VW powered lakesters?

[gkeeton]

Yes, ultimately shedding the heat will be a difficult obsticle to overcome. JP Motorsport from Sweden has performance cylinder heads with added cooling fins over, and above what a stock VW Cylinder Head has, and LN Engineering has Aluminum Cylinders that dissipate the heat better than the stock Cast Iron VW Cylinders. These are expensive, extreme examples though.
I think Bob has made it into the upper 150's, and Zach Burns with his Karman Ghia has made it into the lower 140 range at Wilmington. I'm assuming these are only 1 mile passes, so it would be interesting to see what would be needed for a 5 mile run. Of my two examples the lower HP example is in a Street Driven Beetle. Although not practical, it is able to dissipate enough heat in that instance, but it would be much different at full throttle for 5 miles.

[Sumner]

... I'm assuming these are only 1 mile passes, so it would be interesting to see what would be needed for a 5 mile run...

You are only going to run to the 5 if the car will run over 175 at the 2 1/4, but a lakester should do that, but sure couldn't see an old VW motor being at all competitive in the class it would be in.  I guess this would just be a "I want to do it" deal and nothing wrong with that if that is what one really wants to do now and down the road,

Sum

[dw230]

Collier/Manghelli ran records of 189 with air cooled VW. Changed to water cooled and ran 199+ record. Sold the car to Bob & Dan Chilson who put the water cooled lakester into the 200 mph record range. There is a picture of the car in the book "Bonneville Salt Flats" page 119.

The car was destroyed at El Mirage in 2012.

DW

[manta22]

Neil,

I'd like to be at that lunch!  Let us jknow what you find out.

Geo

If you're ever in Tucson on a Thursday, you're invited!  I'll pass on whatever I find out.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

Geo;

I asked John Horsman how Porsche kept the 12-cylinder air-cooled 917 cylinder head temperature from rising dangerously high during full-bore runs down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. He said it used a huge oil cooler to reject a large portion of the heat. The other was a very large fan mounted on the top of the engine which blew ducted air over the finned cylinders-- sort of a set up similar to the late-model Corvairs but not belt-driven. It must have moved an enormous volume of air through the engine at full RPM. The fan blew air down through the shroud and out the bottom. John said that one time the fan bolts broke and the fan took off, went way up in the air and landed in the parking lot. A spectator found it, brought it back and said "You might need this." They thanked him and gave him a pit pass for his courtesy.

So that's the story-- 240mph is possible for miles with an air-cooled engine-- if it is done right.   


Let me try this; it will be up for about two weeks:

http://share.yesvideo.com/?inv=5269e20f35f0bce21f000aae#/guest/shared/5269e20f35f0bce21f000aad/chapter/5269e20f35f0bce21f000aaf

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[Freud]

Neil.....that is fantastic.

THANKS   

FREUD

[Milwaukee Midget]

Neil.....that is fantastic.

THANKS   

FREUD

Neil always seems to find the stuff that I have vague memories of, and reminds me that it wasn't a dream.

Dumb about Bugs, but - If the oiling of the heads can be separated from the oiling of the block - I wonder if a large capacity cooler (REALLY large, like the size of a radiator for a SBC) loaded up with a very low viscosity oil, submerged in ice water might be a solution.  Let the block get up to temp on a separate oil circuit, but keep the heads cool.

It's only 5 miles.

[Kiwi Paul]

I watched the whole thing. Really brings back some boyhood memories of following those cars ffrom afar...Thanks, Neil.......Probably the best thing of this nature I have seen recently is footage of Indy winner Kenny Brack wheeling a real GT40 around Goodwood this past year in the rain. I can`t remember the link, but the search on Youtube should get you there. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I had goosebumps for hours afterwards....

[Freud]

Here is one version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zMGR9qjj4I

FREUD

[manta22]

Sidetracking the topic:

Freud-- check out Chapter 39 & 40 in the link I posted. It shows Pedro Rodriguez driving a 917 in hard rain. A really great driver.

Pedro was killed in a Ferrari at the Norrisring-- a short track in Nurnberg, Germany. Actually this track in in front of the old Nazi reviewing stand where Hitler held his party rallies in the '30s. It is a part of the old Zepplin Field where we played football when I was in High School in Frankfurt in the mid '50s.

Regards, Neil