World speed

From left, Charles Farmer ('64), Lee Capps ('64), UNT's master glassblower William A. "Bill" Smith, Randy Calvert and, not pictured, Alan Calvert ('72) built the Class F/Gas Lakester classification car that set a new world speed record of 198.227 mph on Aug. 19 at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. The team began working on the car more than three years ago, and they made their first trip to the salt flats in 2001. The motor in their record-breaking car, originally a small 4-cylinder motor in a Ford Ranger pickup, had only 2500 cc displacement compared to the 3000 cc motor used by the previous record holder. "We proved the so-called experts wrong," Smith says. "A lot of the cars we competed against had corporate sponsorships and cost between a quarter and a half million dollars. Our car cost $12,000."