#PEAKSquad’s Nick Taylor Goes from Bonneville Rookie to 248 mph on the Salt Flats

When we caught up with #PEAKSquad’s Nick Taylor before his first run at Bonneville, he described the salt flats as like being on another planet. 

“It's like standing on the moon looking at Mars,” he said. “You're on this white salt looking at these red mountains... It's like you're standing in a painting that doesn't seem real.” 

While Nick has been to Bonneville before with wife and fellow #PEAKSquad member, Alex Taylor, this time it was his turn to take the wheel. Follow along every step of the way, and experience what it’s like to fly down the salt at over 200 mph in the “Road to Bonneville” YouTube series.  

Nick’s goal was ambitious: learn a brand-new car, work his way through Bonneville’s licensing process and, if everything came together, make a run at a record. After an incredible amount of prep, Nick left the salt with an A license, a 248 mph pass, and an even bigger reason to come back.

“It was awesome,” Nick said.

Uncle Sam's Long-Lost Land Speed Brother

Nick's love story with his Bonneville car started, fittingly, on the salt at Bonneville. When Alex made her run at Bonneville, racers Roger Beckman and Tim Cox took her under their wing, giving her the opportunity to race a car they were preparing to sell to Sean Fetter.
 

That connection introduced Nick to Sean. The two got to talking about racing, business and parts manufacturing, and Nick pulled up photos of Uncle Sam, his beloved red, white, and blue ‘91 Camaro.

Sean told him he had a car just like it that he was selling. It was a land speed car — already teched, already logged, and already proven on the salt. The two went back and forth on a deal for over a year. Then, after Nick nearly wrecked Uncle Sam at Sick Summer, Sean called with an offer that brought everything full circle.

“He said, ‘Hey, I talked it over with my wife. We don't really want anybody else to have the car besides you. We just want you to be out there on the salt with us,’” Nick recalled.

Nick went out to Arizona to pick it up. The car came with a transmission, and much of the groundwork for land speed racing was already complete. “It saved me a year’s worth of work, or more,” Nick said. 

Uncle Sam's long-lost land speed brother had found its driver.

Learning a New Kind of Racing

Nick is no stranger to going fast, coming off an epic win at the PEAK Streetcar Shootout. But land-speed racing presented an entirely different challenge from the NHRA and Drag-and-Drive events he knows best. One of the biggest adjustments was learning how much aerodynamics matter at Bonneville. 

In drag racing, Nick said, weight is one of the biggest considerations. At Bonneville, every change to the body of the car can affect how it behaves at top speed. Even a scoop Nick fabricated for the turbo inlet had to be removed because officials determined it could provide an aerodynamic advantage. 

Out on the salt, Nick had a surreal moment straight out of The World’s Fastest Indian. Faced with an issue involving the car’s center of gravity, the film’s famous cigar-and-toothpick demonstration by Anthony Hopkins playing Burt Munro suddenly clicked for him in real time.“I’ve watched that movie a million times and never actually thought about that,” he said. 

As Nick would soon learn, this attention to detail, along with the rules and regulations at Bonneville, would play an important role once he started picking up speed on the salt flats.

It Takes a Village

Even though Nick was the one behind the wheel, he was quick to point out that Bonneville wasn’t a solo effort. Alex’s experience competing on the salt proved invaluable. She helped guide Nick through licensing, drove the push truck, and got to watch him experience what she already knew to be pretty special. 

“I tell everybody, if you've ever seen the movie Billy Madison, where he skips through all the grades — that's what I felt like having Alex there,” Nick said. “She was holding my hand: let's go get your license signed off, let's get your A, B, C, D.”

“Making a pass on the salt is becoming harder and harder to do, and there's less and less people doing it,” he said. “For Alex to be there and help me, it was awesome.” That support extended to the rest of his crew along with the #PEAKSquad. “People see me driving and my name out there, but it takes a village,” said Nick.

Getting to Bonneville meant a 36-hour trip each way, and Nick’s well-equipped truck and trailer handled the journey without issue. Once on the salt, the PEAK canopy quickly became one of the team’s most valuable pieces of equipment, providing shade for both the crew and the car in temperatures that reached 108 degrees.

“For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a legit operation,” said Nick. “Thanks to everybody that’s helped me get to where I’m at, I just felt like everything in my racing came together to have a really good racing experience.” 

“Working with PEAK and having what I needed, I had no excuse not to be successful,” he added. “To have the team say we want you to do good, we believe in you is part of what made this so special for me.”

The Moment at 200

With each pass, Nick and his crew learned more about the car and began working their way up in speed. Then came 200 mph. 

Unlike a paved race track, the salt can be rough and unpredictable. The car can wander and drivers have to resist the urge to overcorrect. The car started moving back and forth before straightening itself out. Then, it suddenly turned right. 

Driving one-handed so his other hand could stay on the parachute release at all times, Nick pulled both chutes while sliding sideways across the salt. His biggest concern wasn’t the spin itself, but whether the nearly 5,000-pound car would roll.

Nick kept his movements controlled and his hand on the wheel until the car eventually straightened out. “It was really scary,” he said. At Bonneville, speed isn’t just about adding more power. The car needs to have the stability to support it. “It's rough out there,” he said. “But that's part of it.”

The Next Target

After hitting 200 mph and working out some kinks, Nick hit a blazing 248 mph on his next run. Unfortunately, this final full-power attempt ended early after the engine lost oil pressure.

Nick’s debut at Bonneville was a strong one, by any measure, and he recognizes how fortunate he was to go out and license up in his first week — something that takes many drivers years, and is often dependent on the conditions, which were close to ideal in Nick’s case. The team learned a lot, including that class minimums for the 200 Club are different from records for Bonneville. 

So while the record for Nick’s class was 264 mph, the minimum needed to earn a coveted Bonneville 200 mph Club red hat was 293 mph. They also identified another potential class where adding a belly pan could give Nick an opportunity to chase both a record and a red hat at 254 mph.

Considering they already reached 248 mph at only 16 pounds of boost, Nick likes his chances. “I know the car will do it,” he said. And Nick already knows several changes he wants to make before returning, including adding a safety that can shut the engine down automatically if oil pressure drops.

So, is he going back to Bonneville? “Hell yeah, 100%,” he says. Nickky Bobby has unfinished business on the salt.