US Land Steam Record!!
Posted by chuk williams
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Re: US Land Steam Record!! June 11, 2013 08:13PM |
Finally the paint shop finished with the body and it's back where it belongs-on the vehicle! Seems like it always comes down to the last minute with the paint job-eh?
The vehicle is back together-ready to run! We've gone thru everything-lubing, pressure testing, etc, etc, making sure there are no glitches or problems when the time comes to rev it up and go! The continuation of that process will begin next week-we'll be running on the dyno....getting all our feedwater settings/fuel ratio, etc, just right so there's no screwing around when we get to the salt.
Only 6.5 weeks til we leave for Bonneville-there is still lots to do-but we're getting to the "icing on the cake" part of the project! Building the vehicle has been a fun thing for me, running the steam plant and making sure everything works as it should is another milestone-but the real kick in the pants is driving the vehicle at speed! Like I said-that's the "icing on the cake"!
From the feedback I've been getting, it looks as though we're going to have a real crowd there at Bonneville to cheer us on! This is gonna be the first time a steam-powered vehicle has run at Speed Week since 1985!
Join us-just for the fun of it!
Chuk
WWW.STEAMSPEEDAMERICA.COM
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Re: US Land Steam Record!! October 06, 2013 06:45PM |
Hey Everyone!
We’re halfway back from the Ohio Mile, sitting at Art Gardiners’ in Cookeville, Tennessee. We’re headed home to Florida after a coupla days here, but I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on our experience at The Ohio Mile.
As I’m sure most everyone knows by now-they cancelled the World Finals at Bonneville because of rain. I called Art to let him know the sad news, and he said “why don’t you check out the Ohio Mile?” Sure enough, they had an Event on the 28th-29th. I called them even though the website said they were sold out-they said “come on down-we’ll fit you in”. We headed on down after calling everyone we could think of that lived close enough to participate without too much travelling. We had quite a crew there from the Club-Scott Haines, Tom Stoecker, Tom Kimmel, Jo Bibby, Nick Mesmer, George Knight, Jason Alford, Tony Grzyb, Dan Greger, Joyce Hoffmaster, Ken Hemmelgarn, Tom Anderson, Don Beck and Robin Roarke.
The organizers were more than accommodating, and everyone else really gave us a lot of positive feedback. There were 175 entries with only one track in use, so the line waiting to run was more than a few hours long! We had a few electronic problems before finally getting to the head of the line, and by then it was 6pm-quitting time! We left the streamliner in line so we could get a run in first thing on Sunday morning. The first run was a disappointment-we only got to 48 mph in the mile-partly because we had been rushed in our starting procedure by the guys at the start line-and partly because of pilot error on my part.
We did a quick turn thru the pit and back in line for our next run. We got to the front around 3pm on Sunday afternoon, and thought we might even get in another run before quitting time if we didn’t have any problems. Alas, it was not to be! After Tom K did the push up to 40 mph, I released the clutch and it just SLIPPED! I kept engaging and disengaging it, trying to get the engine rpm down to a low speed so that the clutch would perhaps hold…but it would not hold the torque. I burned it all the way thru the mile and got up to 65+mph, but I hadn’t packed a spare clutch-so we were done for the Event.
Once again our experience was a learning one, and we found a few more weaknesses to correct before we hit Bonneville for Speed Week in 2014!
Many Thanks to our spectacular crew for their support and hard work!
Cheers—Chuk
WWW.STEAMSPEEDAMERICA.COM
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2013 04:28PM by chuk williams.
We’re halfway back from the Ohio Mile, sitting at Art Gardiners’ in Cookeville, Tennessee. We’re headed home to Florida after a coupla days here, but I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on our experience at The Ohio Mile.
As I’m sure most everyone knows by now-they cancelled the World Finals at Bonneville because of rain. I called Art to let him know the sad news, and he said “why don’t you check out the Ohio Mile?” Sure enough, they had an Event on the 28th-29th. I called them even though the website said they were sold out-they said “come on down-we’ll fit you in”. We headed on down after calling everyone we could think of that lived close enough to participate without too much travelling. We had quite a crew there from the Club-Scott Haines, Tom Stoecker, Tom Kimmel, Jo Bibby, Nick Mesmer, George Knight, Jason Alford, Tony Grzyb, Dan Greger, Joyce Hoffmaster, Ken Hemmelgarn, Tom Anderson, Don Beck and Robin Roarke.
The organizers were more than accommodating, and everyone else really gave us a lot of positive feedback. There were 175 entries with only one track in use, so the line waiting to run was more than a few hours long! We had a few electronic problems before finally getting to the head of the line, and by then it was 6pm-quitting time! We left the streamliner in line so we could get a run in first thing on Sunday morning. The first run was a disappointment-we only got to 48 mph in the mile-partly because we had been rushed in our starting procedure by the guys at the start line-and partly because of pilot error on my part.
We did a quick turn thru the pit and back in line for our next run. We got to the front around 3pm on Sunday afternoon, and thought we might even get in another run before quitting time if we didn’t have any problems. Alas, it was not to be! After Tom K did the push up to 40 mph, I released the clutch and it just SLIPPED! I kept engaging and disengaging it, trying to get the engine rpm down to a low speed so that the clutch would perhaps hold…but it would not hold the torque. I burned it all the way thru the mile and got up to 65+mph, but I hadn’t packed a spare clutch-so we were done for the Event.
Once again our experience was a learning one, and we found a few more weaknesses to correct before we hit Bonneville for Speed Week in 2014!
Many Thanks to our spectacular crew for their support and hard work!
Cheers—Chuk
WWW.STEAMSPEEDAMERICA.COM
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2013 04:28PM by chuk williams.
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Re: US Land Steam Record!! November 05, 2013 06:14PM |
Hi EBG!
Hey-Thanks for the heads-up about the Oregonian lake bed-I have never heard of it before. It would be quite a stretch for us to travel that far-but suitable areas/tracks are very hard to find! The photos shown at your link seem to show that the surface is somewhat loose-which-if so-would add a bit of tire drag. Perhaps their vehicle was simply so heavy that it sunk in a bit-probably our 2200 lb streamliner wouldn't sink in so much. I will see if there is more available info on the site.
We took the Streamliner to a car show in Sarasota this past Sunday, and enjoyed it immensely. I think we had more people around our car than any other car there! The show was pretty inclusive, with hot rods, exotics, antiques, and sports cars. There were between 150-200 cars, but only one Steam Streamliner! We had a quite bit of press coverage, including a mention on the local TV station. We met a lot of people who were interested in steam and passed out quite a few SACA Bulletins to prospective members.
Luckily, I have a girlfriend who enjoys these events "almost" as much as I do!
Chuk
WWW.STEAMSPEEDAMERICA.COM
Hey-Thanks for the heads-up about the Oregonian lake bed-I have never heard of it before. It would be quite a stretch for us to travel that far-but suitable areas/tracks are very hard to find! The photos shown at your link seem to show that the surface is somewhat loose-which-if so-would add a bit of tire drag. Perhaps their vehicle was simply so heavy that it sunk in a bit-probably our 2200 lb streamliner wouldn't sink in so much. I will see if there is more available info on the site.
We took the Streamliner to a car show in Sarasota this past Sunday, and enjoyed it immensely. I think we had more people around our car than any other car there! The show was pretty inclusive, with hot rods, exotics, antiques, and sports cars. There were between 150-200 cars, but only one Steam Streamliner! We had a quite bit of press coverage, including a mention on the local TV station. We met a lot of people who were interested in steam and passed out quite a few SACA Bulletins to prospective members.
Luckily, I have a girlfriend who enjoys these events "almost" as much as I do!
Chuk
WWW.STEAMSPEEDAMERICA.COM
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Re: US Land Steam Record!! November 06, 2013 08:43AM |
Hi Chuk!
Who says it has to be a dry lake bed? As I recall, Henry Ford set a speed record wayyyy back when in old 666. He did it on Lake St. Claire after if froze. It DID take like 6 months to get the record recognized, folks were arguing that a frozen lake was not LAND. Heck, all we need is a snowplow and some cold weather...more frozen water than you can shake a stick at up here in Michigan!
Ohhh...you might want to bring some tire chains. There's probably a record for the fastest car using those, also.
Regards,
Ken
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2013 08:50AM by frustrated.
Who says it has to be a dry lake bed? As I recall, Henry Ford set a speed record wayyyy back when in old 666. He did it on Lake St. Claire after if froze. It DID take like 6 months to get the record recognized, folks were arguing that a frozen lake was not LAND. Heck, all we need is a snowplow and some cold weather...more frozen water than you can shake a stick at up here in Michigan!
Ohhh...you might want to bring some tire chains. There's probably a record for the fastest car using those, also.
Regards,
Ken
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2013 08:50AM by frustrated.
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