Kiwi-A-Salt

If you’ve heard of ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ a film about a New Zealand pioneer of land speed records, then you won’t want to miss this book on another New Zealand salt flats racer Bill Ward and his second attempt to set a land speed record. .
This book follows on from Bill’s first book ‘Three Times in a Row’ which chronicled his first attempt in 1979. Back then he almost came home with the record for his class. He did set fast time for the class but just couldn’t get down the course to do that back up run. The “disease” sat smouldering and semi-dormant for 28 years from 1979 through to 2007, at which time the desire to return couldn’t be controlled any longer and despite the fact that Bill was no spring chicken anymore the process was reignited. In 2007 circumstances hadn’t changed a lot since 1979. The costs had escalated dramatically and the car that Bill wanted to build was a radical departure from the previous vehicle, not to mention that it was a lot more sophisticated….and hence a lot more expensive. As in ’79 the minor matters of funding and the engineering challenges didn’t deter him and with the help of a great bunch of friends he set about fund raising and building. The rest of the story is, as they say, history and is the subject of this book. Bill Ward is a great example of where there is a will there is a way and what he has achieved reinforces this. This is Bill’s unique tale of his second attempt at setting a land speed record.