Harold Knobel writes:
>While I agree to the great contributions of George and Todd Bowland in
>the fields of light weight and aerodynamics; the real innovator and
>originator of the flyweight cars was Bud Grocki with the Banshee and the
>Banshee BG2 in the early 80's. How soon we forget, but of course that
>was before many of our present competitors were born.
Harold's right! The Banshee was essentially a go-kart on steroids. The
"body" was aluminum flashing that was duct-taped on. Originally, the thing
only had one brake (center of the rear axle. This thing was power-to-weight
personified! And that's the way he drove it: point 'n squirt. Handled ok,
but accel/decel was the deal. And yes, Bud got much of the AM rules changed
because of the way his car kept pushing the rules. And, for those that
recall, Bud did not exactly endear himself to the rest of the class who all
drove "proper" AM race cars. Particularly because he would only run two
events a year, a divisional and Nats, and then he would win Nats. Once,
when his car broke (which it did a lot) at Nats, no one offered him a
co-drive. Hmmm...
In fact, that brings me to what might be a good metric on which to judge all
of our "legal rules-pushers" on The List: How much of the current rulebook
came about because of their antics! I know Grocki qualifies on this (AM
brakes, wheelbase, weight, etc.), as does the Dodge/Livezy/Madamba crew
(shocks, torque arms, engine restraints, etc.), and certainly the Bowlands
(wings).
--Andy
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