What is the redline of your L6?

[Tony D]

Would you believe now we are running a 4.11 gearset? On 24 or 25" tires and a direct drive Datsun Comp Five Speed? You do the math, it's singing going through the traps at 141mph+ for the 2L Records.

 

With the 2.8, it was going through the traps at 8500 or thereabouts, running alternately a 3.9, 3.7, then for Bonneville a 3.36...

 

Most of the speed is made in the first mile at Bonneville, same as at El Mirage. After that, it's incremental speed increases. So yeah, it might enter mile 2 at 8300, and enter mile 3 at 8400, and go the final timing distance at th end of mile 3 at 8500 or 8550....

 

So yeah, for basically two miles it's running at 8500... That was after four seasons of racing every meet, and two trips to Bonneville each of those two years. The damage done that did in that engine was the pressed-fit piston pins walking out to the cylinder walls and scoring them .080" in all six cylinders. Blowing by like a mother, it still went 173.325mph... When we finish with the 2L, the freshened 2.8 is ready to go back in an bump that speed a bit more, and maybe get us on the long track (have to go 175+ in the 3 mile course to make it to the 5 mile long course). I figure we will make a bit more power without those .080" pin scores in the walls....

 

But not redline by any means, last meet at El Mirage trying to diagnose an intermittent sensor problem, the car was held at 9100rpm for 30-45 seconds at a stretch while we waited for the sensor error message to indicate.

 

Kinda Hairy, revving an engine without a load on it...

 

If it goes boom, it goes boom. Build another one, eh?

 

The conversation digresses...

[johnc]

What kind of racing were you doing where the mechanical advantage of first and second gears were slower than pushing a car?

 

Although I'm not a LSR racing expert, I was at El Mirage when Erik Messley ran the Viper against Don Vesco's Turbinator for an episode of Extreme Machines (http://www.teamvesco.com/elmirage.htm). Traction was a huge limiting factor for the Viper and I understand for almost all wheel driven LSR cars.

[Tony D]

heh heh heh, how did that old Viper work out against the Turbinator?

 

Too lazy to run through all the linking required to see it.

 

Though the LSR car was up there in 1999, I remember the Turbinator.

[johnc]

The Viper was geared for about 200mph top speed but it was difficult to accelerate without spinning the wheels. Erik was mildly annoyed when the rear end broke loose shifting into 6th at 185mph. The first run Erik ran all the way to the end and waited for Don to show up - the producers were not happy.

 

For later runs Erik had to run next to the Turbinator until about 80 mph, then he was supposed to quickly accelerate to 165 mph (the top speed of the filming helicopter) and wait for Don to blow past him - which he did at 275+. Don and crew didn't want to run the Turbinator flat out for the show so the speeds the announcers stated were a little "optimistic."

 

The worst thing Erik said was the dust kicked up by the jet exhaust when the Turbinator went by. His driving suit was filled with dirt at the end of each day and they could never get the interior of the Viper clean after their 3 days of filming.

 

Don was a character.