Its been a while, but now it is serious...

So I haven't been on the hamb in a good long while. I got tired of trying to find a hot rod so I could really fit in and decided that one will come when I can do it. So I decided to skip having a drviable car and do something I have always wanted to do, and that would be land speed race.

I have many older posts talking about how I am going to start... blah blah blah... pipe dreams. Well I am actually in the design phases of a streamliner that... well I don't want to ruin the surprise.

The question I had was, is there a streamliner class for flatheads at bonneville, or is it all just one streamliner class?

Thanks for your time and I hope to hear back quickly.

 

Probably the first question you should ask is "Where can I get a rule book?" Get it, memorize it, and then pick up a pencil and start designing your car.
Larry T

 

Find the answer here: http://shop.scta-bni.org/addtocart.sc?productId=15&quantity=1

 

I hope your not stuck on using a flathead engine. You picked some of the toughest records to break. It won't be cheap or easy.

Blind Elwood

 

Well for now I am just designing the most aerodynamic streamliner possible. It is in between Chet Herbert’s “Beast III” and an old Hot Rod Magazine car that I cannot find a name for.

My plan is… ugh… I can say it. Let me put it like this, if it goes how it should, the car will be absolutely untouchable.

So I would try to compete in A class and I want to use a naturally aspirated ford flathead 239 or a 255. It would be customized of course, but N/A is the major thing. I don’t want to compete with cars going 320 or so.

Is the Poteet and Main “Flatfire” my main competition in that bracket?

 

Well I would be happy in a handfull of classes, but flats, hemis, and a few others are the only ones I would compete in.

 

Mr. Poteet has nothing to do with the Flatfire. That liner has a DLI blown flathead that pushed it to over 300 MPH. Please go to the SCTA/BIN web site and look at the Streamliner records.

 

So the flathead thing is out. TOO much money to even begin to compete in, but the sbc class is a little bit more competitive. That is where I think I will try and make my stand. But the body classifications are really thwarting me, so I was wondering what FS and GS meant. There are also the BFS and the BGS classes, but I think that just means blown ___ whatever class.

I have ordered my rules and regs book, but I could use the help now. Thanks,
Zach.

 

FS = Fuel Streamliner
GS = Gas Streaqmliner
BFS = Blown Fuel Streamliner
BGS = Blown Gas Streamliner

Good luck....

 

There are classes for flatheads. I just don't have my rulebook to hand. Being a bike racer I don't know the designations. But if you want to have a lot of fans (regardless of your being a record breaker or not) bring a flathead to the salt. You'll wind up with a huge crew.

 

nothing is impossible when your crazy.

 

Popularity is great and insanity is even better, but until I pick up a REAL sponcer, I am funding this bad boy myself. I have the money to do most of the build, and I am very good at raising money for things like this, and if I even came close to the record, that would attract big eyes and big wallets.

For now I like the idea of the streamliner with a sbc, but that is because I can do a streamliner and a sbc. One last question for tonight, what is the difference between fuel and gas? I know one is race and one is pump right? Or is one jet and one race?

 

Fuel is Nitro, Alcohal, Nitrous Oxide or actually any other type of fuel than Gasoline. There are very stringent rules that define what gasoline is.

Sponsers don't fall off trees.

 

At SCTA SpeedWeek ERC is the event gas. ERC have a tanker out there with several types of gas. If you run in the gas class you must use ERC gas bought on the salt. After you get your gas your tank will be sealed. If you set a record and go to impound your gas will be checked. Kind of a love many trust few thing. Anything other than ERC gas is considered fuel. Pure and simple. This year I ran a gas record and changed class to fuel. After doing the paperwork for a class change I simply pulled off the seal on the gas cap and I was in fuel.

 

a streamliner is a big, big effort. most guys that are competitive take years to build a car, there really aren't any soft record in streamliner classes so not only will you have to have the engineering/design but the funds to put an engine/car together. if you are serious about it do alot more reading and look into cars along the lines of costella's or the speed demon, there's just really no way a car shaped like the beast could be competitive anymore.
before you get to far make a trip to bonneville and see what it's about, there's really no sponsers, no prize money and no trophy girls. i really do hope you persue building the car but get a little first hand experience before jumping in. getting close to a record "would attract big eyes and big wallets" is pretty much b.s. the mainstream car world gives less than a shit about land speed racing, be prepared to fund everything yourself.

 

bad idea, you can not go very fast

 

Actually it could. The body is large, the frame, akward, and the overall design is faltered. BUT, if the design was refined and the frame made space age like we can today, it would be able to compete.

My major ploy is vaccums. Not dysons, but real areo vaccums. I am spending a arge amount of time with a couple of guys who know what they are talking about coming up with a system that will be so effective that it will actually start pushing the car at higher speeds. Sure there is inheirent danger but the danger would be well worth the risk. And with the engine being high horse and running in the B/GS class, it should do well. Plus, I figure that that class is relitivly untapped.

Sure, it may just be a flop, and I may have to pay for it all myself, but I don't care. I want to do it, and that is that. Help would be appreciated though. So, if you know anyone who is willing to sponcer someone to do this, even if they only want to lend a couple dollars or some of their time, please put them in contact with me at [email protected]

Thank you for your time.

 

And bring your own trophy girl.

Finding someone to fund a project always will be difficult. Not impossible but difficult. I'd like to go bigger but financially I can't. Pure and simple. Racing on my own nickle means I do the best with what I have.

Like Justin B said its going to take time. The first thing I would do is get a rulebook from the SCTA. They have very strict dos and don't as regards safety. That's the first criteria you have to meet. Maybe you could drag the guys you are talking to into the project and get them to throw a few bucks in. Every little helps.

Good luck with the build.

 

Rulebook is #1 priority, as several others have mentioned.

Be very carefull that whatever aerodynamic tomfoolery you are considering doesn't add any significant thrust or you'll wind up in the omega class (thrust).

That will really be a difficult reccord.

As for cars to look at, check the various Nebulous Theorum cars.

There was one running a turboed flatty at one point.

 

whilst discussing my aspirations to race, someone once told me.. "dont talk about it, be about it!"...

get the rule book and start building!

 

its slightly upsetting to this project that you dont know how to spell sponSOr, let alone how to actually get one.

 

i get it, sorta like the millennium falcon, only better. that thing was awesome.

 

Those guys are helping me on their extra time between teaching (two of them are teachers for mechanical design and one is a teacher for something to do with the science of air, and they are not so emotionally involved, that being said, one of them already said that when I build it, he will drive up there (bonneville) and help me by being on my pit crew, but he doesnt have any money to throw my way.

And I know that a sponsership is hard to come by, but it can happen. And I already have a minor scholarship for being a kid and interested in racing that I think I am going to throw into this thing and a few good parts off my family are wealthy, but I really don't want to ask them for help. One is going through a divorce, one I hardly talk to, and one is married to a super a*shole. I will figure the money situatuion out.

 

I actually knew someone was going to get onto my spelling. I have had a long summer. I knew it didn't look right okay? Happy? I just forgot how to spell it.

As for knowing how to get a sponsor, I do. I have to market myself and sell my idea to a corp. and hope that they decide to buy a share of my company. If I do well and make their product look good, then I am better off, if I make them look bad, their money they gave me before goes from gift to loan.

Just because I am a kid doesn't mean I am stupid. I know what I am doing and when I don't, I am not one to not ask for help.

And thank you for your constructive criticism.

 

Are you joking? There is no push pull on that thing.

What I mean by making vaccums is, if you cause 2 wind tunnels to go opposite of eachother on both the top and the bottom, they will cause the front of the car to have a low preassure area (the pull, there is less air there so it is easier to have the streamliner occupy that area) and at the rear, you have a high preasure area (where the car no longer wants to be because there is too much air for it to be... lets call it comfortable)

Because of this, it does take more energy (hp) to get over the hill than most guys care to have to use, but then you would speed up because the vaccum would actually start to puch the car along. It wouldn't mean gains of 30 or 40 mph but it would go a nice 10 or 20 mph faster, which could mean taking the record based on design and not simply making things smaller and shorter and as close to a needle as possible.

 

You can't wait a week for your rule book to show up? Trying to design / build an SCTA spec land speed race car without a rule book is like trying to paint the Mona Lisa while wearing a blindfold. When you take the blindfold off, you're gonna have a shit load of work ahead to make things right.

RTFRB. (read the fucking rule book)

 

Firingorder1 ( Bill ), I recognized the sidecar in your avatar from photos that a mutual acquaintance emailed me recently.

Joe Darby.<O
<O
Small world! <O
<O
Congratulations on this years records!! Awesome!!<O

 

Guys, lighten up a little! Here's a high school kid, dreaming of going to the salt, and going fast.

Obviously he has a lot to learn, but he's trying- asking questions, researching, thinking about it. From what I see and read on the news everyday, that puts him ahead of a lot of young guys.

...And you guys want to blast him for a spelling error, or because he's anxious to get answers? He said he ordered the rulebook.

zmcmil2121, good luck to you on this! You may find that the more questions you get answers too, the more you have. You may also find, as experienced, intelligent answers come your way, that the build you want to do now, will change as you become more schooled on the subject.

 

You couldn't "find a hot rod" so you gave up and decided to break land speed records instead? Call me stupid, but finding a hot rod is infinitely easier than breaking speed records.

Good luck with it though. Have fun and learn something if nothing else. Crazy ideas can sometimes lead to good places.

 

If you hadn't said it I would have.

Go for it, kid. You'll hate yerself if ya don't!! And shut up about the vacuum thing already. That's right, I said shut up about it. You'll figure it out...