Speed dating milestones

The 1926 Indy 500 trophy, the Muroc dry lake measured-mile record of 171 mph, and eight of twenty-two board-track races he entered were in his pocket when he died on Daytona‘s sands in 1928, already a legend at the age of 25.

WIND TUNNEL Fourteen years after Gustave Eiffel’s tower was completed, the noted French engineer found an excellent use for the structure.

Shortly before the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, Eiffel began quantifying the drag of experimental airfoils by measuring their rate of fall from his second-level laboratory with a vertical guy wire guiding descent.

To extend the time available for testing, Eiffel constructed two wind tunnels next to his tower in 1909 and ’12.

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY If you want to sound like an insider, you don’t call it Indy; you call it the Speedway, without specifying which one.

Indianapolis has been the Promised Land – and the Valley of Death, on dozens of occasions – for American racers ever since the first 500 was staged in 1911.

Naturally, we touch down at the great racetracks, where driving fast is elevated to an art form.

We also take an insider’s tour of Bonneville, America’s bright white temple of speed. We chose a handful for their significance in advancing the cause of speed, no easy choice given the automobile’s 100-plus-year history. Ride along with the man who’s done it in more cars than just about anyone.

After Peugeot racers proved that Henry’s invention was valid with several grand prix and Indy 500 wins, the French firm Ballot et Cie hired him to design engines for racing and road use.

Also, the cooling effect associated with N2O’s liquid-to-gas change in state increases the incoming charge’s density.

Racers began legal and illegal use of nitrous some thirty years ago to gain up to 100 hp.

More than 300,000 GE turbos were manufactured during World War II for use on bombers and fighters.

The Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder and the Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire, both launched in 1962, were the first turbocharged production cars.