"Scoopless" P-38s

[52eme]

I came across a few photos of Cleveland era P-38s and F-5s. 3 of them (#64 "Jill" N49721, #27 "Teterboro Special" N61121 and #25 N68394) appear to have the radiators on the tailbooms removed.

Does anybody have info on these racers, and on the mods involved ??

[Anders]

I don't have any solid facts about these planes, but several of the racing P-38s had their turbos removed. Without the turbos they didn't need any intercoolers, so I guess the radiators went into the chin scoops where the intercoolers used to be. Perhaps the intercooler heat exchangers could even be used for engine coolant?

My two cents worth of speculation anyway...

Anders

[52eme]

Hi, Anders !

Actually, i made the same speculation concerning the intercoolers.. It could also be possible that P-40 radiators were used..

We'll probably discuss this at the symposium this december

Fred #599

[Steve_L]

Originally posted by Anders
I don't have any solid facts about these planes, but several of the racing P-38s had their turbos removed. Without the turbos they didn't need any intercoolers, so I guess the radiators went into the chin scoops where the intercoolers used to be. ?

My two cents worth of speculation anyway...

Anders

Interesting....

Thats certainly a reasonable assumption, but on the other hand, "White Lightnin'" has been turbo-less for decades but retains the boom radiators. The draggier P-38J and later intercooler chin scoops were replaced with the sleeker early-P38 chin scoops (oil coolers only) in that instance. Early P-38s had hollow wing leading-edges that were used as intercoolers, but that limited performance too much for the J model so the chin 'cooler was introduced. I'd be curious to know if the added drag of the chin scoop is less than the drag of the boom scoops....

[Anders]

I took out my old Kinert book and "P-Screamers" and had a look at what could be found there (lots of highly modified P-38 in those days...):

P-38L #27 "Teterboro Special" had non-P-38 chin scoops. They look similar to late P-38 scoops without the vertical splitters at the front. A strange thing about this plane is that it looks like the right scoop was deeper than the left, with a big unadjustable outlet in front of the landing gear well.

Kinert says #25 had the outboard scoops removed, so the inboard ones might still have been there. It did not have turbos.

P-38L #64 has standard chin scoops. Since it has new carb inlets it probably didn't have turbos.

We need more info!

Anders