I did a quick search and didn't find any other posts on the Lake Gairdner Speed Trials, so I guess I might as well start one. Apologies if anyone has beat me to it. For those of you that came in late... Lake Gairdner is in the middle of absolutely ****** NOWHERE! You though Bum****, Idaho was hard to get to. Man, you have NO IDEA!!! From my house to Lake Gairdner via the photographer's place is 1820km, but since we're talking SALT LAKE RACING we had better speak in MILES. So boys and girls, let's just call it 1131 MILES! Just to make it interesting, the last 100 miles or so is on GRAVEL! The DLRA (Dry Lakes Racers Australia) has been going to Lake Gairdner for 15 years, so it's not too tough out there. But there sure as **** ain't any hotels and casinos a couple of miles down the road!!! The Salt The part of the lake used for racing is about ONE PERCENT of ONE ****TEENTH of the whole lake. It goes for about 80 or 90 miles North of here. Apparently it gets a bit soft and you can't drive on it, but, if you're stupid enough to head out there, you can end up losing sight of land and have no idea which way is home. Here's a few of the cars as well as some gay arty **** that you might like. For all you Mad Max/Road Warrior guys. It was running around 160mph with a warmed over 351 Cleveland. He was hoping to get to 170 before the week was out. Stampy's roadster showing good use of recycling. Hot Rodders - The original Hippies! John Lynch's belly tank on the way to 301.729MPH!!! The first Aussie to go over 300 at a DLRA meet. Well done Lynchy! Nothing but the latest in high-tech wizardry.
You get some pretty interesting effects at sunset when you're stuffing around with your digital camera's settings! The world's fastest Taxi. Rod Hadfield's Commodore was running around 255MPH, but he was hoping for 270. The boys at 'Big Knob Racing'(tm) were having a ball. I think their best run was 188, but they were hoping to crack the big 200. The HK Monaro of Wayne(?) Pickle was running over 180MPH and looking very cool doing it. Could use a set of Moon discs though. Don't worry I told him, but he prefers the 'I just pulled the hubcaps off to go racing look.' Just some gay arty ****. The world's coolest FJ Holden was running 106MPH. Pretty good for an old Grey motor!
The view from the canteen area. We had to put up with this view every night! Just as we were leaving on Thursday morning this Topolino showed up! It was running a 253 Holden engine and it was the first trip to the salt. When I asked how come they got there so late, the answer was "We were still screwing it together on Monday!" One of the journos that was also at the salt told me about a vintage tin graveyard that I would p*** on my way home. Most of the stuff still have the number plates screwed to the bumper! And finally, after almost two days drive I was pretty close to home, but even closer to Jimbob's place, so I figured I'd drop in and check out what was going on. Before I got there though I couldn't resist checking out the 'Dog on the Tucker Box'. It just doesn't get any better.
Yeah... dunno what the deal is with that. I guess it's the easiest way to get 15" rims. The FJ used to run Moons all round, but I think when people change wheels they don't bother or can't get matching Moon discs. It would bug the **** out of me if it was my car. Hell, I've got 6 for my car and the spare always has one too. Here's a couple more pics. I zoomed in on the pic I had of Lynchy going past. It was taken with a 300mm lens from about 300 metres away and looked tiny. Thank god for high res digital SLR cameras. At this point, just after the first timer, the car is already doing 250+ MPH!!! And here's the timer's entry in the book. Yep, I was in the timing caravan when Lynchy ran it, so you could say I was the second or third person to know about it (depending on where the other timing guy was at the time.)
I think I want to live in Australia! Very cool pics, nice post. What the hell is the Mad Max car anyway, it looks a bit like a Boss Mustang to me but is it an Aussie Falcon?
Brootal, Thanks for sharing the photos, it looks like it was a good time. My wife and I have always wanted to visit Australia. Some of the scenery looks awsome in the pictures we've seen of it. Frank
Good pics, Boris. Been looking forward to a report on your trip to Gairdner. Larry posted a brief report on the "new" Oz board, the one based in Ohio. How did the flatheads fare . . . anything we should be concerned with? Thanks for sharing. Mike
Glad you like them guys. More pics? I've got a digi SLR now. I've got about 300 more pics!!! I'll get some more up later today. av8 - Don't think there was anything running a V8 flathead this year, shame really. Mike Davidson has sold his car and the only other thing there was running a four banger and doing about 88MPH. Don't think you have to worry about them!
Damn that monaro looks pretty stock bodies, bet its a bit of fun at 180.... be a great car for buzzing speed camera's in your honour there is no way that my stock 6cyl GTS could have been clocked at that speed thx for the pics, Humpy looks mighty nice too, love those grey motors.
Great photo's & story Boris. Do you know when the 60 minutes story is due to air? Also, great to see another one hooked......who's next...? Cheers, Drewfus
It runs a big inch small block with Brodix heads and a solid roller cam. Gearbox is a T-56 and rear is a 9 inch. I helped with the engine build... and the dyno testing the night before they left for the salt!
You mean to say that John took 4 miles to do 300mph? I've seen chicks do that in a 1/4 mile! I'll have to remind him of that next year at Ballarat.....hang **** on me will he?!!
don't leave us hanging! what did the dyno say? there's (at least) one guy here with a 550 horse chevy that'll do 180 (on "cross" plys), and it's not as aerodynamic as the holden...so what's it put out, 475?
Glad to be of service... Hahaha... get it?... laid... service... Hahahaha... never mind.... Devilrod - Of course I met Animal, but as a gesture of good manners, I decided not to take any photos of him. I'm sure everyone here will be thankful of that. More pics you say??? OK... This is what it's all about. P***ed this on the way in, Windsor powered and well used. That crazy looking streamlining was originally a Ultralight aircraft fuselage, even the bit at the back. Bike is a Suzuki GT 750 two-stroke. This is what the late model Aussie Falcons look like. Built from a wreck in 8 weeks, it ran over 160MPH with a 5.0. Animal ran 166MPH in it and the two other drivers ran just over 160 from memory. International truck was channelled to ******y and runs late model Mercedes front and rear ends. Steve 'Smurf' Vorwerk put it together from stuff he had laying around his backyard (big backyard obviously) and ran 118MPH. This is what the Aussie Falcon's looked like in 1966, except they weren't chopped and sure as **** didn't run a Chevy engine! Push car? We don't need no steenking push car!!!
But wait! There's more!!! Here's a full shot of Stampy's roadster at the start line. Here's Drewfus's mates and their 'Stan-mobile'. During one run on the Wednesday 'No Under Stan' was running at about 150MPH when the car went into a spin. At the end of it he'd gone around four and a half times. They decided it was maybe a bit windy after all. New name for 'No Under Stan'...? 'Donut Stan' of course! Another shot of Hadfield's Crumpledoore. A line-up of fine Ford machinery. (L-R) The 'Big Knob Racing' '34 roadster, Mark Hadfield's '67 Mustang and Dan Maconald's XB (74?) Falcon coupe. This was a beautiful bike. Not sure what it ran though. New car on the salt was this lakester. It had a 302 that was angled slightly so that the driveshaft ran to the left of the driver, similar to those old Indy cars. I wondered if it was a converted circuit racer, but on speaking to the builders it was built specifically for the salt. They ended up having a problem with the gearbox bearing due to the angle of the tailshaft so didn't make too many runs. They also discovered how hard it is to get traction over 140MPH. Hopefully they'll be back, it was a pretty cool looking race car.
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