Scott Birdsall & the World’s Fastest Mini Truck

Antigravity-Powered Birdsall sets new record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in his Amsoil Landspeedscaping Truck

In 2024, Scott Birdsall raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first time and broke the Blown Modified Mini-Pickup (BMMP) land speed record, yet he left with one plan: Come back and put down an even faster speed in the AMSOIL Landspeedscaping Truck. In ’24 he had the power to keep accelerating, but with the aerodynamics of a landscaping truck his top speed was still out of reach. This year during Bonneville Speed Week 2025 he achieved that goal by resetting his own record with a 250MPH+ run! But it wasn’t without numerous updates and challenges along the way.

One year later from his first record-setting run, and with at least three last-minute upgrades, including a fresh Antigravity Lithium Battery, Scotty returned to the Salt Flats with a revamped machine. The Toyota now pushed 1,410 rear-wheel horsepower through a Winters Quick Change rear end. Additional weight had been strategically added for increased high-speed stability, and aerodynamic improvements helped reduce the drag from its boxy form. These changes, from powertrain to design, gave Scott renewed confidence in his little landscaping truck that could. He believed he had finally engineered the right setup to achieve his 2025 speed targets and, maybe even go beyond them.

Scott was feeling great when he got to the Salt Flats this year, opting to skip testing and go straight to full passes to see what the truck could do. At 231MPH, which is 2MPH faster than the record Scott set himself the year prior, the hood of his Toyota exploded, which in turn destroyed his windshield and affected his aerodynamics from that run forward. He took to social media to plead for help from Bonneville, hunting for a new hood and windshield to get back out racing, and by some miracle, he was able to secure a new hood and window in order to make it back out on the flats.

The hood debacle had cost Scott about 2 days between sorting out parts, repairs, and taking a last-minute trip to Salt Lake City to snag some much-needed hardware. On the next pass, Scott was able to put down 230+MPH. This was similar to the prior pass, but the track condition was much worse than his previous run, which reduced the max speed potential as he was starting to lose traction after 100MPH. After pulling the parachute—that’s right, this Toyota pickup truck comes equipped with an actual parachute to help it stop safely from 230+ MPH—Scott realized that the chute needed some adjustments as it pulled the truck sideways hard when it engaged.

One interesting aspect of the land speed records set at Bonneville is that you must “back up” or prove your record by completing a second run on the same course the following day. The time between your two runs is called impound, and during that time you have four hours to work on the car, but you cannot make any changes. This mostly allows the teams to inspect the cars and top off fluids as needed before they run the next day.

After being in impound overnight, Scott and his team gave the truck a once-over, topped off the fuel, and it was back on the course to back up their run from the day prior. The run got off to a great start with Scott jamming through the gears in the sequential gearbox mated to his Garrett Turbocharged 2JZ powerplant under the hood. That was until a momentary lapse in focus saw Scott short shift from fifth to sixth gear, dropping him out of boost and slowing the run dramatically. It took Scott almost a mile to get the turbo back into boost, coming back into it right around the 4-mile marker. At this point, the numbers start ticking off 220, 230, 240MPH quickly, like an absolute freight train. At 250.8MPH, Scott finally pulled the chute. With a goal of 270MPH, this still leaves room for improvement on the table, but overall, it was a solid improvement from 2024.

For 2026, Scott has a few upgrades in mind. First and foremost, changes to his parachute design need to be implemented. Currently, the rope that connects it to the truck is too short, causing a violent whipping action when pulled at 230+ MPH. This is an easy fix, which was easily handled via his sponsor, Holley Performance. Besides stopping power, Scott is going to add a little bit of weight to the nose of the truck, but doesn’t plan on changing anything else, as the truck worked so well this year already and has plenty of power to reach his speed goals as it sits.