What is this old car, with rounded shell, inch thick wood interior?

Depends if you're looking at the front or the back. ;-)

Reply to
krw
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Compared to most here, it seems, no. ;-)

Reply to
krw

Sounds like my '61 Mini 850 Mk1.50mpg of gas and 50mpq of oil. I was running SAE50 with 3 cans of STP before I tore it down and rebuilt it.

196000 miles and no measurable wear on cyls or crank but halt the rings were butter, and the other half glass.Shortly after the rebuild the head let go - cracked around about half of the head bolt bosses and lifted the head off the block. I got another head from the wrecking yard, did the valves and put it back together. I got rid of it at 214000 miles. The guy I sold it to brought it back a few months later along with an "austin America" 1300 engine and trans designed for 12 inch wheels. I put it in and they burned all 4 tires off in just over a week, blowing the doors off Datsun 240Zs at stoplights. Then they tore the rear subframe out doing handbrake power turns in a donut shop parking lot.
Reply to
clare

"J. Clarke" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

OK, I must have missed that post. Anyway, yeah, the Offy was usually 12:1 or 15:1 on methanol, since you can run it real rich and there's no risk of detonation. Unless it was a turbo motor, in which case the static compression was much less (because the turbo more than makes up for it).

But then, no gasoline engine will run 15:1 compression at full throttle on pump gas. You have to have some trickery to change the effective compression ratio, lower for full throttle/full power, higher for part throttle/economy. Or run 110 octane pump gas, and plan on fairly frequent rebuilds (some drag racers run that high). On pump gas, 12:1 is about the max.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:bjhgdcpjf6g5q717qsm4m8ri1blbm4lkkr@

4ax.com:

Methanol(*) was used on and off from the 30s. It has the great advantage of being detonation-proof if you run rich, and there's no power loss if it's rich. With mechanical fuel injection you couldn't control the mixture all that well, so methanol was the way to go.

That said, methanol is a pain to work with, so a lot of guys found it simpler and cheaper to stick with a carb and gas. With the tires available even into the 60s the Offy could usually overpower them on gas, unless it was a big track like a mile (or, of course, Indy).

John

(* vaguely on topic reference - methanol comes from wood)

Reply to
John McCoy

Except with GDI - Mazda SkyActive is 14:1

Reply to
clare

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:2kcgdct95emmpluphi0grv3sl4q3kivrvd@

4ax.com:

Miller was an amazing designer, and a lousy businessman.

He's mostly famous for his 91cid straight-8 engines (which are invariably described as "clockwork" and "jewel-like"). He then designed what became the Offy, went bankrupt, and sold the design to Offenhauser. After that he designed an engine which eventually became the legendary Novi (also built by Offenhauser originally). And some of his last design work eventually found it's way into the Ford Indy engine (the Foyt-Ford, not the Cosworth), which Meyer- Drake built a lot of the components for.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

Most of the sanctioned tracks REQUIRED methanol by the sixties. USAC for sure requires Methanol - and most sprint cars today run either 360 or 410 cu inch V8s. - with a 305 inch class gaining ground.

Upon checking the rule books, ALL USAC sprint and midget classes are limited to alcohol fuel - most classes Methanol only - some classes allow Ignite Ethanol or Methanol. NONE allow gasoline of ANY type..

This has been true for as long as I can remember.

Reply to
clare

But you have to carry twice as much to get the same distance between fueling stops. The other issue is that the flames are transparent so you can't see a car on fire.

Reply to
krw

Further investigation reveals USAC made the switch to methanol in

1964/65 for sprint and Indy racing - at leat one USAC sprint class has switched exclusively to Ignite Red Ethanol over the last couple of years.
Reply to
clare

Eddie Sachs' death in the '64 Indy put an end to gasoline.

Reply to
krw

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:00qgdc98dcrqn9og60b107tac9ij35tpfg@

4ax.com:

For European markets. Only 13:1 for North America. But it's still pretty fascinating engineering - they do some trickery with valve timing, I beleive, to limit the effective ratio at wide open throttle.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:t2qgdclr36cf3369h4vf61t3kpsvldj57a@

4ax.com:

Indy switched to methanol for safety reasons in 1965. The lower series (sprints, etc) mandated methanol a year or two later.

With modern tires, sprint cars are generally more power limited than traction, so in most series methanol is a necessity if you want to be competitive now. It's still a pain to work with.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yeah, but power is more important than fuel economy in racing, especially in short races like sprints.

The invisible flames is the biggest safety issue with alcohol fuels, but counterbalancing that, alcohol won't explode like gasoline, and you can put it out with water whereas gas needs a foam or CO2 extinquisher.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

As I understand it, liquid gasoline itself won't explode, but the vapor can.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

IIRC any thing that burns has to be a vapor first.

Reply to
Leon

vapor/gas

Reply to
Leon

So can alcohol vapour -. The BIG thing is dousing an alky fire with water puts it out and doesn't spread it. Using water effectively on a gasoline fire is an art as well as a science. I've done it - effectively - twice. A fine mist of water to cool down the material affected by the flames and to absorb heat from the fire, while choking the oxygen with steam. Totally extinguisged the one on a friend's fiat, and controlled an aerostar until the fire truck arrived - protecting 2 houses next to the truck. limitting damage to a couple strips of vinyl siding. If I could have convinced someone to get close enough to the truck to remove the gas cap, I would have extinguished it too, but everyone was afraid it was going to "blow" even though the fire was nowhere near the tank at the time.. Without the water hose it would have gotten their pretty quick though.

- - -

Reply to
clare

So solid nitro powder wont' burn unless it is fist evaporated?

Reply to
J. Clarke

I'm no chemist but that is how I understand it. Some how the dry chemical will turn to a liquid then a gas before it will burn. That is what we were taught in chemistry class.

And understand that the whole thing does not have to turn into a liquid, only the portion next to the heat source so that it can evaporate and provide fuel to the flame.

IIRC a candle was used to demonstrate the stages of the process.

Some elements/mistures change forms very quickly.

Reply to
Leon

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