SPARKS - The Bonneville Salt Flats sing a Siren's song to those that love salt and speed. And Sparks businessman Mike Reyman, co-owner of Thompson Garage Doors and Reyman Construction, has heard that sweet music for most of his life.

"You know it's the same old story, ever since I was a little kid I was reading Hot Rod Magazine. In fact there's a stack of them from the 50's and 60's in the office," he said. "And I remember when I was 10 or 11 years old looking at that Bonneville Salt Flats stuff."

His first visit to Bonneville was an eye-opening experience, one that hooked him for life and made him want to turn the volume up on the music.

"We said, there's no point of coming back here unless we're going to bring a car. So in '99 we had a '31 roadster we ran out there and in 2004 we set the record with it at 160 mph," he said.

Among the many classes that run, Reyman chose one that uses the classic flathead V-8 motor.

"The flathead motors they run out there were made from '32 to 1953, but the ones most guys use are a '49 to '53," he said. "Ours is a '49 or '50 Mercury flathead."

There is a design quirk in a flathead motor as the valves are in the block, right beside the cylinders. A modern one has its valves on top of the cylinders.

Reyman explained the block and the gears that run the oil pump are the only original Ford parts. All the other pieces are custom made.

"Those old motors are real hard to make breath and be efficient," he said. "It takes a lot of fooling around but we have a guy we work with. Chris Clements works on a big cattle ranch as a mechanic."

Clements has a flow bench, equipment designed to measure the flow of air or gasses through an engine. Using parts of a flathead block he spent a winter working on how to improve the performance of the motor.

"And he figured out how to make the thing flow pretty good, I mean real good. The way you configure the head increases the airflow through it," Reyman said.

One radical part is the camshaft, which determines how much the valves open.

"When we started making cams for it, Chris said we needed so much lift and that nobody's ever done it that big so they said it can't be done," Reyman said. "I said I'll see if I can get a cam ground if you think you can get it in the motor."

Next, he had to convince a friend in the Bay Area to grind a new cam the way they wanted it be. And like others that man was certain it wouldn't work or fit into the motor.

Chuckling over the experience Reyman said, "He's a nice guy and said, 'now listen Mike, just do the math and you know it doesn't fit.' So I said, well grind it anyway and we're running one of those cams."

On a chassis dyno the car puts out 400 horsepower at the rear wheels. After figuring the mechanical loss in the drive train, Reyman believes it's putting out 500 horsepower at the flywheel.

"And it really puts out the horsepower," he said.

Of course they needed a car to put the motor in.

"We bought a chassis that had been run at Bonneville and had a '32 roadster body on it," he said. "It was a rolling chassis and they kept the body. I had a '31 body that we put on it and built motors so we could go fast."

Although the fenders and windshield were removed the body itself had to be pretty much stock so it was wide and blunt. After setting a new record around 160 mph in 2004, the team made many changes to their car.

"Now we run a modified roadster with the same motor but it's been stretched out long, is real pointed and very aerodynamic," he said. "And this year we went really fast in it, I mean for a flathead roadster."

Due to the fact there is blower, which super charges the motor and sticks up above the hood the new car has its cockpit offset to the left. That way Reyman can see where he's going and there is room for the drive shaft to run to his right side.

One challenge with this new car was to match the gearing with the proper tire size.

"It's quite a trick," he said. "I guess it's a 2.8 rear end, 28-inch tires and a four-speed transmission with a 4% overdrive."

Despite being built for top speed the car can pull away from a standing start on its own and even spin the wheels. However, to go easy on the drive train a push car is used and after the car gets going Reyman will let out the clutch and pull away.

Depending on the vehicle, which can vary from a motorcycle, stock car all the way to a streamliner, runs are made on one of two courses. The short one has a mile to accelerate, a flying timed mile and a mile or slow to slow down.

Reyman runs on the longer course.

"If you're over 175 mph you run the long course," he said. "And we're on the long course this year. So you get 2 miles to get running then miles 3, 4 and 5 are timed individually.

The fastest mile is what counts. And after the timed section there are a couple of more miles to slow the car.

"We did not run through five as we were having trouble keeping it cool and trying to hold everything together," he said.

Speed is everything, especially if a driver breaks a record he's trying to reset. And it all depends if the first run is quick enough.

"You go through one or all three of those and if you go through one of them at over the record that qualifies you for what they call a record run," he said.

That second run has to be made within the next 24-hours. Years ago a team would have so long to turn their car around and go the opposite way but now everyone runs in the same direction.

"You tow it all the way back and you do it the next morning and they'll average the two for that same exact mile," he said.

As it is a high-risk sport, safety is paramount in the rules.

"There's a roll cage that's built all the way around you and cars out there are heavy, they're not light. So you've got a heavy chassis under you, a roll cage and you're all strapped in," he said.

Reyman's car has a Haylon fire system and he said the officials keep upgrading their requirements. This past August he had to buy a new set of arm restraints because his weren't up to the new standards.

"They're pretty strict about it. If somebody gets hurt or killed, they don't like that and we don't like it," he said.

This past August a driver, driving a competition coupe, suffered a fatal crash at around 230 mph. Reyman added that it scattered, "pieces forever."

"You're going fast and when you're doing 180 you're doing a mile every 20 seconds and a quarter mile every four seconds or so," he said.

Those quarter-mile times are almost equal to the ones a top fuel dragster is doing at the end of their runs, which begin from a standing start.

The officials will only allow the cars to run if the wind isn't too bad and if it goes above a certain speed they call the day off. A gust can really ruin a person's day if they're traveling around 200 mph.

This last visit to the salt was a challenging time for the team as problems began almost at the beginning. After arriving early in the week the team was ready for their first run on Friday evening.

"I took off, it quit and the throttle cable fell off. I had gone maybe a quarter of a mile so I coasted over to the return road," he said. "Chris the mechanic was suspicious so he said to hit the starter once. So I hit the starter and it wouldn't turn.

The first and major problem was that the newly rebuilt blower had seized. Then ignition problems prevented the engine from starting.

He did make a run with only carburetors and the spare blower, which was left in Reno and arrived on Tuesday.

"Finally we made a run but the neck on the water heater vibrated loose so it was spewing water out everywhere," he said. "We did at least qualify for a record run that day at 175 and the old record is 172.711."

The team decided to go with the motor and it was sealed at the impound area. This meant it couldn't be taken apart for any further work.

After a run Thursday afternoon at over 174 mph, despite the motor blowing water out on the windshield the team used a series of rags tied between the head and exhaust manifolds.

"Then the next morning we ran it and it went 196," he said. "It took all week long of just consistently overcoming the headers and the problems, one after another. I'll tell you it doesn't just happen."

Of course driving the car is nothing like motoring down I-80 when the freeway is empty.

The course is marked by two black lines Reyman feels are about 100 feet apart. And the mile markers are flags, around five feet in size that can be easily seen by a driver hurtling past them.

"You just glance down at the instruments and pretty soon you're at the next flag," he said.

For a driver, it all begins when they climb into the cockpit.

"When you get all strapped in you can't be claustrophobic or you can't do it. Man, you are strapped in tight and the guys at the start will yank on your straps," he said.

While he's being held by the starter is when Reyman admits to some second thoughts concerning what he's about to do.

"About that time I get kind of scared. I think, 'what in the world am I doing this for, is this what I really want to be doing,' and the motor is sitting there running all this junk out in front of you. I think, 'man what if this thing comes unglued, it'll come all over me.'" He said. "Then I'll think, 'lots of guys have done this so I guess I can to,' so it's a little 5 second talk to myself."

After he's been waved off it's easy on the throttle because the salt is a bit slick.

"When you get it up to about 75 or 80 miles an hour you begin to give it all the gas you can and take it on through the gears," he said. "I enter mile two somewhere around 185."

Even though he could drive with one hand, Reyman wants to keep both on the wheels unless he's shifting gears.

"You feel like you don't want to do anything quick. You want to keep this thing pointed just right. And if we're going to run the four miles, when I see that one I breath a sigh of relief. Man it made it!" he said with a laugh.

Oddly enough only the team knows the actual speed as they pick up a slip at timing before coming for the car.

"It's quite exciting but you don't know how fast you really went," he said. "This year was pretty exciting and we sent a new record of 194.555 in a modified roadster."

It's not over for Reyman as there's one more record he wants to set.

"We'll be back," he said. "We were happy to break the record but no body's ever broken 200 in a flathead roadster. We'd be the first guys and if we can do it on gasoline that's even better than on fuel. Guys have gone pretty fast on fuel but no body's ever gone faster than us."

So the team will return to Bonneville on the third week in August. And if all goes as planned, he'll once again feel the elation that comes from a good week on the salt.

Asked about the feeling of accomplishment he said, "Oh man, the best is when you completed a good run, nothing broke, everything's working and you went fast. There's nothing like it and what more could you ask for."

This August, Reyman and his team will once again heed the Siren's call of the salt and enjoy the music of pure speed at Bonneville.