Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Seen it but be darned if I remember where. Maybe Air Classics, one of their Quartely's?
Seen it but be darned if I remember where. Maybe Air Classics, one of their Quartely's?
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Originally posted by Race5
Please do!Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
This one?Attached FilesComment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Great picture of Guido Zuccoli's Fiat G-59 racing the P-40. The RARA database says this was 1987. I was at the races that year, but I don't remember seeing the G-59. Old age is taking its toll, I guess
Check out the link below for more info. Apparently the Sanders brothers dropped a Merlin into the Fiat when doing restoration work! Too cool
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Originally posted by King
Yup, that would be the one. I THINK that is Bob Pond's plane now.Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
You mean, like if they took the Allison out altogether? :-)Originally posted by Missileer
Sorry...even when Skip Zeigler tried to race the XP-40Q back in the Thompson days, it was still 50 mph slower than a stock Mustang.
P-40's look cool. Just not fast.
I think Bob Downey figured this out AFTER the mods, yet before he proved it in competition.Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
You beat me to it, that's the one I was looking for.Originally posted by KingComment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
From what I can remember from a conversation with Bob Downey around 1980, the racing P-40 project was built up at Howard Gidovlenko's shop at Orange County airport from an airframe that came from Jack Hardwick's boneyard at El Monte. Bob was going to be the race pilot. I think it was done in the mid-60's, soon after unlimited racing returned to Reno. I believe Downey and Gidovlenko were partners, not sure if Hardwick was involved in the project. I can't recall if it was ever completed and flown in race configuration or what eventually happened, it obviously never made it to the races.
One year at the Mojave races (1975 maybe?), Lefty Gardner was racing Tipsy Miss and all of the alcohol race engines that John Sandberg had built up failed. The team was ready to pack up when Downey offered them an old Allison he had in storage at O.C. airport, left over from the P-40 project. Sandberg accepted, the engine was brought up and arrived at Mojave late in the evening. The engine was a dirty mess from years of storage, but was cleaned up and installed overnight. Tipsy Miss finished the event with that engine on Avgas, and was able to fly home afterwards.Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Great find King -- the only shot I'd ever seen of that thing is a muddy B&W shot so the wing obscures the shape of the canopy. Thanks!Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Despite what that article indicates the G.59B was always Merlin powered as far as I'm aware. It was a development of the G.55, which was Daimler powered, but I'm pretty sure Zuccoli's airplane (and all other G.59's) came out of the factory with a Merlin up front.Originally posted by KB AdkinsCheck out the link below for more info. Apparently the Sanders brothers dropped a Merlin into the Fiat when doing restoration work! Too cool
http://www.seqair.com/Hangar/Zuccoli...rstFlight.htmlComment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
hear is an othe one with camo for Neal and speed man shawn
Attached FilesComment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Oh yeah....Kangaroo...before she became Jeannie Too. Now the name was a nod to the fact that it was an RAAF Mustang. But if I remember, the 'unofficial' nickname was actually in reference to one of the women Gary was dating at the time. (The 'after Kathy-before Shelley era' was filled with some interesting nicknames. Anyone remember 'boat-scrubber'?)Originally posted by Shawn Arohear is an othe one with camo for Neal and speed man shawn
Notice the Skurich-Whittington trademark 'red leather interior'?Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
Now THAT explains a lot. Big Howard Gidovlenko. Hmmmmmm. Genius or freak?Originally posted by Tosg
Howard owned Avia Union, which built some of the most kick-a$$ Allison engines ever made. In the hydroplane world, Avia Union DOMINATED the 1950's...winning damn near everything in sight with the Slo-Mo-Shun IV and V engines, Shanty I and Maverick engines, and the Hawaii Kai III engines. All told, that was about 70% of the races, Gold Cups, National Championships, and straightaway records of that decade...all traced back to Howard's wrench twisting. At the same time, though...Howard was known as an incessant tinkerer, one who couldn't leave well enough alone. ALWAYS had a better idea, which more often than not, messed things up. Again, in the boats, Howard designed, built, and attempted to race the ill-fated Zephyr Fury, and will always be associated with rolling the experimental Shanty II over during a test on Lake Mead. (Aparently, Howard decided to tinker on the boat and take it out for a 'test' while the crew was out at lunch. When they came back, they were so pi$$ed at him that they recovered the boat, but left Howard out in the water to swim back to shore!)
So isn't it ironic that the P-40 project was linked to Howard also (Howard had actually raced one of Jack Hardwick's P-38's at Cleveland in the post-war races, so air racing was there for him too)? And even more ironic that Downey loaned the 'back up' engine to Sandberg @ Mojave? If there was anyone you could relate Gidlovenko to, it was Sandberg...the brilliant tinkerer who just could never leave well enough alone!
BTW...I think the year you are referring to at Mojave was 1974, and with that bone-stock Allison that they borrowed from Downey, Lefty actually won the Silver race--the only race that Tipsy Miss ever won in her career.Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
I was just thinking reading the first part of your post that this sounds exactly like the boat version of John Sandberg, and then you said it...Comment
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Re: Warning! Hazardous to....
speeddemon, I was woundering how you know my Dad? Thanks!Comment
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