jet engines

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by Eric Falce

That was built by Bob Phelps to have a go at the land speed record way back in the seventys,Bob had some crazy idea's like having round alloy disc's instead of wheels and tyres.

All > 400mph LSR record cars now use solid alloy disks instread of rubber (I think), but you probably knew that!!

[Eric Falce]

Originally Posted by JamesH

All > 400mph LSR record cars now use solid alloy disks instread of rubber (I think), but you probably knew that!!

Bob said this in about 1975?'You are not driving any wheels,why have tyres that are a big source of trouble'.He was in the process of building Hellbender and Vampire at the time,also wanted to get female drivers to drive them and asked my wife Penny to drive one,he was funny at times.

[GORDON STREETER]

Eric I was there with the ZX1 team and stand. We improved some guys time by putting some of our magic stuff in his Yamaha engined Bond Bug !
Sammy wasn't fazed one bit when he "dinged" it up at the end of his first run on the Saturday. Having never seen him live in action I wasn't prepared for the noise it made "after" he had gone by !!!!!

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by JamesH

.....Read Richard Noble's book 'Thrust' - if you can find a copy (Got a second hand copy for Xmas - had to be imported from the States!!)......
James

Odd, there's 9 on a well-known auction site, 2 are signed copies, and the cheapest of the lot is only 30 bob

[DanJR1]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

Odd, there's 9 on a well-known auction site, 2 are signed copies, and the cheapest of the lot is only 30 bob

i had a bit of luck when it came to that book! found it at the local crappy market for £3 brand new! read it every time im at work. Noble was very lucky throughout the whole thrust project!

[Eric Falce]

Funny how things work out,Bob Phelps of Santa Pod fame had three jet cars running at the Pod when Richard Noble was still trying to get a jet engine onto four wheels.Scorpian ran at the Pod without the afterburner but it still pushed the startline gantry back twelve inches every time it went off,and Richard won the race for the LSR.

[MGDavid]

IMO Noble's gift was to get the right people around him in the team, and to motivate them. Very good at PR aspects, e.g. supporters' club, too.

[Eric Falce]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

IMO Noble's gift was to get the right people around him in the team, and to motivate them. Very good at PR aspects, e.g. supporters' club, too.

Exactly,realy admire Noble ,he did it from nothing.
On another subject I understand that Vampire is back with one of its original owners.

[maddogf3]

Originally Posted by DanJR1

i know it's a bit off topic asking on here but does anyone know of places where you can get ex-military jet engines?

Because it is a quad bike , I thought you might not of seen this .Saw this for the first time at the TT in the Isle of Man .Talk about being blown away ,10foot away and the thing on reheat . Quite spectacular is a total understatment .This guy might know ,he is Dutch but speaks a English His was out of a Helicopter ,thats as much as I know but here is a link to his website http://www.pyromaniac.nl/home

[MotorPsycho1934]

Originally Posted by Eric Falce

Apparently 'Scorpian' is still knocking around at Santa Pod somewhere,a bit worse for wear but that thing used to do 0-235 mph in around 5 secs at the Pod,just getting going when Andrew Hurdle the driver at the time had to shut it down.That was built by Bob Phelps to have a go at the land speed record way back in the seventys,Bob had some crazy idea's like having round alloy disc's instead of wheels and tyres.
By the way,he and Bootsy Heridge also built two other jet cars,one called Hellbender and the other,guess what,Vampire.Hellbender and Vampire used to race to fill in the times between the top fuelers,Hellbender was written off and the driver killed so they stopped running them,some other guy got hold of Vampire though,have heard a rumour that Roy Phelps has bought the remains of Vampire.
Gordan,I was at the Pod when Sammy Miller did that run,must have missed you,I was a VIP in one of the double decker buses,I wasnt there when Sammy did his first run and sucked all the windows out of the buses though!

Scorpian never ran near the 5s, more like 7's, it was way too heavy and no afterburner to run quick numbers. It is currently sat in the lockup opposite the main entrance at the Pod rotting away, it sat in the trade area for a good few years must of been about 10 years ago now and it was in a very sorry state then

Sammy's ZX1 jet dragster ran mid 5s, without the rocket motor and he never did run it with the rocket or attempt the British Land Speed record with it, Zx1 and the Firebird Vanishing Point are owned by Bob Feeler (former TAD racer) from France and run at demo's in France.

[chunder]

If you read the book its obvious that Richard is a very persuasive man and for his and the teams achievement go utterly unrewarded in this country,

What they did is a herculean effort, rememebr the song and dance the bloody Yanks made about breaking the sound barrier? If our PM had any foresight at teh time we would have broken it years before with teh Miles project.

And to break it on land and to do it almost safely was utter engineering and design genius.

These guys do not receive the credit they deserve and this is one fo teh finest achievements in teh last 20 years.

Just shows where the focus is now in Britain, 50 years ago this would ahve been massive, now its news for a day then forgotten, sad but true.

Just remember the thing managed nearly 780mph on land, the sea level ASR is about 900!

They used SPeys yes but very special ones that were not in service I think, and only co0z I think they couldnt get hold of RB211 Tornado engines which is what McLaren were going to use.

The current crop of jet cars over here are very good, again they dont really get enough credit, they are running regular 5 second passes, which is mighty quick!

[Notso Swift]

Originally Posted by chunder

The current crop of jet cars over here are very good, again they dont really get enough credit, they are running regular 5 second passes, which is mighty quick!

So what you are saying is they wouldn't make the final 8 in Australia or the top 32 in the US


(Mind you if it was a stand 800 there would be no competition between the wheel driven rails)