2nd HOBBY

[Oldsalt]

This is my most expensive hobby. Fortunately it is only used once a year at the Bonneville Salt Flat. It's a 53 Studebaker with a 500 inch bowtie engine. The class is A/GCC. "A" is 500 cubic inches. "G" is for gas [if it ran alcohol it would be an "F" for fuel]. The "CC" is for Competition Coupe. It has two transmissions and no radiator. Has 20 pounds of fire retardent on board and ya gotta wear a Hans device to drive it. I have never driven the car. Burns more than 3-1/2 gallons of 118 octane fuel in it's five mile run. My eldest son drives it. The best exit speed [at the end of the five miles was 251mph. This car is kinda dangerous.

If you wish to see the car being built and etc. go to the website at Salt Flat Studebaker and click Original Construction to start.

Another facet of my car hobby is my youngerst sons pro-street/drag car that I built for him when he was in high school. I'll get some pics of it and post them pretty soon.

 

[NewAge]

Oldsalt, is that where your username comes from, I thought that maybe you were a sailor or something. All I can say is Wow! That thing rules! The Batmobile has nothing on you :thumbsup:

 

[Oldsalt]

This is another part of my car hobby. This one is sorta a street machine but is occtionally taken to the strip. The pictured 71 Camaro project was completed 10 years ago for my youngest son when he was in high school. There was no question that it was the quickest kids car in this town. Has a Baccus built 502 ci with alum. rectanular port heads, alum. radiator, 2-1/8 inch headders, 3 inch exhaust system, MSD ignition, 3600 rpm high stall converter and Turbo 400 trans with a Hughes Trans Brake. The rear axle is a narrowed 12 bolt with Dutchman axles. It's fitted with an ARP Air Locker. I moved the rear springs inboard about 4 inches on each side and installed sub-frame connectors and solid body mounts. The Drive shaft is by Mark Williams. The brakes are all Wellwood disk with a Mopar master. Has a 10 gal. alum. fuel cell with 150 gpm Holley pump. No air conditioning, no power brakes, no power steering. The interior and dash are restored. The only glass not replaced was the rear glass. The front fender emblems that say 502 [see picture] were programed and made on our CNC mill. He never got in trouble with the car. This spring the engine will be tore down and the compression ratio raised to 14 to 1 so that a fatter roller cam can effectively be used. He doesn't drive it much so the price for race fuel won't be too bad. Cars have been a long standing hobby for me. The latest car project is making a Rat Rod out of a 50 Studebaker. I attached a picture of the ugly car, so ugly you gotta love it. It will be a convertable.

 

[Tom S.]

I like to race motorcycles. And ride dirt bikes. And street bikes. And bicycles. Anything w/2 wheels is good. Supermoto and flat track are especially fun. A dirt bike w/slicks is just howlingly good fun. First time I dragged a footpeg on my dirt bike I just about fell off laughing. :thumbsup: Oh, I really like Shoe's Z1, too.

 

[Oldsalt]

Tom S

I love that Ducati, damn nice machine!

 

[shoe]

Oh, I really like Shoe's Z1, too.

It is a 79 KZ750 twin ,, But Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[Tom S.]

Tom S

I love that Ducati, damn nice machine!

Thank you. Not as amazing as your toys, but still fun. I bought it in '84 on a used car lot in Portland. I set it up for street and trail before the term "dual sport" was coined, and then decided it would make a good flat tracker. Earned a top 10 overall for my age class in combined results for short track, TT and half-mile at the '88 AMA amateur natls in my first full year of racing. Here's the current bad news, but it will run again. Avoid "economy-grade" connecting rods!

 

[Oldsalt]

When Ducati's were the really hot scrambler set-up, especially before the Bultaco/Montesa came out, a friend of mine had a dealership. He was an ex tool and die maker. He would remove the hair pin valve springs and install dual coils. The red line was around 13,500. I would weld up the wedge on the top of an unmachined Wiseco piston to get an outragious compression ratio. He'd finish machine the piston and fire the motor once to make sure the ignition worked and then put it on the trailer. No trips up and down the alley because there was very little time on even a fresh engine. No Spanish bike could hold a line with his Ducatis which really came as a shock to some folks. Constantly money was being put up to protest the displacement. I suppose I'm just bench racing, but them days are fun to recall.

 

[miked]

that is a big motor for 45 hp and by the way salt how fast is that salt flat car????

 

[Tom S.]

My bike's a '72 450RT. That was pretty much the end of the line for Ducati singles. It's a desmo, but also has the hairpin valve springs. You don't need valve springs w/a desmo, but they put them in to assure complete closure even if you didn't maintain it very well. We took 'em out on this bike and just use the desmo hardware. The desmo part works just fine if it's set up carefully. It had a Wiseco piston, but will get an Arias piston and a Carillo rod on the rebuild plus a new barrel, two new valves and welded cases where damaged. That broken rod flailed like a saw blade. It has a 1mm overbore, stock dirt bike cam, 32mm DelOrto carb and total loss ignition. We dyno'ed it one time, about 40 hp at 8,000 rpm, and a torque number that was slightly higher than that. It makes good grunt. Problem is, this engine design was about 20 years old by '72, and based on an engine that started out at 160cc, I think. The bottom end, clutch and transmission were never developed much beyond then, and really aren't happy w/the big 450cc displacement they'd achieved by the time this bike was produced.

 

[Oldsalt]

that is a big motor for 45 hp and by the way salt how fast is that salt flat car????

The fastest was last August at Speedweek 2008. Our first and only run last year. It was a 'plug run' to see what if we were close to haveing a cylinder running lean. [You can get away with a lot error with a drag motor, they only run a few seconds, but this one has to run 5 miles at full song]. The 'exit speed' at the 5 mile trap was 251 and change. Turned out our guessing on jet sizes was fairly good but both front tires [rated for 300mph] started to delaminate. See pic. Fortunately nether blew or there'd been hell to pay. So we put it back on the trailer.

 

[Tom S.]

Is blistering common? Who makes the tires? Do they have a rep on site at the event? Do you fill the tires w/air or nitrogen or...? How much pressure? Do you check tire temps? I suppose proper alignment is crucial at those speeds. Hope this isn't too many questions. Thx!

 

[Oldsalt]

Tom S.
Failure is not common. Hitting a small piece of junk that fell off some idiot's car on a previous run is the most common, but does not apply in this case. This was entirely my fault. The tires are by Good Year, special 300 MPH rated. I don't believe they have a rep at the event because land speed cars are small potatoes in the world of racing. We use air to fill the tires because the run is only 5 miles which is not sufficient time for nitrogen to be benificial in cooling through the rim. Although we have the instruments to check tire temps [from our old circle track days] it is not done. The tire pressure in these tires was 70PSI. The front axle is a beam that was setup and welded on a special fixture. The fixture was made useing very accurite machinest tools and a large precision angle plate. There is no camber, the wheels have a tiny bit of toe in [1/8" at 48" from spindles]. The castor is 9 degrees. All parts in the front end are as close to zero lash as I can get. Even the rack and pinion unit has been reworked to eliminate any slop. The tires are ground exactly round, useing a special machine that attaches to the car, to true the tires when mounted on the car. The tires are not used to support the car when it is being trasported on the trailer to Utah, the car rests on wooden beams so the tires can't get flat spots and the bearings can't be damaged by "truddle". The problem is most likely overload. Also, and this is important if we are to eliminate the chance of future failure, a LOT of downforce is generated by the upper surface of the body. This was the first time we used tires this small in diameter and although they had a load rateing that appeared [lol] to be adaquate they had less safety margin than the larger diameter tires that they replaced. The smaller tires were purchased [>$400 ea.] for the 2008 meet because of clearance issues between the top of the tires and the fiberglass nose. The larger diameter tires are back on the car and the fiberglass nose will be altered to reduce the downforce. Wind tunnel testing would be nice but I don't want to sell my house to pay for it. Tom, when it's about mini bikes and cars you can never ask too many questions!