Time Trials and Other Birds

[Hawk P51]

Has anyone got any info. yet on the time trials schedule? And does anyone have any info. on other planes besides the big 3? VooDoo's website is down (changing hosts) and what about Ridgerunner III?

[Victor Archer]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Ridgerunner III?

Dan is not racing this year...

[t-dub]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Actually, Dan is racing, just not RR III. He'll be flying the P-51 "Grim Reaper", which I think is a stocker.......

[DWYER]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Do you guys remember when Ridge Runner III raced in the gold in 2005?? What an exciting race. Came out of no where and was chasing down the bear....till the mayday. He MADE that race exciting!

[Fly-By Knight]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Do you guys remember when Ridge Runner III raced in the gold in 2005?? What an exciting race. Came out of no where and was chasing down the bear....till the mayday. He MADE that race exciting!

Yeah!! Don't know if it's true or not, but I heard a rumor that he was pulling 165+ inches of manifold pressure when the engine let loose!!! He really did give The Bear a good chase for the first 3 or 4 laps!

FBK

[440_Magnum]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Do you guys remember when Ridge Runner III raced in the gold in 2005?? What an exciting race. Came out of no where and was chasing down the bear....till the mayday. He MADE that race exciting!

Oh, I remember! Which is EXACTLY why I'll never count the Mustangs out, regardless of the doom-sayers.

[Smee Again]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

Yeah!! Don't know if it's true or not, but I heard a rumor that he was pulling 165+ inches of manifold pressure when the engine let loose!!! He really did give The Bear a good chase for the first 3 or 4 laps!

FBK

I, for one, will never forget that day, and must admit I still probably think about it at least a couple times per week. We worked long and hard to make RRIII as fast as any semi-stock Mustang could ever be, and I believe we did just that; our timed first lap speed in that race was in excess of 467 MPH (NOT the pace lap). I will forever be proud of that effort, just as I am to be associated with all of the people involved.

And although Dan held nothing back in the cockpit that day, I will say that his final MP number was considerably less than 165".

SA

[zeke]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

We worked long and hard to make RRIII as fast as any semi-stock Mustang could ever be, and I believe we did just that; our timed first lap speed in that race was in excess of 467 MPH (NOT the pace lap). I will forever be proud of that effort, just as I am to be associated with all of the people involved.

SA

How "semi-stock" is semi stock? As in is it basically the easier to do, smooth out the paint and rough edges and a really good motor and prop? Or was it something else?

[zeke]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

I should say I was really impressed with RRIII's performance then

[Steve H]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

RR made the gold race that year! RARA should have bought him an engine for the pure excitement he generated that year.

[Smee Again]

Re: Time Trials and Other Birds

How "semi-stock" is semi stock? As in is it basically the easier to do, smooth out the paint and rough edges and a really good motor and prop? Or was it something else?

Semi-stock in the case of RRIII would involve a transformation from daily driver to part-time racer with a series of bolt-up modifications. In addition to a very strong Sparrow racing Merlin, we had a series of bolt-on mods which helped a great deal that year, enabling RRIII to attain those speeds. As for smoothing, profiling, etc., NO, there were no such modifications (unless you consider a 5-star Dave Alderson polish job an airframe modification). If you look at pictures of the racer, you will notice there are still gun blisters in the wings, albeit covered to help the aerodynamics a bit.

As for the exact nature of the bolt-up mods, I'll let you folks offer your thoughts.

SA