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Cars and car troubles

That is what I like about that period they look like cars. Built for a single purpose not adapted to drag racing or what ever.
 
I wonder how much had to do with stretching the wheel base for stability to handle the horse power, and now you have them squeezing as much aerodynamics out of them. What would happen if they had to use the standard car wheel base?
 
Warwick C said:
A couple of cars by Rod Hadfied.



I am not sure if there is sound.

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Warwick C said:
I wonder how much had to do with stretching the wheel base for stability to handle the horse power, and now you have them squeezing as much aerodynamics out of them. What would happen if they had to use the standard car wheel base?
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Racing is an event that evolves...designs are done in order to go faster...sometimes designs happen that change everything we think should stay the same ...funnycars used to be stock vehicles with many modifications...NASCAR used to race stock production cars...speed dictated that the car of tomorrow was necessary to keep the speeds up,but make the drivers safer in a world that will not allow them to use stock cars...NASCAR is now a "formula" type race...yes,it would be cool to see what you drive represented on the track,but the speeds would slow down and the races would seem boring to watch after seeing how fast they can be...when they added nitromethane to the funnycar world,it was to go faster,but required a better chassis design to keep then safe and stable...wheelbase length was added to the funnycars to make them more driveable at the jet speeds already being done by the rail type dragsters...which are long to add track stability at the speeds they run at...the nitro events are the circus,the real racing ends at the Prostock level,the nitro stuff is only a clown show for the masses,cool as it may look,it is a roll of the dice when you step on the loud pedal and make the pass...a short wheelbase combined with the nitro speed would spell disaster if attempted...the nitro burning cars are fun to watch and the technology is over the top,but once again,only a dog and pony show as they roll the dice to see who wins...Prostock on the other hand has races won or lost by thousandths of a second on a regular basis as the doorslammers row through the manual gears and prove drivers and teams doing very special work to attain consistency...that is what dragracing is about...on the same note,a short wheelbase would only serve to kill drivers and cars and end that part of the game...
 
Happy and sad memories...unlimited hydroplane racing.

We were at the President's Cup race in Washington DC in 1966...got to see a family friend, Ron Musson race. It was the first time we saw his new rear-engine unlimited hydroplane. He went right past us getting up to around 160 mph and his boat hull left the water. It disintegrated before our eyes.

They called that day "Black Sunday"....as apart from our friend Ron getting killed, both the winner and runner-up (Rex Manchester, Don Wilson) of the unlimiteds were killed at the finish line. We never had the heart to see another hydroplane race after that.

Better times...the debut of the rear-engine version of Miss Bardahl U-40 driven by Ron Musson

 
I hope it can bring back the good memory for your Judge so you can hold onto them again, and so sorry to hear about the down side to your story
 
Warwick C said:
I hope it can bring back the good memory for your Judge so you can hold onto them again, and so sorry to hear about the down side to your story
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Thanks Warwick. I don't think about it much...except when I see a speedboat. They sure did move fast across the water though...almost as impressive as going to an air show.
 
This is my other interest the boat is 135 feet long. going for the jules verne record attempt. 45 days.

 
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Sportster said:
Sailing is something I've always wanted to learn, but have never gotten around to reading the books. One of my obsessions many moons ago was reading books about tea clippers. There was something about them that I found fascinating. They were fast and elegant, sort of like your catamarans.
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Me too. I find sailing fascinating in that it's a sort of dichotomy. The simplicity of the wind, combined with the complexity of relatively simple technology.

My father used to build technically accurate sailing ship models. All those lines, pulleys, belaying pins, knots, sail shapes...it goes on and on. A combination of simplicity and complexity that translates into a kind of elegance. Yeah..very cool! :cool:
 
Sportster said:
Yes, that's it precisely!!! It's the simplicity and complexity of everything. I'd love to learn how to use a sexton. I saw one on eBay once and almost bought it; but like my golf clubs, it would have ended up in the corner never to be used. Another obsession that passed like a flash in the pan.
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You do that too? Guess I'm not the only one! :-)
 
When I was younger I was employed as a wrench for Frazer Sportscar Specialists in Dover Delaware. Ron campaigned a Datsun B-210 in SCCA racing's GT 4 class. It was pretty much a stock 1.4 liter pushrod valved engine with a competition head and four side draft carbs. We ran and tuned them on Alderman Datsun's engine dyno in Wilmington Delaware,making 175 horses @ 10,000 RPM...the tell tale tach often registered 12,500 RPMs from downshifts in corners and we saw few failures. My first dyno run scared me as I was mosty used to the small block chevys under 6500 rpm and thought the dyno operator was going to blow up my first engine when he asked for revs above that mark...I learned quick how wrong I was after he asked for power pulls up to 11,500 RPM...

 
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