Visit to Thunderdome

[deejay499]

Hi all. Just caught up with the news on the site. Absolutely brilliant! Well done Max. Makes us very proud to be Vincent owners with a common bond. Looking forward to seeing you and the liner at Bonneville. Good luck and best wishes from the VOC and the sidecar section. Cheers, Dave Johnson

[landracing]

Well by the view of the second video, You can tell who the real men were and who the pussy was... Look again at the first to bail out.... And a hint,,, he was the only one wearing those girly ear muff's...

Good video's stainless and Max I hope you reach your goals this year.

JonA

[38Chevy454]

Great job, the video sounds awesome.  Looking forward to see and hear it in person.  Keep up the good work.

[Stainless1]

Dropped in on Max today, caught him working again.... The clutch mister and the cylinder head misters are made and installed. 

First a couple of pictures of the clutch mister...

[Stainless1]

And then 2 pictures the cylinder head misters on the exhaust side of the heads... the ones on the front engine are too hard to see...

Then the manifold for the front cylinder misters....but there is a story for the last picture... it is the distribution manifold for the rear cylinder mister

Years ago Max was racing a Vincent and had a part that broke loose on the bike, he used a little wire to hold the part on, the bike made a 168 MPH pass, the fastest it had ever gone.  Now Max is not superstitious, but....  every bike he has built and raced since has one part that is wired on.  Sure it could have been attached with a bracket, or even a plastic tie, but Max likes to use a little wire now and then... 

[Stainless1]

Waiting for processing on u-tube again, it seems a little slow, but I am new to u-tube and frequent the "worlds fastest website"

OK, they finally got done... Sorry guys, we didn't run the deafening tearjerkers... but I did get Max to show off his scooter a little.  The first is the Skid Test, I accidentally caught us pre-checking, so I threw it on the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH8RGMPixZk

The next is the parachute test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5N4cPUvlwY

Then the water spray system test with a quick switchology lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnQPa7VQ6pY

Most of you have not met Speedo... WAIT...WAIT, this is not Max in a speedo,    this is the Black Lightning's Mascot.    Here is his intro...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PLwiQ7dTns

I even got Speedo to pose for a quick photo op....

[isiahstites]

Thanks for the videos, it was cool to see everything work.

A few questions:

1. How much water do the liner hold to keep everything cool?

2. Why spray the front tire and is the cooling just to save the tire?

3. Do you cool the rear tire?

Scott

[Kansas Bad Man]

Thanks for the videos, it was cool to see everything work.

A few questions:

1. How much water do the liner hold to keep everything cool?

2. Why spray the front tire and is the cooling just to save the tire?

3. Do you cool the rear tire?

Scott

Scott,   First the front tire cooling.  The cooling water hopefully will help in keeping the 21" tall Goodyear from chunking.  I'm not sure, but I think Denis threw some rubber off of his at 354 mph.  Sam only had one tire left, and he's the one who first sprayed water on the tire to cool it down.  The Vincent streamliner has the aero, the horsepower, (573 hp, 385 ft. lbs. of torque, dyno test) and a good traction coefficient; with that combo it should nudge 400 mph.  The front tire is the weakest link to achieve that speed.

                                          Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

Thanks for the videos, it was cool to see everything work.

A few questions:

1. How much water do the liner hold to keep everything cool?

2. Why spray the front tire and is the cooling just to save the tire?

3. Do you cool the rear tire?

Scott

Black Lightning has 4 separate water tanks.  The front tire cooling tank is a little over one gallon.  The cylinder head spray cooling system has a little over two and one half gallon tank.  The cooling tank for the clutch and chain has a capacity of one and three quarter gallons.  All of these tanks are obviously total loss.  The cylinder muff cooling tank is five and one half gallons.  This tank's BTU can be changed by adding ice if required. 

                                         Max 

[Kansas Bad Man]

Thanks for the videos, it was cool to see everything work.

A few questions:

1. How much water do the liner hold to keep everything cool?

2. Why spray the front tire and is the cooling just to save the tire?

3. Do you cool the rear tire?

Scott

I don't cool the rear tire, not even close to being necessary.  The 700X18 Firestone will go 435 mph, no problem.  Same tire Al Teague ran.

                                        Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

And then 2 pictures the cylinder head misters on the exhaust side of the heads... the ones on the front engine are too hard to see...

Then the manifold for the front cylinder misters....but there is a story for the last picture... it is the distribution manifold for the rear cylinder mister

Years ago Max was racing a Vincent and had a part that broke loose on the bike, he used a little wire to hold the part on, the bike made a 168 MPH pass, the fastest it had ever gone.  Now Max is not superstitious, but....  every bike he has built and raced since has one part that is wired on.  Sure it could have been attached with a bracket, or even a plastic tie, but Max likes to use a little wire now and then... 

Correction of the above speed.  It was 162.36 mph.

                                                   Max

[Stainless1]

Years ago Max was racing a Vincent and had a part that broke loose on the bike, he used a little wire to hold the part on, the bike made a 168 MPH pass, the fastest it had ever gone.  Now Max is not superstitious, but....  every bike he has built and raced since has one part that is wired on.  Sure it could have been attached with a bracket, or even a plastic tie, but Max likes to use a little wire now and then... 

Correction of the above speed.  It was 162.36 mph.
                                                   Max

Well, y'all know that dang Stainless is prone to exaggeration....    I'll bet if Max had wired on 2 parts it would have gone 168 
See ya Friday Max

[Stainless1]

Stopped by to see Max today, darn guy was still working. the first thing I noticed was the scooter was covered up, with brown paper... Max's Machine Shop had been converted to Max's Body Shop... 

Max was working on the cockpit body section, he had changed the body sections and had to blend a little, then the finished part needed some fiberglass reinforcement on the edges.

These are body lifters... Max needed something that would make it easier to hold the body up while the guys installed fasteners.  Yes that part of the body is not that heavy, maybe 35 lbs, but it is awkward.  Mad Max drew a sketch and they appeared, I guess we will see if they work...

[Stainless1]

Well, the body shop was turned back into the machine shop over the weekend.  Max took the last piece of body to the painter late Friday and was headed over to check on it when I left his garage.  Yes, Max usually paints it, but he is running out of time, and the cottonwood is still flying around his paint booth 

But back to work, here are a couple of shots of the Clutch to transmission HyVo chain cover (primary, well kinda) that Max finished this weekend.  Remember that was the last major job I mentioned Max had left.  He needed to accommodate the larger pilot shaft bearing on the M21 input shaft. The red anodized parts are where the outboard carrier bearings are located.

While we were there, Trey (my grandson) and I helped Max bleed the brakes.  It was slow going until Max mentioned there were 4 bleeders on the big Wilwood brakes.  It's hard to get good help....  But the beast has brakes now.  Getting closer all the time.   

[saltwheels262]

nice brightwork, great bike. good luck .