Eds Threads

[PhillipsLT5]

Ed Van Scoy, Bonneville World 'Land Speed' Record holder, local Corvette Racer and 'Go-To' Guy on all things Corvette, has generously agreed to do a regular installment for us on all the local Corvette Racing Events and related club activities. Call it Ed's Threads (or Treads), we know it will be both informative and interesting, as well as relevant.
Corvettes at Bonneville Speed Week
The very first Speed Week was held on the Bonneville salt flats in 1949. I wasn’t there, but I’m pretty sure there were no Corvettes to represent our addiction. 2013 marked the 65th anniversary of organized racing on the salt and I’m proud to say we had a few great examples of the marque represented. Although salt conditions prohibited any of the Corvette classes from setting records, we gave it our damn-sure best!
Bonneville is the last bastion of home-built cars for speed. With very few sponsors, no money to win, very little press coverage and no chance to “move up” to the pros, why do it? Personal satisfaction and camaraderie are the first reasons that come to mind. The racers share a tight bond not found in other motorsports, probably because it is purely for fun. The corporate interests haven’t discovered the profit potential and pretty much leave us alone. We like it that way.
Most people are surprised that the Corvette of choice at Bonneville is the venerable C4. There are many reasons for the, the best is that it is actually more aerodynamically suited for high speeds than the C5 and C6. The C4 goes straight and doesn’t have the rear aero lift issues present in the newer models. And probably the best part is the price…. Pull up Craig’s List and on any given day you can find a suitable potential C4 race car for less than 5 grand. After that you are on your own because there are few off-the-shelf parts available for this sport. Surprisingly though, many drag race parts will work well. The first race car I took up there in the early 90’s ran over 200 mph with every engine part available in the Summit catalog. I’ve even adapted quite a few circle track parts into my current car. Probably over half of the cars are built by a group of friends and each share the driving duties.