This car is the shit.

[Top Speed]

1)  This car is the shit.  I love it.   :supz:

2)  The Silverstate Classic is awesome.    

3)  Racer X you are my hero.  :prayer:

http://www.spectrum5racing.com/Projects/kurtgtrproject.htm

[Recklessrob]

1)

[DCEPTCN]

I have a Car Craft or Hot Rod or some such magazine with that car on the cover. The Silver State Classic is the shit and I miss living in Ely Nevada and seeing it all twice a year. Racer X and I spent like an hour on the phone once back in December talking about Ely and Buckethead.

[Racer X]

The K&N car made it's track debut at one of my Willow Springs track events back in 2001 (I think). Jerry Mall, the owner of K&N, came out with his transporter filled with two Vipers and the Ultima. It was literally one of the first times that car was on a track in North America. It was not yet sorted out and yet it was still wicked fast! I might have some pics on my website somewhere. I will have to look.

A couple of years later, I guess it might have been the guy in the article, they tried to run the car at the Silverstate in an effort to set the World Record. So prior to the Silverstate they ran the car at a race called the Pony Express. They had too much rear downforce dialed into the rear wing and blew rear tire at around 200 mph. It damaged the body enough, and I guess the driver to the point that I never saw them there.

The problem with that car, or any car for that matter, going anything over 200 mph is the tire technology just isn't there to support it. You can build cars to go 400mph, but they just don't have tires that will stay under the car. You need a tire that can withstand the incredible heat that builds up and still have enough grip to keep the car on the track.

The GN that went 207 was owned by Stan Davis. He has since sold that car after blowing a tire and doing some body damage. The GN (actually a T Type) bore little resemblance to a stock G Body when he got done with it. It had a tube frame and everything NASCAR about it.

Racer (off to look for a pic or two) X

[Recklessrob]

What about Indy tires ? What are the better ones rated at ?

[Racer X]

To be honest I don't know what the Indy car tires are rated at, but they are somewhere around 230 or so. This is why they had to slow the cars down. After Scott Brayton's accident they had to do something. I think Brayton had the pole speed and I believe is still the fastest speed ever recorded there of about 234 (?) and that number was eclipsed by Gil deFerran when he set the all time top speed for a closed circuit of 241 at Fontana.

The tire criteria is based upon time. For example, if a tire is rated at 140 mph then it will go 140 for ONE HOUR before it will fail. Now that doesn't mean that it WILL fail but that is the comfort level you get and all the tire company is responsible for.

Part of the problem of running an Open Road Race is that we have no control over the track surface like they do at a track. They don't clean the road way off which leaves a racing tire exposed to puncture. Another issue is the crown of the road. With the crown in the road, you are running on the inside of the tire, primarily, and that means we are heating up just the inside of the tire which leads to failure. We run ZERO camber and still have some issue with the crown. We can't run any positive camber because we need *some* grip for the corners.

Most of the guys are running Pirelli P-Zeros for the steel belts and they are rated at 180.

[Recklessrob]

If you look here on page 8 for Roger French (VW Scirocco GT3),
that is a car that I work on as well as a few others.
http://www.ner.org/RR1/results/04/0912nhis/04cheapdate2-race-web.pdf
I'm still trying to find a picture of it.

[Recklessrob]

Heres some more on page 4
http://www.scca.org/garage/forum/uploads/WyndiMcCormick/2005-04-27_162107_Results.pdf

[87natty]

Tire talk gives me chub...

[Racer X]

OK, I found the pictures from April 6, 2001.

[Racer X]

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[Racer X]

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[Top Speed]

Thanks for the pics!