Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[jackiewilson]

CÓRDOBA -----traditional home of Bullfighting---remember Tyrone Power in "Blood and Sand. "(Lust in the dust) and Errol Flynn with his trusty TOLEDO steel tooth pick.
In spite of all this, the place stinks of sewage, especially down by the riverside.

Did the Mosque this morning , amazing place------can accommodate 100,000 godbotherers at one time, Muslims and prayer mats included.
It must have cost trillions to construct-----it's religion gone berserk----how anyone could put that much time effort and money into any one project, beggars belief, started sometime around 745 AD, with the finishing touches some thousand years later!, will download some piccies later.

Yes I know it's got sod all to do with S&F but it does creep in under the "Tricks" label, that's why I kept the OMC bit in here!

[ron54]

"Anymore than a 100 mph lap at Bristol."
I shall wait for comments![/QUOTE]

Jackie..wasn''t that lap in the official timed practice... or was off the back of Charlies omega to ramp up the crowds interest?

[jackiewilson]

We shall never know Phill-----IT was difficult to get the boat set up to run 100 and accelerate out of the turns so there was no way it happened except over the loud speaker, but the thousands of folk watching kept coming back for more, and let's face it 100 sounds a hell of a lot better than 87.275. Am pretty certain GG in his wisdom had enough foresight to make sure the "official" speeds were much higher than anything that went on before, besides just WHO would ever question it ?

[Galveston340]

...glad you are enjoying your trip Jackie and am looking forward to the pics. Hope the Wife is feeling better and remind her what we always say when headed down to Mexico "Don't drink the water"!!

[powerabout]

Went out Tapas barring last night which left poor old Jilly with a very upset tum. She spent most of last night in and out the bathroom, didn't go down for brekky either-----she must be bad!

Mosque morning ,if Jillys up to it, it's turned 11 and no sign of activity yet, nice bright sunshiny day, yelling at me to put on my walking boots.

Rich is helping out on V8 overachievement claims, I get lonely out there on a limb, an ounce of help is worth a pound of pity as my sainted mother used to say.

My friend Bedford Davy, financed GG/s World record attempt, all the hype put out that 200 mph should be easily attained, think when they got around 150 it gradually dawned on GARY there may be a slight problem. It's fairly safe to say the motor was not quite a production fishing motor or the hull a production, Molinari/Velden craft, think it was a rather special Karlessson, built for just one purpose!
To do a 146 lap time with a couple of turns would need a top end of around 175, somehow, I don't think so. Anymore than a 100 mph lap at Bristol.
I shall wait for comments!

2005 Cappellini did 156mph with an F1 boat, a hydro should go lots faster as would a Merc built outside F1 rules
So the v8 on a hydro had 20mph on it

[jackiewilson]

That just about sums it up Pilgrim.But don't forget the odd million dollars thrown at the record attempt.
For every action ----there is a reaction---that's Kenetic energy for you.
In the early days of boat racing I remember being told by a well known racer of the time he had seen sixty miles an hour on the clock, I knew the boat would never see even fifty, but it made the guy happy, who was I to shatter the delusion. Ever since then I have taken all boat speeds with a pinch of salt, and the stories just keep on getting bigger.
take a logical step backwards and analyse the facts, start with a 50 hp lump --45/50 mph, then a 100 hp----60/65, then the change starts when we start using tunnels, 125/ 150 hp ----75/85 mph-then comes 200hp and we get speeds approaching 110/120. Now we have reached "the wall". No matter how high the hp. Speeds only creep up gradually, fifty years on, we are still nowhere near the 200 mark. Exclude drags and specials, we are talking production motors and their use in competition.
my own veiw is power to weight-----hydro Versus tunnel, straight line, rolling start, no contest???

this is a hornets nest but please don't shoot the messenger, like someone else I know, I like to stir the pot from time to time.j.

[jackiewilson]

...glad you are enjoying your trip Jackie and am looking forward to the pics. Hope the Wife is feeling better and remind her what we always say when headed down to Mexico "Don't drink the water"!!

I'm afraid Jilly did drink the water and has been rather poorly and taken to the bed, that's why you are getting more nonsense than usual, I've been sitting in the room all day keeping an eye on her and pounding the IPad.

[jackiewilson]

Broadband speeds here are dismal ----morse would be quicker-----but couldn't send you mosque Piccies----I tried, honest to MURGATROYD

[powerabout]

That just about sums it up Pilgrim.But don't forget the odd million dollars thrown at the record attempt.
For every action ----there is a reaction---that's Kenetic energy for you.
In the early days of boat racing I remember being told by a well known racer of the time he had seen sixty miles an hour on the clock, I knew the boat would never see even fifty, but it made the guy happy, who was I to shatter the delusion. Ever since then I have taken all boat speeds with a pinch of salt, and the stories just keep on getting bigger.
take a logical step backwards and analyse the facts, start with a 50 hp lump --45/50 mph, then a 100 hp----60/65, then the change starts when we start using tunnels, 125/ 150 hp ----75/85 mph-then comes 200hp and we get speeds approaching 110/120. Now we have reached "the wall". No matter how high the hp. Speeds only creep up gradually, fifty years on, we are still nowhere near the 200 mark. Exclude drags and specials, we are talking production motors and their use in competition.
my own veiw is power to weight-----hydro Versus tunnel, straight line, rolling start, no contest???

this is a hornets nest but please don't shoot the messenger, like someone else I know, I like to stir the pot from time to time.j.

all true but we did have a 100hp evinrude doing 131 mph in 1961
So jump to 200 not so big with 400+hp I would have thought?
Look at offshore boats 100mph was a big deal in the 80's now a big tunnel with same big blocks and stern drives can do 200mph

[jackiewilson]

[QUOTE=powerabout;2747512]all true but we did have a 100hp evinrude doing 131 mph in 1961
So jump to 200 not so big with 400+hp I would have thought?
Look at offshore boats 100mph was a big deal in the 80's now a big tunnel with same big blocks and stern drives can do 200mp

Entrops efforts were great, but not representative of circuit speed, but close to what V8/s were doing, 25 years later with double the horsepower-----

Offshore has come a long way since Ritchie Powers took me for a ride in an eighty mph Cigarette with 500 horsepower in the early seventies.
Gary tells me the HP is now up in the thousands on the GEICO.

[STEVERINO]

Try and stay away from Facebook -----should be retitled INYERFACEBUK , never could abide folk getting boating facts wrong. As usual I've opened my big mouth, put my foot in it and stirred the pot 'till it doth boil over and some folk may get burned along the way.
Now take young Tim Thipedeaux (Was him who first introduced me to S&F), dads are the be all and end all and can never be wrong, 'cept sometimes dads can elongate facts according to degree of neccessaty at any given time .
A lot of folk have been misled over a long period of time as to the prowess of the OMC V8.
Very few knew how to drive it.
There were no boats available to put it on.
First efforts by recognised boatbuilders ie; Molinari, Velden, Burgess and Hodges were pitiful.
OMC did not have enough Qualified drivers to form a series, so huge sums of money were offered to ANY driver willing to put their life on the line. Still not enough jockeys, so they recruited drivers from the lower classes who did not have the necessary skills to run those motors.
Right, I just opened a can of worms, let's see what crawls OUTA the woodwork.

Hya Jackie nobody biting but I would agree with your comments above about drivers not having the skill from the lower classes to drive the OMC V8s but I can think of one driver that did ok for himself and that was Andy Bullen. What do you think.?

[jackiewilson]

Hya Jackie nobody biting but I would agree with your comments above about drivers not having the skill from the lower classes to drive the OMC V8s but I can think of one driver that did ok for himself and that was Andy Bullen. What do you think.?

Specks,--Four eyes, All my kids loved " THE BULLENS" especially the twins and Andy.
He was never going to set the world on fire becauseALFIE had told him never to take risks.

More later, leaving for Seville now!!!

[jackiewilson]

Arrived in Seville slap bang in the middle of the biggest fiesta of the year. horse drawn carriages with ladies in all their regalia. Must de two or three hundred horses pulling every manner of carriage There ever was.
Learned one important lesson, HORSEPISS, WHETHER ITS IN Seville or Southwater it still stinks just as bad.
They all made their way into the bullring.
Spain in fiesta mode, full traditional dress with the army in full dress uniforms, really spectacular

[jackiewilson]

Wow, what a day, Spain at its very best, perfect temperature, superb food, a full fiesta with bullfights going on right now. don't do bullfighting meself, never understood it so always left it alone, love to see the traditional attire of both men and women and their kids. Marvellous!

Lewis is riding the bubble, played his cards just right, did just enough and was kind to his motor.
Four poles, three wins and a second, just the bad tyre call blots a perfect scorecard.

Back to Steve, and the BULLENS. Alfie was to London what George Morales was to Florida.
He bought a TRAILOR home on Lake Hamilton and made a friend of GG, tales are legend of of the tricks he got up to in Canada and South FLORIDA .
He didn't do too badly over here, remember the boat load of illegals in the boat when he was stopped by customs officers at Dover, course Alfie never knew they were there did he? And the mysterious fire that destroyed that useless offshore rig in a layby.
All the while, he kept a fatherly eye on Andy.
It was said without his specks Andy couldn't tell if it was night or day.
I don't know if he ever drove a boat of any kind before he went into OZ.
Did he ever get a podium finish??, I have no idea, maybe Lassie can tell us.

[powerabout]

The question is will Rosberg lose the plot this season or decide there is always next year?