She looked stunning. Drenched in the harsh, noontime sunlight, the rising heat waves around her accentuating the gentle curves of her body. I stood with a small group of guys ogling her from a distance – wanting her – she had that effect on people. Her name was Bonnie, and she had that unique quality of appearing both sensual and somewhat menacing, all at the same time.
Now, before you go and tell my wife that she needs to find a good divorce lawyer, let me explain. Bonnie was definitely a rare beauty and… shall we say… a fast lady? I first met her on the barren, otherworldly landscape of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonnie, as her friends like to call her, came to Bonneville to try and become the world’s fastest Alfa Romeo. See, Bonnie is a turbocharged, 400 horsepower Alfa Romeo Spider.
Bonnie and her sister Bonetta (an Alfetta GT) are the children of a small band of Alfa enthusiasts from Chicago, led by team patron Dick Kreines and Alfa specialist Mike Besic. Their goal was as old as motorsport itself: break an existing speed record. Their path, however, was not so straightforward. Ed McDonough and I were to originally meet up with them last year at Bonneville, but several weeks before the event, the high-strung supercharger they were using exploded on the dyno, with devastating effects to the engine. Their attempt would have to wait until 2001. This year, things looked promising, until again, several months before Speed Week, the supercharger went ballistic. At that point, the team was faced with a difficult decision, call it quits for the year, or completely redesign the engine in less than two months. Being gluttons for punishment and lack of sleep, they opted for the latter. The team’s engine builder, Jim Steck, then set about the daunting task of redesigning the engine to take a custom fabricated turbocharger and intercooler, rather than the temperamental supercharger.
By the time Ed and I met up with them on the scorching hot Bonneville salt floor, Bonnie was looking resplendent in bright canary yellow and packing a mean wallop with a 1.6-liter, turbocharged motor that was belting out a stunning (and amazingly reliable!) 400 horsepower on the dyno. In case you’ve missed the significance of this accomplishment, this small group of amateurs – with no corporate sponsorship – completely re-engineered their car in under 60 days, for a record that holds no prize money and that even many knowledgeable enthusiasts don’t know exists. God, I love this hobby!
As the team prepared for their first run, Ed dangled a carrot for them when he announced that the fastest recorded speed of all time for an Alfa Romeo was 210.53 mph set by Ricardo Patrese in a European 164 Procar. The record that Bonnie was aiming to break at Bonneville was 211 mph. That meant that if she could do it, Bonnie would stand as the fastest Alfa Romeo of all time.
Constructor Mike Besic was pegged to be Bonnie’s main pilot for the record attempts. With a cooler strapped next to him pumping ice water into the intercooler, Mike’s first run was a solid 143 mph, despite using barely half of the available 25 pounds of boost from the turbocharger! With the next run, Mike got Bonnie up to 173 mph, but noted that she was feeling a little bit twitchy. A quick check revealed that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have the fine folks at the local K-Mart Autocenter do the front-end alignment. After removing nearly 1/2” of toe-out, Bonnie’s subsequent run of 179 mph felt rock solid.
Due to several problems that the team had with the other car, Bonetta, and the always capricious Bonneville weather, it was the last day of Speed Week by the time Bonnie made her final assault (ugh, no pun intended) on the record. Besic twisted up the boost a bit and put in a blistering 180 mph run with lots of boost left to go, but not much time. With time for just one more run, Besic made his final pass on the Bonneville long course (5-mile timed distance) and recorded a stunning 194 mph. The team was both elated and disappointed. Bonnie had a lot left to give, but there just wasn’t enough time left. While they weren’t able to break the existing Blown GT Record or establish Bonnie as the fastest Alfa of all time, they were rightfully able to lay claim to being the fastest 4-cylinder Alfa of all time.
Not bad for a bunch of sleep-deprived, underfunded amateurs.
