Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

[Paynts]

I think this is the most interesting Unlimited racing currently, I'd like the enlightened to tell us all about her, was she at one time World Jet? owned by Don whittington?
Does a Griffon engine have the ability to drive the Mustang airframe fast enough to keep up with Strega? what about props ? would a Rotol 5 blade be better? is the modifed shackelton contra prop as good as it gets ? can the griffon run at higher MAP and lower RPM than the Merlin ? what nose case gears do Griffons run? what does Mr Nixon think? what does Sparrow think? what advice would Steve Hinton and the old RB team give to Thom Richard and his crew?

This would be a much more interesting thread that the one about whether or not PM was late qualifiying and how professional her crew were and was the flux capacitor leaking... ( sorry watched back to the future the other night and i think PM should have one of those!!!)
I attended Reno in 2011 and loved seeing her roaring round the pilons again, sadly I couldnt make it this year as I blew the Reno money on our wedding and plane tickets from England arent cheap!!
rgds Simon

[Big_Jim]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

I think this is the most interesting Unlimited racing currently, I'd like the enlightened to tell us all about her, was she at one time World Jet? owned by Don whittington?
Does a Griffon engine have the ability to drive the Mustang airframe fast enough to keep up with Strega? what about props ? would a Rotol 5 blade be better? is the modifed shackelton contra prop as good as it gets ? can the griffon run at higher MAP and lower RPM than the Merlin ? what nose case gears do Griffons run? what does Mr Nixon think? what does Sparrow think? what advice would Steve Hinton and the old RB team give to Thom Richard and his crew?

This would be a much more interesting thread that the one about whether or not PM was late qualifiying and how professional her crew were and was the flux capacitor leaking... ( sorry watched back to the future the other night and i think PM should have one of those!!!)
I attended Reno in 2011 and loved seeing her roaring round the pilons again, sadly I couldnt make it this year as I blew the Reno money on our wedding and plane tickets from England arent cheap!!
rgds Simon

Yes. This is the airframe that was constructed in 9 months in 1988 in Fort Lauderdale at the World Jet facility. It utilized a fuselage center section from a Hollywood movie studio (that I believe came through the Tallmantz collection). I don't know the provenance of the wing, but it was separate from the fuselage. Firewall forward was custom-built. The entire tail section (from the production break aft of the radiator doghouse) was 'borrowed' from the Merlin-powered Precious Metal.

Don raced it once in 1988 as the 'new' Precious Metal, but crashed at the start of the Gold Championship. It was rebuilt but did not race again until the 1995 Phoenix and Reno races where it ran as World Jet.

There is no known serial number for this airframe, so it is listed with the FAA as 44-88.

Part of the mystery surrounding this aircraft is that it was part of the shell game that was being played at the time to conceal/hide assets from the Feds. Over the years it has been confused/misidentified as the original Precious Metal, Levitz's Miss Ashley and Miss Ashley II. Even 25 years later I am still baffled at the 'experts' who publish misinformation about the airframe.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

I think this is the most interesting Unlimited racing currently, I'd like the enlightened to tell us all about her, was she at one time World Jet? owned by Don whittington?
Does a Griffon engine have the ability to drive the Mustang airframe fast enough to keep up with Strega? what about props ? would a Rotol 5 blade be better? is the modifed shackelton contra prop as good as it gets ? can the griffon run at higher MAP and lower RPM than the Merlin ? what nose case gears do Griffons run? what does Mr Nixon think? what does Sparrow think? what advice would Steve Hinton and the old RB team give to Thom Richard and his crew?

This would be a much more interesting thread that the one about whether or not PM was late qualifiying and how professional her crew were and was the flux capacitor leaking... ( sorry watched back to the future the other night and i think PM should have one of those!!!)
I attended Reno in 2011 and loved seeing her roaring round the pilons again, sadly I couldnt make it this year as I blew the Reno money on our wedding and plane tickets from England arent cheap!!
rgds Simon

Precious Metal was in fact once race #9 World Jet. Built by Don Whittington from various parts of various Mustangs. The fuselage was a movie prop at MGM from what I understand. The Griffon idea is simple; run big hp at or slightly above rated rpm/mp. 3000@90 is the number I would like to see it race at. Can it run at the front with the likes of Strega, Rare Bear, or Voodoo? I would like to think so but we have yet to prove that.

I think some people are behind us and what the team has done and continues to do; some are not. Papa Nixon is very kind and checks in on me at least once a day during race week. The Voodoo guys are just awesome with our crew and very good sportsmen. The old Bear crew as well… good people!

The nose case question… Ahhhh my favorite Griffon question of all time. I guess it might be worth a try but you can't find the nose case/prop. I'm sure the few that are out there would be hard to pry out of the owners hands for an air racer. We have refined the C/R prop on a Griffon more than anyone else has and it has yielded some very good results. A 63 mph gain is pretty damn good, and we have yet to turn them the max rpm they were designed to.

As far as all the rumors from last year about our crew and all that go see my other thread.

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?11461-Let-s-kill-some-rumors

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

As far as all the rumors from last year about our crew and all that go see my other thread.

You guys so don't have to own that story, period! Everyone that has read it, takes it for what it's worth and, then consider the source.

Let that one go Bill... you guys are waaaaay beyond that with what you accomplished, not to mention the greatest suspense, last minute entry story in decades!

Good work.. don't let me ever hear you mention that BS again... kay???

[Paynts]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

thank you for replying Wild Bill!

I suppose the Red Baron speed record shows the potential speed of a Griffon Mustang although I know racing at Reno is very different to straight line speed runs
As for diffrent props a few years ago Steve Hinton sold a Shacketlon engined Spitfire to guy in France and the guy then aquired a new 5 blade prop and nose case for it, I saw it before and after at Duxford , the Spit looks alot better with the 5 blader.
having said that PM does look mean with her 6 blader. and if it can be kept reliable and performs as good as a 5 blade Rotol then its probably not the place in the programme to concentrate too much money on
Is it secret or can you say that youve done to the blades on PM? looks like different blades or are they re twisted?

Paynts

[gp70442]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

Somewhere Thom did a whole article on what was done to that prop and why. He did a lot of research and profiled a new prop to his specifications.

GP

[Tosg]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

Don and Bill may again have some extra time on their hands. Maybe they will write a memoir.

http://durangoherald.com/article/20131125/NEWS01/131129736/0/SEARCH/DEA-raids-firm-linked-to-Pagosa-spa

[Dialtapper]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

Don and Bill may again have some extra time on their hands. Maybe they will write a memoir.

http://durangoherald.com/article/201...-to-Pagosa-spa

Deja vu all over again.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

Don and Bill may again have some extra time on their hands. Maybe they will write a memoir.

http://durangoherald.com/article/201...-to-Pagosa-spa

They really don't talk much....and about half (or more) of what they do say you have to take with a big huge chunk of salt.

And that's to their close friends.

[Samuel]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

One of my favorite clips of Precious Metal and their "return" to air racing

[Randy Haskin]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

They really don't talk much....and about half (or more) of what they do say you have to take with a big huge chunk of salt.

And that's to their close friends.

...and apparently dictated over their secretary's shoulder!

[Big_Jim]

Re: Precious Metal can we have her full biography please?

...and apparently dictated over their secretary's shoulder!

Well, that's plausible deniability, right? "I never typed that".