Sunday, January 13, 2008

Wally Parks NHRA Museum

After leaving the Pomona Swap Meet I stopped by the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. I had been to Pomona quite a few times for events, but had never paid a visit to the museum. Since the swap meet hours went from 5 am to 2pm, there was still plenty of time left in the afternoon.


Inside the museum I found the import drag Turbonetics Inc. sponsored Toyota Celica that was piloted by Matt Scranton (pictured above). While working for Turbonetics I learned a bit about the turbocharger setup that boosted the car to trap speeds exceeding 200 mph. I had forgotten the car was placed in the museum, but when I saw it sitting there I recalled the day it left and peeling decals off of it in the parking lot... This is also the vehicle that earned Turbonetics all the Wallys that got used around the building as doorstops. Well ok maybe just one was used as a doorstop. The others got to sit in a case or on a shelf.

On another note, yes there is a Prius displayed next to the Celica. It was a landspeed car built by Toyota. It holds the title of World's Fastest Hybrid. I'm not sure if anyone else has actually gone through the effort to run another hybrid at the salt flats however, so it can't be much of a record. Although once a class is established, other people always want to break the records. I doubt it will be the last hybrid to run at Bonneville.

1 comment:

Dave said...

Thanks for your post on wally parks museum, I'm surprised just how many motorsport museums are actually in America, And they all look top class Unfortunately we don't have that luxury here in little old NZ. Thanks for sharing your info.