Tractor Pulling - How Mad is that??

[Lord Flathead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3eRru7LfMw

Check out "Poor sod's head piloting the weight carriage @2.12 mins..brain shake
Check out "How many engines? 2 @ 2.42 mins and 3 just after!
Check out "Worlds largest dinner-plate throttle body" @7.48 mins

What a bonkers sport, if you thought drag racing was mad this is off the scale given the distance travelled

[MDT]

Lord Flathead said:

Check out "Worlds largest dinner-plate throttle body" @7.48 mins

Them will be gas turbines, but yes very mental as a sport.

[nobodyknows]

When the flag drops the bullst stops!

[dtmpower]

MDT said:

Them will be gas turbines, but yes very mental as a sport.

The 7:48 one looks like a normal IC engine to me, there are several turbines on the video though.

[thinfourth2]

MDT said:

Lord Flathead said:

Check out "Worlds largest dinner-plate throttle body" @7.48 mins

Them will be gas turbines, but yes very mental as a sport.

Thats not a gas turbine its a

actually i have no idea what it is

[cml]

Worth a watch - huge noise, huge engines...

See a rural fair near you this summer...

[skene]

That is an amazing sport. Growing up on a farm I love it! That throttle plate is fking huge though!

[CarMad426]

thinfourth2 said:

Thats not a gas turbine its a

actually i have no idea what it is

It is a 147 litre 42 cylinder radial engine apparently 10000bhp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iyOvLXxF0&fea...

I would guess this is what it was originally
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvezda_M503

Fantastic Madnes

[EDLT]

thinfourth2 said:

Thats not a gas turbine its a

actually i have no idea what it is

It looks like a radial engine, only with more than one row of cylinders. I think I can make out 6 branches on the exhaust manifold, so that makes it er... big.

Edited by EDLT on Friday 11th February 22:38

[shirt]

used to watch this loads as a kid. live at silverstone as a sideshow to supertrucks and it also used to feature regularly in the days when eurosport was a good channel.

purely pointless and bonkers. love it!

[SWH]

Awesome thing to watch... remember seeing it a Brean Down (in the depths of Somerset) in the 1980s with my Dad. Seem to recall Geoff Capes (World's Strongest Man) was presenting the prizes too.

Many an interesting tractor, recall one with a number of Jaguar V12s, running methanol and with a Morris Minor engine mounted on the side of the chassis to turn the lot over to get it running - quite a sight at full blast.

[EDLT]

Right, that mad Dragon Fire thing has a build page here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tractorpulling.sascha/...

The engine is a Zvezda M503 diesel radial, apparently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSC_Zvezda_M503

EDIT - Some more pictures here, apparently its got 8000hp.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7740015@N03/362991669...

Last EDIT - The team's page (translated)
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

147.1 litres, 42-cylinders, 8000hp @ 2,500rpm!

Edited by EDLT on Friday 11th February 22:50

[littlebasher]

Used to enjoy watching that, and other wierd motorsport on Eurosport before it became shyte.

[Ari]

That is the most spectacularly pointless exercise I've ever seen!!

What next, Formula One racing whilst towing jumbo jets?

[SlipStream77]

I posted this on the Youtube thread a while ago.

Tractor pull engine blowup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBF6iZfguF0&fea...

[Nickyboy]

5:16

[dudleybloke]

tremendous bits of kit.

[papercup]

SlipStream77 said:

I posted this on the Youtube thread a while ago.

Tractor pull engine blowup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBF6iZfguF0&fea...

Christ. The pistons threw the engine away!

[brillomaster]

that is chuffing ridiculous! Thats an insane amount of power! How do these things compare to top spec Dragsters?

[Dogwatch]

Rather more sedate but 'merican farmers do tractor pulling with restored pre-and postwar farm tractors at State fairs and the like.
Even have separate classes for steel and rubber-shod machines