Oh yea, I am very much aware of the fire and oil problem with FED but thank
GOD I never had to test my fire suit. Mike did build a short car, probably not
even 200". And had little seat time in it. It seems to me that he was almost
in the middle between the axles probably had only 6 or 8 feet from him to the
front axle. He was a very experienced driver in gas and I think, he ran A/F
also. Something turned him off about driving the new "rear engine" car and he
quit racing. Like I said, I never drove one but would if I could.
John Backus
----- Original Message -----
From: Higginbotham Land Speed Racing
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2001 3:41 PM
To: john backus; Tom Neimeyer; landspeedracer; land-speed
Subject: Re: Wheelbase & Driver Relationships yet again
John,
Just one more comment about "rear" engines.....if you have ever had an
engine explosion accompanied by fire in a "front" engined car, you know the
main advantage for having the engine behind you!
How long was the wheelbase on your friends car? And where was the cockpit?
I'm curious because while I don't recall having trouble sensing drift in
any of my "rear" engined, over 200" cars (including a 300" Alky car), your
friend may have been sitting right up front? Or didn't have enough body in
front of him to help with the alignment problem. Or....didn't have enough
seat time in the new ride?
My 180" front engined car didn't drift a lot due to not enough power but
did oil me down some.....
Skip
At 09:35 AM 12/29/01 +0000, john backus wrote:
>OK, my only comment is that a fellow racer and friend built one of those
>newfangled "rear engined" dragsters. This meant that only the driver was
moved
>to in front of the engine, the drivetrain stayed the same. He only made a
few
>passes in it and sold it. Said it scared the hell out of him, he"couldn't
tell
>which way it was going". I never drove one of those newfangled front driver
>types so I can't give any personal data. I can say that from the back I
could
>see and feel everything that was going on even though parts of the engine
were
>directly in front of me- I just watched the side/s of the track, 'got
>especially tricky at night with the flames from the headers. And Pork-Pie,
the
>frame was a real flexible 200"wb, this helped keep the front wheels on the
>ground some of the time and helped with weight transfer--help me here Joe.
It
>also helped when you pulled the chute, the frame would flex and make the pan
>hit the track to help slow you down. :>)
>
>Just a few observations from an old dragster driver
>ps; the pan had a 1/2" skid plate on it
>John Backus
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/wilma/land-speed
|