Not Ranked
Cal-
If I remember right, wasn't the Calliope engine used (unsuccessfully) in the Honker Can Am car? I think it only ran a few races - driven by M. Andretti - who decided it was un-drivable.
Regarding the brake issue you talked about - I remember that most of the big cars of the time were having problems with brake rotors cracking which was caused by the constant huge temperature variations in the brakes...four mile straight, 200 -220 mph speed, followed by a 35 mph corner, etc. At night the ambient temps could get quite cool, exacerbating the problem.
As a 16 year old I came up with a "fix" for this consisting of brake ducts that would close off (using a bimetallic spring ) so that the brakes could be kept hot when going down those long straights - they would then open to allow cooling as the brakes were heated up going into a corner....I thought this would be better than having to replace cracked rotors all the time.
In retrospect I realize this idea was very simplistic and probably wouldn't work - in any case, at the time I thought it would, so I sent a letter off to Jim Hall ( I loved the his cars!) and actually got a letter back from Jim expressing his appreciation. He said an "engineering evaluation would take too long" - a nice way of putting it, I thought.
I still have the letter.
Thanks for thie pictures, BTW.
Pat Buckley
|