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Post by jargon on Jan 25, 2015 23:48:10 GMT
Found these tonight, added for all you Blackbushe and Dragracing Fans
1964 & 1965 Blackbushe
this selection is for Chevron hope it brings back some 1984 memories, he took part in it somewhere, I forget his car number
1977 Drag Race Blackbushe
For anyone else interested in Blackbushe Airport Drag Racing this page on the Airports own Website has some answers
www.blackbusheairport.co.uk/about/history/drag-racing.aspx
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Post by lordevanelpuss on Jan 26, 2015 6:36:37 GMT
I do remember once seeing some drag racing there. It was sometime in the 1970s I think and if I remember correctly, there was a jet powered one!
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Post by graham on Jan 26, 2015 8:00:08 GMT
Fantastic colour films there John, what a feast. I shall have to sit down and watch them all sometime today. Amazing that in fifty years, the top fuellers have trimmed their ET's down from eight seconds or so to about four seconds. Presumably they are still using the Chevy V8 lumps so that four second saving over that half century must be down to tuning, better fuel, stronger cams, valves, cranks and so on.
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Post by exeglkflyer on Jan 26, 2015 8:58:34 GMT
Never went to a drag meet at the 'Bushe, but I do remember that it was possible to hear them from Crowthorne when I was growing up!
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Post by Spotter on Jan 26, 2015 11:13:42 GMT
Great pics, but on an aviation forum???
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Post by chevvron on Jan 26, 2015 12:24:04 GMT
I participated in the last ever meeting in Aug 1984 (when BCA bought the airport they decided not to allow any more race meetings). Driving my new 'toy' a ZipKart powered by a Honda CR250 motocross engine, (last race with the previous owner was the Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone) I successfully completed my 3 runs 'observed' by the RAC Steward to gain approval to compete in competitions with times of just under 15 seconds and terminal speeds of about 100 mph. The moto cross gearing wasn't ideal for drag racing but I later calculated I was doing 0-60 mph in about 2 seconds (in first and second gears); most exhilarating with your bum only a couple of inches above the ground and quite bit quicker than your average Lamborghini, but I was losing out in 4th and 5th gears due to the wide spacing between ratios causing too much of an rpm drop in those two gears.
I know I've asked this before, but if anyone has a piccy of me either at Blackbushe or at Long Marston, Santa Pod, Bitteswell or North Weald I'd love to see it; my race number was G/D 18.
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Post by lordevanelpuss on Jan 26, 2015 13:05:08 GMT
Great pics, but on an aviation forum??? It happened at Blackbushe aerodrome, so why not? What about when Blackbushe rocked in 1978 to Bob Dylan and a few others? www.ukrockfestivals.com/blackbushe.html |
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Post by lordevanelpuss on Jan 26, 2015 13:15:53 GMT
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Post by graham on Jan 26, 2015 13:20:12 GMT
Hi spotter, we aim to have a relaxed feel here, yes, there are forums for off topic stuff but we're not going to start banging the drum because the drag racing stuff ought to be there in theory rather than here. The forum many of us used to frequent had several off topic forums, including cars/bikes, buses/coaches, hovercraft, railways and so on. Those who wanted to use them were welcome to do so, and those didn't want to were under no obligation to look at them. The forum is 99% aviation themed, more than enough of a majority for most of us!
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Post by graham on Jan 26, 2015 14:05:49 GMT
Evan, yes, there was a jet powered dragster, I recall seeing it a few times. There was also a 7.5 tonne Ford Cargo box truck with a jet engine or rocket engine and its party trick was to blow over a line of parked cars.
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Post by chevvron on Jan 26, 2015 19:34:59 GMT
Fantastic colour films there John, what a feast. I shall have to sit down and watch them all sometime today. Amazing that in fifty years, the top fuellers have trimmed their ET's down from eight seconds or so to about four seconds. Presumably they are still using the Chevy V8 lumps so that four second saving over that half century must be down to tuning, better fuel, stronger cams, valves, cranks and so on. Chevy V8s were used, but not for Top Fuel or Funny Cars. An engine with hemispherical combustion chambers as made by Chrysler or latterly, Donovan was best for these classes as the combustion chamber breathing characteristics were better suited to the nitro methane/methanol mixture used instead of petrol. |
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Post by graham on Jan 26, 2015 19:39:11 GMT
OK, thanks for that.
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Post by chevvron on Jan 29, 2015 18:55:12 GMT
Evan, yes, there was a jet powered dragster, I recall seeing it a few times. There was also a 7.5 tonne Ford Cargo box truck with a jet engine or rocket engine and its party trick was to blow over a line of parked cars. There was also Henk Vink's rocket yes rocket powered motor bike. He came along and gazed at my kart in the pits and said 'you must be mad'. I thought 'look who's talking'! Rocket cars were run at Santa Pod; you haven't lived until you've experienced a sub 3 second run with a terminal speed of about 300 mph. |
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Post by graham on Jan 29, 2015 19:03:58 GMT
Chobard, have you seen the PM I sent you earlier?
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Post by chrisb on Jan 29, 2015 19:28:56 GMT
I went to Santa Pod in the early seventies a couple of times, an amazing spectacle. The name Dennis Priddle comes to mind? I think he used to run a very quick funny car but it was a long time ago.
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Post by graham on Jan 29, 2015 19:47:26 GMT
Yes Chris, Dennis was one of the biggest ( and fastest) names on the drag racing circuit back then
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Post by chevvron on Jan 30, 2015 7:08:33 GMT
Yes Chris, Dennis was one of the biggest ( and fastest) names on the drag racing circuit back then I chatted to him once at a race meeting at Silverstone in '73; he put his water in his whisky would you believe! |
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