World of Speed

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
A message to all who support.

The World of Speed and the Shootout are scheduled from the 7th of SEPTEMBER to the 16th SEPTEMBER 2013, only one day between events.

I've decided to take the obvious advantage and attend both. This will give Black Lightning the best chance ever to achieve her goal, and that is to top 300 mph with a side car, claim the title 'The World's Fastest Vincent', and the title 'The World's Fastest Vintage Wheel Driven Vehicle'. We will have 9 full days of salt time for the first time ever!

To pull this off, it will require financial assistance and adequate pit crews. If you would like to join in and help out on either of Black Lightning's needs let me know off list.

Max.
 

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
A little bit of what it`s all about.....................

Every wheel driven racing event has it's own peculiarities, and racing at Bonneville is the granddaddy of them all. Equal efforts seldom result in equal speeds. This phenomenon often baffles the uninformed. Here are a few of my thoughts that may help clear the fog.

Bonneville track surface varies from year to year due to Mother Nature's hand in the matter. Each year the Bonneville Salt Flats receives enough moisture to turn it back into a lake. How the water dissipates determines what the racer will have in the form of a good or bad surface to run on for that particular year. The predominant determining factor is the wind and the direction of the wind, it's velocity and temperature, and most of all it's rate of evaporation. The length of gradable surface, and the condition of the surface to be graded is all of great importance to the salt racer. The track's traction coefficient varies a great deal from year to year. There are ten coefficients that relate to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The comparison of asphalt to salt when the coefficient is five, is 85% or another way to put it is that the salt has 15% less traction coefficient than asphalt. There are three ways to enhance traction coefficiency. The most common is adding weight to the rear wheel. Next would be experimenting with traction footprint by either changing rubber and compound, or by changing air pressure, air down force achieved by ground effects or air foils. The astute salt racer can read the needs of his machine and act accordingly. The novice, or the first-time-out guy or gal usually has a serious problem with this thing called traction when it comes to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Knowing how your machine acts isn't enough. Knowing how your machine acts on the GREAT WHITE DYNO is crucial to receiving a timing slip faster than the other guy's timing slip.

Anyone who has ridden a bike across the Kansas plains, (altitude 1200 ft.) and crossed the Great Divide in Colorado, (altitude 14,115), knows that altitude affects performance of an internal combustion engine. Altitude determines amount of air, amount of air determines amount of fuel that can be burnt efficiently, the amount of fuel that can be burnt efficiently determines horsepower. Horsepower is the premier factor needed to overcome wind resistance. Aerodynamics determine the amount of horsepower required to achieve a speed.

Not a well known fact, nevertheless a fact, is that during WWII in the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire and the Hurricanes were the premier defenders of London and other large cities. The gasoline that England refined was 86 octane. In 1938 some refineries in the U.S. were refining the 100 octane gas used in our aircraft. To make the Spitfire and Hurricane competitive with the 109 in speed, the U.S. secretly transported the 100 octane fuel to England to assist their war effort at that time. Aircraft, and particular the fighter aircraft, must perform at extreme altitude variations. The octane number is ever so important in horsepower development at higher altitudes.

Bonneville's altitude, or I should say air pressure at altitude, varies from about 3500 ft. to 6500 ft. The amount of air differential can cause as much as a 25% reduction in horsepower. A Bonneville first timer who hasn't worked with extreme altitude differentials, or the amount of air going to his finely tuned machine at his garage, is in for a surprise. Like the title of this article says, equal efforts or identical machines, don't always result in equal speeds, in fact they seldom do. A good equalizer when it comes to available oxygen, is to supercharge, turbocharge, or run fuels that take less oxygen to burn efficiently.

Three main things determine achievable speed. They are: aerodynamics (which is a wall of resistant air to a vehicle shape), horsepower (which is determined by the amount of fuel a given displacement engine can burn efficiently on a given day), and the amount of traction coefficient available on a given day to overcome the air resistance value on that same day and in real time. The main reason that so many bikes and cars perform below their potential, and below what equals have done with the basic same machinery, is not so much the particulars of the day, but the guy who has the ability to tune the particular to his advantage on the days that the particulars are favorable.

Going fast enough to break long standing existing records ain't easy. If it were easy, those long standing existing records wouldn't be long standing existing records.

Max.
 

Albervin

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Just curious. Why is this thread under Trevor's name/avatar? Surely Max can post his own threads? Is Trevor going to be assisting with technical development?
 

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Just curious. Why is this thread under Trevor's name/avatar? Surely Max can post his own threads? Is Trevor going to be assisting with technical development?
The answer would be, `No he`s not` Just passing on some info that might be of interest, anyone not interested can give it a miss.
 

Marcus Bowden

VOC Hon. Overseas Representative
VOC Member
Thats a pity Trevor,I was just about to put my name down for spanner work,always wanting to learn how to fix Vincent's,and feel/smell & taste the Bonneville atmosphere. banana shaped stream liner with CHIQUITA on the side and Harley . Racing . Department ! could command good sponsor ship if results were matched.
bananaman
 

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Thats a pity Trevor,I was just about to put my name down for spanner work,always wanting to learn how to fix Vincent's,and feel/smell & taste the Bonneville atmosphere. banana shaped stream liner with CHIQUITA on the side and Harley . Racing . Department ! could command good sponsor ship if results were matched.
bananaman
But Bonneville`s a STRAIGHT course !
 

Marcus Bowden

VOC Hon. Overseas Representative
VOC Member
So is a banana Straight until "WE" (engineers) put the bends in them, remind me to tell you how we do it some time, it's all done on board a banana boat.
bananaman
 
D

Deleted member 1085

Guest
Withe the length of some of the modern ship/boat/vessels, could almost run a spring on them?
 
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