Speed is beautiful Until the gastank on your race bike falls off at 140 mph Scared the shit outta me!
Kevin ... ain't punctuation a bitch!? ... there's is a bit of info on the Internet about Jocko Johnson and his streamliners ... here's a few links: A Nitro Geezers article (just click HERE) ... an OUTSIDE Magazine article entitled Jocko's Rocket (just click HERE) ... and a couple of article written by Cole Coonce (HERE and HERE). Jocko also teamed with Garlits on Swamp Rat #17:
I've been thinking about shape & what makes my eye happy since I was 9 ... The Larsen & Cummins 'Liner - Bonneville 1970
We had the same lifting issues with the Original Golden Rod. Note how wide the Jocko is...very close to the OGR. We put over 300 pounds of lead ballast in the nose to give more stability at speeds approaching 200. The width of the belly pan allows for way too much lift, like an airplane wing.
Great blog..........I handful of pix that I have not seen before, the Auto Union cars were ahead of their time, sorta' like the new R8. Here are some random shots from my saves over the years. Chris
So you're saying that Jocko is gonna refund all the thousands of $$$ us "low-buckers" donated to his Triple Nickel project back in the 80's?
Shadow DN-4 I was a real fan of CanAm racing when it was REALLY racing. 1200hp and some of the most beautiful shapes ever. There were few sexier or faster than the Shadows. I took this photo on Aug. 11, 1974 at Mid Ohio. Heady stuff!
For some reason my foggy memory leads me to believe that Jocko's initial effort using that classic streamliner form was to use a Ford GAA tank engine. As I indicated, it seems that a long ago magazine article showed tha car under consruction with the big aluminum V-8 in it and anticipating a Bonneville attempt. Nothin more was heard until the car (or a duplicate) appeared with an Allison. Am I imagining all this?
I'm saying i wish I was as smart as him. I've swapped stuff,and bought stuff, from him,and was happy to do it. I'm sure your dough was spent on the nickle, just never got enough to finish it. Think of it like taxes,only better.
Hey gang - I looked around the web for a pic of Breedlove's first "Spirit of America" (the one that ended up almost under water when its braking system failed) - which I feel is one of the prettiest examples of true automobile aerodynamics (and hence, suitible for posting on this thread) - but could only find a couple of poor quality thumbnail-sized examples in very low resolution. Does anyone have a decent-quality image they could post here? I believe the car was designed by aerodynamicist Rod Chapple - who has done several other Bonneville designs. Breedlove's later "S.O.A. Sonic 1" was nice-looking too (as well as faster, but due to a much more powerful jet engine, rather than just superior aerodynamics), but didn't match the original in pure form-follows-function eye appeal. Thanks in advance for your help.
Thanks Ryan. Don't know how I missed that J.J.article. We were in the middle of moving to another home around that time and our computer was down for a long while. Guess that must have been the deal. Interesting to note your photo captions for the S.O.A. and my comments about it, and Sonic I, were about the same. I was in high school and the military through those really active years of LSR attempts (actually beginning with M/T and his Challenger). Very cool times. Seemed like there was a new LSR "hero" popping up in every edition of Hot Rod.
The Allison powered car was Dean Moons promotional car, it was a different on to the car you remember. More than one was built. Doc.
Always thought that it was a damn shame that Gary Ormsby couldn't get all the kinks worked out his Castrol T/F 'liner. This might have been one of the last progressive, original Top Fuel designs ever. Garlit's shovel nosed car (SR XXX?) was a great looker too, especially early on with the bigger front disk wheels and the enclosed cockpit.