A Strega question...

[wingman]

Does anybody really know (or at least anybody who can and will say) for sure just what was under the hood this year???

Was it a motor BUILT in Tehachapi, or was it ASSEMBLED and tested in Tehachapi or what? Was it an Allison rod motor, or not? It went a whole bunch faster than a non-Allison-rod motor has ever gone, but Mike Nixon, to my knowledge, has never built an Allison rod unit before this. What blower gears did they run?

Was Mike at Reno -- I never ran across him and have seen no photos of him there that I recall, including at the after the Gold celebrating...

I notice there's no engine builder logo on the cowling, though I think I remember Mike being listed on the gear leg...

[glenplane]

Re: A Strega question...

Mike Nixon also was part of the Red Baron crew back in the day. Also
Craig Roush is a big Nascar name and he injected the latest race engine
technology under the hood too! Something else to note about Strega
this year is every surface on that plane looks super smooth and wet!
-Glenplane-

[RRMERLIN7]

Re: A Strega question...

Craig Roush
-Glenplane-

Craig Roush ??? Who is that ... Do you Mean JACK ROUSH ????

(BTW Just messing with up, please don't get mad lol)

[KAHNZILLA]

Re: A Strega question...

This was not the fastest STREGA has flown she just didn't break. Someone name Jack knows what Kersh knows..

[BKB]

Re: A Strega question...

Warbirds Digest early issue had an article about Roush Aviation. Jack said that they didn't want to get into building Super Merlins. Just going to stick stock rebuild and repair work.They had some photos of a cylinder head that was severly damaged and repaired.Looked as though a valve might have gotten loose and beat to hell by the piston.Anyways the weld repair and CNC machine work to fix the damage was impressive.
Roush said something about not wanting to experiment with such a limited resourse and that there are great Super Merlin builders out there.So he would not try and build racing Merlins.I'm sure that doesn't mean that he allowed his engineering staff to look and make suggestions as to how to go about building a Super Merlin.I'm sure he also said to do it on their spare time too!Whatever,whoever did to whomevers Merlins hit it on the nose for sure! Those babies screamed and didn't even skip a beat.Sure was great to hear a Merlin run that strong for that long again.
Lets hope they took good notes and can repeat the build and we'll get to see and hear it again in 09.

B2