\ There is a "car wash" at roads end to leave the salt on the flats. My car, being fenderless, had very little salt on it when I left.
Since everyone's asking about it the car is the 493 rear engine roadster originally built by bob Moreland and used to run a hyabusa engine, bob semi retired the car about 5 years ago and Richard Lux (bobs old racing partner and shop neighbor) took over running the car with a flathead, he has the gas and fuel records at bonneville with his old conventional flathead, this year he wanted to bump his own record so he had jimmy Stevens build the engine that's pictured. The engine got finished up last minute and they never really got a good tune on it with fuel (going from sea level and 70* to altitude/humidity/temp/ at bonneville will mess everything up) I'd fully expect some big numbers out of the car once they get it dialed in. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
In the Wind... probably not this years entry but no doubt a close representation... Credit to Photographer, Owner
My neighbor, Don Biglow, from Stuart, FL trying to recapture the record set in 2010 of 314.5. Finally got a decent run Fri morning even though all his completed (the operative word) runs were over 300 except the first one. Oh well, there is next year... Don't much about the engine except that it is SBC based. Sent from the red phone
The sidewinder car (493) is run by Richard Lux of the Bean Bandits. This car has been running (and setting records) with more conventional flatheads and an Ardun at B'ville and El Mirage for a few years now, always in the sidewinder configuration. This was the first time out with this unconventional, Jimmy Stevens built engine, basically a shake down. There is no gear box, the engine is coupled to the sprocket via a clutch and from there the rear axle is direct driven by the chain. The car ran a best speed of 115.144 mph, a reasonable speed for a shakedown. I reckon this will be a fast machine when things get dialed in.
Thanks much for the pics - crewing for the XO/PP project I did not get around too much. It's always real interesting to see the really cool cars in the put area, racers and spectator cars alike ......
Rich, somehow I missed this post. interesting that he was overheating the chains. I would be interested in hearing more about what he was using. my brother ran two stroke go karts on a 1/4 mile dirt track. these motors didn't engage the clutch until 10k rpm or so. they ran a smaller chain than the motorcycle stuff we ran but because the spun so much faster they tended to overheat. common solution there was an oil can with a petcock on the bottom of it. run a hose to the chain and turn the petcock on before you run. basically a total loss cooling system for the chain. if you forgot to turn it on either your chain would come back bright blue or it wouldn't come back at all.
The 988 car is the 'Busa powered car. Rick was using the same system. Fairly small tires in the car and 360 mph speeds meant high chain speeds. Rick has much experience with a Hyabusa at high speed. One year he had high points at El Mirage for both cars and bikes. Only time that ever happened that I remember. Rick went 398 mph in the 788 car with a 258 cid sbc last week at Bonneville.
beautiful cars, and I have seen some of his chassis work under them in pictures... very cool. only other thought I would have to add to the equation is gearing. with a bike engine, comes a transmission. reducing chain speed can be done using the transmission until you hit top gear (if he used it). we always ran our cars in second gear which was the strongest. tsubaki lists all of the specs for its chains including how to lube them for each speed and power application. a "drip" system is their lowest of three systems they claim are adequate for a chain system lubrication. next is a wet system where the chain is in a housing and runs through oil and last is a housing where the chain doesn't run through oil, but oil is directly sprayed under pressure at various points of the chain to both lubricate and cool it. as you mentioned earlier, the more problems you have with chain heat, the more a larger set of gears will help. I'm sure at this point I'm not mentioning anything he doesn't know!!
Chain speed is going to be controlled by the rear axle sprocket diameter. The tire diameter. And the speed of the vehicle. Transmission gearing has nothing to do with it. Rick ran from the transmission to a jack shaft, At which point he geared up above what is available in the Suzuki transmission. And from there to the live axle. The axle spins at the rpms necessary for tires that fit the chassis to reach 368 mph. If he could reach 368 in second gear, the chain speed would be the same as in 5th gear. But the crank speed would be something else.
This was the fastest carburated car on gas, at Speedweek. Sent from my Pixel 2 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
We had an accident with the 608 on the way home. The trailer is totaled but the car is fine. We'll fix it up and be back next year. Sent from my Pixel 2 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The plexiglass is smashed, the rest of the car is fine. Sent from my Pixel 2 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
In Nebraska, we think the load leveler broke. We are fine and were able to drive the Burb back to NJ. Just got back last night. The trailer and car are still in Nebraska. Sent from my Pixel 2 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Rich, I'm not going to argue with you here, but obviously the assumption is you have the rear axle geared to reach your estimated top speed in whatever "high" gear you decide to use. there are three reductions in this system. primary reduction, transmission reduction and the chain reduction. a little math gives us: output ratio of hayabusa including primary reduction: 6th: 1.665:1 (primary reduction X trans reduction) 2nd: 3.091:1 (primary reduction X trans reduction) in 6th gear the chain would be running a ratio of 2:1 to hit 300mph with a 24" tall tire (just throwing out a guess on the tire) in 2nd gear that same chain would be running 1.07:1 to hit the same 300mph. granted, the RPM of the rear axle doesn't change but the rpm of the front sprocket does, along with the curve the chain makes around the sprockets. running a 1:1 ratio on the sprockets is much easier on the chain when you can make both sprockets as large as possible. using a jackshaft as you said is a great way to do this as the case is not longer the limiting factor on sprocket size. there are always drawbacks and the fact that the hayabusa engine has a limited powerband that would probably require all 6 gears to hit 368mph means you run in 6th and make do with what you have. I've had to do this exact scenario racing when 2nd gear became damaged and I had to run 3rd gear for the remainder of a season.
To go 363 mph the rear tire has to turn at the correct RPM. About 5500 RPM. For a tire of a given diameter that rpm will always be the same. Gear changes will effect the crankshaft RPM The tire and it's wheel are bolted to the axle which must also turn at the same speed as the tire. So the axle is turning 5500 RPM. The rear sprocket is bolted to the axle and turns at the same speed as the tire. 5500 RPM. So if you had a sprocket with a 10 inch pitch Dia. that would be a 31.4 inch circumference. Every revolution of the tire turns 31.4 inches of chain over the sprocket. So at 363 mph and 5500 RPM that's 1996500 inches per minute. You can change the chain speed by changing the tire diameter. Or bu changing the finial sprocket size. Which will change the crankshaft RPM necessary to achieve 363 mph. But for the tire that fit in NT2. That is how fast it had to turn. Shifting the transmission into a lower gear would not effect the tire/axle/sprocket RPM necessary to go 363
If you Are riding along at a constant 50 MPH and shift through the gears from first to fifth, Your engine RPM will change and your primary chain speed will change. If you have one. But your tire RPM and your drive chain speed will remain constant. Has to. If it changed, you would not be going 50 MPH anymore.
granted, the RPM of the rear axle doesn't change but the rpm of the front sprocket does, along with the curve the chain makes around the sprockets. running a 1:1 ratio on the sprockets is much easier on the chain when you can make both sprockets as large as possible. using a jackshaft as you said is a great way to do this as the case is not longer the limiting factor on sprocket size. there are always drawbacks and the fact that the hayabusa engine has a limited powerband that would probably require all 6 gears to hit 368mph means you run in 6th and make do. .................................................................Since the front sprocket is connected to the rear sprocket by a fixed device (the chain) how can the rpm of the front sprocket change without changing the rpm of the rear sprocket. Impossible.
rich, I agree 100% see my bold section of my earlier post above. when you drop the gear ratio in the transmission though, your front sprocket rpm changes. the hardest part on the chain itself is the smallest gear that turns the most RPM. it has the most force, the most friction and generates the most heat. by going to a larger gear you lower that problem. you said as much yourself when you first started talking about the bean bandits sidewinder above. if they are running 2:1 gearing with a 16/32 gearset (keeping things in the realm of readily available motorcycle gears) you are only using 8 teeth at most (probably more like 4-5 fully engaged) to transfer 360hp if you are running 1:1 you double the amount of teeth and get the FULL 16 teeth engage along with lower angular rotation of each link along that gear. btw, were they really maxed out at a 10" rear sprocket with the tires they ran??
Unless I am mistaken, we are discussing drive chain speed. Which is entirely controlled by the speed of the car. The tire diameter. And the rear sprocket diameter. Again. Changing the front sprocket will only effect engine speed. Not chain speed. I was only using the 10 inch pitch dia, as an example to make the math easy for me. Rick seemed to find that his chain difficulty was directly related to the ground speed of the car. Faster he went, the faster the chain speed went up in feet per minute. He tried several chains, Spraying with coolant, Bought the best he could find. Lots of horsepower and very high chain speeds were always an issue.
The Jalopy Journal
