"The Believer"

[Big_Jim]

Re: "The Believer"

Of course that was also the race in which RRIII blew up and was on fire, not to mention landing out in the weeds and doing a great deal of damage in the process. Guess Dan was too far out in front for anyone to remember that. Wonder how many people knew that Michael O'Leary was in the back seat with Skip???

I remember. The one pic I wish I could have back to do again....note the black puff and stream of white smoke.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: "The Believer"

The name of one of Joe Kasparoff's companies.

Super K Productions or some such IIRC. It was a small aerospace manufacturing firm out in Cal.

It Was Super K Machine, The "small" aerospace manufacturing company that happened to have a large enough gantry mill to machine all the B1 Bomber wing pivot carry through structures. Huge parts actually.

[John H]

Re: "The Believer"

Hmm Mr K had a *** Cough ****interesting history with the B1 program . http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/j-k-precision
One of my favorite pics is one I took of him in a B1 cockpit at the Van Nuys airshow in 1989 after his indictment. The crew of that airplane had no idea about Joe and I wasn't about to say anything. Pretty ironic.

By the way, it's also the reason all of his airplanes all of a sudden went way off topic with "For a drug free America" logos in 1991.

[Arctic Cat]

Re: "The Believer"

Of course that was also the race in which RRIII blew up and was on fire, not to mention landing out in the weeds and doing a great deal of damage in the process. Guess Dan was too far out in front for anyone to remember that. Wonder how many people knew that Michael O'Leary was in the back seat with Skip???

I remember it! The greatest sounding engine blow up I have ever heard, it sounded so good just before it let go, it wasn't a simple pop or a silent smoker but an ongoing pop pop bang

[Randy Haskin]

Re: "The Believer"

It Was Super K Machine, The "small" aerospace manufacturing company that happened to have a large enough gantry mill to machine all the B1 Bomber wing pivot carry through structures. Huge parts actually.

Thanks for that, John.

I guess I meant 'small' in the context of it not being Lockheed or Boeing, but I didn't know about the B-1 parts.

[MRE]

Re: "The Believer"

I remember when it showed up at Madera the first time. It was one of the neatest things I ever saw. Have some 35 mm prints that I took at Santa Maria that I have no way of posting. White wheel wells,inside clam shell doors, and gear legs. Main gear doors were red on inside. brake backing plates were red as well as wheels. Little bearing caps were white,looks like there was a pin stripe on the outer rim as well. Not positive on the interior but it looks like light grey,inside of canopy framing looks black. Santa Maria was also the first and only time I saw four people go flying in the same Mustang.

[51fixer]

Re: "The Believer"

It was here after it came back from England to the states Post-Believer and called Princess Elizabeth. The -9 Merlin that it raced with is sitting in the corner of the hangar. Pete put it in as a basically NOS out of the Box motor back when he restored it.

[Randy Haskin]

Re: "The Believer"

Santa Maria was also the first and only time I saw four people go flying in the same Mustang.

Was Bob Diemert there?!

[Race5]

Re: "The Believer"

Or maybe turn the Sani_hut racer back into a stock TF-82? LOL