April 2020 • By Tony Thacker

Geoff Stilwell is your quintessential Brit. He’s a gentleman, he loves motor sports, and he drives an Aston Martin. He’s James Bond in Bermuda shorts and like many Brits he’s into land speed racing because it’s part of their motor sports DNA. Indeed, the Brits currently own the land speed record and have done so since 1997 when Andy Green blasted across Nevada’s Black Rock desert to a sound-barrier breaking speed of 763.035 mph in Richard Noble’s Thrust SSC.

Geoff got the land speed bug in 2016 when he went to Bonneville for the first time with Ron Hope and son Brian who let Geoff drive his modified roadster. Geoff returned in 2017 but the team struggled to get Brian’s car running.  Meanwhile, Geoff purchased his own rear engine modified roadster. Built by Harry Hoffman and raced most recently by the famous drag racing duo of Mike Kuhl and Carl Olson, #7707 holds the B/Blown Fuel Rear Engine Modified Roadster (BFRMR) record at 268.240 mph—a record that still stands.

With a great deal of help from drag racers Bob Muravez, aka Floyd Lippencotte, Bill Schultz and ”Sparky” Perry, Geoff set a new A/BFRMR record at 258.569 mph. That’s A for an engine between 440 and 500.99 cubic inches and BFRMR for blown, fuel (as opposed to gasoline), rear engine, modified, roadster—in this case a 1927 Ford-based Roadster.

The car was freshened up and engine assembled at Chez Muravez in Burbank, CA, where one day 95-year-old Ed ‘The Camfather’ Iskenderian showed up to impart his invaluable advice. Isky even showed Geoff the fine art of ‘balancing the car.’ Three days later, Geoff went to Isky’s Gardena shop where the ’father had ground him a pair of special cams. He also provided some experimental lifters.

Bonneville is not the easiest place to race, there really are no facilities, the salt corrodes everything before your very eyes and this was essentially a new ride for Geoff. Finally on Monday, August 13, Geoff made his first fast pass with a speed of 246.512 mph but the car began to slow. However, the next day he ran 251.917 that qualified him for a record return run which he made on the morning of August 15.

Unfortunately, during the return run, a rod exited the block and precluded any more runs. Nevertheless, Geoff had a record but apparently not the coveted Bonneville200MPHClub.com red hat. Even though it was an ‘open’ record, the ‘2Club’ deemed that the minimum for the hat is 290 mph. Hooked on salt, Geoff decided to rebuild the car and go for 300 mph.

For the rebuild he turned to fellow Brit Mick Jenkins of Mickspaint.com Pomona, CA. Mick and his team of fabricators, Pauly Rivera, Robin ‘Silky’ Silk, ‘Kiwi’ Steve Davies, who all worked on the GM/SO-CAL Bonneville team from the mid 2000s, have extensive racecar fabrication experience and Steve is the head of the SCTA tech team.

Meanwhile, Jon Beck of Vintage Hot Rods, Chico, CA, built a new 494 ci hemi based on a Brad Anderson billet aluminum block. With a Blower Shop 14-71 supercharger, Enderle injection and a splash of nitro the engine is predicted to make around 5,000 hp—it’s basically a de-tuned Top Fuel engine that sits in a unique suspended cradle.

Unexpectedly, 7707 had a few more issues than was first apparent and there was a lot more work than anticipated. Despite an accelerated complete rebuild Geoff made it to Bonneville for the 71st Bonneville Nationals in 2019 with massive support from LucasOil.com. There to help with the engine were Brits Nick, Rob and Scott from ICEAutomotive.co.uk

Unfortunately, rain the night before Speed Week all but devastated the event turning the salt into a spongy, mushy cream pie of a mess. Plenty of runs were made but few records were broken. Geoff fared no better than anybody else and used the delay to complete and tech what was essentially a new car. Frustratingly, at the eleventh hour the transmission mysteriously failed to shift and Geoff was unable to make any runs. Nevertheless, quoting ‘The Terminator’ Geoff said, “I’ll be back.”