Showing posts with label racecar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racecar. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 November 2006

Racing, click on these for full size,



Though Smokey set several speed and endurance records with the car at Bonneville, with both a 302 cubic inch and a 396 cubic inch engine, it never won a race while Yunick owned it. It was later sold to Don Yenko, who did win several races.

A stock appearing Camaro, Smokey had acid-dipped the body panels and installed thinner glass to reduce weight, tilted the front end down and the windshield back for aerodynamics, widened the fenders, z'ed the front frame, and sucked the floorpan up to lower the car. The driprails were even brought closer to the body for a tiny aerodynamic improvement. Don't forget that the most common thing Smokey did to all his cars, was to streamline them for reduces air drag, all the underside was modified to reduce angles and flow air around flat spots. All of the aerodynamic things Smokey did are readily attributed to his experiences as a B-17 pilot, and the knowledge gained from airplane design and dynamics.

Sunday, 12 November 2006

Carroll shelby once had a special AC Cobra made for Bill Cosby



Bill met Carroll in a department store one day, and Carroll asked Bill why he drove foreign cars - outraged that an American would buy foreign cars. Bill said no American car was fast enough for the daily drive to work. So Carroll took this as a personal slight, being the builder of the coolest and fastest American car, and had a duplicate made of his own personal customized AC Cobra, just like this one in this February 1968 Road and Track article.
Listen to the Bill Cosby stand up routine on side A of the album, 200 MPH around a tree, no one can tell a story as well. Dual supercharged, dual quad, Shelby 427 side oiler... and Carroll had his mechaincs put it together exactly to his specs, and never allowed any others made that could match it. It held the record for the fastest production car for about 3 decades.

Not exactly a production car, but neither is an Enzo model Ferrari. At the level these guys compete, and build, it's close enough for me. Worth reading and learning.
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