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Burkland model

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Burkland streamliner model page


(10 December 2009) - Very sad news. Gene Burkland is no longer. His long struggle with his lung disease finally came to an end. According to Betty, his wife and main supporter in life and racing, he said to her a few days earlier that "It's been a wonderful life . . . skidding to a stop isn't so bad."
He was a great car designer and constructor and, with the help of Betty, his son Tom and a bunch of friends, has achieved with the means of a normal guy, much hard work and a huge quantity of visionary enthusiasm something that would have cost (and did cost in the past) a fortune to a big company to achieve: the fastest mile LSR for a piston engined vehicle. A distinction he shares with only a handful of people, Al Teague, the Vescos, the Summers, the Whites. And Campbell, Cobb, Eyston...
You can see him in the picture below, with Betty, Tom and the whole team celebrating that achievement. That was great day for him. Yesterday was a very sad one for all of us.


Top1 meet 2008

26 September 2008
Tom Burkland sets new FIA Cat. A, Group I, Class 11 flying mile International record at 415.896 MPH!


The Burkland team celebrating after breaking the FIA mile record
(Photo from www.chevyasylum.com)


After years of hard work and struggle Tom Burkland, the Burkland streamliner and the Burkland family finally made an important step towards the final goal of breaking the wheel-driven record.
During the September Top 1 World Land Speed Shootout, an invitational meet organized by Mike Cook, they took the FIA International mile record from Al Teague, who held it for seventeen long years, since 1991.
The speed, 415+ mph, was not fast enough to break the kilo record, but the relative ease with which the record was broken, and the speed on the mile in the return run (427.723 mph) makes everyone comfortable that the kilo record will follow soon, and eventually, given the right salt conditions, the outright wheel-driven record might be within reach.
Read the story of the Burkland streamliner.

Click here for the story of the Burkland streamliner

Click here for a chronology of the Burkland streamliner with details of every run to date (2008)

Click here for photos of the earlier Burkland cars

Burkland model

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Burkland streamliner model page


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