Speaking of air cooled engines and racing reminded me.
I remember Andy Granatelli being on the salt with a Corvair and STP sponsorship
in the early sixties. If I'm not mistaken he was competitive in his class.
Tom Bryant would possibly remember more than I do about that. I flat out don't
recall if he was running in a supercharged class ... the turbocharged Corvair
engine produced some serious power in it's day. The guy who wrote the
California Bill books on Chevrolet engines built a Porsche Speedster with a
Corvair engine. He bought the car because he liked the looks and was very
disappointed with the performance, hence the Corvair transplant. A friend test
drove it in Palo Alto in the late sixties when he was considering buying the
car. He picked me up for a ride because it was so much fun. We flat shut down
an Olds 442 but lost the fan/accessory belt and had to buy another to get us
home. (He didn't buy that car but had another somewhat rare 356 series Porsche
that he restored and sold at auction for some serious money.)
Being in the clothing business I've often thought of Andy and his white suit,
emblazoned with STP logos. At the time it was funny ... today it's not so
unusual to see larger logos on clothing, although they are usually far less
conspicuous than Andy's white suit.
> Hmmmm.......???????
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-land-speed@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-land-speed@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Bryan Savage
> Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 12:39 PM
> To: Dick J
> Cc: dan warner; land speed
> Subject: Re: VWs in LSR
>
> Dick,
> VW's had the same problem at Boneville that all air-cooled cylinder head
> engines have. They can't keep the exhaust valve cool enough. That limits
> the power in an endurance motor to about 1 HP per cubic inch or less.
>
> Bryan
>
>
> Dick J wrote:
>
> > I guess I'm going through a retro-time regression or something and
> recently started playing with an old VW motor. Remember how VWs and dune
> buggies where everywhere in the late 60s and early 70s? Did any of those
> things show up on the salt or lakes back then? Anybody got any LSR VW
> stories?
> > Dick J
>
>
> --
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