Rare Bear vs Conquest I

[supercub]

I know about the airframe mods..........but what made Conquest I run so fast. Seems like both airplanes were very similar, with the exceptions of the engines. The two airplanes had some battles on the race course too. When one thinks years ago, Conquest I had the speed record of 483.041 and then years later the Bear took it at 528.....doesn't seem that much difference for the size of the engines, and what I assumed was learned over the years by the Bear team following the Conquest I record. Yes I know what happens to drag as speed increases.......but still amazes me the speed Conquest I was capable of. Please don't take this as anything negative towards the Bear or it's crew, because that's the furthest thing from my mind. Thanks for your comments.
Brian

[GWB]

Re: Rare Bear vs Conquest I

It seemed to me, when I checked (a few years ago...) the speeds that Darryl posted all the years he won, C1 was significantly slower than the Bear has shown.

[speeddemon]

Re: Rare Bear vs Conquest I

From the very start, Conquest 1 was developed to utilze a 'stock' (which is a relative term) R-2800 Bearcat powerplant. Taking into account that 'lighter is faster', all the airframe modifications and weight reduction program were intended to ease the load on the engine. It was a very successful program, but resulted in a very tempermental and tricky aircraft to fly. For its 'era', it was so fast mostly because the people associated with the aircraft were very much 'detail oriented'. They concentrated on the little things and took a very methodical approach to it. They certainly used a 'juiced' R-2800, but the speed secrets for that plane were in the weight and airframe clean-up.

The Bear initially went with the 'more power' route with the R-3350 but utilizing a stock airframe--one which was modified in stages. Heck, the wings weren't clipped until two years into it, and the lower canopy wasn't introduced until a year later. I think more than any other racer, the Bear has been an evolution in progress that combines both engine and airframe modifications.

The last time the two raced against each other, Lyle held the competition record at something around 432 mph, and Darryl held the qualifying record at 435 mph. When they ran against each other at Mojave '75, they were about as evenly matched as you could ever hope for.

There is no doubt that when Conquest 1 set the 3km record in 1969, the plane and team was at the top of their game. But the Bear had twenty years worth of tweaking (plus four or five years worth of Dave Cornell, at that point) on their side, and had a lot more tricks up their sleeve than Darryl had. By the time Lyle set the record, the Bear was much 'cleaner' and certainly more powerful than Conquest 1 ever was.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Rare Bear vs Conquest I

In addition to Brad's answer take a look at the fastest Conquest one ever went on the course at Reno as 435 MPH, compare that with Lyle's High 490's that he did (Pre-Course being altered to raise speeds) that is twelve percent faster than Conquest one. The amount of work and preparation to get performance at that level is geometric at that point. Every mile per hour at that level is really hard earned. The difference in speeds between the 3 KM 483 to 528, is about 9 percent. In addition to being the first airplane in it's class to set the 3 Km Record above 500 MPH The Rare Bear moved the mark farther in two days than everybody else had in fifty years. However it says something when in retrospect, Both pilots of the winning Bearcats are in the Motorsports Hall of Fame. Neither airplane was easy to fly, and were both considerably harder to fly than Mustangs of comparable speeds at speed.