1955 Buick or 1992 Mercedes for Bonneville

[ship]

I'm not new to racing but completely new to LSR and I am trying to decide between the two cars sitting in my garage to build for a Bonneville event


1955 Buick Century with a front clip from an oldsmobile and a chevy 350
The front subframe is cut in front of the firewall and the body of the car is completely stock right now
I was thinking of a competition coupe build for this one and putting in an older nailhead engine with the biggest displacement I can get away with.
this car has the aerodynamics of a brick but its an old school hotrod and that's cool to me.



I also have a 1992 mercedes 190e with a mercedes 300 motor swapped in with a 5 speed.  I really think I could make this car competitive with the crew chief I have but it's not as cool in my opinion.

what do you all think? I'm reading and rereading the SCTA rule book trying to do the math on engine combinations and body alterations but I have no idea what I'm talking about yet.


thanks for your time
Ship

[tortoise]

The cost of the base you build a land speed car on is a minor fraction of the cost of developing and racing it. Why not start with something you think has the BEST chance of being successful, like a body with lower drag than others in its category? Aero is almost free. Horsepower is expensive.

[Peter Jack]

Tortoise advise is good. On the other hand if you do choose one of your existing projects it's sure to be interesting and some people have done some amazing things with choices that shouldn't have worked. Keep us abreast of things and start a build thread when you get under way.

Pete

[Crackerman]

The mercedes already has front and rear suspension designed to be stable at autobahn speeds. Although the brakes may suck, it will save tons of work to reduce scrub radius.
The aero is light years ahead of the buick, and overall a more competetive package.

[kiwi belly tank]

If you are record hunting the choice is probably wrong but if you are personal goal & fun hunting, then what ever blows your skirt up will be the right choice.
There have been some unusual land barges run over the years.
  Sid.

[dw230]

The '55 Buick body falls into the Classic Category classes, 1928 - 1981.

That said, there is no competition coupe class available within that category. The best aero package you will allowed to use is that governed by the Altered rules. If you do decide to go down the full comp coupe road you will be running against vehicles with much smaller OEM bodies. The 350 falls into the C engine break where all class records in comp coupe are way North of 250 MPH.

Homework is your friend here,

DW

[RichFox]

The mercedes already has front and rear suspension designed to be stable at autobahn speeds. Although the brakes may suck, it will save tons of work to reduce scrub radius.
The aero is light years ahead of the buick, and overall a more competetive package.

Are brakes and scrub radius important at Bonneville?

[SteveM]

Regarding the Mercedes, you are after my own heart.  I have owned a bunch of W201 (190-class) Benzes, all diesels.  The aero is pretty decent on those cars.  My current daily driver is a '93 190E that has had a transplanted 2.5L turbodiesel / 5-speed drivetrain.

For reference sake, the record in F/Production (3Liter, production bodywork), is 167 mph.  I "think" that's the most likely fit for a 190E with nominal 3 liter engine.

The 167 mph record was set by a Nissan/Datsun Z-car.  That's pretty sleek competition.

Steve.

[kiwi belly tank]

The mercedes already has front and rear suspension designed to be stable at autobahn speeds. Although the brakes may suck, it will save tons of work to reduce scrub radius.
The aero is light years ahead of the buick, and overall a more competetive package.

Are brakes and scrub radius important at Bonneville?

Nah!! Ya don't even need a steering wheel, just unload it pointed in the right direction.
 

[RichFox]

Don't know about losing the steering wheel, But I have been over 2 and not had much need of brakes. And I wasn't cutting the cones but going straight as I could. Which was pretty straight. It's not an autoX. And i do have a 'chute. Scrub radius seems like something that may come into play on the return road. But speeds are not that great when pushing. So why would I go to any pains to concern myself over a less than ideal 0 scrub radius?

[SteveM]

Another plus for the Mercedes is that if you are concerned with scrub radius, those Benzes run a lot of negative offset on the wheels. (Maybe it's positive offset, I can never remember which way is which).  Anyway, the wheels "tuck in" pretty deep.



Steve.

[Stan Back]

Close to 0 scrub radius can take the twitch outa twitchy.

Running a 55 Buick with an Olds front clip would, I think, take you past Pro, Gas, Alt and land you in Comp where the Olds wouldn't be that advantageous.

But you could have the world's fastest 55 Buolds with a nailhead in it.

[Billy @ AHG]

Ask Jeff Brock , what his choice would be .

[Sumner]

Close to 0 scrub radius can take the twitch outa twitchy....

Brakes not important but more that one person who has had the scrub radius off very much has had a lot of difficulty going down the course.  I've done what I can to get it as close as possible on the lakester.  Now if I ever get it on the salt I might know if it was worth it.

I became aware of it years ago when some guys that run a roadster told me how terrible the car ran until they got it straightened out.  Ask Sparky what it was like before and after fixing scrub radius  .

Negative or positive offset can be a good thing if it gets the scrub radius close to zero.  Tire diameter, spindle design, wheel offset, hub design and castor all effect it...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvillecar/construction%20page-21.html

If you haven't had problems then keep doing what you are doing.  If the car is hard to drive possibly look into it as a possible cause,

Sum

[RichFox]

Scrub Radius is not something I thought about at all when I built my cars. I either used earlyFord spindles with Centerlines or Ford wheels. Or on the Vega I had early Econoline spindles with Centerlines. Worked for hundreds of thousands of cars and miles. Worked fine for me. I can see how it could get screwed up. But I don't think either of the OP cars would need much attention in that area. Maybe?