Hi Terry,
Don "race engineer" came to help me this year from Texas and knew Team Vesco, so they left us a space to park our van and bike so we were able to see at close quarters the life of a streamliner and its crew on the flats for nearly a week...
They do have to start the turbine in the pits to do various tests... They have a mobile trolley with a number of batteries and a 40 volts (or so...) 400 amps starter to do that.
It is also used after a run to cool down the turbine by running it with fuel shut off via auxiliary batteries located in the nose, otherwise the turbine would retain too much calories within. I haven't seen how others like Speed Demon cope with these unwanted calories but they must have some independent way to circulate water for that post run cooling:
The Turbinator has front and rear suspension plus 4 hydraulic jacks so that the engine AND 2 speed drive can be tested in the pits:
As a rule, each morning they would pull off all the body panels, all held via dzeus fittings, different sizes/depth at different locations depending on local stress. Reassemble, do a run, have problems, do it again, say 4 times a day at easily 1/2 hour minimum... That's 2 hours minimum gone in a day just for the skin...
You need to simplify yours!!!!
The Turbinator also have ballast they can add or retract and move around depending on driver feedback...
Theirs are made up of lead ingots cast into Chevrolet rocker covers.
A streamliner spends a lot of time on a trailer on the roads so need some serious anchor points. Theirs are steel fittings that screw into threaded sockets welded to the frame at front (one), midriff (two) and rear (two).
The streamliner probably also travels while up on its hydraulic jacks to save expensive rubber (I forgot to ask that question!!!):
They also use their cockpit after a run to store the parachutes. It takes an awful long time to set them flat on the salt and roll them in the right fashion to be safely inserted in the tubes and this is done in the pits. Make sure your cockpit is big enough for that.
Lastly, you can see Dave Spangler "serpentine" teeshirt... That's water cooling while he's strapped in ready to go in a cramped space under the Salt Flats heat...
Your drgs keep impressing me!!!
Patrick