Topic: Bonneville anyone???

[Don R]

  In case nobody else noticed, there is a cool article in the new August issue of HOT ROD mag featuring Maxton and the very Keith Turk that started this thread! Pictures included. Page 74.

[KeithTurk]

Thanks for the Nod Don....

The Top Speed Challange that Hot Rod puts on each year is a favor from them for Tonya and I doing Drag week and it's also because Freiburger Loves Land Speed Racing....

Bill McGuire who wrote the article had never been there before and it was a HOOT... seriously a hoot to watch him take in the place...  He had Fun.... then blamed it on me.... LOL

K

[Don R]

Are the rules online like NHRA or do you need to get a book? I was also told the bonneville rules lean toward mild steel not chrome moly.
 Maybe my 40 chevy coupe would be a better way to get my feet wet. It's a small block, 4 speed and it would be easy to swap rear gears in the 9" Edsel rear.

[KeithTurk]

there are some limited rules on line under the Top Speed Challange part of our website...  www.ecta-lsr.com

I've not looked lately to be honest... just to dang busy with crap....  But the Coupe can run in the Street car class with nothing but a 3 point belt as long as you don't exceed 135mph...

K

[scottly]

So any more vintage pics? Stories?

[KeithTurk]

My favorite Bville story is 2008....

 in 07 we'd set 5 records in different classes... with 4 different drivers.... and all but Tonya got over 250 in the car....  So  Freiburger built her an engine for 08 that was easier to control.... single carb with a Vortex Supercharger...  down a tick on HP but it was like 1160hp Vs the 1300 we had with the Roots blower.   Anyway.... we started out with a soft record around 217mph with one of our crew members in the car... ( we were trying to get him into the two  )....    We made some modifications and stuck Tonya in the car with "ALL" the HP and she had a down run of 245mph on a 230mph record....  Perfect... off to Impound we go... 

While in impound the front air dam on the car was protested by some weenie that held the record in the previous class at 209mph.... when we read the rule the way he was reading it... we agreed and went to tell him thanks and to generally cool things off....  While talking to him, he said our car should be "technically right" and that even though the infraction did not gain us an advantage... right is right....  we agreed and informed him that we'd fix it and the record he'd set...which was a lot like a record only SLOWER....  By the time we got back to the pits... we had 7 cell phones buzzing every single junk yard in a 500 mile radius of Bville.... and we found a Camaro just like mine in Idaho....  ( to repair the issue we had to change the nose of the car and rebuild the air dam )  and OFF we went...

We put Tonya to bed as she had to do her return run at 6am the next morning,  the rest of us piled into the truck and headed for Idaho...  We get to this place... pull the Junk Camaro into the shop... before snatching the nose off the car we built the new air damn or got pretty close... and then drove back to Bonneville.....   arriving just in time to wake Tonya up and push her off on her return run........   So she runs 249mph in the 5th mile and goes out the back of the course at 251mph... ( which means she gets her Double AA Lic.... big deal in our little world ).. and puts pretty big numbers on the record.... and while the car gets back in line to have the engine checked and Tonya to certify her record.... all the guys are all over the nose of the car in line....  by the time we got back to the pits the car virtually had a new nose.....

My Partner ( Freiburger) jumps in the car after we took the Blower off and David goes out and runs 226mph on that poor fella's 209mph record....  lots of fun....we backed it up the next day and ultimately got to mention to the guy that next time he should bring is "real" race car...   ( he and his crew were the first to congratulate us on the effort )  The Smack talk was hysterical....  not a soul took offense and everyone... even the weenie that lost the record had a great time....

[scottly]

While in impound the front air dam on the car was protested by some weenie that held the record in the previous class at 209mph.... when we read the rule the way he was reading it... we agreed and went to tell him thanks and to generally cool things off....  While talking to him, he said our car should be "technically right" and that even though the infraction did not gain us an advantage... right is right....  we agreed and informed him that we'd fix it and the record he'd set...

So he was a weenie for informing you your car was not legal? Which you agreed with???

 ( he and his crew were the first to congratulate us on the effort )  The Smack talk was hysterical....  not a soul took offense and everyone... even the weenie that lost the record had a great time....

Sounds to me the "weenie" displayed proper sportsmanship.

[tgtint]

Wow, love anything bonneville related.  This forum is getting cooler and cooler! 

[traveler]

So...are you as Liberal or a Conservative Keith?

[KeithTurk]

Hey I'll run over and answer that question on the Political forum.... 

[Don R]

Fun story with a fun ending. I'm investigating tires, hoosier (what I currently have) has a no LSR policy on their tires, not sure why, but I bet goodyear has something. I've heard of nitro funny car front tires being used bit they look small.

[KeithTurk]

Tires in Land speed racing are a bit sticky...  No manufacturer wants to certify that a tire will go XXX mph simply because they can't control the circumstances under which the tire will perform X speed....

Bville requires High gross weights to gain the traction required to overcome Drag... and the tires are skinny to focus the maximum amount of Pressure on the contact patch....   So we're asking these folks to give us a Skinny tire that will hold up a 5000lb car.... at 300mph ( plus or minus )  

Bottom line... Mickey Thompson makes a Bville tire in several sizes starting at around $500 bucks a piece and Goodyear has a Front runner with added ply's and it's around 400 each....

At Maxton we're allowing folks to run Drag Radials.... and we've had good luck to 241mph...

K