In This Age of Ecology, transportation has come to mean going from one point to another with the least visible flash. What with the doomsday pronouncements of the Ehrlichs and the Commoners and the stuff we keep hearing about "the impending energy crisis," it seems that those who still like to move in style are destined for even more bad press. On the other hand, there are perspectives--such as those advanced by naturalist Robert Ardrey--that urge such folks to carry on, full speed ahead. Ardrey, for instance, believes that all men possess an innate need to face danger. Without hazard, as he calls it, Ardrey says man--both as an individual and as a civilization--is doomed. Now, the six men who drove the machines pictured on these pages might not see their ambitions in Ardrey's terms, but what they've sought and achieved isn't unsympathetic to his views. The irony is that what the gentlemen who piloted these record breakers did scuttles the rationale behind technology. If nothing else, technology implies the elimination of human sacrifice. And when you take a device that was designed to remove suffering from your life and turn it around to stretch the limits of your endurance, you can understand the paradox. As we all know, record-setting attempts have their drawbacks: the fires, the flip-overs, the assorted wipe-outs--and the sad knowledge that almost every record eventually disappears from the books. But, granting that, there still remains a whole world of fringe benefits that eludes everyone but a few life-risking men. Take Craig Breedlove, for example, a former land speed record holder. In October 1964, he was attempting a new mark when his jet-powered Spirit of America went out of control. He missed the record, but his effort went down in history. On that day, Breedlove set a record for the longest skid marks ever made. By the time he brought his Spirit under control, he had skidded nearly eight miles. Of course, the difference between Breedlove and the men we feature here is that they got what they were after and he didn't. And, as even Breedlove would agree, that makes all the difference in the world.
