Reno Air Races... On the Bucket List?

Of course old war planes are cool, but imagine a street legal '55 Chev powerd by a P51 Merlin engine. If ya think this sounds interesting, have a look at my post on TJJ's "Cal who's who" thread. Especially the second link.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4276265#post4276265

 

This show is a MUST!!! Grew up near Reno and got to go a lot as a kid. I can't thank my dad enough for taking me. Just imagine being one of the lucky pylon judges who get to sit right below these things as they go round and round... The waiting list for that gig is years long! And its not uncommon for them to get rained on with chunks of expensive engine....

 

Definitely on there. Not quite the same thing but I went to the Red Bull air races in Windsor/Detroit this year. As a preliminary event they had a Chance Vaught F4 Corsair flying around doing maneuvers. They followed that up with an FA-18 Hornet doing sub sonic fly overs. Pretty interesting contrast in the two machines, but it was so cool seeing that Corsair.

 

Was on a USAF crew that brought in a jet for static display back in the 95, really cool times.

 

I took my Dad several years ago and my brother we were on the front row in a motor home from Wednesday until Tuesday it was awesome and life time experiance that will never be forgotten. Radials and V12's are music to the ears. They were a freindly bunch of people and took time to talk to us.

 

Good stuff! Love old Warbirds been around airshows all my life. Shot this one day when out for a nice sunday flight and cought these B-25s, C-46 and a couple of P-51s getting fuel on the way back from an event. It's pretty cool to stand on the runway when these guys come right over the top of your head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDIYyaGSU5U&feature=channel_page

 

Painting that Mustang like that is about the equivalent of taking the Stone, Woods & Cook Willys and painting it pink with light blue graphics.

 

I don't have a clue about aircraft but during my California trip in January, I visited the March Field Air Museum where I saw a P-38 for the first time. And I must say it's one of the coolest things "on wheels" I ever saw.



P-51s are great, too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lowtech/3846308527/

 

I would put the Reno races right up there with the Monterey Historics (with the Can-Am cars), I was finally able to go a couple years ago, and they had the F7 Tigercat flying, I always thought the P38 was sleek, but I could see why my dad wanted to fly one, but he sticks to mainly T6s now, he used to fly quite a few different planes regulary with the CAF (started with them when the C was Confederate )

Mike

 

Yes Sir old war birds are cool!I was driving back from florida to california in 92 with Bob lambeck and saw this silver thing off in the distance movin real fast i had no idea what it was pointed out to bob he said thats a pylon racer and said i should try and get to the reno air races never did still trying.I used to have a hot turbo street bug and i used to get 130octane high lead av-gas from a bloke i did some paint work for he had a hawker sea fury one day i went to get some gas from them they had none they just finished fueling up the hawker it was sitting on the tarmac waiting for the ower to turn up next thing the bug was parked under the wing and i was siphoning gas straight into the bug wish i had a photo of that but i was happy i was getting the gas!

 

HotRods of the sky for sure, beats the hell out of a park and sit any day.And talk about a gold chainer hobby eh..My neighbor has a runway on his farm with friends owning extensive vintage air craft.This month his place (and mine) was bussed by a Mig 17...

 

Dago Red was AWOL. Strega and Voodoo kept up Merlin V12 honors. Voodoo maydayed with a trashed blower 2nd stage. Rare Bear lost the race engine before the final and raced with a stock mill that just didn't have the speed to touch Strega. Strega ran the final throttled-back. Next year could destroy all records if these four ships can keep it up.

A good, if outdated, write-up of the Bear can be found here;
http://www.rarebear.com/rarebear/about_Rare_Bear/
Note the significant increase in speed at touchdown. These modified planes don't like to fly slow.

All the warbirds in the Unlimited class have large diameter props geared down in speed. The sport class and the T-6 trainers propellers are not geared down. Therefore, the sport class and T-6 ships make a ton of racket compared to the big boys. Whenever I go with someone new to aviation, they always comment that the T-6's sound doesn't match the look. They sound fast but look slow.

There is no sound in motorsport that matches the Unlimited Gold heat at Reno.

 

I went on a whim in 93 while I was living in Susanville. Bought box seat tickets from some guy at the gate and ended up 6 rows back at the finish pylon!

Definetly should be on the bucket list, but like so many other things we revere, I'm not sure how long they can keep it up.

 

I have a buddy in San Antonio that has an aircraft salvage yard. He sells engine parts to those fellas, A while back we were in his office watching a video those guys sent him from inside the engine compartment of a racer. You could see the heads(reddish from the heat) kind of rolling like waves when they fired..they wanted to examine which heads off of which engine were best etc..

 

Sure would be cool to see that vid...

 

I had always wanted to take my dad down there for that as he was quite the airplane nut. He flew as a gunner in B 25's with the 5th Air Corps in WWII.

 

yep...do Reno before they shut 'er down...and twin mustangs are rare.....give me a B-25...we'll hit 'em back...

 

Oh yeah, you've got to go to Reno at least once in your life!

I attended for a bunch of years in the '80's and got to go back in '06 as crew on one of the Heritage Flight Mustangs...

 

Speaking of cojones and Mustangs, Chapter 1 of Bud Anderson's book describes what it was like to fly one of those with the purpose for which it was made. http://www.cebudanderson.com/ch1.htm

 

Got some souvenir pieces from "Precious Metal" after a record attempt in
the 80's. Kicked all 12 rods...

Precious Metal:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVWmI1PMUUs



But hey, How about some vintage racers?







And some old postcards I scanned...

 

True that!

 

Steve Wittman is one of My favorites from the "Golden Age" here is his Olds powered Tailwind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsH-j4pF4fE&feature=channel_page

 

Killer read you linked! Check this part:

"I had lived and my opponent had died. But it was a near thing. It could have been the other way around just as easily, and what probably made the difference was the airplane I flew. Made in America. I would live to see the day when people would try to tell me the United States can't make cars like some other folks do. What a laugh.

I didn't wonder if I'd just made a new bride a widow, or if he might have had kids, any more than I would have wondered about a snake's mate and offspring. I may have given some thought to how many of my friends he had killed, or might have killed in the future, or how many bombers he might have shot down had he lived. But that's as far as it went. From what I could tell, he hadn't been overly concerned about me."

 

Been there and done that, and there is NO sound like the"Sound of Round"! The Merlins and Griffons are great but nothing beats the sound
and feel of a 28 cyl R-4360 at full bore. Had a chance to look at the only
surviving (I think) Corsair with the 4360, 10 were built, and although it
was not competing just the sound could cause a grown man to soil his
depends. Go if you get the chance, you won't be sorry.

 

The GeeBees were true hot rods of the skies. Here's a little flight footage for ya... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwqYh995YhU&feature=related

I was fortunate enough to be at the Visalia airshow when Delmar Benjamin made his final appearance in the replica. They said he was flying from Visalia directly to Washington DC to deliver the plane to the Smithsonian.

 

And some interesting factoids on the Gee Bee "Z"
http://www.fantasyofflight.com/aircraftpages/geebee.htm

 

I live about a mile from my local county airport. At last year's open house there was a drop dead beautiful P51 on the ramp mixed in with the Cessnas and other private aviation aircraft. The owner was sitting in the shade under one of the wings, so I walked over and bent his ear for a few minutes. He wasn't exactly a talker, but he did manage to tell me that his operational cost was $3000 per hour! And I thought my project car was getting ridiculous......

 

There's nothing better than the sound of a Round Engine ! Unlabored power ! Read that Chrysler got there Hemi Enginering background/design from there Radial Engine War effort.