Dr. Mayfield, I think this data IS interesting and I hope the real
veterans who know will respond to it. If a novice may be allowed to
speculate, several things come to mind.
It is interesting that the cars keep increasing speed to five miles, the
last few percentage points that is, it suggests that traction is really
a problem factor on the Salt Flats and it takes a real good feel to get
the last few mph out of the car. And the variability of traction on
different parts of the course, and changes during the day, may introduce
so many variables that nobody can control all of them to get consistent
perfect runs.
Why cars turn out in such large numbers, the owners know, some
malfunction may have arisen, but we have been told that some people cut
off Long Course cars after three miles because they've got all they can
out of it and want to preserve their equipment.
Three miles or five miles or longer is a long way to hold a
production-based racing engine at full power, and fuel and blowers make
it worse. Probably most people, like myself, can't or don't want to put
the money out to build something that can endure the Indy 500. A few
minutes at full power is one thing, hours is another world. I recall an
article a few years ago in the Smithsonian about a fella who thought an
aluminum BB Chevy would make a fine aircraft engine, so he started in to
develop it for that. It wasn't long before he found out that with
high-dollar racing equipment on the hot-rod market, everything broke
before long at sustained full power on the dyno, so he wound up having
to design huge-bucks super-duty everything, to begin to meet aircraft
durability standards, and I think he finally had to give up altogether.
I think the Speed Trials world is full of tremendous personal
achievements for sportsmen using production-based equipment, and always
has been. Bikes as well as cars!!!! Cheers from Ardun Bill on a rainy
day in the Great Dismal Swamp. We need the rain to keep our public
water system in good shape (using surface supplies) but despite that, I
also need to load my Vincent up and carry it to an All-British Bike
Rally at Richmond, VA tomorrow. Got a good weather forecast for
tomorrow, fortunately, hope they're right!!
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