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.................Return To Mine & Other Bonneville Car Construction Pages
.........................................-- Rambling Thoughts on --
.............................................-- Land Speed Racing --.
Over the last few years working with Hooley on his Stude and trying to design and build a
lakester I've given a lot of thought to the process of building a car for the salt that reaches it's full
potential. I've read books on aero, listened to what others have said on the salt and on
landracing.com and read anything else I could think that might help. What follows are some
conclusions, ideas and thoughts on designing a LSR (Land Speed Racing) car. I'm not saying
they are total accurate and I'm sure there are as many ideas on this as there are racers, but I
thought that by putting my thoughts out there it might be stimulus for others to do the same and
might help others that are now racing or plan on racing.
Some basic premises:
Some of what I plan on going into will apply more to cars running over say 220 on the long
course, but not all. Lets put it this way if you have a car that runs on the short course and you are
at maximum speed by the 1 mile and just run on down to the 3 most of the following isn't going
to apply. You need more HP and maybe more aero and it is about as simple as that.
Now if you are on the short course and your exit speed and/or 3rd mile average is over the 2 1/4
mile trap speed then the following will apply. If you have qualified or hope to qualify to run the
long course then I thing the following will definitely apply.
....................-- LSR Thoughts and Ideas Index --
Page 1 -- Aero Drag (Drag Force)Page 2 -- HP needed to run a certain speed and HP needed to run a new speed.
Page 3 -- Thrust and it's relation to weight on the drive wheels.
Page 4 -- Weight and Stability (Center of Gravity / Center of Pressure)
Page 5 -- Gears --Transmission Gearing and Rear End Gearing
Page 6 -- 4 & 5 Speed Transmissions With an Over Drive Option