The Dream of Speed
by
Terry Moreau

The dream of coming to Bonneville and setting a Land Speed record started over 40 years ago when my parents went to Speed Week on their honeymoon. All my life I have been around racing, first it was helping my dad in Top Fuel Drag racing, then as I got older I built a Honda CBX six cylinder Drag bike and set three world records at our local track. As time went on my father and I talked about putting together a streamliner for Bonneville. We talked about it all the time, it would be powered by a motorcycle engine, it would be long and low and it would be a lifetime of all the cool ideas that we both have had, all put to the test in one race car. The one and only race car that we could build together.

The project got started one day when my father, his best buddy Don McBride and I were standing around in the shop, bench racing, we had just returned from Speed Week and we were all revved up about a car. The problem was none of us could foot the bill for a car on our own, so we decided that if we would put our resources together we could build a pretty nice car as a team. The beginning of "McBride & Moreau Racing".

The design started out in my living room. I put a helmet on, laid down on the floor, propped my back up with pillows until I felt comfortable and my father took all the measurements. Then we found a Kawasaki ZX l motor and we were off.

We made a mock-up frame out of exhaust tubing to see how everything would fit and then came the real thing! As with every race car project it takes a lot of help from the right people and the time to listen to the veterans in the sport. The Hoffmans and the Markleys helped us out a great deal as did all the people that we talked to at Bonneville. Dick Flynn, Rich Gortsema, Jim Burkdoll just to name a few. What a wealth of knowledge you can find in the pits, if you just take the time to listen and learn. Thank you!

The car was about half done when my father died of cancer. It was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. I had lost my best friend, my teacher, my father. Don McBride, my mother and I took a long hard look at this project and decided that it must he finished, because my father would have wanted it. So after several months we started back into the project with a vengeance. The car was starting to take shape. By this time it was September '95 and we had a rolling chassis, so off we went to the World of Speed to get feed back and comments from the veterans. Everyone had great input and we returned home with 10 months to finish.

Finally after four years, about 3000 hours of fabrication and so many all nighters that we couldn't count them, we started the motor for the first time on Sunday night and Monday morning we left for Bonneville. We worked on the car for the first day of "World of Speed" and Don got sick so it was off to Salt Lake City hospital. By this time it was Friday and I made my two licensing runs. This felt great, just a few bugs and we were ready for Saturday morning - my first full throttle pass. It felt that I had a good chance to get close to 200 mph. But the motor had maybe 10 minutes run time on it and we jetted it on the rich side just to be safe. All the hours, all the hard work the countless check lists, the endless worries all for this moment! The run was fantastic, straight, fast and oooh sooo fun! When I pulled off the course and came to a stop, the safety team was already pulling up and had the great news, "You've just broke the record 198 mph !!!" and the tears just poured out. Then came the realization that we had 90 minutes to do it again, and we did! The next run was 200.7 for a new record of 199.327 mph. What better way to honor my father's memory than with a Land Speed Record on the first attempt.

This year we plan to go to Speed Week and the World of Speed. It's Don's turn to get licensed and have some fun. We are also adding NOS to the car, so we can run both the Gas and the Fuel classes.