SEQUIM - Jim Rosenburgh has done a lot of different things in his career. But every single one of them had to do with going really fast.

He was an F4 Phantom pilot in Vietnam, a semi-truck driver, a master mechanic, engine builder, gas station owner -- even the personal mechanic for a certain Redmond software company co-founder who has a passion for fast, and expensive, cars.

"My life has basically centered around the automobile," Rosenburgh told us at his office in Sequim.

He founded a company of his own called Dyno Sources Inc. In addition to dyno-tuning high performance automobiles, he and his four employees also restore classic cars and fabricate hot rods.

That software tycoon is partly responsible for leading Rosenburgh to another line of work: recommending he learn computer programming.

Now Rosenburgh and Dyno Sources program and sell high performance chips for car and truck on-board computers.

"I'm a a gearhead. There's no way around it," he said.

But he developed yet another line of business. He and his crew also refurbish 1970's vintage GMC motorhomes. They are sent to him from all over the country for new interiors, new suspensions, and for several more horses under the hood.

"They got more power than they'll need. They'll sit there and burn rubber," he said of the front-wheel drive motorhomes after he and his crew are done with them.

"Is that a good thing," I asked.

"Yeah," he said with a laugh. "It's fun!!!"

But this master mechanic wanted a way to make the motorhome side of his business even a bit more fun. What if, he thought, he could make one of these motorhomes go really, really fast? He read there was an actual Bonneville Salt Flats record for the World's Fastest Motorhome.

"And I wanted to do something that was different than everybody else did!"

So he found a run-down GMC motorhome in Florida. They bought it and drove her all the way to Sequim. And by the time he and his crew were done with this motorhome conversion, she had a 500 horse engine, bright orange flames, even a motorhome-size aerodynamic wing perched on the roof.

"It's just for bling," Rosenburgh said with a laugh.

But all this bling doesn't do you any good unless you know how fast she can really go.

"And what better documentation than to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set a world land speed record?"

And so they did. Last September, next to some of the sleekest, fastest machines on the planet, a motorhome from Sequim with mechanic Dennis Schleve Jr. behind the wheel, pulled up to the Bonneville start line. A worker at the flats tried to send them to the RV parking area until they convinced him they, and the motorhome, were actually there to race.

"When I originally conceived this I had a vision in my mind of the motorhome with the flames and the wing going down the salt flats, the rooster tail of salt behind it. I just had this picture in my mind," Rosenburgh said.

The picture in his mind did race down the salt flats, with the painted flames, with the wing on top, with the rooster tail of salt trailing behind.

The picture in Jim Rosenburgh's mind reached 102.76 miles an hour: a record.

The World's Fastest Motorhome now hailed from Sequim.

"Like I say, it's not your grandfather's motorhome," said mechanic and driver Dennis Schleve Jr.

But on occasion on Sequim's Old Olympic Highway, you might catch a glimpse of what used to look like your grandfather's motorhome. And next September you might see it at the salt flats in Utah again. Because even though she topped out at nearly 103 mph, Dennis never took her out of second gear.

"Yeah it was second gear," said Rosenburgh. "We didn't need to go to drive to break the record. We gotta have something for next year!!"

Rosenburgh and Schleve both predict the motorhome could reach at least 125 mph as it is configured now.

It also holds one other distinction. Most of the high performance vehicles are transported to the event in protective trailers. The World's Fastest Motorhome was the only vehicle at the races that also drove to and from the event on the open highway.

We are told that, allegedly, they made very good time.

For More Information:

www.dynosources.com