When I was in the Navy one of my friends was a Sand Crab. ( civilian employee of the Navy ) who worked at P.A.R. ( the place that overhauled our airplanes ) we called it Paint and Return.
Anyway his hobby was going after the LSR for whatever class his Studebaker was in.
He had a home made in-line 6 that used 6 cylinders from the Write 3350 on a homemade crankcase. By his calculation he was over 850 horsepower. This was back in the late 1960's.
Apparently there was a salt flat? North of LA they go out and run on Periodically. Then once a year go up to Utah to those salt flats.
El Mirage is a dry lake bed, not a salt flats- that's Bonneville. Both still happen.
What is now Edwards AFB was Muroc Dry Lake and was used as a "testing" grounds.
Bonneville is 9/10-13 this year
https://saltflats.com/
I have a friend that has been chasing the lsr for a Crosley powered vehicle for years. Yes he is touched!
I think his newest ar is a belly tank with a meth fueled supercharged Crosley motor.
He races in Ohio in July every year and a couple times at Loring AF Base in Maine. https://www.loringtiming.com/
pirate
Dork
8/10/21 11:21 a.m.
Speed Week is currently going on at Bonneville right now until Sunday I believe. Read an article said the salt is perfect the first time in several years. Late year was canceled.
Jay_W
SuperDork
8/10/21 12:19 p.m.
Can we go over the part where someone made a crankcase for half a dozen Wright 3350 cylinders? With pix? Cuz zomg....
CAinCA
HalfDork
8/10/21 1:27 p.m.
I spent many days out on El Mirage as a kid. Family friends raced SCTA there since the late 40s or early 50's. In the mid 80's the USAF made Mudoc dry lake available for LSR. It's softer and dustier than El Mirage. I don't think it's as fast as El Mirage, but I haven't been to a LSR event since Bonneville in the late 90's so who knows.
I can't think of any other motorsport where true amateurs compete at the top level. No one is making their own NASCAR or F1 Car
Jay_W said:
Can we go over the part where someone made a crankcase for half a dozen Wright 3350 cylinders? With pix? Cuz zomg....
This was the late 60's. No cell phones then, no pictures.
I've recently seen a V twin like a Harley engine doing the same thing.
let's see A Wright 3350 has 18 cylinders so. Each one equals 186.11 cubic inches. That's 372 cubic inches. And a six cylinder would be 1116.7 inches.
Being a gear head in UT, I'm severely disappointed in myself for never having been to Bonneville.
The thought train goes like this:
I really want to go to bonneville...
why go if I'm not participating...
I can't afford a dedicated car/ trailer/ tow rig.....
I can't justify taking the risk of those speeds with a young family to support...
Which leads me to being very interested in small displacement motorcycles. Cheap to buy and build, and if I'm only chasing an 80mph record,no more dangerous than riding on any highway. Also I could skip either the trailer or the truck, as a motorbike is much smaller and lighter than any car.
All of which means I'll very likely dip my toes into LSR in the not too distant future.
In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :
If you just go, I would suggest you will find a team that would welcome your help. Bonneville is the best car show in the world, as far as I'm concerned. Especially opening weekend, since many of the SoCal teams just come up for the weekend.
But if you want to build a vehicle, get a rule book, and figure out what class seems achievable. 15 years ago, I would have told you to get in one of the many new truck classes- as they were all brand new. Especially a small truck with a small motor.
Just go.
Well I've thought about going for years and this thread confirms I really should take the time to go SOON!
In reply to slowbird :
That does put a damper on things. But I'm probably actually closer to el Mirage than bonneville anyway.
Still, maybe I plan to attend speed week next year with a build or not. Hallowed ground.
I've recently seen a V twin like a Harley engine doing the same thing
Allen Millyard did one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4EA0dnAM8
In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :
You don't have to set a class record. There's guys who go there just to run. Fastest Minivan with a 4 cylinder, or fastest Hudson, fastest 1926 Essex, whatever.
It doesn't have to be a rip snorting fire breathing car. Top Gear went there with 3 street cars. I didn't see roll cages or a lot of safety gear in them.
I've got an old set of rules around here someplace. I'll try to find them.
barefootskater (Shaun) said:
In reply to slowbird :
That does put a damper on things. But I'm probably actually closer to el Mirage than bonneville anyway.
Still, maybe I plan to attend speed week next year with a build or not. Hallowed ground.
It does change every year- very much dependent on snowfall. But the mining of the salt isn't helping at all. I've been there when the surface sucked, and years that it was thick and rock hard.
The worst was after rain flooded the entire surface.
Jay_W said:
Can we go over the part where someone made a crankcase for half a dozen Wright 3350 cylinders? With pix? Cuz zomg....
I would be most interested in how he made a crankshaft for that, in the 60's!
For those who don't know, the radial engines have rods (in each row) that connect to a central master rod that is basically a single throw of a crankshaft, so modifying that seems unlikely.
preach (fs) said:
I have a friend that has been chasing the lsr for a Crosley powered vehicle for years. Yes he is touched!
I've set a couple of 1.0L records, and when I saw the heavily modified Crosley run at Maxton for the 750 cc records my first thought was I need to get one of those 660 cc Suzuki engines and either put it in my chassis, or import a whole car like a Cappuccino.
It's a really fun group, and I can't say that about most motorsports I've been involved with. Maybe when I retire
aircooled said:
Jay_W said:
Can we go over the part where someone made a crankcase for half a dozen Wright 3350 cylinders? With pix? Cuz zomg....
I would be most interested in how he made a crankshaft for that, in the 60's!
For those who don't know, the radial engines have rods (in each row) that connect to a central master rod that is basically a single throw of a crankshaft, so modifying that seems unlikely.
I never thought to ask him. Although the starter did sound like a 28 volt aircraft starter, when he fired it up.
Since most parts would wind up in a dumpster during an overhaul, I'm willing to bet he had his choice of pieces. Plus access to a lot of equipment. During that whole period, piston powered, propeller driven stuff was being retired as soon as replacements were available.
I ran at Maxton in the 135 MPH class because no roll cage etc. with dreams of getting out on the salt having been there as a youth. Then after a chat with N.A.S.A. officials at Road Atlanta who visited my pit to tell me I was going faster than they were comfortable with in such an old car with no real safety equipment I decided to take the plunge and make the car safer and install a full cage, fire systems, seats, harnesses, etc and also upgrade my PPE as required to run in the faster LSR and open road classes. I'd also been running the car at drag strips and wanted to attend open road races and possibly hill climbs.
I got the SCTA rulebook, NHRA safety regs, and N.A.S.A. regs, and SSCC rule book then went to a local well known chassis builder friend in CT (mostly drag cars) to make a plan for safety equipment and along with the help of Delaware Chassis Works we figured out a full cage I could use for all the sanctioning bodies that would allow me to run the car on road courses, drag strips, LSR events, and open road events in the higher speed classes. $12,000.00 later for a full cage, fire systems, seats, etc. and I was back on track. No intention of trying to "win" anything at any type of event. Just go drive the car & have fun doing so.
200 lbs of roll cage slowed the car down as expected but I had a plan of running a bunch of road course HPDE and LSR events to help make the driver better and then increasing power with a new engine and a transmission that could theoretically get me up into the 200 MPH range at 1 mile LSR events. So I took the car back to Sebring and PBIR HPDE events and ran in an unsanctioned 1 mile LSR at Dade/Collier airport out in the Everglades. Then life (and almost lack of) happened. It's been 12 years since I last ran the car. Harnesses, helmet, fire systems, tires, etc. are all out of date now and I don't see getting back on track being financially possible for quite a while. In hindsight I should have just kept running the car the way it was and used the money to go to events.
