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<\/p>\n<\/div>Detroit \u2014<\/em>\u00a0The automotive future promises a dystopian landscape of connected highways prowled by autonomous, anonymous pods shuttling their human cargo to their destinations risk-free and at a prescribed speed limit.<\/p>\n The 66th annual Meguiar\u2019s Detroit Autorama hot rod show says the heck with all that.<\/p>\n Front and center in Cobo Center this weekend \u2014 in front of 800 chopped, channeled, dumped, and decked custom, hot rod hell-raisers \u2014 is a special exhibit of six, record-setting Bonneville Salt Flat speedsters. From sleek streamliners to lay-down motorcycles these land rockets push the limits of speed with daredevils like George Poteet and Roosevelt Lackey at the helm.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no Penskes or Ganassis out there on the salt flats,\u201d says longtime Bonneville participant and spokeswoman for SavetheSalts.com, Louise Noeth, in reference to two of the richest teams in IndyCar and NASCAR racing. \u201cBonneville racers are just everyday folks who have been chasing their dreams on the flats since 1949.\u201d<\/p>\n Like speed-obsessed, real-life versions of \u201cMad Max\u201d movie road warriors, these dreamers show up in their outlandish contraptions every year between July and November in a series of events to chase the fastest speed records on the planet. The biggest gathering is Speed Week in August.<\/p>\n Their race track is a 46-square mile expanse of encrusted salt near the tiny town of Wendover in northwest Utah where competitors vie for best average mile speed over a straight, five-mile run.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bonneville Salt Flats is basically a dried-up ocean that got landlocked 11,000 years ago by a series of earthquakes that pushed up mountains around it and dried it up,\u201d says Noeth, whose bullet-shaped, Team Vesco Turbinator set the wheel-driven land speed record at 458 mph in 2001.<\/p>\n Challenging the Turbinator\u00a0for world speed record<\/a>\u00a0in recent years has been Poteet\u2019s Chevy-powered, gold, spear-shaped Speed Demon which holds three class records for wheel-driven vehicles.\u00a0A message on the team\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0chronicling last year\u2019s Speed Week read:<\/p>\n \u201cWe blew up and caught fire on Tuesday. Rebuilt the car, switched engine and transmission, and re-wired the car. Today we went 438 (mph) average mile.\u201d<\/p>\n Says Noeth: \u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of it, man. These guys come out here with all kinds of bullets in their chamber. One guy went through eight engines in eight days.\u201d<\/p>\n The outright speed record is held by a \u201cthrust power\u201d class vehicle \u2014 essentially a jet engine on rollers \u2014 at 763 mph. No thrust power vehicles will be on display at Cobo but there will be examples of the other two Bonneville vehicle categories: wheel-driven and motorcycle.<\/p>\n Arrow Racing of Windsor has fielded a motorcycle where the driver must lay on his back in a tube behind the engine, then peer through a periscope to see where he\u2019s going. Bob Williams, who constructed the streamliner from his wheelchair, died last year, but his motorcycle once hit 228 mph on the flats.<\/p>\n Bob Sirna of Rochester Hills converted his classic, 1955 Mercedes 300 SL gull-wing<\/a>into a land speed car back in 2001 to chase his dream. Fifteen years later, with a highly modified, 430-horse Roush V-6 under the hood, he set a Bonneville GT record at 291 mph.<\/p>\n Three other Bonneville stars will be on display including a Belly Tank Lakester, 1934 three-window coupe, and Roosevelt Lackey\u2019s 1971 Triumph motorcycle.<\/p>\n When showgoers aren\u2019t ogling these decidedly non-autonomous speedsters, they\u2019ll be treated to the winner of the annual Ridler trophy. The bauble is awarded to the most outstanding new custom car. The winner takes home $10,000.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely gratifying that Detroit Autorama is the home of America\u2019s most important hot rod award,\u201d said Peter Toundas, president of Championship Auto Shows, which produces Autorama. \u201cThis is the Motor City, and Detroit is where hot rod, custom car shows started so we make every effort to let everyone know about this important heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n Autorama will also play host to ex-NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will sign autographs, and a display of eight of the famous \u201cFate of the Furious\u201d movie cars.<\/p>\n Autorama runs through Sunday. For all the details, go to\u00a0https:\/\/autorama.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n