ALL IS NOT LOST!
I liked Howard's story so I cleaned it up a little and posted it on my Facebook page for all my car guy friends. So minus only the very last sentence here it is.
howdy,
A little story about my philosophy that has served me well. I was struggling at work with all the projects I was working on being cancelled and I needed to have a feeling of accomplishment.
Most of the classes at Bonneville are burdened by rules that somebody is always challenging when you beat them so I took the east way out.
Streamliners are the premier class on the salt and the rules were simple. "Must have at least 4 wheels. Not required to be in rectangular pattern. At least 2 must be covered. " All the rest of the rules concerned minimums on tubing, fire equipment, etc. B asically build a safe car and have fun. I had found my home.
I bought a bunch of books from the SAE Book store on automotive aerodynamics and spent some time visiting with Dr. Scott who taught aerodynamics at the University of Arizona.
Contrary to popular belief what our mind likes sometimes is an aerodynamic disaster or wants to fly. Not good. A couple of basics here.
(1. It takes more horsepower to get out of the air than it does to punch a hole in at assuming you are not ramming a flat plate forward
(2. Once aerodynamic drag exceeds available traction, adding power will NOT make you go faster.
Using those basics I designed a car at the kitchen counter and starting buying parts. This was 1986 in Tucson , Az.
The existing record in I/ Streamliners ( 750 to 1000 cc.) was about 147 MPH held by a dentist on the East coast with a 2 liter Cosworth Vega with two pistons and all the associated gear removed.
My good friend Bryan Savage from Cal. and I talked constantly and he said" why don't you put a motorcycle engine in it?" I found a 1986 Ninja 1000 R motorcycle In Phoenix with 8xxx miles on it. The rider had failed his depth perception test and it was totalled. I brought the whole bike back home.
My philosophy is KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.
I used all the wiring and whatever I could from it and integrated it into the car. The clutch lever was mounted on the firewall and foot operated, etc. 2" diameter tube for rear axle mounted on high speed flanged bearings.
Ninja front discs mounted on a simple hub I made on my Atlas lathe, available sprockets mounted on homemade hut (?) and away we go.
The car was covered with .060 aluminum I hand formed and I made to molds and laid up the glass nose, top of tail, and some of the canopy myself. When complete and ready to go with the water tank and fuel full with me in it weighed 1090 pounds.
The car had a nose down attitude ro keep it on the ground and used M & H front drag car tires. 15" x skinny.
First meet out using Texaco gas from the Wendover, Ut. station we went almost 200 against the 147 record.
Boy did we cause a stink!
They called an emergency meeting at a casino and tried to outlaw motorcycle engines in cars. They failed.
The following year we turbocharged the ninja with 25 psi and eventually raised the record to 256 MPH two way average with a best pass of 262.
That record has been broken of course but we bumped an existing record about 100 MPH which is unheard of on the salt.
Some of us try to out engineer ourselves and over complicate things. Complexity increases weight, reduces reliability, raises cost and increases maintenance and effort.
My elevator may not go all the way to the top floor but that KISS works for me. We set the record in 1988 and my wife discovered she had cancer so a guy in Florida bought the liner, put suspension in it with twin engines and never went faster than Bryan and did.
KISS works.
Howard