Whats the History on the Doug Herbert/Ray Evernham 500mph Effort

[MiltonP]

Without starting another NASCAR debate  , can someone fill me in on the history of this effort to go after what they are calling the 'piston-driven land speed record' this coming August?  Is this a brand new car?  Do they really think they can put one together that quick?  FIA record attempt at a private event or Speedweek?  Evernham is quite accomplished in other areas but does he have any experience with land speed racing?  Does Herbert have experience there?  By the way, has anyone been by the flats lately?  Curious about how this years  strange weather has played out there.  Is it a big lake right now?  Thanks.  WoS last year was my first visit and I will be attending Speed Week this year and maybe.....

[Glen]

I talked to Doug in November and he said the chassis was well into the fab and they were doing the front and rear end designs. They have a full crew on it and hope to have it on the salt this year.
On the NHRA blogs he can be contacted by e-mail.

[Blown Alcohol 57tbird]

Without starting another frammistan debate  , can someone fill me in on the history of this effort to go after what they are calling the 'piston-driven land speed record' this coming August?  Is this a brand new car?  Do they really think they can put one together that quick?  FIA record attempt at a private event or Speedweek?  Evernham is quite accomplished in other areas but does he have any experience with land speed racing?  Does Herbert have experience there?  By the way, has anyone been by the flats lately?  Curious about how this years  strange weather has played out there.  Is it a big lake right now?  Thanks.  WoS last year was my first visit and I will be attending Speed Week this year and maybe.....

This is the last update

Doug Herbert

 I got this info from my drag racing freinds little news on his streamliner and to get the wheel driven record below is the update


After the NHRA finals race I spent Monday visiting some friends in SoCal including Marty the Party and Marty Sr. After the visit with Marty I headed up to meet my friend Lyle Larson. Lyle is helping us with the land speed Bonneville car so we went up to visit the guys at Vortec superchargers and talked to them a little about possibly running superchargers on the land speed car instead of the twin turbos. This idea is still a bit up in the air but one thing that we know for sure is that the car will be powered by two, Dodge Viper engines that will make about 2000 hp each. The car is four wheel drive. My dad Chet Herbert has done most of the design on the chassis. Some of my other friends helping the project along are Ray Evernham, Chris Nachtman, Hans DeBot, Greg Fornelli, Michael “Fatback” McSwain, and Barry Dodson. Keith Adams is the project leader and has been working on the car for the past couple months, we are hoping to have it ready by summer of 2009 for a test session.

One of the coolest things I’ve done that I want to tell everybody about is going out to Bonneville with my buddy Hans DeBot and Keith Adams, who’s the guy doing the work building the Bonneville car. We took off and went on a trip to Bonneville and spent Thursday and Friday there and had a lot of fun. We met some of the guys out there, Tom Birkland, who has the land speed record now, at 417 mph. We talked to him quite a bit, also some of the SCTA officials. Lee Kennedy, the head tech guy from SCTA, he really took care of us out there. They were super nice to us, ran us around, and everybody showed us their cars. We had a great time!


The neat thing is the rules for the class; the class we’re racing is unlimited streamliner. The rules are really simple; the cars need to have four wheels basically. So it’s a lot of creativity, a lot of our own engineering. What I thought was really cool is that everybody’s car at Bonneville looks different, they’re all different, and they’re all special. It’s just kinda like the original hot rodding place, you just go up there and you go as fast as you can. For anybody that hasn’t seen that movie The World’s Fastest Indian, with Anthony Hopkins, I recommend going and getting that movie. Once you see that movie you’ll understand why we’re building this Bonneville car. I’m excited about working on the project; it’s going to be a great thing to set the land speed record.


 
 

[Jerry O]

I live in the area and went to his shop a couple months back. At that time there was a right and left frame rail, front and rear diff's in mock up, two mock up engines setting in place and two tires. The sad part was no one was working on it. May try for another visit in the near future to see how much has been completed. As for Evernham being any help, hard to say. I have worked for some of the best Nascar and Indy car teams in the country and I am always asking for advice on the build of my streamliner. LSR  has  different challenges and is nothing like round track racing ( thank god) Unlike Nascar racing, a guy with good skills and a good imagination can out run the big money guys. Best wishes to Doug and crew, hope to see them make run at the record this year.

[MiltonP]

OK, so what we have here is a new customer stepping up to the desert bar.  Quite an interesting group.  Hopefully, the fever will take hold after a hearty serving of humble pie and they will dig in and come back for more.

[interested bystander]

Hate to see people picking on Doug. He's the real deal. a sincere guy and a RACER.

It's in his blood. (In case any of you "Newbies" -pre 1955 that is-aren't aware of the Herbert name in Salt Flat Racing).

Remember, DOOMSAYERS, there were some Limeys a couple years ago that built a streamliner around a backhoe motor and, with little experience, other than the driver who'd done some dirt driving on a desert in Nevada and a little flying for the RAF, managed to go 350 on the Salt with a deisel -  first time out!

[Speed Limit 1000]

I have to agree. Doug is a class act and is very capable of getting the job done. I wish him and his crew all the best.
John

[MiltonP]

Don't mean to pick on the guys.    It was probably 'selective editing' by the media that gave me the impression that they thought it will be easy for these guys to whip something together in less than a year and come set the record in the first attempt.  The quote 'it will be cool setting the record' doesn't help.  I expect Doug knows how difficult it is but maybe the NASCAR guys  think it will be cake.  I think it would be nice to see them all get hooked and stick around.

[Wester]

They planned very well and it has been things like parachutes, heat, salt conditions and course stability that have caused them problems.  Engines get fussy when being run at those speeds too, valves burn and pistons develop holes.  Little parts that are not available at an auto parts store can be the biggest problems.  That works out to over twenty years before they set their FIA record.  The Vescos found that even with decades of experience and a proven chassis and engine, the necessity of one off parts was very frustrating and time consuming.  Gears, drive shafts, even body panels become unexpected problems at such a high velocity. 

The NASCAR guys have to work around a VERY thick rule book so a blank sheet of design paper can be a happy thought for them.  Chet Herbert has some great experience and has built some ground breaking cars.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with when assisted by NASCAR development speeds.

The JCB car is given as an example of a first year succe$$.  It will be interesting to see if they come back to bump their record speed in the future or if their vendetta with U S manufacturers has burned out. 

The hot rodders were told before the first Speed Week in 1949 that the record in the displacement class most of their cars would run in was set by the Germans at over 200 MPH and it was unlikely they would be able to better that speed.  Did it take three years or two to beat that speed within the same FIA limits?  The German Auto Union car was running on an Autobahn, not the salt flats where the salt surface bleeds off speed.  I wonder how fast the Auto Union car would have gone on the salt?  Could they have eventually gone over 200?  Ab Jenkins reportedly went over 200 MPH for over twelve hours in the larger displacement, Duesenberg built, Mormon Meteor III and that included pit stops.  I'm sure that was on the 12 1/2 mile oval because the side forces would have been less than on the 10 mile courses.

[Blown Alcohol 57tbird]

 Doug Herbert

Here is his NHRA "Drivers Blog" if there is any updates on his streamliner it will be posted here. I herd his dad Dad Chett there using his design on this project?

 http://blogs.nhra.com/nhrablogs.asp?blog=herbert

[dwarner]

Thats nice that Doug and his wife are able to go to a movie now and then. LSR? I don't see the connection.

DW

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Dan, Nancy and I haven't been to a movie in years, but my buddy Thomas says the fishing is pretty good.

[manta22]

Not even to see "The World's Fastest Indian", Jon?

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[Blown Alcohol 57tbird]

Not even to see "The World's Fastest Indian", Jon?

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

The World's Fastest Indian

Thats one move I want to see 

[Seldom Seen Slim]

By gum, I'd forgot.  That's the only movie that I've seen in a theater in about 20 years.  Nancy went with, of course -- and she says I was a real pain -- sitting there and talking to her with stuff like "Look, there's Fritz Kott" and "Hey, the Pumpkin Seed"".  She'd shush me up -- I guess I need better theater manners.

No I don't -- I just won't go any more.  Once in 20 years is about enough for me.  We've got a copy of the movie, anyway -- will watch it on the laptop during our flights to and from the Reunion in a couple of weeks.  Thanks for the reminder.