Ran into a former Californian who has re-located to Park City at a New Years
party. He was a police officer in Whittier (Dave Haller will like that)
before retiring and moving to cleaner air. He had a long chat with his old
friend Jerry Kugel this fall and one of the things he mentioned seemed worth
passing on. Keith Turk, are you listening? Apparently Jerry has been
extremely careful to distribute weight on that Firebird so that every wheel
is carrying the same amount of weight and the centerline of the car is the
balance point for weight from left to right as well. His theory is that the
extreme high speed stability of the car depends on the weight and balance.
Since the car weighs around 5600 pounds it looks like he has some real solid
and productive thinking to support the theory. Apparently they will be
stepping up a class to a B motor this year ... anyone for a 310 run from a
doorslammer?
In 1949, Wally Parks, Ak Miller and another rodder who were the committee
asking for permission to use the Bonneville Salt Flats were told that the
record speed for the engine size most hot-rods were running was an
impossibly fast (for a hot-rod) 217 mph set by the Auto-Union streamliner
... how times have changed!
Wes
|