Nick Trott said...

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your participation on this thread - great to have such knowledge communicated! The piece in the current issue was very much an opening gambit - we're following the project all the way so there will be a lot more to come, especially on the tech side. And because this is 'our' story - we can tailor it to what the reader wants. With that in mind, what would you like to see in the next report in mag?

Best,

n

I appreciate that you have a very difficult task of knowing what depth of detail to pitch to (to obviously attempt to appeal to as many people as possible), but I would personally like to see a lot more detail in the engineering side of things regarding the engine build.

Given the remit for the event, I feel sure that the team came across many stumbling blocks and I would find it interesting to read about the challenges they had to overcome and what parts they had to change and why. It could still be made interesting to anyone if the urgency and frustrations were conveyed (as and when things didn't go to plan). Following that, I'd also like to hear about the dynoing process and what issues they then discovered and what they did to resolve them. Too often we read in magazines that parts have been changed without hearing about the engineering explanation as to why, and it often leaves more questions than answers.

As an example of my own geekiness, I actually find pictures of engine parts (like the ones below) bordering on the prawnographic, so would love to see similar to do with this project .

Obviously this would take more than a couple of pages to do it justice, but it would surely be an interesting exercise to attempt such an article, just to see what the feed-back was?

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

Hello Mike,

I agree, its the technical detail that makes me tick too. I'm here to answer any direct questions you may have!

I will liase with Nick and put together anything the magazines readers will find interesting.

There is plenty to write about thats for sure.

Rick, I forgot to mention what are you running exactly?

Speak soon!

Hi,
We're trying to be the fastest guys in history with a 1 litre engine... which would also make me the 7th Brit in history in the Bonneville 300 club and I think the 3rd fastest Brit on The Salt in terms of records.
She's a little Streamliner, obviously I admit given we're trying to be the outright fastest of all the 1 litre classes ever.

We're running on a 313mph record though so it's a VERY big ask. Forget the aero issues of keeping a home-built car on the ground (no wind-tunnel time...), and getting enough grip/power etc to get it up to the speed. Laying flat with your chin forced onto your chest and trying to drive at those speeds is downright bl**dy terrifying.

And as mentioned due to sponsors hesitating when they were about to sign on the dotted line we're running a crew of volunteers on a budget of under 25k sterling right now... which is a little tight by the time we ship her each way ($10,000 min), flights for 7 ($10,000), engine rebuilds to get us 700bhp ($12,000), rental of push/tow vehicles... and is why we'll be in tents at the "Bend in the Road" living on beans on toast I think at this rate!
As a rookie last year it takes quite a few runs to get up to unlimited license status (although how good is that going to be to hand over to the Fuzz "by mistake"? SCTA UNLIMITED SPEED LICENSE" ;-) ) so combined with a few tech issues with the gearbox getting torn apart by the power of the engine we ran out of time last year once I'd done my necessary license passes. Think Dickie will only need to do 3 runs before you can crack at your record ( sub 150, sub 175 and sub 200 if I recall correctly) but I do think that while you are running on an older record which looks quite achievable, none of the Bonneville records are soft. Although to be honest very few of the cars run on anything like your budget and also the average Bonneville guy is squeezing a big Yankee crate motor under his hood as that tends to be cheaper/ more reliable than a turbo motor so that leaves the blown small cube records as the place to hunt glory I think!
Going to be excellent to have another Brit team out there. And I warn you, it's addictive and if you don't make it, you'll be back. Spoke to one family last year, running a roadster... been chasing their record and 200mph club membership for 22 years!
Cheers
Rick

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

vRSBonneville said...

Hello Mike,

I agree, its the technical detail that makes me tick too. I'm here to answer any direct questions you may have!

I will liase with Nick and put together anything the magazines readers will find interesting.

There is plenty to write about thats for sure.

Rick, I forgot to mention what are you running exactly?

Speak soon!

Perhaps you could just go to town on the next article and then let Nick edit it accordingly for the mag as to what he sees fit to publish, and then once it has been released (so as not to pre-empt anything), you could then post up the full un-edited version?

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

RickP said...

Hi,
We're trying to be the fastest guys in history with a 1 litre engine... which would also make me the 7th Brit in history in the Bonneville 300 club and I think the 3rd fastest Brit on The Salt in terms of records.
She's a little Streamliner, obviously I admit given we're trying to be the outright fastest of all the 1 litre classes ever.

We're running on a 313mph record though so it's a VERY big ask. Forget the aero issues of keeping a home-built car on the ground (no wind-tunnel time...), and getting enough grip/power etc to get it up to the speed. Laying flat with your chin forced onto your chest and trying to drive at those speeds is downright bl**dy terrifying.

And as mentioned due to sponsors hesitating when they were about to sign on the dotted line we're running a crew of volunteers on a budget of under 25k sterling right now... which is a little tight by the time we ship her each way ($10,000 min), flights for 7 ($10,000), engine rebuilds to get us 700bhp ($12,000), rental of push/tow vehicles... and is why we'll be in tents at the "Bend in the Road" living on beans on toast I think at this rate!
As a rookie last year it takes quite a few runs to get up to unlimited license status (although how good is that going to be to hand over to the Fuzz "by mistake"? SCTA UNLIMITED SPEED LICENSE" ;-) ) so combined with a few tech issues with the gearbox getting torn apart by the power of the engine we ran out of time last year once I'd done my necessary license passes. Think Dickie will only need to do 3 runs before you can crack at your record ( sub 150, sub 175 and sub 200 if I recall correctly) but I do think that while you are running on an older record which looks quite achievable, none of the Bonneville records are soft. Although to be honest very few of the cars run on anything like your budget and also the average Bonneville guy is squeezing a big Yankee crate motor under his hood as that tends to be cheaper/ more reliable than a turbo motor so that leaves the blown small cube records as the place to hunt glory I think!
Going to be excellent to have another Brit team out there. And I warn you, it's addictive and if you don't make it, you'll be back. Spoke to one family last year, running a roadster... been chasing their record and 200mph club membership for 22 years!
Cheers
Rick

Rick,
That is dedication and I wish you all the best of luck .

It would ne nice if the Evo team did a piece on your attempt as well (while they're out there anyway ) ?

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

Well it would be nice Mike ;-)

But we've got 2 secret weapons on our team, Alex Lier, who photographed the fabulous Speedseekers book is going to be official photographer.
http://www.speedseekers.net/

And, Josh Clason is going to be with us all week making a full length film for us! See his stunning Ode to Salt below:

http://www.vimeo.com/14260419

So we're pretty stoked as you might imagine.. I think a little car from a shed in Scotland running against the big guns at big speeds has captured a few imaginations...

If not from the sponsors just yet!!!

Cheers
Rick

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

RickP said...

Well it would be nice Mike ;-)

But we've got 2 secret weapons on our team, Alex Lier, who photographed the fabulous Speedseekers book is going to be official photographer.
http://www.speedseekers.net/

And, Josh Clason is going to be with us all week making a full length film for us! See his stunning Ode to Salt below:

http://www.vimeo.com/14260419

So we're pretty stoked as you might imagine.. I think a little car from a shed in Scotland running against the big guns at big speeds has captured a few imaginations...

If not from the sponsors just yet!!!

Cheers
Rick

Why not start a thread in this section about your car, as we don't even know what it looks like - give us some info .

I know it's not the done thing, but have you considered setting up a Paypal account and seeing if anyone was willing to contribute - every little helps?

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

Not here to steal Dickie or Skoda's thunder...

But here's a full summary of last years story as told on the Evo forum with pics:

Cheers
Rick

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/flower-scotland-wilts-bonneville-salt-flats-speed-week

Your link text

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

RickP said...

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/flower-scotland-wilts-bonneville-salt-flats-speed-week

Your link text

Awesome - so what have you done this year to prevent a re-occurrence of last year's events?

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

Most of the issues last year stemmed from some poor prep by some US guys that we were using to help us on our first visit to the Salt...
Less said the better really... but we think it was those errors that cost us our 2 main gearboxes and our primary engine... they also managed to spanner check the car before we flew in and NOT do up the bolts in the steering which left us about half a turn of a nut from disaster on the first day...
So she's totally rebuilt, we've got stronger second gears in the 'box, new front end suspension/steering in order to give me a little control over where she's headed (last year it was like sending requests down a tube to the engine room) and some small aero tweaks courtesy of advice offered by the Thrust SSC team.
Still lots of hurdles to come and really we'd have liked to have a load more spares on the Salt with us but we just couldn't afford the extra freight.

Cheers
Rick

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

RickP said...

Most of the issues last year stemmed from some poor prep by some US guys that we were using to help us on our first visit to the Salt...
Less said the better really... but we think it was those errors that cost us our 2 main gearboxes and our primary engine... they also managed to spanner check the car before we flew in and NOT do up the bolts in the steering which left us about half a turn of a nut from disaster on the first day...
So she's totally rebuilt, we've got stronger second gears in the 'box, new front end suspension/steering in order to give me a little control over where she's headed (last year it was like sending requests down a tube to the engine room) and some small aero tweaks courtesy of advice offered by the Thrust SSC team.
Still lots of hurdles to come and really we'd have liked to have a load more spares on the Salt with us but we just couldn't afford the extra freight.

Cheers
Rick

Fingers crossed for you .

--

Nordschleife - there's only two barriers to worry about - the ones on the left and the ones on the right!

Nick Trott said...

Bunta - there'll be some awesome video, I promise!

Sam Riley (our film-maker) will be there all Speed Week. And I'll be there too with Dickie fronting it. Our plan is to put together enough footage to create a mini-documentary.

Excellent!

Looking forward to it

Sounds like fun (and a challenge!)

Where is the team based in Jockland?

Just outside Glasgow... soon to be known as the Speed Capital of Europe ;-)

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

Well NOW I can wish you best of luck then

Amazing stuff from RickP. We will certainly help when we are out there, and if you want to use the blogs on this site to promote your efforts and possibly nab some sponsors feel free. I'll promote your blogs on the homepage too for extra visibility - although such is the turnaround of news I cant promise anything permanent. We are obviously focused on Skoda's efforts, but if we can help - we will. Happy to fill a suitcase full of spares for you!

n

Thanks Nick!!

Bring Pot Noodles!!!

(I'm kidding, Walmart sell them by the slab...)

Really looking forward to having you boys on the Salt and hope we can help you get your record in any way we can.

Promise you, if you've never been... you are in for an addictive experience... I'm not a religious man... but that for me was like finding my Mecca. Tears in the eyes as the car came out of the trailer last year as it dawned on me it was there just for me to drive... and it wasn't just the Methanol fumes!

Art Arfons once said that he hated every second he was in Bonneville, but as soon as he was on the road home, he was planning how to get back.

As last year, I will keep all updated on a Blog here.

Cheers
Rick

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...

I've googled your efforts now - Nice Tux Rich

My tribute to those who went before... they used to race in shirt sleeves and the occasional bow tie... I am made to wear 7 layers of nomex... but I'd like to show I'm with them in spirit.
Hence the DJ drag suit...

--

Grazing the gravel trap of insanity...