Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America Sonic I was created to set a world land speed record that would last. This was a feat the Sonic I team achieved and their record stood unbeaten from 1965 until 1970. It took a car powered by a rocket to finally beat it.
Fast Facts
- Craig Breedlove was a man who loved speed and who was highly competitive. So at the time when the United States was engaged in the Space Race with the Soviet Union Breedlove assembled a team around him with the aim of setting the world speed record in a car.
- As it turned out Breedlove’s first speed record car was not accepted by the FIA as a car because it only had three wheels – which made it a tricycle in their eyes. The FIM were however happy to accept it as a motorcycle and so the speed records set with the first Spirit of America were for a motorcycle – a motorcycle powered by a jet fighter engine.
- Having done some record setting in the Spirit of America – and almost coming to harm in the process – Craig Breedlove’s team created a new world speed record car with the aim of achieving the speed of sound on the Bonneville salt flats. This car was named the Spirit of America Sonic I, the word Sonic signifying the speed of sound.
- The Spirit of America Sonic I succeeded in setting a world land speed record for a car that lasted from 1965 until 1970. It took a rocket powered car to beat it.
- Spirit of America Sonic I is now coming up for sale by RM Sotheby’s at their Miami 2025 auction and will be offered as Lot 109 on Thursday February 27, 2025.
Spirit of America, a Fighter Jet Powered Tricycle
Craig Breedlove was a man who loved speed and who was highly competitive. He was a man who decided that to beat the world land speed record what he chiefly needed was a tricycle installed with a military fighter jet engine and a sufficiently large fuel tank filled with aviation jet fuel.
With the fighter jet powered tricycle built Breedlove and his support team headed for the Bonneville Salt Flats to make their attempt at the world land speed record.
As it would turn out 26 year old Breedlove would indeed achieve his ambition, and also unexpectedly get his name in the Guiness Book of Records for an entirely unexpected other achievement.
In 1963 Breedlove’s fighter jet on three wheels burned across the Bonneville Salt Flats over an eleven mile run and achieved and world record speed of 407mph.
This was, however, not to be recognized by the global governing body the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) because they required that a “car” had to have four wheels and had to be powered through those wheels – jet thrust was not permitted. But paradoxically the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) did recognize Spirit of America as a “motorcycle” and so the speed record officially stood.
On July 17, 1964 the official world land speed record for a car was broken by British driver Donald Campbell on Lake Eyre in Australia. His car was gas turbine driven but it drove the four wheels, thus complying with the FIA rules. Campbell achieved an official flying mile speed of 403.1 mph (648.7 km/hr)
In October of 1964 Breedlove took his tricycle wrapped around its General Electric J47 jet engine back to Bonneville to try to go even faster – the aim being to break the 500mph barrier. Spirit of America did not disappoint and Breedlove broke the 500mph mark with a speed of 526.277mph (846.961 km/hr).
However, as Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong it will, and at the worst possible moment. And that was to prove to be the case for Craig Breedlove in his jet powered tricycle speed car.
At the end of his second run Spirit of America’s parachutes failed to open with the result that it didn’t want to slow down, the Spirit’s brakes could not wash off the speed – and it certainly didn’t want to slow down much before it hit a telegraph pole then ran into a brine pond at around 200mph – which slowed and stopped it pretty effectively.
You can see this in this YouTube video posted by Samuel Hawley.
Craig Breedlove became a household name and the music group The Beach Boys wrote song about him called “Spirit of America”.
Wet, covered in salty water, but happy to be alive Craig Breedlove climbed from the car and proclaimed “And now for my next act I’m going to set myself on fire.” Happily the Spirit of America and Breedlove were so wet that a fire was not a likely outcome.
Breedlove’s skid was a matter of interest however and it was duly measured and submitted to the Guiness Book of Records as the longest skid in automotive history.
Spirit of America Sonic I – A Four Wheeled Speed Car
Having found the limit of the original Spirit of America Craig Breedlove wanted to go faster: he wanted to break 600mph, and he hoped to make it to the speed of sound, which is around 767mph (1,235 km/hr) depending on atmospheric conditions.
The decision was taken to create a new speed record car, hopefully one that would enable Craig Breedlove to realize his ambitions: and with this in mind the new car was dubbed Spirit of America Sonic I.
This new car was to have four wheels and be powered by a GE J79 jet engine from an F4 Phantom II jet fighter, complete with afterburner. The aim was to meet FIA requirements and set a record that would pose a serious challenge to any others who might want to beat it: Breedlove’s main competition in this regard was Art Arfons who had installed the same type of engine in one of his “Green Monster” family of speed record and drag racing cars.
The GE J79 with afterburner gave the Spirit of America Sonic I around 15,000 lb of thrust and the team were careful to build in sufficient stopping power to go with its substantial going power. The car was fitted with custom forged aluminium alloy wheels and tire company Goodyear created custom tires to suit it, with the expectation that the team were aiming for a speed north of 700mph. Disc brakes were fitted to provide the necessary “whoa power” to bring the Sonic I to a stop and thus avoid any repeat of the previous Spirit of America’s salt bath.
Sonic I was also fitted with an aerospace-style drag chute to help the disc brakes wash off speed.
On their first excursion on the Bonneville salt on November 1, 1965 Sonic I managed 555.485 mph, while his wife Lee, also in Sonic I, put down a 308.506 mph to set a women’s record.
However, days after Breedlove set that record Art Arfons in his Green Monster beat it. For Craig Breedlove that meant that an unbeatable speed record needed to be set and he set about doing just that.
Craig Breedlove’s team were successful with the Spirit of America Sonic 1 flying down the salt to achieve a two-way average of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/hr) on November 15, 1965. This record stood the test of time and was not beaten until 1970 when Gary Gabelich’s team made their record run with their rocket car called the Blue Flame with a flying mile speed of 622.407 mph (1,001.667 km/hr) and flying kilometer of 630.388 mph (1,014.511 km/h).
Attaining the speed of sound on land was to be an elusive goal for Craig Breedlove. He did not set about attaining that until 1992, and built a new car – the Spirit of America – Formula Shell LSRV – but the speed of sound on land was to elude him. The honor went to a British team with the car ThrustSSC who achieved 763 mph (1,228 km/hr) on October 15, 1997.
Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America Sonic I was placed in the care of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1975, after its world record setting performances, and was shown periodically at various locations including Daytona International Speedway in 1980 and the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California in 1995.
Spirit of America Sonic I For Sale
The Spirit of America Sonic I is now coming up for sale by RM Sotheby’s at their Miami 2025 sale and will be offered on February 27, 2025. The lot number is 109.
You will find the sale page with further details if you click here.
This is a unique piece of automotive history. A historic record setting car campaigned by a man who became a household word, especially in the United States. It deserves a place on display where it can be appreciated.
Picture Credits: Pictures courtesy Darin Schnabel @ RM Sotheby’s, some via Getty Images as individually marked.
Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome.
Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His travels have taken him to Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries. He has studied the Japanese sword arts and has a long history of involvement in the shooting sports, which has included authoring submissions to government on various firearms related issues and assisting in the design and establishment of shooting ranges.
