Louise and List
Did my last posting cause confusion.
Kitty O'neill and Hal Needham are said to have driven the SMI Motivator
three wheeler at Alvord. But as there was some controversy as"a woman" was
heading towards being the fastest on land even this may not be accurate.
Needham later drove the vehicle to 620mph or so at Mud Lake and went off
the end of the course into scrub. I once saw this on film but I have no
video footage.
I believe the working Budweiser vehicle was created from the working SMI
Motivator vehicle, but I have not been close to either - just using photos.
I understood that Hal Needham did not drive the vehicle in its Budweiser
colours, just paid the bills.
Does that all make sense?
Arne - according to Ron Ayers, the aerodynamics at sub sonic to transient
speeds performed as would be predicted and the struts on the Budweiser
vehicle created the lift to cause the unicycle front wheel running at
somewhere about Mach 0.9. There were claims of 'potmarks' ahead of the
wheel tracks but no other surface damage after the Budweiser finished its
run. Only the single wheel track for many yards! No alteration to the
track surface under the car has ever been reported in the texts I have
seen. There is a photo in Houlthusens books of the vehicle with its rear
wheels off the ground in a swirling cloud of dust. No shock waves visible
in the lighting of the picture.
The one thing that this (or these) rocket three wheeler(s) achieved was
publicity and confusion, when the engineering was such that a World best
could have taken place without changing any rules fo fit the running of the
vehicles.
Malcolm Pittwood, Derby, England.
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