Some old Reno pics

[Big_Jim]

Hint appreciated! I think I remember reading of hydroplane and/or tractor pulling Griffons that had their superchargers removed and replaced with a turbo or two.

Rolls Griffon with triple turbochargers installed. Was significantly slower and made much less power than a Griffon with a big carb and supercharger.

[Big_Jim]

Tsunami's trick prop came apart in the test cell if I remember correctly.

Before (test fitted on the airframe)...and after (in the test cell). And look at all the carbon fiber shards scattered all over the floor of the cell....it literally tore itself to tiny pieces.


.

[MRE]

There are a few sounds from Reno that I will never forget. A Mustang pulling 120 plus inches, the Bearcat with the 3 blade, and the noise Leeward's airplane made when it pitched up. I can only imagine what it sounded like when that prop blew apart.

[wingman]

There are a few sounds from Reno that I will never forget. A Mustang pulling 120 plus inches, the Bearcat with the 3 blade, and the noise Leeward's airplane made when it pitched up. I can only imagine what it sounded like when that prop blew apart.

I would add Jeannie's first big prop runaway at Reno 1982. That awesome rising howl of a Merlin destroying itself sticks in the soul...

Actually, that must have been very much what that Tsunami engine sounded like when the prop disappeared.

[Sparrow]

I will never forget when Buckwheat lost the gov on VooDoo----- the scream that Merlin made.... When Tiger was out qualifying at I would assume 34/120 and was just getting to home pylon and the engine shut off--- done, silence. (blown exhaust stack burnt off P leads) The airplane went from full tilt boogie to absolute silence. It was eerie to just hear the whistle of the airplane. And yes, the howl/screetch from the Ghost.
The best sounds like Mike said was a puffed up Merlin coming down the valley, could always hear the blower...

[wingman]

I will never forget when Buckwheat lost the gov on VooDoo----- the scream that Merlin made.... When Tiger was out qualifying at I would assume 34/120 and was just getting to home pylon and the engine shut off--- done, silence. (blown exhaust stack burnt off P leads) The airplane went from full tilt boogie to absolute silence. It was eerie to just hear the whistle of the airplane. And yes, the howl/screetch from the Ghost.
The best sounds like Mike said was a puffed up Merlin coming down the valley, could always hear the blower...

Some years I went out to Pylon 8 on Sunday for the Gold. It was not a popular spot -- the racers were going very fast,were backlit, and right overhead. Crappy shooting, but the sound made the photography pretty irrelevant. A full house Merlin or 3 blade Bearcat 200 feet overhead did get one's attention. I went for the sound.

This was 2009.

[Sparrow]

The ol' girl was haulin ass!! Dave Cornell tracked me down after that race and said "What in the hell did you do to that airplane?"

[wingman]

She made lovely music all week...

[AE88]

I always liked how the fast Mustangs would sound coming down the valley of speed when the wind was out of the northeast- there was a specific howl that they made before you heard anything else. And it wasn't noticeable with the wind in any other direction. Not sure what it was exactly but I like to think it is what the carb intake would sound like if you could isolate it.

[Sparrow]

I always thought it was the sound of the blower, maybe it did emmanate FWD out of the intake trunk. At race RPM it was turning 21800 to 22K on a 10" & 12" wheel...

Like you say, it was just down the valley, when they pulled the corner it was gone to the prop & exhaust noise.

[Sparrow]

On the note of what the future could bring, we do have Andy Findley's unlimited project. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag here, but we've already seen some of the development on prop design there.

Would that be the one covered in several years of dust that was just moved across the field to a T hangar?

[RAD2LTR]

Would that be the one covered in several years of dust that was just moved across the field to a T hangar?

Possibly. I haven't asked how it was coming along. I have to guess there was some engineering that was going to be tough to overcome with the direction they were looking to go in. I figure that if anyone is going to make it work, it would be those guys.

Will

[Sparrow]

The other person involved in that is my son in law (former)--- spoke with him today.

[wingman]

Pylon 8 was an interesting place. It was the last pylon before the home straight. At pylon 7 the racers are at their fastest but begiining to gradually turn almost 90 degrees to position for the home straight after pylon 8.The joker in the deck here was that the corridor past home pylon was only a thousand feet or so wide, and in later years got a height requirement as well. At 500 mph this was threading a needle.

Here is Skip Holm's qualifying lap in 2003. Qual laps can be pretty boring visually, but Skip always managed to make them into compelling drama. Skip was a master....

Here he is full speed down the Valley of speed. He should be well over 500mph at this point





He runs pylon 7 quite loosely, and drifts out a bit to set up for the straight without losing too much speed maneuvering.





Approaching and passing pylon 8 he still has to pull pretty hard, but not nearly as hard as if he had run 7 tightly. This was a very fast qualifying run. These photos were done from the west end of the pits.

[wingman]

Here's the view from Pylon 8 itself, during the Saturday fast heat. The closeup is very unsharp, as the autofocus tech of the time was still quite unable to deal with 500mph straight on. The angle is so cool that I kept the picture anyway.