I hope I'm wrong.
You are.
Here's a little elaboration to 'qualify' my inquiry. Back in 2011ish on of my best friends was presented the opportunity to build and document a 1979 Chevy LUV through a series of tech articles that were published in MiniTruckin Magazine.
http://www.trucktrend.com/search/?q=junkyard%20jewelIn early 2013 we found out that we'd be taking the Luv to SEMA in November, so it was all-hands on deck for most of that year. JD, his wife, myself, and my girlfriend spent nearly every weekend in the shop (I had to drive from Lethbridge to Calgary every weekend to do this) to make the deadline. It was exhausting but the SEMA roadtrip made it all worth it.
Now that's nearly three years past, and JD keeps wondering what's next for this little truck...that's when we started talking about Bonneville. JD isn't opposed to putting in a cage, adding the required safety gear, etc that would be needed to run at Bonneville. Not at all. What we're trying to do is find out if there's another venue/event that it could run at just to see if it's worthy. As it is, the truck is a great daily runner and JD doesn't really want to cake it in salt 'just to see'.
So, if we can find an environment that's just a little less harsh (the truck lives a hard enough life up here in Canada anyway) to "test the waters" so to speak, we'd like to try it out first. Then we'll happily take it to Wendover.
Wayne Gretzky said in his autobiography that he wasn't sure the Stanley Cup was ever washed and when he drank out of it he didn't really care because 'there are some germs you
want to catch. Me personally, I'd let Bonneville salt rust anything I own...but this Luv is JD's truck and he'd like to let it wind out on a easier-to-clean surface first. Unless, of course, there just isn't one.
I'm 35 and JD just turned 40 this year. We're hardly Millennials and we both have plenty of road trip miles under our belt. We're just new to Land Speed stuff is all.
Oh and Peter!! I did get your PM...tried to reply but that didn't seem to work. I'll be in touch!
-Mike