In May, 1960, Eric Rickman photographed Breedlove in Costa Mesa, California, with his latest project, a “triple-threat” 1934 Ford coupe that he planned to race at the drags, the lakes, and the salt. In the HOT ROD article “Never Scrap a Coupe” (Sept. ’60), Rickman said the car had already run 143.312 mph on the lakes “in only the third run on the new engine. More is expected.” Rickman may have meant those last three words to describe the car, but they could have been prophetic about the young man who would go on to make speed record history.
Judging by the feature story’s title, that 1934 Ford was in sad shape when Breedlove started working on it. The result was painted blue-and-white and had a 6-inch roof chop. There’s no glass in the center of the windshield “for cockpit cooling.” Breedlove applied a similar technique to earlier cars he built.
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