July 2020 • By Andy Willsheer. Photos by Andy, Tony Thacker & Black Salt Racing

Growing up in the UK, I have an understandable affinity for British sports cars of the swingin’ 60s: Austin Healeys, MGs, Sunbeams and Triumphs. Yes, they had their faults and plenty of them but they had soul even if they weren’t very fast. You can understand then my look of disbelief when somebody asked, “Have you seen the 380 mph Triumph GT6?”

I was at the Bonneville Salt Flats with Geoff Stilwell of BUA Motorsports covering his land speed record attempt—one that he achieved with a record of 258.569 mph. Land speed racing can be as slow as molasses so I wandered over to look at the GT6. It didn’t look like any Triumph I grew up with. The back end looked somewhat familiar but it had a great, long shovel-like nose. Fast is fast though and it doesn’t matter how you get there.

What began as a 1971 GT6 Mk III originally designed by Giovanni Michelotti has been chopped five inches and gone is the tiny 2.0L straight six that drove the rear wheels replaced by a twin-turbo, intercooled, Brodix-blocked 5.9L 360 ci Chevy built by Moran Motorsports that drives the front wheels. This is definitely not your father’s GT6.

Campaigned by Keith Copeland’s BlackSaltRacing.com, the car was built by Mark Hanson’s StrangeFabMetalcrafts.com in Tucson, AZ. It runs in C/BFMS where C stands for an engine between 306 to 372.99 ci and BFMS stands for Blown Fuel Modified Sports car class. It first appeared in 2010 and by 2012 Copeland had hit a staggering top speed of the meet at 380 mph with an official two-way record at 364.051 mph, a record that still stands. Incidentally, their data logger recorded a speed of 387 before the rev limiter kicked in.

Despite the initial success, there followed years spent testing new equipment, learning from high-speed spins at the 3 mile mark when they are going about 300 mph and suffering from poor salt conditions and bad weather. And sadly, that is the lot of the land speed racer. Testing is almost impossible, tires are hard to find and expensive and the weather, well, the weather is what it is.

In 2018, when the salt was in fairly good shape, Copeland managed several 380 mph qualifying passes and one at 385 but he did not feel it was fast enough for a record backup attempt for the record he aspired to. Unfortunately, tires, as they are for so many racers, proved a hard to find, they’re just not being that many 400 mph tires available. Luckily, they did manage to find some 28-inch diameter, 450 mph-rated tires and qualified for a record. Unfortunately, rain again curtailed racing as it did in 2019. The Goodyear 450 MPH tire in the size I need have all been used up and no more are going to be made. I have had to switch to a Mickey Thomson drive tire that is now available and rated to the speed I need.

For now, development continues but they need more horsepower to go faster. They tested at Spaceport America but the course, less than three miles, did not give them the data needed. They finally found a good hub dyno to tune the racecar on bigger 800 lb/hr injectors and higher boost Keith saying,  “We tuned maps for different boost levels for six hours.  It is really nice it to finally have a way to tune the motor in the car. The good news is we got good data and built maps for lower boost. The bad news is with my current plumbing and small, 12.5 GPM fuel pump I do not have enough fuel at the higher rpms and boost levels to feed the motor. Now starts the hunt for a bigger fuel pump and other changes.” The quest continues.

Liner notes:

May 12, 2020: We now have a 20 gpm fuel pump installed and we will be running again on the hub dyno May 16. This should confirm our ability to run more boost and get the higher HP we need. It turns out now that at about 385 mph we are at terminal velocity with the current HP. My boost will be going from 30 psi to 35 or 40 psi depending on how much horsepower I will need to achieve the speed I want. We are tuning for both settings. If the lower boost level works we will go with that. The more power you make the more likely something goes wrong in the motor.

June 29, 2020: We did get the fuel delivery worked out but unfortunately we could not get tuned for the higher boost levels at high rpm.  It turns out our turbos are at the limit. The turbos may not be as big as I thought. Moran Raging Engines is currently sizing and acquiring new turbos for us. Once we get the new turbos refitted we will go back up and run on the hub dyno before any track time. The current plan is to run Bonneville this year.  I will be checking out the salt soon. The track condition along with a few other things will determine if we go in August. Keith Copeland

http://www.blacksaltracing.com/home.html

Owner/driver: Keith Copeland, BlackSaltRacing.com
Vehicle: 1971 Triumph GT6 land speed racer
Class: C/BFMS (C = 306 to 372.99 ci engine. BFMS = Blown Fuel Modified Sports)
Record: 364.051 mph, set Oct. 2012
Top time of the meet: 380 mph, set Oct 2012
• Engine: 360 ci Brodix small-block Chevy
• Builder: MoranMotorsports.com
• Fuel injection: MoranMotorports.com
• Fuel: Methanol (also known as alcohol)
• Turbos: Twin 76 mm turbos with 30 lb boost, ice water intercooler
• Moran Motorpsorts
• Horsepower: Approx. 2,200
• Clutch: Tilton Engineering triple-disc clutch pack
• Transaxle: 8-speed, direct drive, paddle shift by Weisman.net (Everything from the gears to the billet machined housing is all custom designed for the car)
• Steering wheel: Momo
• Head and neck restraint: Safety Solutions
• Chassis: Fabricated by Mark Hanson’s StrangeFabMetalcrafts.com
• Wheelbase: 130 inches
• Wheels: Custom made two-piece alloy rims: F 15 x 3½, R?????
• Tires: Mickey Thompson front, Goodyear rear