An 86-Year-Old Drove a 1966 Barracuda Past 300 MPH and Set Two Bonneville Records

By The Arena Staff

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 23, 2026 — Gary Matranga is 86 and still breaking speed records at more than 300 mph. This summer the Sacramento driver and his team set two records at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in a heavily modified 1966 Barracuda, KCRA and the New York Post reported.

Asked how long he has been hooked on going fast, Matranga gave KCRA a short answer: "Almost all my life, I'm 86."

## Two Divisions, Two Records

Matranga first broke his own record in the gas division, raising it by 17 mph to 308 mph, according to KCRA.

Then the team entered the same car in the fuel division, against cars burning nitromethane and alcohol. The Barracuda hit 310 mph there and broke a 305 mph record that had held for eight years, both outlets reported.

The New York Post noted that one of the team's runs was clocked at 307.646 mph during SCTA Speed Week in August. That's a reminder that official timing goes to the third decimal, even when the headline number gets rounded.

## What 300 MPH Feels Like

The salt looks smooth on TV. Matranga says it isn't. "It's a handful of work sometimes," he told KCRA, describing the first part of a run as violent.

"About 2.5 miles, it kind of settles down with the air force and then at 300 mph it still moves around, the car moves around quite a bit. When we pull the shoots it really pulls off," he said. The course is five miles long, and he has to keep steering the whole way.

## The Car

The Barracuda runs a twin-turbocharged Hemi with more than 500 cubic inches of displacement and more than 2,400 horsepower, KCRA reported. The team thinks it could reach 340 mph with a few engine tweaks, if the salt cooperates.

"It's all about reading the salt. Sometimes the salt won't take the power. We have to keep taking horsepower out of it and Gary has to drive it harder. Other times, the salt is very grippy and we can apply a lot more power," car chief Glen Hutchison told KCRA.

The crew does all of this around their day jobs, working on nights and weekends. "It's just an addiction, once we say we are going to do this, we set a goal. We have to do that," Hutchison said.

## Next Stop: 400

Matranga is already planning past the Barracuda. He wants a streamliner, the long, low, bullet-shaped car built for top speed. "The idea is to go streamliner at 400 mph," he told KCRA.

The team will spend the winter testing the engine and looking for a streamliner, KCRA reported, as Matranga approaches his 87th birthday.

> What We Know
> - Driver: Gary Matranga, 86, of Sacramento
> - Car: Modified 1966 Barracuda, twin-turbo Hemi, 2,400+ horsepower
> - Gas division: 308 mph, beating his own record by 17 mph
> - Fuel division: 310 mph, beating an eight-year-old 305 mph mark
> - Where: Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, summer 2026
> - Next goal: 400 mph in a streamliner

Reported by KCRA, New York Post

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<small>Photo: Bureau of Land Management.jpg), Wikimedia Commons, public domain.</small>