ODD cars and engines that run at BONNEVILLE

Fun thread.Keep up the neat posts.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

How cool is that, place two cars in a shipping container in Australia, ship to USA, truck to Bonnevuille, race, pack up and return home. Bob

 

Actualy a Belly tank went over as well and all Aussie entrants exceded the 200 MPH The belly tank I am told only raced for the first time at Bonneville.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^ Thanks! That makes it even better. Bob

 

This one from the 60s always made me smile.


By weslake at 2008-09-04

 

Could anything remotely like that run today?

 

It is fun to see the oddball combinations. Most are done because the builder likes a particular engine, cl***, or is chasing a soft record. I think most do it because the first 2 reasons.

There was an old Saab Sonnet there this year with a Hyabusa engine.
Past years was a early 90's(?) Nissan 240 with a Ford flathead V8
Rich Fox (HAMBer) ran a Packard V8 in a Vega
Peterbuilt truck with a 16-71 Detroit Diesel in the back, 4 turbos feeeding two 8-71 blowers. The 16-71 is a tug boat engine.
A guy on the landracing board runs a Hyabusa engine in a much modified Fiat X1/9
Several years ago a guy with a 53-54 Stude coupe with a stroked 394 Olds

That's all i can think of right off top of my head

 

I'd say no. It would depend on the cl*** record. But I still think the answer would be no.

 

I have never seen one of the 1968 Holden HK Monaro GTS, but what a great looking ride. You guys get all the cool cars iin Oz.

 

Check out the Utah timing ***ociation meet in October. They have cl***es for your street car that does not need to be a special race only car. They run on the same salt at Bonneville is my understanding after world finials.

 

Thanks so much for posting the info on Bombshell Betty. I love that car.

 

This is why Bonneville is the last stronghold of real hot rodding. To me, most other forms of motorsports that I once loved are boring by comparison.

 

How did the OZ guys go?..........this is the first mention I've seen of them.........thanks, andyd

 

Take a look at the Bonneville Special. It's a moped with a Honda 162cc ohv engine, completely handbuilt to look like a 1905ish MC. It set several records during the week in the high 60's and low 70's. The owner/builder was a very talented young guy that was and should have been very proud. I listened to him for about 10 minutes while he explained how and what he did to build his creation. True hotrodding.

 

It looks to me like the biggest challenges when building a Bonneville car are traction and keeping it from lifting. Motors can be built to push a car really fast, but there must be more to it than just HP.

Is that a fair statement, or are there other issues that hold down the speeds ? I guess my point is that unlike drag racing the biggest engine in the lightest car may not be the hot ticket.

Don

 

Aero (which includes preventing lift) / power / traction are the three variables you play with on the Salt. I think that aero trumps the other two, as improving aero is like adding power for free, and requires less weight to maintain traction, thus improving accelleration. There is a formula available to calculate what is needed in terms of these three to achieve a given speed. Go to landracing.com and read, read, read; also, get a rule book from scta-bni.org and read, read, read. Don - yeah, controlling lift is important. When we upped our C/GRMR record to 256+ last week, I set the front static ride height 1/4" lower than my desired dynamic ride height, as data showed that above 200mph, the front end rose that amount. No lift on the rear, however, as 65% of our 4200+# is on the rear! The car drives straight and doesn't do anything bad at 258+ exit speed ( anf with a rookie driver). Having participated in road, oval, and straight line racing as both an amateur and a pro over thepast50 years, I can honestly say that Bonneville is the most fun allowing the greatest creativity. vic

 

The pics by Jerry of the 2-cammer is Harold Johansen's engine. It is on a B block with 5 main bearings, etc. The head was designed and built by Harold. He is in his 90's but still living his dream. He had fabricated a rocker-arm 16 valve head a few years back but it always had mechanical problems. The 2-cammer went home early because of low compression in 1 or 2 (?) of its cylinders. Harold at one time held V4 roadster and lakester records on the salt.

 

Good idea. But if you wait till October you will be a month late. Sept 9 is the opening I believe.

 

I pulled out my homemade dvd and took a good look at the car in question, it was actually an XJ12-C. To make up for my bad, give this a listen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhXLysNl-wE

 

Isn't finding "that" engine/body combination to run in a certain cl*** where you can go after a certain record what it's all about?

I understand the guys who build a certain combination and go out and race for the fun of it but would bet that the majority of racers have spent many hours and many sheets of scratch paper figuring out what combination would be compe***ive in a certain cl***.

I wonder how well a sports bike engine in a belly tank would do. Look old and run pretty respectfully maybe.

 

There's the start of a build right there. What are you waiting for? Get off the computer and get out into the garage.

 

As said above we got all 3 cars over 200. The bellytank went 203 driven by 19 year old Kurt Dunn, the taxi did 203 also before it had engine troubles. The Monaro did 216 on its final run.
We had a busy week fixing getting through tech and fixing small issues here and there but overall we all had a great time and were glad to see the hospitality shown by LSR compe***ors is the same on this side of the globe as it is at home.

 

and you made so many admirers by marching to that drummer.

 

There were several lakesters and more liners with ZXs and Hayabusas out there this year. The small displacement cl***es, most notably the 1 liters are some of the fastest and most compe***ive.

 

Bttt for a great thread.