Utah’s Son of Speed – Racing on a Ribbon of Salt
Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 12:33PM Tweet By Bennett Owen
Used by permission, Utah Historical Society. All rights reserved.
This is the “Mormon Meteor,” one of the world’s most valuable cars…a custom Dusenberg built with only one goal in mind ... breaking speed records. The 1939 version generated 750hp with a top speed of 275 MPH.
Used by permission, Utah Historical Society. All rights reserved.
And this is the man who piloted the 22-hundred pound beast ... adventurer ... pioneer ... visionary ... David Abbot Jenkins.
Credit: Deseret News
When fate knocked at the door of “Ab” Jenkins, he was a simple family man eking out a living wage as a painter, carpenter and fix-it man in Salt Lake City, Utah. The year was 1925 and a friend asked him to race a car against a freight train on a newly laid stretch of highway slicing through the salt flats west of town. Jenkins beat the train by five minutes and in doing so found his calling.
Credit: Deseret News
Credit: Deseret News
By the time he passed away 30 years later he was a legend in the automotive world, having set far more endurance and land speed records than any other person on the planet before or since, and single-handedly turning a remote, sweltering 100 square mile slab of Utah desert into a motorized Mecca of high performance, high tech and of course high speed. The Bonneville Salt Flats.
Credit: Deseret News
Credit: Desert News
His was an extraordinary era of innovation and raw adventure and rare camaraderie and the quest for excellence. “Ab” Jenkins’ story is far too fascinating and complex for a few glib Blog lines. Luckily, it has been captured on film in a riveting documentary, Boys of Bonneville – Racing on a Ribbon of Salt.
The film is obviously a labor of love, commissioned by the John Price Museum of Speed in Salt Lake. It’s touring the festival circuit now and officially premiers in Salt Lake August 24th. Here’s a preview to get your engine started:
Boys of Bonneville Movie Trailer from Price Museum of Speed on Vimeo.
In 1932, Jenkins’ facilities at the Salt Flat consisted of an old sheepherder’s wagon and some tents for the help who kept time with simple stopwatches.
Credit: Deseret News
In his first major endurance feat, he vowed to skeptical experts that he would drive a Pierce-Arrow 24-hundred miles in 24 hours and his only protection was a thick layer of grease smeared on his face to shield the sun. When it was over, he had driven 27-hundred miles and was stone deaf from the roar of the engine.
Credit: Deseret News
A year later, he bettered his speed, shaving his face on the last lap at a speed of 125 MPH and no windshield. He wanted to look presentable when the time trial was over.
Credit: Deseret News
But Jenkins truly came into his own with the legendary “Mormon Meteor,” breaking 21 records in 1939 alone including an average of nearly 162 MPH for a 24-hour run…a record that stood for 50 years, only to be broken in 1990 by a team of EIGHT drivers.
Credit: Deseret News
The Mormon Meteor is the centerpiece of the John Price Museum of Speed in Salt Lake. Comedian Jay Leno is a well-known car fanatic and not surprisingly, he worships the memory of Ab Jenkins. He sums it up in Popular Mechanics:
"Ab raced for the love of the sport--he did it all himself. Not only was he the driver, but he had to be the engineer, the R&D guy--and he had to build the car too. He knew when it broke, knew when it was running perfectly, and he could drive it for 24 hours straight at 160 mph. Ab had that great all-American-boy stuff of the 1930s."
Credit: Deseret News
Credit: Deseret News
Today’s technology is light years ahead ... and still many of Jenkins’ records stand for he was first and foremost a man of endurance ... a devout and humble Mormon, a 'gentleman racer’ with a fanatical need for speed.
Used by permission, Utah Historical Society. All rights reserved.