Tom;
Your nine mile experience with the difference between sound, visual, and
electronic communication was interesting.
At the practice sessions for the 1994 Indy 500 I was watching Emmo Fitabaldi
turning hot laps in one of the Penske pushrod V8s.
He was the only car on the track and I was almost alone in the front
grandstand at the start/finish line. Beautiful sound when he went by me and
went into the 1st turn and could hear him going part way down the back
straight. Then there was complete silence as I could see him come out of the
3rd turn, thru the 4th turn, and actually come half way down the main
straight before I could hear anything.
Took until the 2nd lap before I realized I was experiencing the
acoustic/visual effects of a car traveling at one-third the speed of sound.
Never would have noticed the effect if there was a noisy crowd around me
and/or other cars running.
Bert Munro "blew the engine, failing in the record attempt" ? I thought the
movie trailers/ads said his record still stands--are they fudging things?
Lance
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>
To: <Nt788@aol.com>; <karhu@california.com>; <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 12:31 PM
Subject: RE: Fastest Injun
>
> I always worked the nine mile on record runs and it was interesting to
> hear
> the phone communications and also hear the sounds in real time. Through
> the
> phone you would hear that the car had shut down at the five, but in real
> time it was still sounding loud and clear for several seconds longer.
> Another thing that got my attention was the sound of the car coming toward
> the nine mile while shut down. It was so quite at the nine that the sound
> of
> the tires rolling on the salt could be heard for quite a distance.
>
> I may have said this before, but I was the one that received Bert Munro on
> his first down run for record. When he rolled in, fuel had soaked his
> right
> leg and his face was full of salt. He said, "I say its a might salty out
> there". I tried to get him to take it easy for a couple of miles on the
> return run so he would get his speed in the correct mile, but he laid on
> it
> from the nine and blew the engine, failing in the record attempt.
>
> Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/FCC (I kind of miss those days)
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