Dave,
Just goes to show what age and time will do with your memory. I thought
sure he said Bill Smith but obviously I have forgotten by now. Interesting
story.
Sorry to hear about your Dad.
Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marge and/or Dave Thomssen" <mdthom@radiks.net>
To: "Land-speed Racers" <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 8:55 AM
Subject: Spirit of the salt and Don Garlits
> Paul
>
> ARDUN Doug got it right. This is a long story and from a technical
> perspective quite interesting.
>
> Rich Venza (Rod'n Race Fiberglass) got Don interested in Bonneville and
Don
> financed the building of Swamp Rat 33 in Lincoln, Nebraska. I did the
> general design and Jim Shuman (restorer of all Speedway Motor's engines in
> the Speedway museum) built the car. I had a blown ARDUN, a blown
flathead,
> and an unblown flathead I had built and run in various cars at Bonneville.
> The engines all ran on gasoline, even in the fuel classes. We first ran in
> 1988. The unblown flathead ran 199 mph out the back door, and the blown
> flathead ran 220 on the down leg of Don's record run. The blown ARDUN
took
> longer to figure out, and it ran about like the blown flathead. We also
> managed to get Don Kehr into the 200 MPH club after years of trying. By
> 1990 (look it up in the record book) my son Tim set the blown ARDUN fuel
and
> gas records (both on gas) with a top run of 232. I improved the ARDUN so
> much over that winter that I spun out in 1991trying for the 200MPH club
and
> crashed the car.(I broke a finger). E.J. Kawaslki rebuilt the car and
drove
> it once at Muroc and once at Bonneville. The car is now with Big Daddy.
>
> The interesting technical story is what frontal area will do for you. Jack
> Costella really got it right and took away our flathead record. But, for
a
> few years I owned the world's fastest flathead (single engine car) and the
> world's fastest ARDUN (it still is), all because of the smallest frontal
> area we could build around the profile of the blown ARDUN. For comparison:
> the unblown flathead ran 131 in my street roadster, 167 in Nate Sabel's
> lakester, 181 in Tommy Thompson's Original Goldenrod streamliner (full
width
> car) and the 199 in the narrow Swamp Rat. The blown flathead ran 143 in
my
> street roadster (current record), 196 in the Goldenrod and the 220 in the
> Swamp Rat. The Blown ARDUN has been 166 in my roadster (without fenders)
> 155 (with fenders) and the 232 in the Swamp Rat. The unblown ARDUN ran
192
> one way in the Goldenrod, and as ARDUN Doug mentioned, swapped records
with
> him at a one-way of 155. Note also what lack of traction does to you.
The
> 155 both blown and unblown in the roadster is because the blown motor was
> spinning the tires so much that 155 was as fast as I could go, not to
> mention how it was a handful to drive with all that fishtailing. Same
thing
> happened to me in the Swamp Rat but when a round thing gets sideways at
200
> the wind picks up about 5 feet into the air. That's what a rudder is for
> and I wish we had one then.
>
> I hope this encourages somebody to build a new streamliner. There is only
> one place to run one: Bonneville. But what a ride!
>
> Dave Thomssen
> The Hayseed
> Lincoln NE
>
> PS I've been a lurker lately because of virus trouble and the death of my
> dad (the original Hayseed).
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