On Saturday, several of us from the Yahoo! Autos team caravanned down to the edge of the Mojave Desert. We spent the weekend with all sorts of car nuts who were trying to do the same thing we were…break a land speed record. With expert know-how from our friends at Orange County Rod and Custom, we built a 3,000-horsepower, 6-cylinder, twin-turbo truck that runs on peanut oil. It’s a crazy-looking beast with its 747 airplane tires and painted grill façade, but it flies.

The weekend was filled with lots of bizarre-looking vehicles — far more bizarre than ours. It was like Burning Man collided with a NASCAR infield. And just like Burning Man, you remember really enjoying yourself, but being a little fuzzy about the details. There were a lot of “lakesters,” the bullet-looking racing cars designed especially to run on a salt flat or dry lake bed, and one of them reached over 250 mph.

We didn't quite reach that many digits. Our truck, named Lipid Lightning, (thanks to Yahoo! user Ken E. who had the best suggestion in response to our Yahoo! Answers challenge) performed well, clocking in at 98 mph and setting the record for the fastest grease-powered vehicle on Earth. We were hoping to run a little faster, but the weather on Saturday conspired against us and shut down test runs. We had to saddle up and go for it with a maiden voyage on Sunday. But we were still psyched to nearly break 100 mph and not blow out the engine or go into a flat spin, an all-too-common occurrence this past weekend at El Mirage. Check out the video below for a taste of the peanut action.

I know what you’re thinking. Why would Yahoo! Autos do this? (Aside from looking for an excuse to live in a motor home in the middle of the desert and enjoy cold ones with hundreds of people we’ve never met, we actually had a legitimate "work" reason.) Last week we launched a new site that's all about alternative fuel vehicles (though not a lot of info exists about peanut oil). There's a lot of misinformation out there about alternative fuels, and this site helps debunk some of the myths, lays out the pros and cons, and best of all, gives you an easy "green rating" for new cars.

It’s a product that's been a lot of fun to work on and has been incredibly rewarding. When your personal beliefs align with your job, it makes it far more fulfilling to come to work.

It may take a while to knock the dirt out of our ears and come down from the nitrous high, but this weekend was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced (see photos). I can only hope to be along for the ride when we get closer to the 200 mph barrier.

Brent Daily
Marketing Manager, Yahoo! Autos