Reno '21 Unlimited News

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

Fair point. I just went back and looked at Dreadnought's qualifying and Sunday speeds since '85. Its qualified at 450+ 6 times, the fastest being 459 in 08, but they DNF'd the week. They have finished at greater than 450 in 05, 06 and in 09 their finishing speed on Saturday was 459, Sunday was slower.

Since 85 Dreadnought has qualified 440+ 19 times, and finished on Sunday 11 times (at 440+.)

So, someone needs to be able to run 460 to seal the deal. 450 might do it, but I think the finish will be one hell of a close finish depending on who is flying Dreadnought.

Looking at Czech Mate's speeds since 06, its qualified greater than 440 7 times, the fastest was 466 in '09, and finished faster than 440 4 times, the fastest being 464 in '09. ('13 on Saturday they ran 462, finished at 455 on Sunday.) So, Czech Mate might not even be an easy win against Dreadnaught.

An interesting note, since 06, the most racers that qualified greater than 440 was 7, in 07 and 11. Out of those 7 in 07, only 3 finished at speeds faster than 440. In the 11 years from 06 to 17, only 3 aircraft finished the Sunday race at greater than 440 7 times, with '09 finishing 5 out of 6 of the 440+ qualifiers at 440+. 2013 had 4 of the 6 do it.

Will

[Guest]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

Fair point. I just went back and looked at Dreadnought's qualifying and Sunday speeds since '85. Its qualified at 450+ 6 times, the fastest being 459 in 08, but they DNF'd the week. They have finished at greater than 450 in 05, 06 and in 09 their finishing speed on Saturday was 459, Sunday was slower.

Since 85 Dreadnought has qualified 440+ 19 times, and finished on Sunday 11 times (at 440+.)

So, someone needs to be able to run 460 to seal the deal. 450 might do it, but I think the finish will be one hell of a close finish depending on who is flying Dreadnought.

Looking at Czech Mate's speeds since 06, its qualified greater than 440 7 times, the fastest was 466 in '09, and finished faster than 440 4 times, the fastest being 464 in '09. ('13 on Saturday they ran 462, finished at 455 on Sunday.) So, Czech Mate might not even be an easy win against Dreadnaught.

An interesting note, since 06, the most racers that qualified greater than 440 was 7, in 07 and 11. Out of those 7 in 07, only 3 finished at speeds faster than 440. In the 11 years from 06 to 17, only 3 aircraft finished the Sunday race at greater than 440 7 times, with '09 finishing 5 out of 6 of the 440+ qualifiers at 440+. 2013 had 4 of the 6 do it.

Will

I started to look at these on the RARA site but fairly quickly abandoned that effort! Good Work, Will!

[Plane Nuts]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

I heard that Dreadnaught when went to short tail also went to a smaller prop. That will lose some speed.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

Its kinda interesting when you stop and think that the only aircraft to finish faster than 470 in the past 20 years have been Dago Red, Rare Bear, September Fury, Strega and Voodoo. I'll add Ridge Runner III in as a side note since they were 3rd in the 09 Saturday race at 477. Tsunami is the only other racer to run greater than 470.

7 aircraft in the history of Reno have run faster than 470 mph. That is it. One crashed and was destroyed, but will fly again, one is apart waiting for a reason to return, one has been converted to a TF, the other 4 are still complete and could be raced if the owners wanted to. To run 470, you are in an elite group. It sort of puts just how fast those laps are into perspective.

Will

[Guest]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

Question:

How important is speed in the context of competition.

By that I mean, would you prefer two UNL's competing above 470+mph with every one else in the dust, or would you prefer 4-5 UNL hammering at each other at 450mph?

Preference....out and out speed that smokes the competition or competition that is out and out competitive?

And yeah...I get it...we'd all want 4-5 470+mph banging on each other but we all know...that's not going to happen.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

A handful of racers running 480+ would be cool, but to the naked eye, can the average person tell 480 from 450 without the announcers saying something? Sure there are people sitting there with a stopwatch, but I don't think I could tell if I didn't know what a wound out Merlin sounded like. I'd be totally happy with a group running in the 450s. There have been a lot of years were the top speeds on Sunday were 460 or less, for the Gold. I'd be thrilled to see Dreadnought, Czech Mate, Miss A, and say, a Super stock Grim Reaper running in the 450s. Get Spirit of Texas back to run with Sawbones, with whoever else bumps up from Silver should they want to in order to fill out the field.

I think it would be every bit as entertaining as Voodoo, Strega, Rare Bear, all running 490+. No the mega WOW factor isn't there at 450, but still, 450 isn't slow. Its not as fast as 490, but when was the last time you saw anything going an average speed of 450 mph 70 feet off the deck racing something else?

Will

[wadeh]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

A handful of racers running 480+ would be cool, but to the naked eye, can the average person tell 480 from 450 without the announcers saying something?

I probably couldn't see it, but I'm pretty sure that I could hear it.

As for the question, I would rather see 5 legitimate contenders and a close race, than a parade with the leader at 480mph.

Also, I could be completely wrong, but I believe that a very close field would tend to lead to faster times in future years. With a bunch of close airplanes, there is probably more incentive to push for a bit more speed. With one or two really fast planes, the gap may be too big for people to invest in incremental improvements, since it wouldn't likely lead to a win.

[Fence Sence]

Re: Reno '21 Unlimited News

I?d like to think I could see the difference between 490 and 450, but I could for sure hear it. It is certainly rarified air. I?d love to see 4-5 racers hunting Dread. Without the upper crust out there battling the realm of survival of 470+, it?s the next best thing we could possibly see. I?m happy to watch any laps by anything though.