Review: Challenger: Mickey Thompson's own story of his life of Speed

Challenger: Mickey Thompson's own story of his life of Speed by Mickey Thompson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s, as told in this biography covering is career from childhood obsessions to post-Bonneville Salt Flats Indy racing. He achieved international fame in 1960, when he became the first American to break the 400-mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one-way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and surpassing John Cobb's one-way world record mark of 402 mph. A large part of this story is that project. In the decades leading up to 1960, land speed racing was dominated by the British, gentleman racers backed by English motor component companies. He was America's self-nominated, ingenuous Yankee answer to that. His four-engined vehicle was fashioned from junkyard parts in the garage of his family's El Monte home. In 1960, without the benefits of formal training or technical expertise, he became the first American race car driver to go over 400 mph, making him the fastest overall driver in the world. The NHRA Hall of Fame dubbed him "the quintessential California hot rodder" and this tells the story of personal, professional, technical, and supplier challenges to surmount which he did with brash demands, Vegas gambling and suffering bone-breaking injuries while silencing the scoffers. Although he had clinched the highest overall speed, a breakdown on the return run prevented him from capturing the official record. This is an exciting story -- and I am no gearhead -- about an automotive purist uninterested in the then emerging paradigm of jet-powered cars drawing to a close at the dawn of his Indy years.

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