[s-cars] Merkur LSR attempt

[Neil Swanson]

Mike,

Odd to read about this car here,  but very familiar as
I was a crew member in 1997 for Rick when the slogan
was "211(mph) in '97"  I knew Rick from my involvment
with the Xr crowd as an owner of a tweeked XR and
importer of Sierra Cosworth parts for US XR junkies.

The fuel system in the article you mention was a
result of the problems in '97 when the massively
tweeked Ford EECIV (secret skunkworks stuff) system
couldn't/wouldn't control the four 80 or 100lb
injectors.  The best run in '97 was I think "only"
170mph on 3 cylinders belching fuel rich smoke.
  Ricks' car is a work of art.  It is all very well
done with air/air and air/water chargecoolers. Full
data-logging once showed the car was doing 200mph but
the rear wheels were doing 208mph.  Freakin' wheel
spin at WOT and 200+mph. The paint work is stunning in
teh low late light at the 'Flats.

I couldn't go in '98 but I spoke to Rick about the
results of the dyno testing. The following is from
memory.
 More pumps, bigger lines and more fuel on the Motec?
stand alone system just kept making more and more
power. The turbo could produce a calculated 850hp
given the fuel to back it up.  He finally said enough
as he knew the limits of the stock Ford/Esslinger
block casting.  He had to run that block due to rules
and regs.  Jack Rousch had even tricker blocks that
could handle 1000+hp in Trans Am competition.

Rick later retired the turbo engine after earning the
200mph Club hat he proudly wears.  A 3.0 NA engine was
built that got him another record a few years later.

Anyone who thinks they have an imagination and ideas
about how to do this or that should go to Bonneville
and be humbled.  The ideas that have been put to the
acid test are boggling.  The craft of of hot rodding
is so alive there.  A few highlights........

A Datsun B210 streamliner powered by a blown nitro
burning flathead!!!  A big freakin' GMC 8/71 blower.
 The sound when that thing lit up was amazing, absurd
and made your hair stand on end. I love the while of a
blower and the smell of Nitro.  Nothing smells like
Nitro.

'66 Mustang with 200lbs of dry ice in the trunk to
cool the charge air.  That dry ice would be converted
to bath water by the end of the 7 mile run.  1600hp
from the 302ci Ford hidden under an intake plenum the
size of a small suitcase.

An AWD streamliner running 2 alloy Rodeck (sp) 500+ci
engines.  The car? arrived in a rig that would give
Roger Penske serious "wood".  One of those vehicles
they haul 747s around the airports was used to move
the 'liner around to staging and tech. While brakes
and 'chutes are OK what better way to slow a car than
for the entire rear tail section to blossum open like
a flower to create drag.

Many more cars to mention but you get the idea.  Wanna
drive there?  The SCTA (Southern California Timing
Assoc.)  has/had the 150mph Club.  This is a place
where race and street cars that can run that speed
over the required distance compete for a hat.  Yes a
hat.  Maybe a plaque too.  Safety rules specific to
the attempt apply and I don't remember them.  I think
it was 2 miles to get to speed, timed over 1 mile and
then slooooooow down. The chief starter drove his
tweeked Thunderbird SC to 170mph.  He got a hat for
his effort.

If you go the www.rbmotorsports home page I think
you'll find some of my photos still up.  The shot of
the car reflected in the 2 inches of standing water on
the salt was a nice one and was Ricks Christmas card
for a few years.

 To stand in the middle of all that open space, on
ice, I mean salt (always checked my footing stepping
out of the trailer 'cause it always registed as ice to
me) and see nothing but clean crunchy white for as far
as the eye made me feel as if I'd left the planet.  It
just isn't earthly.  I stayed in Wendover UT at the
hotel with the famous waving Cowboy out front.  Slot
machines and omletes are also unearthly.

It is car guy heaven.

Neil


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