Landracing Forum
Tech Information => Technical Discussion => Topic started by: Richard Thomason on December 29, 2006, 06:06:19 PM
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In 1979, Ed and I went to Speed Week to look at how things worked, get ideas, and all the stuff that newbies do. We went to tech at the airport, spent 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I'm not sure but I think it was Jack that spotted us (recognizable by our wide eyes and open mouths) and came over and started talking to us, answering questions, and ended up giving us a rule book (having a rule book is the first step on the road to perdition). Anyway we ended up with way more questions than answers but spent the next year scheeming and dreaming about what we should build. We bought a fire suit, and a motor home, we figured they were both essential for any type of race car. In 1980 Ed bought several magazines to read on the trip down and back and one of them was a Popular Mechanics or a Popular Science and in there was an article about the Vector bicycle that had just set the Human Powered Land Speed record. They upped it by a whopping 10 mph from 50-60. Ed took one look and said 'There's our car". The next thing I know, we're on a plane to Anaheim and have signed an agreement with Alan Voight and Dan Fernandez for them to scale up their design and build us a body. The original shape had no canopy hump and we looked out through the nose from a long way back. We made all the rookie mistakes in the world, one of which was thinking that visibilty was not that important because you're "just going in a straight line". Anyway we finally gave up on that original shape and modified it slightly but still keeping essentially the same profile but with a canopy. It added about 10% to the total cd but the tradeoff was worth it. When Rick Vesco saw the new body style he immediately proclaimed "you're whale got pregnant" Anyway, that 's essentially the story.
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And all this time I thought that one or both of you were bonked on the head with an apple.....Oh, I guess that was another guy. LOL
Regards,
HB2
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Good stuff Richard. Are there any pictures around of your vehicle?
I'm a newbie youngun and would love to see it.
Deb
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Yeah! Pictures! You can't prove it happened without pictures! :roll:
Mike
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Gee-I very conveniently forgot to mention the addition of the vertical stabilizer, That came after the WOS fiasco when we got blown off course at the cut in the mountain and hit the old style car-type timing battery. It tore a 10' hole in the side of the car, air packed in, and it flew. It did a complete flip, ended up on its wheels and spun to a stop. That's why for many years there was a painting of a battery with an x through it on the nose of the car and also one of a cat (they always land on their feet right? ). That was really the only time we got extensive footage on ESPN. Don't try this at home! After that crash, we decided to add the vertical stabilizer. Actually it works quite well, you can feel it really come in and plant the car at about 200. It was built essentially as a copy of the wings used on unlimited hydroplanes. Our aerodynamisist wanted it 7' clear above the canopy to really control the car---but just like Freddy Larson, our trailer was too small for this to fit so we cut it down. Ah what sacrifices we make in the name of expediency.
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I thought the first edition of the car was the trailer.
I know my car would fit in it.
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You will notice Richards stories getting funnier the closer we get to New Years Eve. Them boys in Central Washington make damn good apple jack, and they start testing it me thinks soon after the World Finals............... :wink:
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Good stuff Richard. Are there any pictures around of your vehicle?
I'm a newbie youngun and would love to see it.
Deb
Deb try this page (http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvilleother/page%2010.html), on the trailer (looks like there is plenty of room on the trailer for a taller vertical stabilizer to me :wink:).
I assumed airplane influence on the car. Now I'm going to have to go edit that page :cry:.
And I forgot the obvious, there web site HERE (http://www.dannyboystreamliner.com/) .
Deb you can find a lot of LSR web sites HERE (http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvillecar/bvillelinks.htm).
c ya, Sum
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Whoo hoo-here we are at the magic 100 posts. Yes, there is not just an airplane influence but the boys that designed our car were rcoket engineers for Lockeed. They just used their expertise to design the Vector bicycle. Fernandez was on loan to NASA to head up the design team for the pylon to attach the space shuttle to the 747. He had to come up with a whole new set of mathematics to see what happened with the shuttle next to the large wing surface of the 747. Al looked at what was going on and said "wow, that is just like a vehicle next to a plane surface". The rest is sort of history. That is where we got all of our aero numbers, which have pretty well been proven out for this design.
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Richard
Thank you [and congratulations on gaining the ride]. All VERY interesting, as usual the more I learn the more questions come up I have to research. Have fun on 2!
Jon
Glad you got Richard posting with your offer of the ride, more information to the surface for all to see/use, for me it's what makes LSR so great.
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By the way, the trailer I was talking about was our enclosed rig. It was originally built as a single axle light hauler for a c-gas dragster. Added 6' and another axle to haul the liner. The pictures that are posted are of the new trailer that is airbag suspended and will collapse completely and sit totally flat on the salt. We got tired of the effort that was required to winch the car up an incline. With this setup, one person can load and unload it by himself.
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Richard,
Did a scale model of Danny Boy ever get built and studied in any of the wind tunnels in the state of Washington?
I remember the specific power levels of the twin turbo SBC(s) and from the power levels vs some assumed vehicle drag data, it has to be pretty clean (even with the addition of the vertical stabilizer/yaw correction device).
By the way, I still have the "fun meter pegged" check as a wall hanger.
Best to All,
HB2
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no, we never made an exact replica model. What we have is what we have and now we just have to deal with it. It would be fun though, to really know how slippery it is or isn't. Glad your fun meter is still pegged. Ours has a tendancy to move around a lot. Sometimes this is good, but the last few years (except for 2005 top time of the meet ) it has definately not been pegged, at least not at the top.
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Richard,
Have you ever ran your engine on a dyno? You could take that info and probably back into what your aero numbers are at least the Cd. Your car is without a doubt one of the "slickest".
Rex
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Yes, every motor we have run has been dynoed. Maybe not at full rpm or at full nitrous, but we have a pretty good idea what we have run in the past. It's our own dyno and we know its limits. Blown it up twice, the adsorber that is.
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Richard,
See, you guys have so much fun out there, everyone thinks that you guys just show up and see if the thing will start. LOL
Regards,
HB2
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It sure seemed that way for a while. It was pretty tough when we were running alcohol, a draw through carb system with a magneto. There was so much scatter with the mag at low rpms that it was difficult to start and get the r's up. We eventually went to a propane system to fire and warm up. That was fun too.
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Richard,
You know what - I think that I enjoyed getting in you guys way more than trying to get my own stuff on the great white dyno. LOL
I will never forget the mini bleachers for Marlo. :-D
Regards to All,
HB2
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Yes , I'm a little less than pleased that he no longer brings them with him. However, this next week when we are in Portland, I will remind him of those wonderful seats and suggest that he bring them when they run the really big car. Today he told me that things were going really well, with the exception of the lawsuit with the FBI, CIA, or whoever the hell hit his Lambo.