A little of our past.....

[David E. Wells]

Re: A little of our past.....

Add Dwight Thorn to that Mira Slovak comment!...D.

[440_Magnum]

Re: A little of our past.....

That'd be a pretty good guess.

In fact, how it typically works is that when we (the boat racers) find parts that ARE airworthy, we trade them to people like Sparrow or Yancey for non-airworthy parts. Just ask Tiger. The stock Merlin he'll be running at Reno? Yeah...that was a bone-stock Merlin that we found still in the wax coating. Traded it to Sparrow for a couple of non-airworthy, but perfectly boat-worthy engines.

So what EXACTLY makes a Merlin or Allison "boat worthy but not airworthy?" I can guess lots of things, like crankshaft condition, cracks in certain critical areas, etc., but its easier to just ask

If its ever been discussed before, I must've missed it.

[David E. Wells]

Re: A little of our past.....

Dwight showed me a photo of exhaust stacks that pointed UP, he was very proud of it, and I THINK they used parts from the RR version of the Merlin that was used in tanks and boats, it wasn't called a Merlin, it was called a ????, I forget, but it didn't have a blower and ran the OTHER WAY!...D.

[speeddemon]

Re: A little of our past.....

Dwight showed me a photo of exhaust stacks that pointed UP, he was very proud of it, and I THINK they used parts from the RR version of the Merlin that was used in tanks and boats, it wasn't called a Merlin, it was called a ????, I forget, but it didn't have a blower and ran the OTHER WAY!...D.

The 'tank' engine was the Rolls Royce Meteor...which was essentially a de-tuned Merlin without the supercharger. A lot of the parts are interchangable. But the 'upturned' exhaust stacks--both the round ones and the rectangle ones--were custom made for the boat racers. Dwight used to work on the Pay'n Pak team in the early 1970's, and that is where he got those stacks from. He used them on his engines when he ran them on the test stand. There is a great picture of them on the back cover of Mustang, The Racing Thoroughbred.

[race9]

Re: A little of our past.....

Ill be at the races this weekend too. In fact I'm watching the Blue Angles from my hotel room right now.

[speeddemon]

Re: A little of our past.....

Ill be at the races this weekend too. In fact I'm watching the Blue Angles from my hotel room right now.

Ryan, stop by the U-48 Miss Lakeridge Paving pits....(green, yellow, and black boat) and ask for Brad. I'll bring ya in and show you guys around.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: A little of our past.....

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Uncle Jimmy getting you to send me weekly updates?????