OT - Vincent on the salt

"Back in the pits it was discovered that during the run at the 1 mile mark, four bolts on the blower drive were sheared. The rich condition was caused by no blower drive. Repairs are in progress. An additional 4 hardened pins are being installed. Approximately 2 more hours to fix. We'll have it fixed by 8:00 a.m. and we'll be back in the line.."

Max

Regards,

Kim

The Vincent streamliner was running well yesterday and a LSR run was attempted. Unfortunately, the blower gave trouble at Mile Two and the attempt was aborted.

The attempt has been shelved for this year and the machine and crew are on their way back to Wichita. It appears that the spirit is undaunted among the crew and supporters despite the setbacks. The Black Lightning Project is alive and well.

There will be a later synopsis - but that's it for this year, I'm afraid ;o((

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

Hmm, my news server has a habit of resending me articles that are a week or so old (stupid NTL), however I missed this one first time around on the

I also missed the original post with the URL in it - what was it (assuming it's still valid)?

I've found very little technical information about land speed record machines of the past on the web by the way; anyone got any good sites? I don't mean superficial statistics sites, but ones with construction details, engineering drawings etc. from the day that really tell the story of how these things were built. (George Eyston's Thunderbolt is a particularly interesting creature, designed in 1937 with four front wheels, two at the rear, and a pair of massive V12 engines inbetween)

cheers

Jules

Verbatim copy from the streamliner ...........

Hello all

We are back home again from the salt. A good time was had by all and at least I made a couple of new friends. Anyway the results of this before untried bike are very promising - there is nothing seriously wrong with it that needs complete redesign. Max has done a giant job of building this thing. The only problem with Max is his attitude to power - the liner has too much off it!!!! This overload of power caused our technical problems. When you know that Sam Wheeler made the new record (332mph) with 240 hp you will wonder why we have around 500 to 600 hp!!!! I tried to talk Max into reducing the power to something like 400 hp as this will make the the powerplant much sturdier and less fragile. The problems we had were few and easily solveable:

the primary Hyvo chain between the cranks needs very frequent adjustment ( we will fit gears) the ignition needs frequent adjustment (only better cams and a bearing for extra support needed) the blowerdrive is too fast (halving the speed will put out enough power for a new record) the blower itself collapsed because of too high pressure under the rotors (a fault from the blower shop) the gearbox jumped out off topgear (will fit sequentional shifting)

What does it feel like to drive the thing? Well - nothing compares to it. You lay almost flat on your back and seek a point on the horizon to focus on. Max tows you up to around 70 or 80 mph and once you get the signal you step with your right foot on the lever to release the towrope. The liner still "rests" on one of the skids and you try to get it on the wheels. When steered slowly you just go over to the other skid - so the advice is to give it a bit of a snatch with immediate release - the wonder happens - the liner gets on the wheels and is completely steerable (once you are calmed down enough to handle the bars precisely) The smile on the face comes when the noise from skids is away and you know you are on two wheels!!! I immediately loved the feel inside this bullet and can´t wait to get my next "go"!!!!

If anybody asks me if this thing will ever go my answer is a 100% YES!!!!!!!!! The problems needing attendance are not many (the biggest is Max who does not really want to drop some power ;-)) So don´t stop with your donations - the goal of a land speed record is not fictious anymore - we have a real strong knife in our hands now which only needs a bit of sharpening. This tool is tested now and will get much more testing under load on a dyno so all the gremlins in there will be fixed when we hit the salt again.

The quoted time from Dons run on the salt was 153mph (this on acceleration in first gear up to 3800revs measured on the first 1/4 mile of mile one) However when he changed back from the (jumped out) topgear he opened her up in second to around 4500 - this gave more than 200mph but was (sadly) outside the timed zone.

Cheers

Hartmut

Here is a quick, simple web page with pictures from this year's Speed Week:

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,