Maddest race cars
Discussion
t crazy Suzuki Escudo needs a mention. 
gazza285 said:
ddom said:
Road a race cars, and you post monster trucks and tractors?
Ol’ 300bhp, he has been been on here a while, you will get used to his off tangent ramblings after a bit.Not quite sure you could call a tractor pull racing but maybe competition car.
In a similar US vein. Top fuel dragsters are entirely mental. All the statistics to do with them are crazy.
A lot of people will dismiss drag racing, friends of mine that I go to race and track days with won’t come to see drag racing with me but experiencing 2 top fuelers going hard is something every car enthusiast should experience at least once.
Monster trucks sound bloody good too.
DanielSan said:
Pushing the definition of road cars to the max, any Pro Mod that enters drag week. Here we have Tom Bailey and Jeff Lutz as 2 examples 
I've always had the greatest respect for these... At track days I've always had more respect for people who arrive in the car or on the bike they will be racing. I realise some would see it as foolhardy as it means you definitely don't want to crash or blow the engine, and some may have driven further than they'd want to in something with stiff suspension, but I can't get on board with the idea of having a trailer queen that is just a family car with a few mods.
P5BNij said:
Lovely video short by Stefan Marjoram here:https://vimeo.com/113158655
The juxtaposition between the slow, quiet, contamplative restoration process and the first engine fire is, well, watch it to see!
This has appeared on various threads previously, but thought it deserved its place in this thread.
(I also remember sometime in the 90’s there was a guy with an ex Nuvolari Alfa who drove it to the circuit to race. It was fitted with a tow bar and I seem to remember he towed a caravan with it).
(I also remember sometime in the 90’s there was a guy with an ex Nuvolari Alfa who drove it to the circuit to race. It was fitted with a tow bar and I seem to remember he towed a caravan with it).
The Blue Flame.
Reaction Dynamics built the smallest, lightest rocket car it could to go break the land speed record and attempt to exceed the speed of sound.
What they ended up was a 4000# car carrying up to 3000# of fuel, with 25,000# of thrust.
It had the shortest run-up of any land-speed record car, less than one mile before reaching the measured mile, and was only fueled to reach the halfway mark of the measured mile to avoid trying to shut down a hot hydrogen peroxide engine.
The Gas Technology Institute paid for the car; thrust was augmented by spraying liquefied natural gas into the oxygen-and-water exhaust stream and reducing the resulting oxygen.
For its 50th anniversary, the original scientists, engineers, and technicians wanted to run the car at Bonneville again, but 2020 intervened. They are currently seeking funding to bring it out of the museum, restore it to operating condition, and buy new tires, in order to do a shorter exhibition run and possibly break the world record for the standing 1000' or 1/4 mile!
Reaction Dynamics built the smallest, lightest rocket car it could to go break the land speed record and attempt to exceed the speed of sound.
What they ended up was a 4000# car carrying up to 3000# of fuel, with 25,000# of thrust.
It had the shortest run-up of any land-speed record car, less than one mile before reaching the measured mile, and was only fueled to reach the halfway mark of the measured mile to avoid trying to shut down a hot hydrogen peroxide engine.
The Gas Technology Institute paid for the car; thrust was augmented by spraying liquefied natural gas into the oxygen-and-water exhaust stream and reducing the resulting oxygen.
For its 50th anniversary, the original scientists, engineers, and technicians wanted to run the car at Bonneville again, but 2020 intervened. They are currently seeking funding to bring it out of the museum, restore it to operating condition, and buy new tires, in order to do a shorter exhibition run and possibly break the world record for the standing 1000' or 1/4 mile!
moffspeed said:
Then we had John Dodd's "The Beast". Initially adorned with a Rolls Royce grille but this became, ahem, a subject for discussion.
The eccentric Mr Dodd made all sorts of wild claims for the performance of the car, ultimately it was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful road car in the world. Widely known as he "Spitfire engined car" but the RR lump was in fact a Meteor (tank) engine rather than a Merlin.
And, similarly, no sign of Charlie Broomfield's Meteor engined SD1 .AFAIK, a Merlin is a Meteor with an appropriate supercharger.The eccentric Mr Dodd made all sorts of wild claims for the performance of the car, ultimately it was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful road car in the world. Widely known as he "Spitfire engined car" but the RR lump was in fact a Meteor (tank) engine rather than a Merlin.
gazza285 said:
Zad said:
.AFAIK, a Merlin is a Meteor with an appropriate supercharger.
Looking at the history of the Meteor it is the other way round, it is a Merlin without the supercharger, many Meteors were built using engines recovered from crashed or damaged aircraft.Oh, and the spun the other way also. Fairly big difference!
RB Will said:
Monster trucks race.
Not quite sure you could call a tractor pull racing but maybe competition car.
In a similar US vein. Top fuel dragsters are entirely mental. All the statistics to do with them are crazy.
A lot of people will dismiss drag racing, friends of mine that I go to race and track days with won’t come to see drag racing with me but experiencing 2 top fuelers going hard is something every car enthusiast should experience at least once.
Monster trucks sound bloody good too.
The trouble is that drag racing doesn't look or sound very exciting on TV or YouTube, and to most people, driving in a straight line isn't much of a challenge. The reality of course is that when you're stood next to the track, it's an entirely different perspective. The engineering is more complex that might be expected, and the performance levels, even in the 'hobby' ranks is relatively impressive[1].Not quite sure you could call a tractor pull racing but maybe competition car.
In a similar US vein. Top fuel dragsters are entirely mental. All the statistics to do with them are crazy.
A lot of people will dismiss drag racing, friends of mine that I go to race and track days with won’t come to see drag racing with me but experiencing 2 top fuelers going hard is something every car enthusiast should experience at least once.
Monster trucks sound bloody good too.
As most motor sports move toward downsizing, EV's and overall quieter ways of going racing, drag racing has remained largely unaltered - 160 decibel Top Fuel cars hitting around 315mph over 1000ft is still a thing, for the time being at least.
[1] Whenever I quote any numbers for my current or last race car, I'm politely reminded that it's a one trick pony, and hence is a bit pointless
Anyway, back on topic - I always liked The Winged Express. Never failed to put on a show, and while it only ran low 7's at 200mph, the way it went about it, be it sideways, on 3 wheels, 2 wheels, or upside down, was entertaining:
AmosMoses said:
My first race car was a Nostalgia Top Fuel car - 161" wheelbase and a Big Block Chevy running on 95% nitro. You mention diffs letting go, this one was the traditional 'legs over' arrangement, where you're sat behind the back axle with your legs straddling the driveshaft, and crotch nestled behind the diff casing.The more dodgy way of doing it was in a 'legs under' arrangement, where you slid your legs beneath the axle. In the event of that letting go, instead of losing your gentleman sausage like you would in a legs over car, it would probably result in the ring gear taking out your stomach and insides, quite unpleasant. That type of car lost its appeal quite quickly, as did most front engine cars after Garlits had his foot blown off.
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My car was something of a handful, it weighed around 800kg and made around 3000bhp. Unfortunately we didn't get much track time and the option to go racing an Altered and get paid (pennies) came up so we transplanted the engine to a Fiat Topolino Altered and had a crack at that.
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