirated car on gas and/or fuel, in history. "I feel my late son Rett with me on every run and dedicate every record to the celebration of Rett's courage and joie de vivre." | | |
Measuring over 35-feet in length and clad in hand-formed aerodynamic aluminum body panels, the Spirit of Rett is powered by a nitrous-injected, gasoline fueled Reher Morrison DRCE2 all-aluminum big block Chevrolet similar to the engines used in NHRA Pro Stock, with internals built for longevity to withstand the extended high-RPM operation necessary to set speed records over a five-mile course.
Nearburg first went to Red Line Oil as a customer, looking for a way to protect the monster motor from the brutal conditions presented by land speed racing. Since a record is not considered official until it is backed up the following day with an equal or faster run over the five mile course, reliability is critical. As the Spirit of Rett broke record after record, Red Line Oil became the car's title sponsor. Products in use on the car include 40WT Race Oil, Heavy Shockproof Gear Oil in the transmission, 75W90 in the rear differential and WaterWetter in the cooling system. | | |
 | Power comes from a single Reher-Morrison all-aluminum DRCE2 Chevrolet. The Spirit of Rett exclusively runs off-the-shelf Red Line products, including 40WT Race Oil, Heavy Shockproof Gear Oil and 75W90 Gear Oil. |
"The Spirit of Rett team has been knocking down records for quite a few years, but the latest accomplishment - breaking the 400mph barrier with a single-engine, naturally aspirated car - is truly incredible," said Cameron Evans, Red Line Oil Director of Sales and Marketing.
"Charlie Nearburg is a brilliant engineer and a fantastic technical partner, so we're extremely proud that one of the fastest cars in the world runs off-the-shelf Red Line products in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet. We're very proud of Charlie and the rest of the team." | | |
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