Hi, My name is Pete Lechtanski, went to Bonneville for the first time last year with my son. Really caught the bug. My son and I had always been interested in jeeps and 4 wheel drive vehicles and we have a few lying around. We saw that the record for the E/PP ( production Pickup) was only 118 mph ( currently record about 125mph), we though it might be cool to run a Jeep Pickup. They have a smaller frontal area the the later model Ford, Chevy and dodge pickups. I have a 1980 J10 Stepside sitting in the garage with a 258 cid in-line 6.
Allot of performance work has been done on the Jeep 6 because it is the standard engine in the CJ, wrangler, Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. We started calling around and asking various shops about building the motor, they asked the application, and we said"Land speed", well a guy named Lee Hurley at HESCO in Birmingham, AL said, I already worked on a Land speed jeep!.
Turns out that in 1986 the Factory team wanted to show off their new EFI 4.0L motor, so they took the truck to El Mirage. They blew the motor, but had some problems with the SCTA. So they put a new motor into the truck, and rented out the salt and had the USAC come in to certify the records. They set 11 records, Including several FIA records. They only went 141 mph.
So because of the History we thought it would be cool to go back 23 years later and set another record with a Comanche.
So we had the vehicle choice,and last October we purchased a truck in Texas with 260,000 miles on it and drove it 1,300 miles back to Illinois. And so it began..
I an 56 years old and never built a race card before, My son ( Scott) is 23 and a Mechanic/ Fabricator. Our hope is to pass tech, and go somewhere north of 175 mph. If we just get some runs in and get licenced, I will be happy.