Bill:
The new V & H bike is impressive, to be sure. Many of the design features
are excellent, as you would expect from Vance & Hines.
But to me what is even more interesting is to consider what has forced V & H
into this radical and costly solution: personnally, I think it is because
they don't have Angelle! We all know how hard it is to get even a little
edge in Pro Stock (whether you're talking bikes or cars). Angelle's unique
size has allowed her team to do a couple of small things with chassis and
engine that nobody can quite match without some "breakthrough".
What raises my hackles about this new development is the egregious
"affirmative action" that NHRA is giving a power-disadvantaged brand. This
"Harley" will be allowed almost 74%(!!!) more displacement than Angelle's
2-valve Suzuki. That's worse than saying a 2-valve OHC "E-motor" has to
race against pushrod "B-motors"! All this condescension to convince
hundreds of thousands of (slow!) American males that they actually have
penises.
That sucks.
And, furthermore, the spirit of the Pro Stock bike class-- to keep costs
reasonable-- has been totally violated here. What V & H have built is a Top
Fuel bike-- to run on racing gasoline. Nobody else in the class can spend
this kind of money on their Pro Stock racers.
And that sucks, too.
I hope the SOB falls on its face-- but it probably won't. Vance & Hines are
the "Penskes" of drag bikes. They will probably whip everyone next year.
After that, maybe the rules will get fixed, like CART fixed the rules after
Penske's pushrod "Mercedes".
Grumble, grinch, gripe!!!!!
Oh, and I agree with you about interest in practical compression ratios for
LSR bikes-- Joe Amo, Turbo Rick-- somebody "tell us true" here. What CR can
I expect to get away with on 108 octane at Bonneville in my little gixxer?
Incidently, it was an earlier V&H drag bike (Top Fuel) that was shucking
cranks out of its GS 1100-based engine. They claimed to be getting 800hp
out of that one, though (on nitro, with a Rootes blower). But then, they
were only running full-throttle for 6 seconds! They solved solved that
problem by going to cast-iron cases.
Maybe you have to get up over 600hp before the problem will show up??? Even
in the 2 or 3 minute Bonneville full-throttle???
Russ Mack
ardunbill@webtv.net wrote:
> Hi Russ & Folks, noted your earlier message about the V & H
> Harley-sponsored dragbike for NHRA Pro-Stock racing, which is described
> in the March Cycle World by Kevin Cameron with his usual mastery.
>
> This IS a very interesting bike, which displays V & H's technical
> prowess, building something to the rules that will undoubtedly make that
> class much more interesting this year. They can do a lot with a big
> budget to make a few racejobs. This is high-class two-valve Hemi
> pushrod technology, and interesting they can run 16.2 compression on
> race gas in 80 cubic inch(each) cylinders. In fact the article says it
> is essential to run such high compression to get the utmost torque for
> the essential 60-foot jump from rest.
>
> The article indicates the present designers looked clear back to 1935
> Vincent technology to mount the camshafts way up high and run seven-inch
> pushrods which I believe from memory is just about the same as the said
> Vincent's. Its late designers, P.C. Vincent and P.E. Irving, would be
> pleased to know that. This was necessary in the present design to
> overcome the limitations of recent Harley clone dragbikes from the very
> long pushrods low in the crankcase up to the rocker arms. Supposedly,
> especially with long strokers, the rods are so long they whip sideways
> excessively unless held to very low lifts.
>
> Another interesting feature of the new V & H engine is that the stroke
> is 4-1/2 inches, yet the plan is to reach 9000 revs during a run. A
> tremendous piston speed, especially with heavy 4-3/4 inch pistons, and
> only possible with extremely strong crankshaft and conrods, and then
> only for an instant.
>
> All of this design is interesting, and knowing V & H's past performance,
> will probably be successful, but it hasn't, perhaps, much to teach us
> because this is such an extremely short-sprint engine for the quarter
> mile. For speed trials we have at least a standing mile (ECTA) to run,
> and more at El Mirage and Bonneville, so obviously our engines have to
> have more endurance compared with a pure quarter-mile engine. It may
> be, I don't know, that some bike engines in speed trials are using a
> compression in that range (16.2) or they may stay down nearer 13-14 to
> 1. Perhaps someone who knows will tell us. Cheers, Ardun Bill
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