Just got back from the Test and Tune, and I would say that the meet was a complete success! At one time there were 6 cars in the pits with 400+ capabilities, Marlo Treit,Danny Thompson, Rob Freyvogel, the Nish's, Vescos turbine car, and for the life of me I can't remember the sixth car owners name it is the red car with a big blown late model hemi with a big vertical stabilizer and a wing, the headers run along the side of the car but right now my memory for the name fails me!. The conditions were good to very good, some light rain on the end of the course on Thursday and Friday evening but nothing to cause trouble, the USFRA did a great job of dragging a pretty smooth course and it didn't appear that traction was a problem if you watched your horse power application. Temps were in the low 90s. Of note was that many of the USFRA people where there on their own nickle and the meet was laid back and well ran, never a wait to run. I personally want to thank all of the USFRA people for doing this meet and being great host!
I think the greatest thing about this meet was that three of the contenders for the wheel driven record were making their very first runs ever, Marlo Triet, Danny Thompson and Rob Freyvogel and to be there when they made their first runs on the salt was a real privilege. Rob's first run was almost aborted as he had a problem getting the engine in gear but eventually got it in gear and ran a nice first run of around 180, the car ran very straight and Rob said it was effortless to drive, Danny Thompson's first run was with the engines pretty rich but it ran straight and true with minimal problems, on his second run they leaned on it a bit and it ran 317 which was the top time of the meet when I left Saturday afternoon. Marlo's car, 16 years in the building! made its' very first run and Davenport put his foot in it , sounded great but I understand they had some tranny problems and were working on that when I left. Rob make a 273 run on Saturday morning which sounded effortless but came back with some problems that would probably prevent them from making any additional high speed passes, although they were trying for one more low speed run to check out a couple of other things.
It is interesting, at least from my view point, the difference in design and fabrication of these three cars. As we all know Marlo's car is verging on being a rolling piece of automotive art, Jim Hume's craftsmanship and engineering is truly stunning. This car was built with many aircraft based techniques, especially the body work and to a quality level that far exceeds any airplane. Danny Thompson's car has a history that includes such hot rod greats as Tom Jobe, Pat Foster, Nye Frank, John Butera and of course his father's great vision, all to form a foundation for what Danny himself has done to make this car into, what I think, is one of the real contenders for the wheel driven record. Danny's car is extremely compact, much smaller when you see it on the salt than what you may think when you may have seen construction photos. It is built in the manner of early Indy cars, lots of hand fabricated brackets, perfectly TIG welded together, beautifully formed aluminum body panels Dzus-ed to the chassis. A true tribute to the original builders and to Danny and his team's skills.
Rob's car is the design of complete functionality, designed using Solid Werks computer program for the structure, suspension, and body. The body shape was developed by Eric Ahlstrom (Blue) and he built the mold and the body and it is a complete deviation from the design shapes of Marlo's or Thompson's cars and certainly may be what is required to go 500. This car was 4 years from concept design to running car which shows you the power of being able to use the Solid Werks design software.
Each of these cars, it appears to me, really benefited from this test and tune. I think that Danny probably was closest to meeting all of his test parameters, he has shown that the solid block A fuel motors can make the three mile but can they make the 5 mile (or 6 mile) then turn around in an hour and do it again? Marlo found out about some possible transmission problem and better now than at the FIA meet. I hung out with Rob and Brandon alot with the Carbinite car and I can tell you this meet was great for them, I am sure that they have a "to do" list that is probably several pages long when they get back to the shop and also probably have developed a new respect for radiant heat transfer. An additional comment regarding the Carbinite effort, their crew is made up of many of the shop guys that helped Rob and Brandon built the car and have limited salt experience, Rick Yacoucci was there to help Rob and Brandon focus on what needs to be done to make a competitive car and Rick has probably gone faster for less money than anybody around!
USFRA thanks again!!!
Rex