If you happen to be flying Southwest this month…

For those of you who fly Southwest on a regular basis and just happen to leave all your copies of Modified Mag at home, I encourage you to pickup the latest copy of Spirit Magazine, which is the official mag of Southwest Airlines.  No, unfortunately I did not shoot the cover, nor have I ever met Magic Johnson.  Buuuuut…

…besides the insightful travel tips and colorful destination photography this month, be sure to check out page 26:

Just a little something I did mid-last year; documenting the new world’s fastest production car (besting the Bugatti Veyron no less) with the crew at Shelby Super Cars (SSC) on various closed down highways in and around Wendover, Utah.  Here are some behind the scenes photos from some of the shakedown runs (yes, that would be 221mph on the Nuvi on their shakedown run):

Breaking a top speed world record is no short order, as there are but a small handful of places in the country where you can actually attempt this feat.  The Nevada D.O.T. was on hand to route traffic and close off the road for each attempt, and I also snapped a pic of the local sheriff as a souvenir for what is almost certainly the strangest car he’s ever come across.  I sent him some prints at no charge!!

And here is the final image setup and then sent around the world when they broke the Guinness World Record.  For the strobists out there – image was shot with a 1D Mark II, 70-200 2.8L IS and 3 580EX’s, triggered via pocketwizard and held by human light stands (the best light stands ever):

Not content to rest on their laurels, SSC has made some interesting announcements in the past year.

1) They have announced plans to release the SSC Ultimate Aero EV, allegedly powered by twin 500hp electric motors and holding a charge of several year(s)(!)

2) The original SSC Ultimate Aero is now outdated, as they officially debuted the much improved 2009 Ultimate Aero at the 2009 Abu Dhabi International Motor Show.  The car will now do 270+mph and will have 1287bhp(!!)