Bobby Meeks, ran some Nitro in Vic's midget, didn't he? That's why it needed a larger opening in the grille, to help with overheating.
Roo, nitro is now on the homeland security list of bomb making chemicals. Each team has to have a crew member licensed and registered with the bureau to purchase nitro. That, plus the fact that it all comes from China now, means $1500 a drum. When we ran our restored bike at Bonneville a few years ago, we were most fortunate that Steve Faria gave us 5 gallons.
Yes, Marty, Bobby ran 25% in Vic's 60. That's how Roger Ward was able to beat the Offy's at Gilmore. The first time Perry Grim showed up at Balboa Stadium with a load in the tank, nobody knew. But when they went out for warm ups, Danny Oaks, who was driving for my Dad pushed off right behind Perry. After about 5 laps, Oaks pulled in, went over to Bobby, and said "what in the hell are you running in that thing? My eyes were watering so bad I couldn't see the track"! Vic learned about nitro after seeing the German's use it in their fighter planes. Once he bought the dyno, he and Bobby tested, and discovered horsepower in a can. Also learned they needed a lot more cooling for the already hot running 60. They enlarged the grill, had a huge top tank added to the radiator, and finally had a water tank mounted under the seat with a hand pump. When the temp was high enough to boil the water, the driver used the hand pump to pump water into the radiator displacing the steam.
Dean, I just checked with Mike Lewis at DSR and the price is still $750 per drum and I can get as much as I want at that price.. The sole source of nitro has been China for many years and DSR get theirs from Wego. The NHRA made a huge deal out of the homeland security deal and would not let the teams haul fuel in their trailers and restricted them to 42 gallons per drum. The mixing tanks that I made for Force's trailers held almost that much and the storage tanks were 100-120 gallons. Despite all the drama it is real easy to get "top clearance" from Homeland Security and it can be done on line. In fact when this whole deal blew up (poor choice of words I guess) a friend of mine did the paperwork to get top cleared and with the season approaching he had not heard back from Homeland. He called and was told, "We are not worried about you guys and as you have submitted the info just go ahead and haul what you need". Roo
I used to sell nitro thru VP, wasn't it Angus that made it in the US? VP had 2 different brands one made in the US and another from China? Nitro is very heavy, thick if you want to think of it in those terms, I don't recall the specific gravity but it would have a time of it to get it to flow thru a carb. It won't mix with gasoline, so you'd have to have an alcohol carb and you could run a small percentage. If it didn't mix well you could burn a piston. We ran 10% and it was noticible, louder and hard on head gaskets. If you want the crackle sound run a sparkplug into a header tube and light it off with the engine idling on alcohol, it'll crackle like crazy.
oj, you are correct in that Angus was the original source for fuel here in the US--remember the fuel drum coffee mugs? Roo
As far as CH3NO2 from Asia, I have found that nitroalkans from Linyi Shuaihang Imp. And Exp. Co., Ltd , Have had the most favorable specific gravity closet to 1.139 @ 60-70° F
First Nitro I remember was Peak Nitro. It was a cheap(er) left over product as I understood at the time. If the OP guy just wants to idle, he doesn't need much Pop. Maybe he can use model airplane fuel to get the smell he wants.
You can buy "perfume" for your alcohol to make it smell almost anyway you want I don't doubt that you could get nitro smell if you pushed the manufacturer a bit. You can make one cackle a bit just be retarding the spark making it shoot into the pipes. Run it fat and I'll bet you could even get a little flame too. Sounds kind of fakey doesn't it. Hmnnnnn
Good information Roo. I guess it shows don't believe everything you hear, especially from the NHRA! When we ran the bike in the 60's I bought nitro from Francisco, about $15 per gallon.
At $750 a drum that's pretty close to the cost of high octane race gas. I use M5 because we wanted to try it out, but now mostly because it's smelly and burns your eyes. If it weren't for all the collateral parts damage, for $750 a drum I'd burn nitro for sure.
I bought some 97s at a flea market a long time ago drilled out dump tubes and jets you could put your fist through.
Had he hung in there, he may have learned a thing or two... Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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