My name is Dick Jurkowski. My wife Gail and I both retired from the United States Air Force and moved to a small farm in Texas. I love Trans Ams and fast cars, so we built this 1977 “Semi-Clone”, and claim the title “The World’s Fastest Bandit Trans AM”. The car has set the East Coast Timing Association land speed record in its class; the Texas Mile land speed record in its class; and, the Loring Timing Association land speed record in its class. The fastest speed to date was a little over 199 MPH, but I had to back off when the dash board vibrated loose and fell down against the shifter. I missed my high gear shift while trying to hold the dash board up and shift at the same time. The car is powered by a big block Chevrolet simply because we were unable to get the 850 HP out of a Pontiac motor without spending a very large fortune. Fuel is straight Sunoco NASCAR gas, no nitrous, no blower, no turbo; all motor!

Dick

UPDATE:  The World's Fastest Bandit officially exceeded 200 miles per hour when it set a new land speed record at the Loring Timing Association speed trials in Limestone Maine on July 31, 2010.  The car was entered as an A/GC (A= engine under 500 cid; "G"= gas; "C" = Coupe, and set the official 1.5 mile record at 200.919 mph. 

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