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Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails


Tarheel

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James Dean died in a Porsche 550 Spyder, which is more of a purpose built race car than a 356 speedster.  It's my understanding that the other driver turned left in front of Dean's silver Spyder. 

 

It was that same concern about not being seen that prompted me to paint the car in my avatar red, rather the BRG, as originally planned.  I also rigged up the amber front turn signals as daytime running lights.  The tail lights were not also always on.  In fact, to deal with tailgating, there was a CHMSL in the roll bar and a rocker switch on the transmission tunnel that activated the brake lights and CHMSL without touching the brakes.

 

Not being seen by others has always been the bane of cyclists and sportscar drivers.  Distracted driving has only exacerbated the problem.

 

Is that your Cadillac in the background @ACV92?

 

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11 minutes ago, USNRET said:

First cup from the mystery gift this morning. I know nothing about this process akin to playing vinyl.
How much coffee to put in grinder? FIIK, dump some in
How long to make noise with the grinder thing? FIIK, do it a little while (looks like powder now)
How much coffee powder in filter? FIIK, 6 one half teaspoons that should do it
How much water? FIIK, throw 6 cups at it.
VERY weak. What now? Throw the rest of the coffee powder in a new filter and pour the weak azz coffee back over it.
Mew

Try again later

Google is your friend, then adjust for taste.  Experiment.

 

https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/blog/how-to-perfect-pour-over

 

https://pouringovercoffee.com/how-to-make-stronger-pour-over-coffee/

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1 hour ago, Tarheel said:

Damn guys.....had to catch up 6 pages.  Only gone a day^_^

Roger and Aaron keeping things moving.

There is a shop in Florida (LHT Performance)  google or youtube it.  He is getting 420hp out of the S2000 and seems to know his stuff.

Can't imagine that hp in a 2800 pound car:rolleyes: 

 

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Tarheel,

 

If you really want to spend some cash and find out how much that thing can make, check out Moran Racing Mike had the first door slammer to run 5 seconds in the quarter mile, he makes his own billet block, his own billet heads , his own billet valve covers, billet intake and his own billet fuel injectors. He wants to start building his own turbos as well. He tubo charges everything that a customer is willing to pay for and has done Z06 vettes, GT-40s and others.

 

Rog

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5 minutes ago, DizRotus said:

James Dean died in a Porsche 550 Spyder, which is more of a purpose built race car than a 356 speedster.  It's my understanding that the other driver turned left in front of Dean's silver Spyder. 

 

It it was that same concern about not being seen that prompted me to paint the car in my avatar red, rather the BRG, as originally planned.  I also rigged up the amber front turn signals as daytime running lights.  The tail lights were not also always on.  In fact, to deal with tailgating, there was a CHMSL in the roll bar and a rocker switch on the transmission tunnel that activated the brake lights and CHMSL without touching the brakes.

 

Not being seen by others has always been bane of cyclists and sports car drivers.  Distracted driving has only exacerbated the problem.

 

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IMG_0098.JPG

 

 

A friend of mine had a GT-500 fastback and a Porsche 911 owner drove off the road one time rubber necking his car  :)

 

Roger

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17 minutes ago, twistedcrankcammer said:

 

 

 

Tarheel,

 

Curb weight on a 1966 427 SC Cobra is 2,282 pounds, 700 pounds of that is just the engine!  ;) They also had a 42 gallon fuel tank! I read a test drive report once that they were driving one on one of the NASCAR tracks and the author said he came out of turn 3 in the top of 3rd gear which was around 100 to 110 mph, he power shifted into 4th gear and the whole car side stepped about a foot or so as it hazed the hides, now remember that this is the SC version, Carol made two Super Snakes with twin Paxton Superchargers on the 427 that would do over 200 mph! Bill Cosby was one of the two original customers that ordered one brand new and made a hilarious comedy tape about how it scared the chit out of him. The tape is titled 200 mph 

 

Rog

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1966-SHELBY-COBRA-427-SUPER-SNAKE-44723

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11 minutes ago, DizRotus said:

James Dean died in a Porsche 550 Spyder, which is more of a purpose built race car than a 356 speedster.  It's my understanding that the other driver turned left in front of Dean's silver Spyder. 

 

It was that same concern about not being seen that prompted me to paint the car in my avatar red, rather the BRG, as originally planned.  I also rigged up the amber front turn signals as daytime running lights.  The tail lights were not also always on.  In fact, to deal with tailgating, there was a CHMSL in the roll bar and a rocker switch on the transmission tunnel that activated the brake lights and CHMSL without touching the brakes.

 

Not being seen by others has always been the bane of cyclists and sports car drivers.  Distracted driving has only exacerbated the problem.

 

IMG_0097.JPG

IMG_0098.JPG

 

 

 

 

DizRotus,

 

Were you aware that one of Kevin Harmon's 3 brothers, Damon Harmon is the current Super Stock VW champion and has been for several years?? He has both a 1959 and a 1950 split window bug that both run 9s in the quarter mile naturally aspirated 4 poppers without any power adder?

 

Rog

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2 minutes ago, twistedcrankcammer said:

 

 

 

 

DizRotus,

 

Were you aware that one of Kevin Harmon's 3 brothers, Damon Harmon is the current Super Stock VW champion and has been for several years?? He has both a 1959 and a 1950 split window bug that both run 9s in the quarter mile naturally aspirated 4 poppers without any power adder?

 

Rog

any Turbonique users ??

 

 

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Rog,

 

No I am not.  It's amazing how quick cars go today.  I suspect better tires are the main explanation.  I recall when 9 seconds was reserved for funny cars, gassers, and the like.

 

My 61 VW beetle with a '65 Corvair -- 300 CFM Carter AFB and tube headers -- made about 150hp and could do sub 13 second runs, on street tires, that embarrassed GTOs, V8 Mustangs, Vettes, etc.   

 

Gas mileage was atrocious.  Between East Lansing and Chicago I had to stop twice for more premium gas.  Like most heart transplants of that era, it was constantly being rejected.  

 

@twistedcrankcammer

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4 minutes ago, DizRotus said:

Rog,

 

No I am not.  It's amazing how quick cars go today.  I suspect better tires are the main explanation.  I recall when 9 seconds was reserved for funny cars, gassers, and the like.

 

My 61 VW beetle with a '65 Corvair -- 300 CFM Carter AFB and tube headers -- made about 150hp and could do sub 13 second runs, on street tires, that embarrassed GTOs, V8 Mustangs, Vettes, etc.   

 

Gas mileage was atrocious.  Between East Lansing and Chicago I had to stop twice for more premium gas.  Like most heart transplants of that era, it was constantly being rejected.  

My oldest brothers did quite a few Corvair conversions.  They even converted a vw bus that they kept for years.   It was a vast improvement over the stock 4 banger.

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http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/features/this-1960s-rocket-charger-would-make-a-million-horsepower-then-explode

 
 
FR

This 1960s rocket-charger would make a million horsepower (then explode)

JUL. 17, 2014
03b_turbonique-Rocket.jpeg?t=0a4237ce9c9
 
 
By
 
Brendan McAleer

The Turbonique rocket-powered superchargers and drag axles of the ’60s were the sort of insane mail-order speed parts you bought if you wanted to bolt on a few thousand horsepower to your dragster—and didn’t mind near-certain disaster

Today’s headlines belong to the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower supercharged behemoth that’s almost comically powerful. You can’t help but love the thing, with its sledgehammer of a motor and snarling name.

And it’s got the drag-racing time slips to back up the badge, too: a 10.8-second performance in the quarter-mile, on drag radials. Or, to put it another way, not quite as fast as a mild-mannered chiropractor’s 1963 Plymouth.

Not an ordinary Plymouth, I grant you, but one equipped with a Turbonique supercharger strapped to its 426 Max Wedge engine. Think the Hellcat’s the peak of drag-racing lunacy? Not even close: when it comes to Turbonique’s brand of mail-order insanity, you might as well be comparing a soy latte to straight-up bourbon.

The word “awesome” gets thrown around so much these days, we’ve lost sight of its original meaning – something that strikes you with amazement, wonder, and fear. Turbonique was, without a doubt, the single most old-testament aftermarket automotive company that ever existed. Get in, sit down, strap in, and hold on – time for the story of the postage-paid rocket-propelled car.

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Nuke ‘em from orbit

As the Iron Curtain fell across Europe, those left in the West became ever more nervous about the prospect of nuclear war. The best protection, so the thinking of the day went, was to amass an arsenal big enough to destroy the planet – that’d show those pesky Reds.

As an employee of the Martin defence subcontractor, Gene Middlebrooks was responsible for work on the Pershing ballistic missile, a medium-range solid-propellant rocket. The guy in charge of the factory that built them, Edward Uhl, had invented the bazooka. The factory was based in Orlando, Florida. Explosives, rocketry, firepower, Florida: what other elements need to be present in the genesis of a really bad idea? Oh yeah—a gearhead.

Middlebrooks was certainly one of those. A respected mechanical engineer, he tinkered at home with the idea of self-powered superchargers, including a battery-operated forced induction turbine—today, Audi is just on the cusp of bringing a commercial version of this idea to market. However, in the 1950s, batteries were too heavy, so Middlebrooks needed something else as a source of power. What to do? He sat at his work bench in the rocket factory, tapping his pencil idly on a blank sheet of paper. In the rocket factory. Where there are rockets.

Uh-oh.

“Turbonique dubbed the rocket-propelled 
go-kart unsafe for quarter-mile competition. 
Not that they wouldn’t sell you one anyway.”

Rocket-supercharged!

Turbonique was founded in 1962, with its first product the supercharger that propelled that 426-equipped Plymouth down the track at Hellcat-whippin’ speed. It was a pretty interesting piece of equipment, cast in aluminium. It looked a bit like a turbocharger, but rather than using the waste exhaust gasses of an internal combustion engine to drive the turbine, it ran by burning N-propyl nitrate. Marketed under the Turbonique trade-name Thermoline, it’s better just to call it what it was: rocket fuel.

The effect of flipping a switch on this rocket-propelled supercharger was, um, dramatic. First, liquid oxygen would be sparked to life, then the Thermoline fed in as the turbine whizzed to 100,000 rpm. Dyno-testing a Ford 409 V8, power was proven to jump from 405 horsepower to 839 horsepower, with the proviso that it probably wasn’t safe to run the system for more than five minutes. No kiddin’.

Dr. Gerald Guest, the chiropractor at the wheel of the dragstrip-blitzing Mopar, called the performance boost “most gratifying,” and recorded a trap speed of 235 km/h (146 mph). Middleton dubbed his creation the Auxiliary Power (AP) Supercharger, and proceeded to sell multiple copies through his mail-order catalogue. By the middle-sixties, it wasn’t even close to the craziest thing Turbonique sold.

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(Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions)

The Tobacco King

By all accounts, Zach Reynolds was one of the wildest men you’d ever want to meet. Heir to the Reynolds Tobacco company, he had the funds to do pretty much whatever he liked, and what Reynolds wanted to do was smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

Reynolds’ 1963 Ford Galaxie was already the kind of car that could make its presence felt on the dragstrip. Hopped up with a 427ci V8 and a quad-carb Latham supercharger, the Galaxie menaced with its jacked-up suspension and all-black paint. And then Turbonique got hold of it.

They installed something called a “drag axle”on Reynold’s Ford, a mutated-looking lump of aluminium that hung off the back differential like some sort of metallic tumour. Aside from the need to plumb in Thermoline as the fuel source, it weighed only 50 kg (110 lbs) or so.

When ignited, the drag-axle worked in an entirely unique way. Essentially, the rocket fuel spun a turbine that this time provided direct-drive power right to the axle. Think of it in terms of a rocket-propelled moped, with the power getting to the ground in addition to whatever the internal combustion engine is putting out.

Just how much power is where it gets interesting. Reynold’s Galaxie, which he called “The Tobacco King,” was licensed for the street, and he was just crazy enough to light up his Turbonique on the street now and again. However, it was the official Turbonique drag car that gives some idea of just how powerful the drag axle really was.

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A flat-black VW Beetle with beefy rear tires, the Black Widow looked about as mean as it’s possible for a Bug to do. Which is to say, not all that mean. When it lined up against Tommy Ivo’s quad-engined, four-wheel-drive Showboat at the dragstrip, it was a mismatch for the ages. Showboat’s thirty-two pistons churned to life in a haze of nitromethane, and it launched off the line with a brutal roar. Roy Drew, driver of the Turbonique car, hit the button for the drag axle and hung on for dear life.

Lighting off the Black Widow’s rocket axle provided a colossal 1,300 horsepower, and the little black Beetle smoked Showboat through the traps, running a 9.36-second elapsed time. If you’re counting, that’s a Bug that’ll outrun a Bugatti.

The drag axle retailed for between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on what accessories you ordered it with, and if that wasn’t enough for you, Turbonique would also sell actual bolt-on horizontal-thrust rocket engines. Sweet mother of pearl.

A tad explode-y

Truly, this was the bleeding edge of 1960s technology, but as might be expected, the whole bleeding part came to be taken quite literally. Turbonique’s rocket motors often exploded, particularly when the fuel pooled back in the combustion chamber when drivers backed off the throttle.

That’s just what happened with “Turbo-Sonic,” a three-wheeled jet-shaped craft built by Dick Dean out of famed customizer George Barris’ workshop. Now fully operational, thanks to the work of the Bradford, Ontario-based Guild of Automotive Restorers, the Turbo-Sonic is kept away from the dragstrip as it’s a bit of a handful.

“The Turbo-Sonic dragster is equipped with cable brakes the likes of a bicycle,” explains Thomas Douglas, the Guild’s head of special projects and research. “The front wheel makes trying to make even slight course corrections almost impossible, and the aero-styled coachwork is indicative of a jet fighter, so reaching any kind of speed, the car will do as its shape is intended and take flight and promptly flip over.” It does, however, look absolutely fantastic.

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Several people were injured by exploding Turboniques, most notably in setting records for the world’s fastest snowmobile at the time. In spite of these issues, folks continued to test out different interesting things to strap the rocket-engines too, including go-karts that clocked in at 260 km/h (161 mph)—although reports indicate these figures may have been exaggerated. Even this was a bit much for the Turbonique catalogue, which dubbed the rocket-propelled kart unsafe for quarter-mile competition. Not that they wouldn’t sell you one anyway.

HeapMedia209891With liability lawsuits looming, the company was finally brought down in a more ignominious way, by a successful prosecution of Middlebrooks for mail fraud. Even the complete Turbonique kits required mechanical know-how to assemble (and occasionally specialized tools), yet the advertising would have you believe it was a bolt-together affair. Insiders say that the error wasn’t deliberate, but that Middlebrooks was simply consumed with perfecting a new application of speed—and what that was we’ll never know. He was sent to prison for two years and fined $4,000, remaining in Florida after he was released to run a small resort.

It was a quiet end for a mad scientist, not the fiery explosion you expected for a man who gave space-age power to the muscle car. Even so, the Turbonique story echoes down the ages as the sort of nuttery we’ll never again see in modern times.

Sure, the Hellcat’s pretty cool, but it’s a housecat next to the Turbonique cars. Why not bolt on a drag axle and see what she’ll really do? Let’s light this candle.

Topics:

 

Classic cars

, 

Hot rods

, 

Car culture

 

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20 minutes ago, twistedcrankcammer said:

Dirtmudd,

 

Have you ever seen or heard of one of the rocket assisted turbo rear ends that added another short bust of 1,500 HP to your engines base power?? They were sold back in the 60s and actually worked!

 

Rog

I have known about the for 10 years

or so...but never seen them in use..

other than YouTube vids..

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1 minute ago, dirtmudd said:

I have known about the for 10 years

or so...but never seen them in use..

other than YouTube vids..

 

 

 

You know you are a helplessly lost gear head when you know about crap like this!

 

Without looking it up, do you know how many 1966 GT-350 Convertibles Carol Shelby made??

 

Rog

 

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3 minutes ago, twistedcrankcammer said:

 

 

 

You know you are a helplessly lost gear head when you know about crap like this!

 

Without looking it up, do you know how many 1966 GT-350 Convertibles Carol Shelby made??

 

Rog

 

5

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2 minutes ago, twistedcrankcammer said:

 

 

They always used to say six, but now they say it is five, you peeked didn't you??

 

Rog

no but I just looked it's 4

 

At A Glance

'66 Shelby G.T. 350 convertible

  • Shelby American built only four G.T. 350 convertibles for '66.
  • Each of the four convertibles was a different color--green, yellow, blue, and red.
  • The '66 G.T. 350s were equipped identically to the fastbacks, except the rear quarter panel brake-cooling scoops were not functional because the convertible top mechanism interfered with the ducting.
  • All four '66 G.T. 350 convertibles survive today--three are complete cars while the fourth is disassembled and in storage.
  • For many years, it was rumored that there were six convertibles. However, paperwork discovered by SAAC proves that only four were built.
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