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[Land-speed] Worlds Fastest Sunbeam - The Rest of the Story,

To: tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: [Land-speed] Worlds Fastest Sunbeam - The Rest of the Story,
From: Larry Mayfield <drmayf@mayfco.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 09:52:27 -0700
  Basking in the glory... well, not really, lol.  But I am proud of what 
we did. Friday was a lazy day with lots of schmoozing with everybody 
because we had previously been busy.  Chatted with some Ferrari folk who 
had brought the wrecked and repaired one (which model  was that?) . 
Their wheels cost more than my entire operation, lol. They jad a killer 
tow truck for the trailer. COE Chevy or GMC circa 1953 or so, with an 
added crew cab section. They had added a twin turbo setup and had 
indicated that they were making around 815 hp. Other than that, they 
were not very friendly or chatty, so we wandered back to our pit.  They 
weren't impressed by the Sunbeam at all and they were in pout engine 
class and body class.  Bob Hokanson called and came down to out pit and 
filled in for Funbeam Chuck who had left the night before. He had places 
to go and country to see. And a football game to watch.  We wandered 
down to the starting line and met some of the people I know. Scott 
Guthrie was there, I think he signle handedly populated the ECTA bike 
record book, lol.  He is a cool guy an dI always like chatting with 
him.  Ran into Rex Svoda (Please forgive me for mispelling this) and Tom 
Burkland. Both are heores of mine. They were herding the SAAB that has 
teh ginormous Keith Black (?) fuel burning hemi  up the long course 
parking lot commonly called the prestaging line.  After chatting with 
everyone I knew we wandered back to the pit and lazily loaded the 
trailer and stuffed the car in. BOB got in the car and drove it into the 
trailer as I ran the winch. Cool.  He helped tie it all down and  when 
the dust had settled he begged hour forgiveness and returned to his wife 
Bev who was in Salt Lake City.  Thanks a lot Bob! I needed help and you 
gave generously!  The trailer was et to go and we went back to the 
hotel. We had been having martinis that Monte Wolfe provided every 
evening so we grabbed him and Dale and we headed out to Monte's favorite 
steak house for a dinner treat on us. He and Dale kept us sane the whole 
time and for that I say thanks! We had a grest supper and then it was 
off to bed.

Saturday morning we got up, settled with the hotel (1000 dollars less 
that the same number of nights last year at speed week, same hotel).  
and headed for the Salt Flats Cafe at teh truck stop. We alwasy try and 
have one meal there every meet. Marcello, the jolly Mexican, always 
treats everyone well. We decide to go crazy and have biscuits and gravy, 
with a couple of eggs on the side, lol. Delicious!  Out to the course, 
hooked up and ready to go. Our friend and pit mate next door, was towing 
out for another go at getting into impound on a 308 record.  Not sure 
how that went as we left shortly there after and headed out and home. 
Not an issue until we got to Ely. Pulled into the Shell station at the 
junction of US 6 and US 93, got the rig into fuel position, got out to 
kick the tires and holy crap! the middle tire on the drivers side of the 
trailer was in tatters. Completely destroyed.  I finished fueling and 
moved the truck to a parking area and we changed that tire. Then I 
looked at the last tire on that side and it was failing also. Tread 
separation.  So, we had to find two replacement tires before we could 
set off again. Took a couple of hours before we were under way again. 
But I wasn't headed from Ely to Tonopah with out a spare and that other 
tire replaced.  No further incidents along the way however.  The tires 
that were on teh trailer when I purchased new, are Maxxis 8008. I have 
so far replaced most of them. They will go no further on this trailer! I 
will get some good commercial bias belted tires hopefully for respected 
manufacturers for future towing. No more of these tires. JUNK.

I want to thanks some of the folk who helped immensely on this project. 
Especially in the engine management area.  Those would be Mike Glover 
for designing, fabricating and making work the TWEECER!  You da man! I 
hope I now have for sure the fastest tweecer in all the world. Anybody 
had theirs go faster for a timed mile? Then there was Clint Garrity, I 
use BE and EA to help me understand what is going on in the A9P and 
Tweecer. I need to chat with both of you off list because of this lack 
of data logging.  I need to know how to prevent this from happening 
again.  Never the less, without the both of you, this project wold have 
died in still birth. So, you have my undying thanks! And should we meet, 
beers is definitely on me! Supper too! I know there were a zillion folk 
who corresponded and helped and commented on the myriad questions I 
posed and to all of you, I also say many many thanks. I'll have more 
questions in the future, I promise you!

Lastly but certainly not least, is Dan Nicoson. Dan has been kinda my 
silent partner and sounding board during all of this. He has kept me on 
the straight and narrow and driving in the right direction to get it 
done.  One day I will be headed to Round Rock to take him and his wife 
to their favorite restaurant just as I did for the on site crew.

One last guy... When I first started to make the engine run way back in 
2005, a fellow by the name of Ernie Groce drove over from Las Vegas and 
showed me how to make the tweecer work and how to data log.  Ernie now 
lives in the SLC area, but he is another of those that it wouldn't have 
worked without. Thanks, Ernie...

So, to all unnamed folk, I thank you humbly. I would not have happened 
without you.

mayf
worlds fastest Sunbeam, 204.912 mph, 210.7 exit speed.
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