Reno Racers
- Thread starter spicmart
- Start date
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GregP
Major
You might try this link: Reno for Gearheads
Not ALL the mods, but a pretty fair assessment of some of them.
Not ALL the mods, but a pretty fair assessment of some of them.
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They're neat in their way. That said, I'm far more interested in the biplane class. Just more fun to me.
Racing's Fastest Biplanes
Racing's Fastest Biplanes
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Height is a not a consideration as they have to remain at a low altitude
That's what I meant, the height is the height above Reno, payload is zero, range is "take off complete the course and land". I believe on some even the direction of turn is optimised so they turn quicker or better in the course direction than they would in reverse.
Having spent much of my adult life around Racing and Racers, I'm interested in any discussion of them. I certainly have an interest in WWII history and such, but my real fascination is with the post war to present use, modification, and restoration of these remarkable machines. If a major goal back then was speed, then racing, getting the most speed out of an airframe possible, becomes really interesting!
3800 horsepower Merlins, Griffon Mustangs, 500 mph Merlin Mustangs -- I love it all...
Sisu
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Welcome Sisu - I spent 7 years crewing L29s and L39s in the jet class
N4521U
Colonel
N4521U
Colonel
Bob Love and John Crocker.
Did some lettering on both, ^ when it went dark blue tail.
Flew with Russ when he owned Bernis Bo.
No, the clips have always been symmetrical, despite occasional rumours otherwise. I think an asymmetrical clip might be a poor idea, given the sheer violence of the Reno experience. If you get flipped upside down at 450 mph 200 feet off the ground in the wake turbulence of a Sea Fury and have to push out of your situation I think you want totally predictable response from your airplane. I think wings of different lengths could be a real issue...
Clipping a P-51 is actually surprisingly simple and reversible. The spar does not go to the wingtip -- there is a production break and a bolt on wingtip section. To go racing you just unbolt the wingtip section, remove the aileron and put on a racing wingtip and a shortened aileron. Clipping a Sea Fury, for instance, would be far more difficult and would be wildly expensive and difficult to reverse. There has been just one Sea fury clipped wing, and it has been traded around among owners over the last 45 years. Nobody has ever tried to rebuild that wing to stock.
at6
1st Sergeant
Back when I went to Reno, I went primarily for the AT6/SNJ portion. I only went for a few years. I saw Art Scholl's last performance and then read the news that he was killed the next day during "Top Gun" filming. Bob Hoover also had amazing performances back then. I was honored to meet Bob Love at Lemoore NAS one year along with several other people who used to race.
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N4521U
Colonel
I did the Tassie Devil on Screamin Deamon on the T-6 for Stu Eberhardt and on Merlins Magic P-51. It was good times for me way back then.
Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 38,436
- Mar 26, 2007
You have pictures of that? Tasmanian devil is 1 of my favourite cartoon figures.
at6
1st Sergeant
Those were good times back then. We were all still fairly young and energetic. I still remember the one time that I saw Precious Metal race. The plane developed engine trouble and had to belly in at the dry lake bed area. Contra-rotating props do make an unusual sound. I have a large part of the Racing Planes and air races collection by Reed Kinert.
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Something to do with the operation of trim tabs.
