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Speed Demon (car)

land speed racing car built in 2010 by Ron Main for George Poteet

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ60767721
Source-derived summary

Speed Demon is a land speed racing car built in 2010 by Ron Main for George Poteet.

In September 2010, George Poteet made a serious attempt to break the flying mile and flying kilometer record for piston-engined wheel-driven cars. Speed Demon is powered by a 299 cu in (4,900 cc) aluminum block 'Hellfire' V8, built by Kenny Duttweiler. Their effort was thwarted by a number of parts failures. The team stated their intention to return in 2011 to set a record over 450 mph (724 km/h), and at the 2011 Bonneville Speed Week, Poteet achieved 426 mph (686 km/h)

The Speed Demon then made "the fastest piston engine pass ever", turning in a two-way average of 437.183 mph (703.578 km/h). (Because this was not done within the two-hour limit demanded by FIA, the record is not considered official.)

In 2012, Speed Demon set an official record at 439 mph (707 km/h).

Speed Demon was displayed at the 2018 Detroit Autorama.

Poteet intended to attempt the absolute record for wheel-driven cars, currently held by Don Vesco’s Turbinator, but died on July 16, 2024. Poteet was replaced by Chris Raschke, who drove the car until his death on August 3, 2025, in a crash during that year's Bonneville Speed Week.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Speed Demon (car)” as land speed racing car built in 2010 by Ron Main for George Poteet. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 2011, 2012, 2018—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Speed, Demon and land can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as land speed racing car built in 2010 by Ron Main for George Poteet. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60767721. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2018.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Speed Demon (car)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Speed Demon (car) primary sources, Speed Demon (car) archive and Speed research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Speed Demon (car)”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Speed Demon (car)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.