Drag Racer and Hot Rod Garage Host Alex Taylor Enters 200 MPH Club at Bonneville
Alex Taylor became one of the newest members of the exclusive 200 MPH Club after backing up a qualifying run on the third day of racing at Speed Week 2024. Taylor was behind the wheel of Keith and Tonya Turk’s 1980 Camaro and set a new C/Classic Blown Gas Altered (C/CBGALT) record of 235.638mph.
Taylor met Keith Turk, the Race Director of Drag Week, at the 2013 event when she was youngest competitor at 16 years old. Keith saw Taylor’s competitive spirit and introduced her to his wife, Tonya, who had several land-speed records to her name and was herself a member of the 200 MPH Club. The Turks are always encouraging racers of all sorts to consider land speed racing, and are listed by the CDC as the number one vector of Salt Fever in all of Alabama. The suggestion stuck with Taylor, who has been trying to race on the salt for several years. After getting a seat in a car for Speed Week 2023, Taylor’s chances of a record attempt were dashed by rain. Taylor recently reconnected with the Turks during Sick Week, Tom Bailey’s drag and drive event that’s similar in format to Drag Week. Taylor got in Turk’s Camaro and the two hatched a plan to compete for a Bonneville record in the tried and tested F-body.
The Turks have partnered with other drivers in their Camaro, notably David Freiburger, co-host of Roadkill and former Hot Rod magazine Editor in Chief. “Nobody gets to drive the car unless they’re a part of the car,” explained Keith Turk. Just like the partnership with Freiburger, the partnership with Taylor would involve the Taylors providing the powerplant for the car. Alex and Dennis had the car for about a month getting it in race condition and had plans to build their own short-block, but a supplier issue left them struggling to get the right rotating assembly. Frieburger loaned them a 347-cubic-inch Chevy small-block he’d built for El Mirage, and Alex and Dennis converted it from EFI to a blow-through carb setup so that it could compete in SCTA’s classic class. The car was dialed in and running great, but it never had a chance to see the dyno. When it was fuel injected the Procharger-F1-supercharged V-8 made 1,007 rwhp, so they had a hunch they’d have enough power to work with.
Smiles, cheers, and hugs reached Alex after she backed up the record and got out of the Camaro in the paddock. The Camaro, which has a history of being stable on the salt, held up its end of the bargain, although it required constant steering input as it drifted from one side of the course to the other. “Alex has always been spot-on,” Keith Turk said, “she’s very conscious of the car.”
The 200 MPH Club is independent of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), and entry requires not just recording a mile speed in excess of 200mph, but also setting a record while doing so. After Alex made her qualifying run exceeding the existing C/CBGALT record of 224.331mph with a speed of 236.182 mph, she had to make a return run to back it up. Previously, return runs were made after cars spent the night in impound, but at Speed Week 2024, recers were allowed to back up their runs in the late afternoon. That’s what Alex and her team chose to do, and they made a 235.095 mph return run to get the record.
But Alex couldn’t put on her new 200 MPH Club duds and her stylish red hat just yet. First the car had to go to impound and the engine had to be checked to see that it was the proper displacement. Tech officials removed a spark plug and attached a graduated cylinder via the spark plug hole and spun the engine over. Applying some math based on the density altitude gave them the displacement of the cylinder and that was extrapolated into the total engine displacement. With the math settled, Alex signed her record form and finally got to put on her new hat. Congratulations to Alex, her family, and her team on a well-deserved record run!
The 200 MPH club is beginning to look like the climb to Everest. What was once rare and near impossible is now common.
It is becoming more that the 300 and 400 clubs are the rare air. I have a car in the garage now that with a few small modes would do 200 MPH.
Now 300 on a Door Slammer is now where the rare air is and the difficulty fact is X4. Going that fast take real power and you have to add enough weight to keep the car on the ground. Even then you dance on the salt.
I would love to gain the 200 MPH club myself some day but it is not what it used to be in the old days of roadsters and belly tanks.
“that’s so easy just about anyone could do it” says person who has not done it…. Monday morning quarterback is a surprising stance for someone with your experience.
If it’s so easy, go do it. Then your opinion of going 200mph on the salt will actually have some value. Right now you just look jealous.
Not really, I could trip over the number of 200+MPH cars I see around the car scene in Houston. Competitions like The Texas Mile and TX2K have made so many people think about big turbos and four digit horsepower numbers. It’s almost easy…provided you have the money to make it happen.
Asphalt is not the salt though. That’s more traction and a shorter run.
Entry into the 200mph club requires *setting a record* over 200mph, not just one pass at 200mph. That means building something that is not only fast, but faster than anyone else to try it in that style vehicle. Also impound, backing the run up during different conditions later in the day or the next day, and keeping the whole thing from scattering itself across the salt while running wide open for three to four times further than one of those standing mile people.
Having a 200mph *capable* car and having a 200mph club membership are not the same thing and if it’s so easy, prove me wrong.
Fair points all around!
The nice thing about these salt flat competitions is that they’re accommodating to a wide variety of cars and combinations. There are 130 – 150 mph classes so for racers on a restricted budget you can still “run what you brung ” to some degree provided you meet the stringent safety rules and just got the rule book first to work from so you don’t get sent packing. Ask first if you’re not sure. You may not get a ‘200 MPH Club’ hat and tee shirt but maybe that’s not the goal. Pushing some old carbed straight six to its limits, just because I thought I’d try , has its own rewards and deserves equal respect. Not to mention the fun factor.
The car looks good. Congrats to the team!
The other thing ,worthy of mention , is that she didn’t go 200, she went 236. While some may think that a somewhat insignificant difference ,as we all know, the faster you go the harder it is to go that little bit faster.
My wife and I joined the 130mph club at Bonneville in a stock E39 M5.
The requirements are easy, a fire extinguisher in the car, not a full supression system. A contained drive shaft, which the BMW’s stock centerline bearing support qualifies as that.
A current Snell helmet, and you’re good to go. But, it’s 130 in a standing mile. On salt. It was hard than it sounds, as guys in Mustangs and heavily modified Golf R32 were struggling. Oh, and if you go over 140, you get booted.
But, it’s very attainable. And we can forever say “we drove at Bonneville.”