When you look at the output of Mickey Thompson throughout the ’50s and ’60s—its scope and diversity from dragsters to Indy cars to managing dragstrips—it seems impossible it all came from the drive of one man. During that time, one of Thompson’s greatest feats was his attempt to beat John Cobb’s 394.19-mph land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats and exceed the magic 400-mph barrier for the first time by creating this car: the Challenger I. He was obsessed with bringing the record home to America, as it had been thus far held by the Brits.
The complexity of packaging four pontiac engines with their 1937 cadillac transmissions may have been the easiest part of the build. More concerning was how the tires would withstand repeated 400-mph attempts, how to keep the parachutes from violently whipping the car around once deployed, and how to envelope it aerodynamically. The first part was handled by Goodyear Tires; the parachutes were taken care of by experimenting with first shortening, then lengthening the lanyard; and the aero was accomplished by the talented fabricators Thompson surrounded himself with. George Hill designed the body, Don Borth fabricated it, and Fritz Voight was the mechanic.
Thompson spent 1960 adding superchargers to the pontiacs and altering the body to accommodate them and for better aerodynamics. Thompson’s second attempt that year netted a one-way pass of 406.6 mph, though he was not able to back it up for the official record due to a broken driveshaft. Still, it was a miraculous feat for the hot rodder from Alhambra, California: He was the first American to exceed 400 mph.