Keith, List
I always thought ladder bars were supposed to do exactly what you
described. They prevent the rear end from winding up as you accelerate by
applying that twisting force to the bars. When the bars get loaded under
acceleration they try to lift the front of the car, which transfers more
weight to the rear. Seems like a win/win situation to me. Only draw back
might be loss of steering when you don't have the front tires on the ground.
Never a problem on the salt, but it would be at Maxton where traction is
plentiful.
No takers on the rotary engine question. I guess I really am all alone
out here. Got two engines running for my race partners this weekend, one
all new engine in an RX7 that we just built and one that was just in for
repairs out of a Rotary Pick-up. The guy with the REPU (Rotary Engined
Pick-Up) is very interested in the ECTA and will probably drive the truck
out to Maxton this season and see what it'll do. It's a blast to drive, but
with nearly open exhaust it sounds like a Cesna buzzing the neighborhood
when he's cruising by.
I have an interesting research project for anyone who is up on land-speed
trivia. I'm trying to get some details on any/all records currently held by
rotary powered vehicles, and any past (ancient history) records set by
Datsun 510's. I have some old pictures from the '71 and '72 Bonneville
Nationals of Pete Barker running a 510 (#510) in H/Pro, but I don't know if
he or anyone else had pushed a 510 faster than his 136.89 MPH record.
Anybody ever set up a data base of information that goes that far back? Any
help would be appreciated.
Chuck Rothfuss
Yup, it's a rotary engined 510
ECTA
At 07:09 PM 2/20/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Well I finally got the rear end sorted out and bolted in... took her out
>for a quick pass down a deserted street... just shifted to second and shut
>it down...
>
>The semi Ladder bar, semi elliptic leaf, set up is semi functioning...
>
>actually seems to lift the car up under hard acceleration.... Hmmm just
>what I wanted... must be a mistake...or poor engineering....
>
>took the rear end back out today to paint everything and to put new seals
>in the housing....of course I wanted to see the bearings also.... and
>following Joe's advice I installed a bung with a filler cap .... neat
>piece... you can check the gears and not pull the rear end apart... oh yeah
>and you can put fluids in it ... hmmm my what a shock...
>
>Take care...
>
>Keith Turk
>Austin Healey 100 / Bugeye / Box Sprite / Bonneville Land Speed Racer
>Camaro ( D Gas Altered )
>
>
>
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