Regarding Thompson's 4 engine 4 wheel drive liner. The two front engines
drove the the front through two quick change rear ends. The two QC'S had a
axle between them as did the back axle. So each wheel was not driven
seperately. There was also an overdrive at the end of each axle to control
overdriving the tires IE spin. I was at Mickey's shop many times when the
car was being built and later on at Jim Travis shop when it was restored.
He broke a drive shaft on a return record attempt and had to shut down the
engines.Thompson used a mixture of oil and white lead in all of the gears
cases to prevent galling. When the car was torn down we looked inside the
gear case's and everything was like new.
Glen
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Beckett" <landspeedracer@email.msn.com>
To: <ardunbill@webtv.net>; <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: going fast
> Your thoughts are sort of why I asked the question in the first place.
>
> As for Mickey's car. I looked at it just a few months ago. It had Four
> engines, clutches, transmissions and Four differentials. Don't know for
> sure, but it looked like each engine drove it's own wheel. And it may have
> been a handful.
>
> John
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ardunbill@webtv.net>
> To: "John Beckett" <landspeedracer@email.msn.com>;
> <land-speed@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 5:00 PM
> Subject: Re: going fast
>
>
> > John, "what if" due to weight transfer or whatever, and the front and
> > rear axles are not connected, the front wheels spin more than the rear?
> > Would this not destabilize the car, and interfere with steering control,
> > more than if the two axles are connected, and all four wheels have to
> > spin at the same rate, if there is wheelspin. I'm visualizing a
> > streamliner with two big horsepower engines here, where wheelspin would
> > be a distinct likelihood, whether at Maxton or Bonneville.
> >
> > Connecting the cranks ala Burklands might be preferable to using some
> > kind of transfer case. Might be hard to get a transfer case that could
> > handle big power, and if it did it would probably aborb a lot of power.
> >
> > I seem to recall from Mickey Thompson's story that Challenger had the
> > front two engines driving the front wheels together, and the back two
> > driving the rear wheels together. He noted that he sat in the cockpit
> > with two tachs, one for the front pair and the other for the rear,
> > noting the differences in rpm, and pondering whether it was the clutches
> > slipping (they had some trouble with that) or the wheels spinning more
> > at one end than the other.
> >
> > An interesting exercise of Physics. My two cents worth. Cheers from
> > Ardun Bill in the Great Dismal Swamp, Chesapeake, VA
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