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Watch "Nebulous Theorem": The Philosophy of Speed Freaks

Jack Costella is a multi-record holder and designer of land speed racers, but he fancies himself more of an artist than a scientist when it comes to engineering his remarkable machines. Costella's chin-rubbing ideations concerning time and mortality...

Jack Costella is a multi-record holder and designer of land speed racers, but he fancies himself more of an artist than a scientist when it comes to engineering his remarkable machines. Costella’s chin-rubbing ideations concerning time and mortality might seem at odds with a sport that’s largely associated with recklessness and death-defying adrenaline highs, but breaking land speed records is all about philosophy. “I’m really afraid of dying,” Costella admits. “That’s why I do it. I want to go so goddamn fast [that] when I get in a wreck I’ll crash out and I won’t have anything to think about.”

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Filmmaker Arianna LaPenne and occasional Motherboard producer Kelly Loudenberg (Immaculate Telegraphy, Mars on Earth) traveled to Speed Week at the mind-bending Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah back in 2010, where they produced Nebulous Theorem. The short film beautifully captures the thrill of land speed racing, the liberating desolation of the landscape on which hundreds of records have been set and broken, and the folks who crusade to show their support for the time-honored pursuit of man’s ceaseless urge to haul ass and break time.

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