ECTA Guys, Catch Up To THIS!

[pdub]

Getting anxious to run into BS buddies!

Stude found the best spot, right there at the timing trailer. If you want to see them go fast. Park in the grass and just watch. After you get tired of dragging though the pits, there's a lot to see and lots of great people to meet. The starting line is cool too. But they go out of sight real quick, the fast ones.

Please take photos and post them here.

[silver_bullet]

Stude, Dan, and whoever's listening, Tammy and I are going to be there to spectate and get a taste of this... Hotel reservations made and alternate plans are ready in case of inclement weather... It's a darned shame that Pdub and SU won't be able to make it! We will be driving the Bullet, a 2001 Grand Prix , Silver with tinted windows, and Iowa Plates.... Getting anxious to run into BS buddies!

[pdub]

Guys, I am SO done in. I hired a man today to cut our grass. Tomorrow I'll try that new curbside pickup thing they've got going at a local grocery store. If I can get me there at noon in the car, that's the appointment time I chose on the computer.

It's been a good run, and a whole lot of fun. I have no regrets whatsoever. Time runs out on everyone eventually.

[DanStokes]

One of my not-so-bright pals once asked how big the grandstands were on the salt..... But, yes - it's a spectator sport... on a grand scale. Just like a big road course, you only see a small part of the racing surface - but if you sit long enough, you can plenty of the salt circus that is Bonneville. And, Peewee - you need to GO, if only for one day. Sit in an air conditioned car all day if you have to, but GO. I promise you, you will never regret being there. It's like visiting another world.

I tell people that's it's as close to being on another planet as you can get and still be on this one. And the after-meet activities in Wendover and West Wendover is a trip, too even if you don't gamble (I don't). The car show alone is worth it.

Dan

[studemax]

One of my not-so-bright pals once asked how big the grandstands were on the salt..... But, yes - it's a spectator sport... on a grand scale. Just like a big road course, you only see a small part of the racing surface - but if you sit long enough, you can plenty of the salt circus that is Bonneville. And, Peewee - you need to GO, if only for one day. Sit in an air conditioned car all day if you have to, but GO. I promise you, you will never regret being there. It's like visiting another world.

[pdub]

I think after a lot of thought and a little bit of experience at it, land speed may very WELL be a spectator sport after all. I at first thought it wasn't, I thought it was a total participant sport. We were sitting there on the tailgate of Stude's truck in Arkansas, engaged in conversation near the time trap. But when a car was coming by, I had to turn my head and look at that car going by so fast. All I could say was, "Dang that's fun." Because I'd been out there on that same pavement minutes before that.

But it's still experience-limited. Raw spectators, like maybe the Blytheville locals, all they know is that cars are going fast. Really darned fast. They have no clue what it actually takes to do that, to go that fast, how much time and effort and money is invested beforehand. That's part of what I wanted to convey on behalf of ECTA, but it appears right now they don't need my help after all. I'm not at all upset about it, they simply didn't need my help and I was trying to force myself upon them anyhow, all my own idea. There's not much I could do right now anyhow. I'm just glad I went out there and did it as a part of my life experiences.

I'd recommend it. But it's based on finance. And look at the speed, it's exponential. To go twice as fast you may need 12 times as much money put into it.

[studemax]

FIA records are still run that way (at least the last I heard)

Yes, that's the way the frogs insist on doing it.

[DanStokes]

Runs with wind speed at 15 MPH or above don't count as a record - they shut down the track. Before it became logistically impossible SCTA used to turn the track around and do the return runs within an hour and in the opposite direction. FIA records are still run that way (at least the last I heard). For Speed Week, the return runs are done the first thing the following morning followed by the days racing. My boss in Impound leads the pack of returning record-eligible cars down to the start line early in the morning.

Dan

[RockJustRock]

Wow, I completely forgot the return runs. And of course that's not possible on an airstrip.

[pdub]

Exactly. Air becomes a fluid. That's why several scale model tests of some aircraft and vehicles are done in a water tank with a current so full speed (and pressure) can be calculated without danger.

In July of last year, they didn't have anybody working the shutdown area so I was not alerted of it...but I'd had enough for a little while so I pulled into the pit area just to see how Dan Stokes was doing working on Truck's brakes. We talked a little and THEN I saw it - all of Red's windshield weatherstripping blown off onto his roof. There are some serious forces at play when playing with serious speed. Yeah, this event is over for me, that time.

I should have taken that to be an ominous sign, but I had to tempt fate one more time. Stude, thanks again for being there when you were. That was a great day at the track, my last one ever. What a great way to go out. Dang, that was fun.

[studemax]

Air compression becomes the "wall" you're struggling against.

Exactly. Air becomes a fluid. That's why several scale model tests of some aircraft and vehicles are done in a water tank with a current so full speed (and pressure) can be calculated without danger.

[pdub]

Makes me wonder why tailwinds aren't factored in on LSR. Doesn't the wind blow in Wendover?

I think that I believe that some of the data I've seen from Bonneville does include windspeed direction and velocity for each run, down there and then back in the other direction. In that case it's the average of both runs that determines a "record." But it's still based on absolute land speed in the time trap. The wind is very much a part of the game when you're running your ride at the max, as fast as it will possibly go. Air is a MFer when you get very much over about 130. Air compression becomes the "wall" you're struggling against.

[studemax]

Makes me wonder why tailwinds aren't factored in on LSR. Doesn't the wind blow in Wendover?

They do. Down run on one day, return run on the second day to set the record.

But usually, they don't run once the wind gets over 5MPH because at big speeds, a little side pressure can upset the vehicle.

[RockJustRock]

Makes me wonder why tailwinds aren't factored in on LSR. Doesn't the wind blow in Wendover?

[pdub]

Also, Peewee..... Did you notice they ran with a TAILWIND?

Hell no, of course I didn't notice. That Friday before you got there in Arkansas on that Saturday, I made run after run after run, wearing Red OUT. Why in the world can't I get to 150? I never looked at the wind sock. I was just too excited to be there and to be doing it. I never looked at the wind sock on Friday. I forgot to.