Yes, they're awesome fun to watch at Nationals; for an engineer it's great
to see just how fast the front-rank cars *and drivers* can be.
And speaking of AM and AM history, I thought this would be a good time to
say something nice about a winning AM guy who has also been a friend and
supporter to probably hundreds of us random Solo drivers and their cars, in all
classes. I'm talking about George Bowland, who along with son Todd has been
personally responsible for several of the design innovations which became
dominant trends in A/Mod. This includes the current theme of snowmobile racing
engine/CVT/sophisticated wings which he pioneered in the Bowland Boys Racing
('95?) car campaigned last year by Danielle and John Engstrom (a theme built on
by the Phantom and the Dragon). Before that, the Bowland Boys led the first
trend to big Solo wings, in the BBR'91 car now run in BM by John Neighbors, and
if I'm not mistaken, the trend before that of supercharging the big aircooled
Supervees that dominated the class in the late 80's.
As far as trying to increase turnout, perhaps by relaxing the geometry
parameters to include the FSAE cars, perhaps someone knowledgable can chime in;
aren't these the "Grocki rule" named after NER Bud Grocki who won several times
with a very tiny but fragile car, that seemed to take unfair advantage of tight
courses? Do today's more open course designs figure to be more of an equalizer?
Chuck Sieber
E/M #82
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