NASCAR On The Bonneville Salt Flats

On October 9, the American Challenge team and driver Russ Wicks set a new land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats for a NASCAR car – a Dodge superspeedway car with a NASCAR-approved engine. After cracking the 240mph barrier, the team then improved that mark to 244 mph the following day. The records broke the mark of 222 mph that American Challenge set with a Ford stock car in July 2006.

Wicks – who is the only living person to hold speed records above 200 mph on both land and water – enjoyed a safe and successful assault, although it was not without some excitement. After setting the 244 mph record, the team changed the setup of the car (lowering the rear to pull the spoiler out of the air to reduce drag) and went out to try to go 250+. The setup changes, combined with the salt getting more slippery in the afternoon, resulted in a situation that made it very difficult to control the car.

Wicks made three attempts with this new configuration and lost control of the car several times. It was a little like driving on ice, Wicks reported Fortunately, the car stayed right-side up, and sustained only minor and repairable damage. On his last run, the car spun 12 rotations before it stopped.

244.9mph compared to the Honda 246.9mph

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Big lumpy American V8s are good for something! I guess it shows how tuned to the purpose F1 engines are (or how @#$%& Honda are). Any slight deviation from the task in hand and they fail miserably.

Must have been a wild ride with that funky set up. Fun! :D

The Honda had that massive draggy rear wing removed too! Guess it shows how slippery the NASCARs are, assuming they are using a Superspeedway car.

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I assume it wasn't actually running in full SS spec and had the restrictor plate removed?

Definatly had the plate removed. Would be lucky to top 185 without the plate. Still had the rear spoiler there though



Would love a shot of the front to see if it was a Daytona/Talladega spec car (assuming it was).

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Is that a dumper-bumper? :P

they should remove the restrictor plates for daytona talladega :P it would be insane

That's a point - they should have had 2 cars, one for a slipstream :D

Be a bit manic I'd imagine, with 2 brutes scrabbling around for grip at 200mph I'd imagine though. :D

get some bump drafting happening. :D

NeilPearson Wrote:
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> they should remove the restrictor plates for
> daytona talladega :P it would be insane

Rusty ran a 221mph lap (228mph top speed) at Talladega without the restrictor plate and without the draft :P

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Honda reached 413 kmh, is that only 246 mph?

Where did you read 413? The official Bonneville 400 site reads 400.459

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They topped out at 413 on one run, so that would be where he got the figure. IIRC that was one of my first thread starts too! Ah, the good ol' days....

413 kph is about 256 mph. 400 kph is about 248 mph.

EDIT: Didn't NASCAR top out at something stupid like 240 mph, and that was why the restrictor plate was introduced? Actually, on second thoughts, I think I'm confusing NASCAR at Talledega with Champcar at Texas.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2007 12:04AM by turkey_machine.

Topping out at 413 isn't the number that should be used of course, as its the average of the 2 runs that is the official number.

NASCAR first used a plate in the 70s to lower engine power, but that's not really the same useage as the modern one. Was brought in in 1988 after Bobby Allisons massive crashed at Talladega in 1987



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Is it not impossible to compare an F1 car record to a Nascar one.
The seperation behind the wheels causes so much form drag... F1 cars are about as aerodynamic as brick really! lol

Also whats on the back of that car... just above the dodge sign?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

The term aerowar, has it something to do with restrictor plates beeing introduced in 1988?

@chet, it's parachute for stopping.

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are you blind? -no, I'm deaf, can't you see? -no, I'm blind.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2007 01:41PM by brnco.

Is it not impossible to compare an F1 car record to a Nascar one.

I know. Thats why we did it FYI, modern NASCAR engines produce upwards of 900bhp too, so they are in the same power area.

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Aren't they turbo-charged though?

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

DaveEllis schreef:
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> Is it not impossible to compare an F1 car record
> to a Nascar one.
>
> I know. Thats why we did it FYI, modern NASCAR
> engines produce upwards of 900bhp too, so they are
> in the same power area.


i think the v8's in the f1 produce less bhp, iirc?





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2007 06:23PM by Iceman-Kimi.

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> Aren't they turbo-charged though?

Nope. A less explosive, more standard fuel is used in NASCAR too. If you fed it more tuned fuel like F1 uses you'd get one hell of a power increase.

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