Craig Breedlove, the first person to set land-speed records at 400, 500 and 600 miles per hour, died on Tuesday at his home in Rio Vista, Calif. He was 86. The cause was cancer, his wife, Yadira Breedlove, said. Breedlove was something of a cross between Neil Armstrong and Evel Knievel — an American folk hero of the 1960s known as both an explorer and a dare devil. He made the landspeed record a major cultural phenomenon in 1963, and when new challengers appeared, he beat them back, setting records again in 1964 and 1965.
He was a former fireman whose boyhood love of cars inspired him to make a breakthrough in land racing. He took the lead designing a vehicle whose three wheels, jet engine, missile shape and rear fin made it resemble not a car so much as a wingless fighter plane. His record-breaking vehicles all had the same name: Spirit of America. That became the title of a 1963 pop music ode to Breedlove by the Beach Boys, who mythologised him as a “daring young man” playing a “dangerous game. ”
Breedlove was born in Los Angeles to a Hollywood studio executive and a showgirl, and he was often pictured wearing a crew cut and an earnest smile.
He first won the national spotlight on August 5, 1963, in Bonneville, Utah, whose miles of salt flats, the deposits of an ancient sea, provide a natural track for high-speed driving. Breedlove’s first jet-powered vehicle weighed three tons and cost $250,000 to build, yet it was essentially handmade, with tools like files and screwdrivers. He aimed to beat the record of 394 mph set by John Cobb of Britain in 1947. At 6. 25am, he took a final sip of his ice water breakfast, stuffed cotton in his ears, donned a helmet and wraparound glasses and climbed into his cockpit. “She’s all clear,” called out a racing official. “The Spirit of America inched forward, its jet engine shrieking,” Sports Illustrated reported that month. “Soon it was a speck, seemingly headed straight through the orange sun to the southeast. Then it disappeared. ”
Abiding by a rule to perform two runs in the opposite directions to avoid a wind advantage, Breedlove went 388 mph in one direction and 428 mph heading back, achieving an average of 407. 45.
He grinned for the first time that day. “I don’t think the limit has been reached yet,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I think I can go faster. ” In his teenage years, Craig married Margaret Kastler, and the couple quickly had three children. He graduated from Venice High School and found work as a welder and firefighter. Breedlove was married six times, but his final marriage lasted 20 years.
He was a former fireman whose boyhood love of cars inspired him to make a breakthrough in land racing. He took the lead designing a vehicle whose three wheels, jet engine, missile shape and rear fin made it resemble not a car so much as a wingless fighter plane. His record-breaking vehicles all had the same name: Spirit of America. That became the title of a 1963 pop music ode to Breedlove by the Beach Boys, who mythologised him as a “daring young man” playing a “dangerous game. ”
Breedlove was born in Los Angeles to a Hollywood studio executive and a showgirl, and he was often pictured wearing a crew cut and an earnest smile.
He first won the national spotlight on August 5, 1963, in Bonneville, Utah, whose miles of salt flats, the deposits of an ancient sea, provide a natural track for high-speed driving. Breedlove’s first jet-powered vehicle weighed three tons and cost $250,000 to build, yet it was essentially handmade, with tools like files and screwdrivers. He aimed to beat the record of 394 mph set by John Cobb of Britain in 1947. At 6. 25am, he took a final sip of his ice water breakfast, stuffed cotton in his ears, donned a helmet and wraparound glasses and climbed into his cockpit. “She’s all clear,” called out a racing official. “The Spirit of America inched forward, its jet engine shrieking,” Sports Illustrated reported that month. “Soon it was a speck, seemingly headed straight through the orange sun to the southeast. Then it disappeared. ”
Abiding by a rule to perform two runs in the opposite directions to avoid a wind advantage, Breedlove went 388 mph in one direction and 428 mph heading back, achieving an average of 407. 45.
He grinned for the first time that day. “I don’t think the limit has been reached yet,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I think I can go faster. ” In his teenage years, Craig married Margaret Kastler, and the couple quickly had three children. He graduated from Venice High School and found work as a welder and firefighter. Breedlove was married six times, but his final marriage lasted 20 years.