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400mph club: Danny Thompson breaks father’s speed record

1 September, 2016

We’re all familiar with the name Mickey Thompson, but we’re not so familiar with his son Danny. Ever since Mickey was murdered in 1988, Danny has endeavoured to follow in his father’s footsteps. Until just recently, Danny has been chasing his father’s 400mph-plus record in a vehicle designed by Mickey. Mickey’s ’60s-designed streamliner, named Challenger 2, is an aerodynamics masterpiece, designed in a time when CAD didn’t exist and engine technology was nowhere near as close to what it is now. During the August 13–19 Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Danny broke his father’s record by a tenth of a second with a 656.23kph (407.767mph) run. 

If only it was as easy as running that speed once, then calling it a record. Unfortunately it’s much tougher than that as drivers have to prove over two runs that their vehicle can pull that speed. The times are then averaged out and used officially. 

If you thought the engines that propelled Challenger 2 back in the ’60s were still in place, you were wrong. Now Challenger 2 runs two 2500hp dry-block Hemis with an 80-per-cent nitro load. According to Danny, once the engines were installed, the rest of the drivetrain had to be designed around them to cope with the newfound power. 

“I can’t quit. We call it salt fever. You just want to come back to Bonneville. You just want to go faster,” Danny said in an interview with CNN. Danny is confident the Challenger will run in the 725–756kph (450–470mph) range in the future, potentially making it the fastest piston-powered vehicle in the world, with the current record being held by Speed Demon at 439.562mph. 

NZ Classic Car magazine, September/October 2026 issue 407, on sale now

16 August, 2026

We love bugs!
A bit of TLC that became a major restoration
The 1302S, or ‘Super Beetle’ as it became known, was built for two years before it, too, was replaced by a further-enhanced Beetle, the 1303, continuing an amazing 65-year lineage for one of the World’s best-known shapes.
The world’s best-selling single-model vehicle, the VW Beetle, possibly established another record for the amount of controversy it has created since the inception of the Type 1.
In a meeting with Hitler in June 1934, Ferdinand Porsche was contracted to build a ‘People’s Car’ that could accommodate two adults and three children, was air-cooled and simple to maintain, and could cruise economically at moderate speed along Germany’s proposed new Autobahns.
Our feature car, a 1972 1302S ‘Super Beetle’, was found by Dave and Michelle Dickie in Mosgiel a few years back. It was a runner, but like most VWs of this age, it needed a little TLC. They were looking for a daily driver for Michelle when they first came upon the VW being sold locally on behalf of its owner.
“The owner offered it to his grandchildren, and they didn’t want it, so he got the guy out at Mosgiel in the Mobil petrol station to sell it for him, and he put it on Trade Me for them. We never met the owner, and we were always dealing with the guy at the petrol station. We put a bid on it, and we were the only people that bid on it.”
Their bid was eventually successful, eight years ago. Not knowing much of the history, in situations like that, it’s always a risk buying a car, but they were in for a bit of a surprise.

The other Q car

12 August, 2026

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.