Just returned from Bonneville, first time ever, fabulous show you gotta do it once. I was particularly interested in the VOT (Vintage Oval Track) cars as they have almost identical chassis and engine requirements as HA/GRs. There a couple of them there ...mid fifties sprint cars with flatheads. I am building my HA/GR to fit Bonneville rules...I thought. It seems that even if you build an NHRA six-point cage it must still be made out of 1 5/8" mild steel. The NHRA 1 1/2" tubing is too small...Jeeeeze!! So to be Bonneville-legal I will have to cut the cage off and do it in 1 5/8 " tubing. Pictures later.
Sanctioning bodies are like the government...everything has to be as complicated as possible, none of them communicate with each other and generally if you build to whatever rule book you are building to, by the time you finish the build they will have changed the rules enough that you will have to re-work some part to comply with the changes. Just seems to be one of the "unwritten rules".
Oh, the difficulties of building a triple threat car: Drag racing, Top Speed Trials and Driveway Foot Smashing. I just ordered a 1 5/8" dia. die set for the bender, even though I'll never run Bonneville.
Actually Bob, In an effort to keep the costs of Driveway Foot Smashing in line with the plunging economy we have eliminated the roll bar requirement completely. Now for the real hoot. Medicare did turn down this claim (rightfully). So, my homeowners is sending me all sorts of standard automobile accident forms... We're you the driver? NO Were you a passenger? No Were you in the other car? No Were you a pedestrian No. Were you an uninvolved witness? No I may be able to run them out of form letters before they get the actual story.
Butch, glad to meet you there at the Pizza Hut in W Wendover. Especially glad to see you up and around. Yes, it would be especially cool if a few of the sanctioning bodies would "agree" on some regs so that we (the racers) can compete in several without having several cars. It's alot like herding cats. If you want to run Bonneville, check the USFRA (Utah Salt Flats Racing, umm, Association?), I've seen pictures of cars there that look an awfull lot like a HA/GR.
The principles of racing are different though, for land speed everything is heavy and robust, you add weight until you go slower and then go back one step, and engines and everything else have to be built to withstand constant "wringing out" the last drop. Whereas in Drag racing you remove weight until it breaks and then go back a step and the faster you go the shorter the fuse needs to be on the engine.... it only has to last four seconds in top fuel!! The roll cage has to handle much more weight and theoretically more speed in land speed racing. Gear ratios , tires, cooling, brakes, wheels and much more are very different requirements to those of drag racing. I thought about it too , and sure it all began the day a couple of guys drove their roadster to the desert and raced each other , but drag racing and landspeed racing have developed in different directions. VOT class is for pre 48 engines, and all 4 wheels must be sprung, a fully functioning radiator must be fitted in front of the engine and the fuel tank must be in a speedway tapered tail cone behind the driver. Some other rules are very similar to HA/GR.
97, You are exactly correct. I was just belaboring the cruel facts of life that won't allow a guy (bloke) to build a $2,495.00 car that will be legal at Bonneville, all drag strips, NASCAR tracks and Pike's Peak. Somebodyoughtadosomthin'.
I totally aggree! Accelaration [ drag racing ] is Torque vs Weight divided by time so "light weight is king" the "power" of the engine has to overcome the weight it's trying to move Terminal speed contests are Horsepower vs Drag Coefficincy [wind resistance] so a bit of weight helps stability Nascar is a bit similar [ those cars are heavy ] The laws of physics apply here, if the forces of resistance [ wind ] are greater than the mass, then it becomes unstable. A Bonneville car should be [ in theory ] more over-built than a drag car [especially with safety cages ] The other problem is obviously when all the Kinetic energy meets an "equal and opposite force" [ a crash ] all this energy needs to be absorbed somewhere. Safety cages are an engineering compromise, The stronger it is ,the heavier it is. [ which creates more engineering challenges because of increased weight ] We don't want to see HA/GR's end up like the 68-70 F1 cars, [ where drivers were dying ] Colin Chapman's [Lotus] theory was "if it fell apart crossing the finish line, mission accomplished" "If it could do another 200 mile race, it was over-built" Food for thought here, An optimist says "The glass is half full" A pessimist says "The glass is half empty" The racer says "The glass is over-engineered, make it lighter"
When you figure out how to do this we should patent the solution. A device for herding cats has never successfully been created.
The Jalopy Journal
