Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD
The sagging of the mono tub with that big lump of Ford iron installed wasn't really a big deal to fix, after removing the engine and removing some of the mods we had done to make room for it. We also removed the fuel cell to have a better look down inside the structure. The front bulkhead was very substantial, the rear of the engine bolted up to it as well as the transaxle and front suspension. (remember now, this is a front wheel drive car, so the engine is installed backwards, making the flywheel end now the front , and the water pump end the rear.) The distance from this front bulkhead of the car to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine bay was quite long, as it also was used to mount the steering box, and brake and clutch petals, etc. All we had to do was add some steel tubing, and some steel plates between these bulkheads and then rivet the aluminum monocoque back together. As a precautional measure we also double skinned that section on the outside with some .062 aluminum. It was plenty strong now, and we hd not really added much weight, although a bit more weight was not of any consequence considering what we were going to be doing with the car at Bonneville. Mickey revealed to us that they were laying out a 10 mile oval course on the salt, and he would be going around and around , starting from a dead stop, then a 1 kilometer and a 1 mile timing trap would be set up, and then of course a 10 mile clock. The plan was to set a standing start 1 Km record, then a 1 mile record, a 10 mile record and then run 50 laps for a 500 mile record and whatever other records he could dream up in between. I seem to recall that Mick had said that these records were held by Ab Jenkins in a Mormon Meteor back in the late 30's. He had got Gulf Oil to sponsor this to promote a gasoline that they called "Gulf Good". We also had to use Gulf motor oil. Due to these requirements w had to run a 4 barrel carburator on the 427 Ford. Gulf's colors were blue and orange, so I had to get the car painted these colors. They sent paint chips of their colors, and we tried to match them. The car was mainly blue with orange trim. Jim Ward and I towed the "Gulf Good" car to Wendover, Utah. The salt flats were about 8 miles east of Wendover. We got organised, and Mickey flew in, and the Gulf people had arrived, and we all gathered at Bonneville. They had not seen the car yet, and when we unveiled it they were pleased, and were eager to see Mick make a practice run. Everything was going according to plan we thought. One of these "Bozo's" came up to me and said that it was the wrong color. He told me that I had painted it "Sunoco" blue instead of "Gulf" blue! I'm thinking, "how am I going to handle this?" I switched my brain into "Mickey mode", and convinced him that the color was correct, the extreme "white" of the salt and the intense sunlight at that altitude in the clear air made it look like that. He got a real confused look on his face, and agreed that was probably the case. "Mickey had taught me well!" Mick fired it up, and made a couple of laps at about 200 MPH, and the "Gulf" boys were impressed. We made a short day of it, and hauled it back to Wendover where we had made a deal with the local Texaco station to use one of his bays to work on the car. Ward and I wanted to check things over so that we could make a few hot laps the following day. Naturally the "Gulf" people were not pleased that we were working out of a "Texaco" station. but it was the only station in town. Wendover is split in half, the east side of town was in Utah, no booxe, etc there, but the west end of town was in Nevada, cassino's, booze, girls, and all. Mick took them all over there and wined and dined them, and filled them with all sorts of tall tales. They got all inspired, and decided that they would have a film crew brought in and they would do a commercial. Mick made a few laps the next day, and decided that we needed a taller/higher gear. This was not something I had counted on, but I had brought the box of gears anyway. When at Indy we did a gear chance, and it took us 36 hours to do it. The steering shaft, engine,and transaxle had to be removed to do a gear change. The FWD had inboard brakes, so they had to be removed, and the drive axles had to be unbolted from the transaxle. This was a major deal! We had been out on the salt all day long, and it was 123 degrees F part of the day. I told Ward to go on into town and get some rest, and I would spend the night on the salt unhooking things for a while. We had a good light set up with a big generator, lots of tool boxes, and a Cherry picker in case we would need an engine change. So, there I was, out on the salt ,all alone, and it felt like I was on the moon or something. It cooled off quickly after dark, so at least I didn't have to deal with the heat. I started taking things apart, then something told me that there had to be an easier way to do this. I went up to the nose of the car, and started looking at how the structure that held the oil tank, radiator, etc was made, and it dawned on me, just saw the nose section off! Easy to do a gear change then! I unhooked the oil hoses and capped them off, and drained the radiator and undid the hoses, and proceeded to saw the whole front end off. Getting late, will stop there, and continue this saga in my next post.
Larry
The sagging of the mono tub with that big lump of Ford iron installed wasn't really a big deal to fix, after removing the engine and removing some of the mods we had done to make room for it. We also removed the fuel cell to have a better look down inside the structure. The front bulkhead was very substantial, the rear of the engine bolted up to it as well as the transaxle and front suspension. (remember now, this is a front wheel drive car, so the engine is installed backwards, making the flywheel end now the front , and the water pump end the rear.) The distance from this front bulkhead of the car to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine bay was quite long, as it also was used to mount the steering box, and brake and clutch petals, etc. All we had to do was add some steel tubing, and some steel plates between these bulkheads and then rivet the aluminum monocoque back together. As a precautional measure we also double skinned that section on the outside with some .062 aluminum. It was plenty strong now, and we hd not really added much weight, although a bit more weight was not of any consequence considering what we were going to be doing with the car at Bonneville. Mickey revealed to us that they were laying out a 10 mile oval course on the salt, and he would be going around and around , starting from a dead stop, then a 1 kilometer and a 1 mile timing trap would be set up, and then of course a 10 mile clock. The plan was to set a standing start 1 Km record, then a 1 mile record, a 10 mile record and then run 50 laps for a 500 mile record and whatever other records he could dream up in between. I seem to recall that Mick had said that these records were held by Ab Jenkins in a Mormon Meteor back in the late 30's. He had got Gulf Oil to sponsor this to promote a gasoline that they called "Gulf Good". We also had to use Gulf motor oil. Due to these requirements w had to run a 4 barrel carburator on the 427 Ford. Gulf's colors were blue and orange, so I had to get the car painted these colors. They sent paint chips of their colors, and we tried to match them. The car was mainly blue with orange trim. Jim Ward and I towed the "Gulf Good" car to Wendover, Utah. The salt flats were about 8 miles east of Wendover. We got organised, and Mickey flew in, and the Gulf people had arrived, and we all gathered at Bonneville. They had not seen the car yet, and when we unveiled it they were pleased, and were eager to see Mick make a practice run. Everything was going according to plan we thought. One of these "Bozo's" came up to me and said that it was the wrong color. He told me that I had painted it "Sunoco" blue instead of "Gulf" blue! I'm thinking, "how am I going to handle this?" I switched my brain into "Mickey mode", and convinced him that the color was correct, the extreme "white" of the salt and the intense sunlight at that altitude in the clear air made it look like that. He got a real confused look on his face, and agreed that was probably the case. "Mickey had taught me well!" Mick fired it up, and made a couple of laps at about 200 MPH, and the "Gulf" boys were impressed. We made a short day of it, and hauled it back to Wendover where we had made a deal with the local Texaco station to use one of his bays to work on the car. Ward and I wanted to check things over so that we could make a few hot laps the following day. Naturally the "Gulf" people were not pleased that we were working out of a "Texaco" station. but it was the only station in town. Wendover is split in half, the east side of town was in Utah, no booxe, etc there, but the west end of town was in Nevada, cassino's, booze, girls, and all. Mick took them all over there and wined and dined them, and filled them with all sorts of tall tales. They got all inspired, and decided that they would have a film crew brought in and they would do a commercial. Mick made a few laps the next day, and decided that we needed a taller/higher gear. This was not something I had counted on, but I had brought the box of gears anyway. When at Indy we did a gear chance, and it took us 36 hours to do it. The steering shaft, engine,and transaxle had to be removed to do a gear change. The FWD had inboard brakes, so they had to be removed, and the drive axles had to be unbolted from the transaxle. This was a major deal! We had been out on the salt all day long, and it was 123 degrees F part of the day. I told Ward to go on into town and get some rest, and I would spend the night on the salt unhooking things for a while. We had a good light set up with a big generator, lots of tool boxes, and a Cherry picker in case we would need an engine change. So, there I was, out on the salt ,all alone, and it felt like I was on the moon or something. It cooled off quickly after dark, so at least I didn't have to deal with the heat. I started taking things apart, then something told me that there had to be an easier way to do this. I went up to the nose of the car, and started looking at how the structure that held the oil tank, radiator, etc was made, and it dawned on me, just saw the nose section off! Easy to do a gear change then! I unhooked the oil hoses and capped them off, and drained the radiator and undid the hoses, and proceeded to saw the whole front end off. Getting late, will stop there, and continue this saga in my next post.
Larry
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