Chris, thank you for your kind words but I do need to give credit where it is due. Our car was originally built by Ralph Lynde, so the chassis and body selection was made by Ralph. As you may know the original car had the tires mounted very close to the body, this goes completely against my thinking for a lakester as the turbulence of the rotating tire completely destroys the air flow of the hopefully aerodynamic body. This is why Duke and I made new axles both front and rear to get the tires away from the body. A secondary affect of doing this is that the car, having a wider track, becomes much more stable in lateral movement, such as a spin. Duke tested this theory on Wednesday on the short course at about 125 when because of the track conditions and Duke having difficulty with the shifter he did a 180 degree spin. Had the car been in the original narrow configuration it most certainly would have been on its top, we believe the wider track prevented this.
One of the real advantages that I think we had was that Ralph designed the car with suspension, although we did change the front configuration we did nothing to the rear which provides a very supple suspension movement which worked great on the rough salt. Luckily for us Duke talked me out of my original design for the front suspension, which was a "sliding pillar" configuration using Strange Engineering funny car spindles. I had done a layout of the configuration that we have in the car and Duke was of the opinion that this was a much superior design so luckily we went with it. Our car is very light, 1000 lbs without fluids and driver which a rough course would knock around pretty badly if it was not suspended. Our car proved to be very stable on the rough track and the supple rear suspension provide great traction.
Our motor is an absolutely stock (internally) 1998 Kawasaki KZ9R, which is 900 cc, it does have Kinsler constant flow fuel injection, 2 inch throttle bodies, and set up for methanol. To say that we "beat it like a rented mule" would be an understatement. After Duke got some runs in and became more comfortable with the car he became much more aggressive with the throttle and was not concerned about taking it to 11,000 rpm+. On our 171 mph at the 2 1/4 mile mark Duke's in-car camera showed over 11,000 in fourth gear before he had to back off and pull the chute before the 3. That works out to be over 180 mph! which absolutely surprised us and if we had not developed a rear axle bearing problem (which was probably a result of the rough course and possibly a cause of the spin) I believe that there could have been a potential for 190 if we had gotten to the long course! This if from an engine that is factory rated at 143 hp and maybe with the injection and methanol was good for 150 hp. I think that it shows the potential of our combination of chassis, suspension and aero package. We are planning a pretty major engine program for next year that will include an up sizing to a full 1000 cc's higher compression, better breathing and the potential for a possible diet of 25 to 50% nitro. This along with several aero improvements (maybe, we hope, if our stars are right, if we are damn lucky, etc) get us close to Stainless's record.
A couple of things about the meet in general: I had the real pleasure to put faces on people to some of the guys here on the forum, I meet Neil (Manta 22) and found out that he is much taller than I thought but his car is one of the most menacing cars I have ever seen! Regretfully Neil had some inspections challenges and was not able to run but I am sure he will next year and it will be fun to watch. Also meet Jack Illif and checked out his 2 liter Pontiac four banger with a Nissan IRL four valve head that he adapted to it. Talk about some engineering. Chris, aka Milwaukee Midget, stopped buy and I have not seen him since he set his record in 2014. Kiwi Sid from Idaho stopped by as we were loading to go home and we talked for quite a while about the streamliner he is building and I can tell you it will be a very innovative and interesting car when he turns it loose. I don't think I am giving anything away when he told me he expects to be at the salt next year with his new piece. Keep an eye out for it as it will be a great build.
On a very sad note I am (was) a personal friend of 3 of the 4 guys that were involved in the big accident on the salt. Rick McCambridge, Eric Burns and Chris Clay are all members of a loose group of salt racers from Napa-Sonoma county area. We meet every Wednesday night at a local Mexican eatery to talk cars, racing and solve the worlds problems. Rick and Eric are both car owners and racers and former record holders, regretfully Chris was killed in the accident but was a great friend and shooting buddy to me and he will be missed by all. Both Rick and Eric are at the U of Utah hospital in SLC and although in pretty rough shape will pull through.
Rex
