I was at Marlo's shop about 10 days ago. They had the drive shafts on the floor.
There was damage to most every shaft. The shafts in the "rear" ends were both
fractured. Some of the others were twisted. Marlo talked to several different
companies about re-engineering them and new ones being made. For the shafts that
connect the engines, along the right side of the body, the size is determined by the
inside diameter of the bearings. There are Greek couplers that connect these pieces.
The machined portion will have more gradual taper from the largest diameter to the
size necessary to slide thru the bearings. The couplers show no damage at all. As I
recall, the short shafts inside the belt boxes were the only parts that had no damage.
No doubt those shafts have been ordered and likely finished by now. The new material
for the shafts was not in stock. Just another delay but at this time that is no problem.
The parachutes are another deal. After a "high level" conference in the trailer at B'ville
new chutes were ordered. They were made over the weekend of Labor Day and delivered
to the shipper on Tuesday morning. Overnight air was the way they shipped. I should say
the way one of them shipped. Two boxes were sent. One box arrived overnight and the
other box was taken out of the shipment and left in Oakland, CA. It was delivered by TRUCK
the next day. That delayed the departure time for WOS by one day. The plan was for at least 2
runs and hopefully 4 runs to test the chutes. Didn't happen. The first run was when the two
shafts broke 0.07 seconds apart. They loaded up and went home the next morning.
Without the tests with the chutes it didn't make sense to even consider Australia in 2017.
Patience has been observed thru this build and in the interest of safety Australia was scrubbed.
I have the images to do another post and show the pictures. That will happen soon.
Marlo plans to take the 471 roadster to the November El Mirage event. After that meet it
will be retired.
On
www.target550.com, in the News section, there is a post from November 29. Some of
it will be redundant but you may read it. If there are differences between the to posts, so be it.
I probably just didn't remember properly. Chose the best scenario.
Thanks for your interest.
FREUD