The quest for speed has earned a new speed record for Dick Knorr and Frank Kinney of Summerland.
At the Speed Week competition at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah last month, Kinney attained speeds of 210 miles an hour and 208 miles an hour, for an average of 208.974 miles an hour.
This time for Black Opel Racing was the new world record in the E Gas Modified Sport class, easily breaking the old record of 202 miles an hour.
“Nobody has gone faster than us in this class in the world,” Kinney said.
He added that the speed translates to 336.311 kilometres an hour.
“You’re doing over five kilometres a minute, so that’s motoring,” he said.
The car is a 1970 Opel GT, a sports car built by General Motors in Germany. It is powered by a 254 cubic inch engine.
Knorr started working on the car in 2000 and took it to Utah in 2001.
Since that time, he and Kinney have been partners, working to improve the car and get a little more speed out of it.
“We’ve been chasing this record,” Kinney said. “Once you’re involved with something in the Salt, it gets into your blood. You just want to go faster.”
While Knorr and Kinney now have the world record, they will continue to work with the car to make it faster.
“We think there’s a little bit left in this car,” Kinney said.
He hopes to see a new record set next year, this time with Knorr behind the wheel.
