Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Thanks for bumping your thread aerohead. I need to make myself a sticky note about that $200 bellypan idea. 
It was your story and the movie The World's Fastest Indian that got me to Bonneville. The odds are good I'll be back next year, but it will be a year or two before I could run anything. The guy my son and I went with will be back next year with two Ducatis.
What needs fixing? Swapping in the quick-change rear end? It would be a good excuse to hit a few swap meets while they're still in season. |
The mechanic has gone from:igniter,to ECM,and lately the tank-mounted fuel pump.
Besides getting her running,I want to complete the driver's side front skirt,stinger,wheel fairings,a drop-diffuser, and then attempt to make everything presentable.Lot's of block-sanding,guide coats,sanding,filling,------------------ finally some top-coats.
And that's just for the wind tunnel.
My power-to-weight is so puny that in the mile,I'll never make it to 130.
If I can't make it to 130,then I can't get to the 2-mile course of the 150-mph Club,where she'd have more of a chance to reach terminal velocity.
She's really a 'long-course' vehicle behaving as L.J.K.Setright described the Citroen CX of the 1970s.He said that the CX would just continue to accelerate given the chance,continually gaining speed as if she had no really discernible top speed.
In my dreams,I've installed the V-8, 8-speed,and guts of a Lexus flagship.She's qualified at 130,and 150,and now I have permission to run the long course reserved for the 'real' race cars.
She's lost her shocks,has rigid links,allowing 1" of ground clearance,fire-suppression system, full cage,along with the other safety gear,and OPTIMISTICALLY,1-parachute.It would be instructive.
When you consider that GM's streamlined 1993 EV-1 was 6-mph faster than a 450-bhp Dodge Viper coupe of 1996 you begin to appreciate what aero will do for velocity.
It would have been something for Burt Munro to have run the Indian at Bonneville without the 'streamliner' body as he called it in the movie.
Hoerner gave motorcycles Cd 0.90 at 60sq-ft frontal area.
The World's Fastest Indian would have been pushing Cd 0.11 if closed canopy,and under 4-sq-ft area.Literally a 'screamer.'
PS I'm having twisted thoughts about the CRX.
