There are racing vehicles that will never be forgotten by those who saw them, as they transcend make and model, such as the Moss/Jenkinson Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR 722, the Fangio Maserati 250F, and the Gurney/Foyt Ford GT40. Those are names that bring a powerful image to the mind of any enthusiast, but there are lesser-known champions that have associations just as powerful for those privileged to witness their heroic accomplishments.

Tom D’Eath was 14-years-old in December 1958, when he stood on the shoreline in Hollywood, Florida, and watched Sid Street break the World Mile Straightaway Record at an unheard-of 146.945 mph. Unheard-of because, for perspective, Dick Rathmann qualified for the pole of the 1958 Indianapolis 500 at 145.974 mph. “The boat was totally airborne on the slick water, sucking mist off the sponsons with only one inch of the prop in the water,” said D’Eath in Mopar Magazine. That was an image that stuck with him the rest of his life.

Joe Guess was a masterful Southern California boat builder whose total output was five hulls, yet, among those, two were world record holders. “To say that Joe just built the boat is an understatement,” Tom D’Eath told The Vinatge Hydroplanes. “This truly is a work of perfection. Joe carefully planned his boats, and the labor assumed the proportion of a career. One year, two years, whatever it took, time meant nothing. This is a masterpiece.” Z-Z-Zip was the final and greatest of his boats.

It was first raced by Sid Street (his second boat of the name) with a Bobby Sykes Sr.-built DeSoto Hemi V-8, which was sleeved to 265 cubic inches in order to meet the formula, equipped with dry-sump oiling, and topped with Hilborn crossram fuel injection. Street set two records, a one-mile record in 1956, which was soon broken, and the 1958 record, which wasn’t.

Sid Street was later killed racing a different boat, and Z-Z-Zip was sold and renamed Seabiscuit VII. Afterwards, it was offered again in 1966 for $6,000. Her next owner, Gordie Reed, of Grand Island, New York, renamed her Iriquois F-4 (F-4 for the race class), and on January 31, 1969, he topped Street’s 1958 record with a 148.638 mph run. No sub-266-cubic inch hydro has ever bettered it.

Tom D’Eath, by then a three-time APBA Unlimited Gold Cup winner, acquired Z-Z-Zip after years of storage. He found that it retained not only the original engine and gearbox, but the same propeller that was used by Gordie Reed on his 1969 record run. After an exacting restoration, she hit the water again on June 14, 2003, and has been in the collection of Tom Mittler ever since.

There were larger engines than those in the F-class 266 hydroplanes, but the “alky hydros” seemed to hit a sweet spot of power and weight that made them some of the world’s most exciting racers. For almost 15 years, none were more potent than Z-Z-Zip, now restored to her 1958 condition by the very man who stood in awe as a child as she roared by.