Flathead motors run in a class of their own. In the past the Nebulous Theorum cars have run motorcycle engines and set records in the G, H, I, J and K classes. For whatever reason, Jack Costella decided to put a flatmotor in the same chassis and go for the XF/FS (Flathead V8/Fuel Streamliner) record...which was probably a little soft at 236 and change. I think it was held by Jim Lattin's Red Head liner that was retired years ago, but made an appearance on the salt along with Mickey Thompson's Challenger and a coupla others:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/lsr/bsf2004/wfi/20041006/20041006_040r8_jpg.htmlAnyway, Costella & Yacoucci not only broke the record, the smashed it to bits by running 280.023.
http://www.yacoucci.com/I think they'll prolly go for Ron Main's Flatfire XF/BFS (adding a turbo or two) which is around 295.
http://www.flatfire.com/Stay tuned for the next meets: World of Speed: Sep 16-19, Top 1 Oil Streamliner Shootout: Sep 20-26 (yes, those overlap the Grand-Am weekend) and World Finals: Oct7-10. Poteet and Main will run in the Shootout for sure. Supposedly they're having a special Liberty transmission build with everything "twice the size" (so I was told) as the one they kept breaking. If that works, the Speed Demon (which started out as the Flatfire, then became the EcoFire with a GM Ecotec motor and then the Speed Demo running Mopar midget motors last year and then the 299 Chevy SB2 smallblock D class motor this year) will attempt to break Burklands' absolute flying mile speed of 417 mph, since they were able to get a 401 exit speed on their next to last run. They've already stated that they want to shoot for 450...but I dunno what motor they plan on using for that speed. Kenny Duttweiler, the engine builder, is very, very good. Maybe he otta build a motor for the Nishes so they can at least make 2 runs in a row without blowing their Ron Klein motor.
Back on track, all you say is correct, Larry...but since there are hundreds of different classes, it sorta doesn't matter about the relative power of an OHV, or OHC motor vs a flathead. Btw, I dunno if you've heard of an Ardun conversion, but it's a set of heads that bolt onto a flathead motor and make it into an overhead valve hemispherical combustion chamber motor. Those conversion motors (which are rare as hens' teeth and made from pure costalotium) have their own class, too: XXF.
http://www.chevyasylum.com/lsr/bsf2003/wf/031017/031017_054r8_jpg.htmlIt gets confusing with so many classes and takes a few years of experience with it to become sorta comfy with it...and then there are the motorcycle classes which completely boggle my mind, as do SCCA Solo II classes. Speaking of which, I'd told the local regional people that I'd cover their events as long as I could have my expenses covered...about $75 for each event. The members all said that they'd be happy to buy prints or photo files from me. But since I grossed $65 for the last two events combined, I told 'em I won't be coming back any more. I'm not upset about it, I'm looking at it as a business venture that didn't work out.
I got the shots from the rat rod cruise-in at the Nugget up on the server:http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin/Cruisin2009/20090808/090808.html Some very interesting cars there. Now I'm working on the rods and kustoms I saw on the salt, then I can get the race cars. I hope to hell I get it done by this weekend. Is anyone going out there on Friday?
Back to work, Ray At 10:12 AM 8/17/2009, you wrote:
Great stuff Ray, I love that Nebulous Theorem III car. Why would they use a flat head v8, size? Don't overhead valve engines produce a lot more power, volumetric efficiency and all? Larry