It just so happens that my wife and I helped pick up glass from that
crash for about an hour. I think the major problem with that car was
that the driver viewed himself as a pro. A little more caution might
have avoided the incident. Just another case of focus on horsepower and
lack of understanding of the dynamics of "flight on the ground". It
seems we all have to learn the hard way.
I agree John. If the car does spin, the flaps will keep it on the
ground, but will do nothing to make the car more stable. I am not even
sure that the roof rails are worth the effort. We are back to the
discussion of the center of gravity, and center of pressure. Arrows do
fly straight.
Tom
John Beckett wrote:
>
> I don't believe that roof flaps will make the car any more controlable. All
> they do is spoil the air traveling over the car and therefore help keep it
> from going airborn. Roof flaps won't stop a spin just make it a safer trip
> around, and around, and....
>
> John Beckett
>
> At 03:54 PM 7/1/99 -0400, Ed Van Scoy wrote:
> >Funny you should mention this incident as it seems to come up often (as
> >an example). This happened at the 9th WOS, Sept 94. I spent nearly 2
> >days in line next to this car. It was thr Car & Driver Firebird built by
> >John Lingenfelter as a magazine project to break the C/GALT record. Salt
> >conditions were lousy and wind shut the show down early on the first
> >day. The 'bird was driven by Csaba Csere, the crew came from John's shop
> >and the checks were written by Car & Driver. The first pass (supposed
> >to be a licensing pass) was 199 and the car was all over the place.
> >John lowered the car 1" and added ballast to the REAR (don't get ahead
> >of me here........) The next pass, Csere lost it to a slow pendulum that
> >turned ugly with a couple of snaps, and then got airborn, comming down
> >on the driver's side. He hit the 3 mile clock and stopped it at 205.
> >The lesson some USFRA tech inspectors use from this is that an arrow
> >just won't fly backwards. The weight was not forward of the center of
> >pressure on this car. Afterwards John said the car would be re-built
> >woth NASCAR style roof flaps to make spins more controllable. This makes
> >sense to me, has anybody ever tried it on salt? Is it even legal?
> >P.S. I didn't exactly have a steller year there myself; 2 rods through
> >the pan between the 2 & 3 sent 8 qts of oil onto my header. The ensuing
> >fire got me a car wash compliments of the Shearer's and the USFRA rescue
> >crew. Are you SURE we do this for fun???????
> >Ed
> >
> >
> >Ferguson, Darrell wrote:
> >>
> >> A while back I found a neat little video clip with a written naritive on
> the
> >> Motor Trend web page. It' s called "Full Gainer in a Firebird". Similar to
> >> what you expirienced at El Mirage, As the car drifted to the left, he kept
> >> the power on and corrected to the right. He continued to correct to the
> >> right until he realized it wasn't working. At this point the driver let
> off,
> >> which loaded the front end and the car immediately went hard right, forcing
> >> the car to roll (pretty violently). I haven't driven at the salt yet, and
> >> look forward to it in august. There is one thing I will bring from my years
> >> of drag racing to the salt- It's better to abort the run, and save your car
> >> for another day than press a bad situation hoping it will get better.
> >>
> >> Darrell Ferguson
> >> BLACK RADON ENGINEERING
> >> # 939 BBFALT
> >> http://my.cybersoup.com/blackradon
> >>
> >> > -----Original Message-----
> >> > From: V4GR@aol.com [SMTP:V4GR@aol.com]
> >> > Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 6:35 PM
> >> > To: bbutters@dmi.net; kturk@ala.net; land-speed@autox.team.net;
> >> > johnbeck@blueridge.cc.nc.us
> >> > Subject: Re: Spins
> >> >
> >> > I have never spun, but I came close one time in my 32 which was a pretty
> >> > slow
> >> > car. As I was motoring down the El Mirage course I noticed I was
> >> > getting
> >> > closer to the left side line. I steered right but the car still kept
> >> > getting
> >> > closer to the left side line. I continued to apply pressure toward the
> >> > right.
> >> > All I wanted was to make it to the finish line. As I kept moving left I
> >> > realized I was going to run over the lights. They had made it clear that
> >> > this
> >> > was a bad thing. So I lifted all at once, the car jerked around to the
> >> > right
> >> > and than straightened out and went through the lights at 119. You don't
> >> > need
> >> > to be fast to be dumb.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Harry Hoffman and Charlie Markley were watching the run and
> >> > commented that they did not think I would save it. I neglected to mention
> >> > that it was divine intervention and not me that straightened the car.
> >> >
> >> > The point here is, If the
> >> > car
> >> > is not going where you are steering it, lift slowly. If you can do this
> >> > when
> >> > you can see the finish line you are a better man than I. Rich Fox
> >
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