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Gear: There's No Doubt Bonneville Is The World's Fastest Place

There’s No Doubt Bonneville Is The World’s Fastest Place

By Michael Banovsky
October 21, 2015
3 comments

Photography by Alexandra Lier

A special place like Bonneville deserves a special book, a book that’s able to show the culture built up around Utah’s most famous salt flats. The World’s Fastest Place by photographer Alexandra Lier is a tribute to the “vanishing era of internal combustion and fossil fuel racing,” as the publisher states, and so somehow seems more intimate.

Each portrait, be it spectator, mechanic, driver, or car, is perfectly presented on the salt. You’d never mistake it for anywhere else, and the steely stare that most of the drivers exhibit helps to convey both how special and dangerous this place can be.

Thankfully, it’s not just a superficial look at land speed racing; Kevin Robert Thomson helped with the text and Lier herself drivers a Plymouth Barracuda in Germany. She first visited the salt flats in 1999, and this book, The World’s Fastest Place, is the result of spending lots of time in Bonneville. 

Tags Bonneville Salt Flats/ Books
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Olivia james
Olivia james
1 year ago

Bonneville has a separate fan base and people love to visit this place. This place needs an AssignmentHolic UK book so that people can read more about the history and culture of this place.

Last edited 1 year ago by Olivia james
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Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
7 years ago

1) Errr … a link please gents ! [ I found it on Amazon but seriously guys … direct links that aren’t limited to the EU/UK side of the pond accompanying AdverArticles such as this … please ]

2) WAS … needs to be the key word when it comes to Bonneville . As in…. WAS … the fastest place on earth … along with WAS …the last bastion of genuine motorsports competition . With all thats going on there that’d take at least a 100 pages to explain its looking more and more like Bonneville is about to become a footnote in automotive history rather than having any semblance of an active and vibrant present or future . Trust me .. as bad as the media might say it is [ FYI ; the media .. especially the automotive media has been going out of its way to veil the truth ] … its ten times worse than anyone can even imagine

3) Except for the lack of pages this book appears to be a pretty decent effort ;

[ 120 pages ? … to cover Bonneville ? .. even for just one season ? … Ahh .. no ! A serious effort what with all the variety of cars , classes , characters and personalities on the Salt would require a minimum of say …. 200 pages or more .. for the photos alone ]

Not having seen this book in person I think I can safely say Peter Vincent’s book [ at 272 pages ]is probably still the better option … what with the additional pages and especially Peter having a lot whole more credibility when it comes to the subject

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Rudolf Wesseln
Rudolf Wesseln
7 years ago

I just ordered the book and will be happy to get it after the release in December. One comment: Alexandra is also the author of another interesting book (‘Speedseekers’).

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