Twister 1 steering bar

[Tom Smyth]

on the hunt for this factory made steering bar for the Twister and twister 1 silo motors. Appreciate any leads you might have.

should be on the shelf right next to the hens teeth.

[FUJIMO]

...duplicate one yourself. none exist...

[FUJIMO]

...on second thought, make two of them. in about 10 years, you could sell it for MILLIONS!...

[WaterZebra]

on the hunt for this factory made steering bar for the Twister and twister 1 silo motors. Appreciate any leads you might have.

should be on the shelf right next to the hens teeth.

If you take this photo along with a pic of the rear, together with the bolt centerlines, an off road tube frame shop should be able to whip one out in 3-4 hours. Although, this steering bar set up had to be one of the dumbest contraptions Merc HiPerf ever came up with. The last time I saw one in person was in the 70s? It was the missing link between Super Ride Guide and plate type steering arms (T2, T3, 1750XS, etc).

[WaterZebra]

on the hunt for this factory made steering bar for the Twister and twister 1 silo motors. Appreciate any leads you might have.

should be on the shelf right next to the hens teeth.

Call Schmitt Asphalt Paving LLC in Olympia WA. Butch Schmitt ran Twisters in Mod UJ for many years before switching to Champ V6s. His son Jeff might know if his Twister corpse is still laying in the garage somewhere? As far as I know, Butch never sold his old Twister to anybody else because we had all transitioned to SST140 or Champ. Mod UJ or Formula 100 was nicknamed Formula Junk because nobody wanted the stuff. Even Lee Davies didn't hold on to any exhaust log Twisters or cow bells.

[2us70]

As I recall the idea is to have bar ends match up to the swivel pin center. get it wrong and the cable tension changes with steering.

[WaterZebra]

As I recall the idea is to have bar ends match up to the swivel pin center. get it wrong and the cable tension changes with steering.

Check the photo. Swivel pin axis? No Tilt tube axis? Yes. The vee bolt collars are way forward the swivel pin. Makes more sense that they would share the tilt tube axis. Then the question becomes what is the width dimension from the swivel tongue center bolt to each vee bolt collar centerlines?

[WaterZebra]

...on second thought, make two of them. in about 10 years, you could sell it for MILLIONS!...

What spawned the transition to steering bars from Super Ride Guide anyway?

[2us70]

1Super Ride Guide is a very heavy system. 2 Ride Guide takes away a lot of steering feedback feel. 3 Ride Guide has a lot of built in cable friction. 4 Ride Guide connects to the motor at the swivel pin steering arm which puts the motor mounts into the system also. All of those problems made driving fast single engine v bottom boats more difficult. I drove boats with both setups and I much preferred a good cable and steering bar system. I personally never owned a race boat with Ride Guide. One other to a bar and cable system was the ability to include steering torque compensation. Sport and Production class boats swung pretty big propellers causing a lot of torque back into the wheel. Those of us who ran kneel down boats needed to be able to compensate for that torque usually using bungee cord to even it out at speed.

[WaterZebra]

1Super Ride Guide is a very heavy system. 2 Ride Guide takes away a lot of steering feedback feel. 3 Ride Guide has a lot of built in cable friction. 4 Ride Guide connects to the motor at the swivel pin steering arm which puts the motor mounts into the system also. All of those problems made driving fast single engine v bottom boats more difficult. I drove boats with both setups and I much preferred a good cable and steering bar system. I personally never owned a race boat with Ride Guide. One other to a bar and cable system was the ability to include steering torque compensation. Sport and Production class boats swung pretty big propellers causing a lot of torque back into the wheel. Those of us who ran kneel down boats needed to be able to compensate for that torque usually using bungee cord to even it out at speed.

Did the lack of "feel" produce barrel rolls or more sweeping turn arcs than what the drivers wanted? (understeer) Did trim position adversely affect Ride Guide systems?

[2us70]

Fast single engine V bottom boats are not inherently stable in roll. They have very little boat in contact with the water at speed. Keeping one running straight comes down to the driver constantly correcting and counteracting the tendency to "chine walk" Notice this boat is almost completely aired out. When you do it long enough it becomes just automatic.

[willabee]

What spawned the transition to steering bars from Super Ride Guide anyway?

When we went to Italy in 1970 to rig and test the new boats for the Paris and Berlin races, we installed the ride guide system in them all except for Renato's entry. He insisted on using cable and had a fab shop
make a steering bar to accommodate the Twister. Bob Hering and Jackie Wilson co-drove this boat and reported they much preferred the "feel" of cable over the ride guide. The cable system performed flawlessly during 12 hours of tough racing and the move to switch to cable began.

Renato's 1970 entry:

By the time we came back to Italy for the 71 races, we were using cable in all of the single engine boats.

Molinari's shop in 71:

[FUJIMO]

[lars strom]

This is Stockholm GP 1968 and if you look closely Renato is using cable.

[2us70]

For me it was always the "only way to fly"