Your Golden Epoch?

I had the good fortune to see Goldenrod when it was exhibited at the UK Hot Rod Nationals at Knebworth in 2002. It was accompanied by Bill Summers and it was great to speak with one of my heroes.

Looking at the cockpit I would not have wanted to sit in it even when stationary, let alone at 400 mph - claustrophibic or what! The steering wheel bolts on so it is impossible to get out without a spanner and some time.

The record they set is one of the longest unbroken in ANY sport. Bob Summers, the driver, lived on for many years until dying from natural causes.





I always had a fascination with the tiddlers of the smaller capacity classes where seemingly impossible speeds were extracted from small engines. Here are a couple of classics.

The Pumpkin Seed


and Wee Wee Eel


I agree that it's a pity we can't really use these cars as slot models in their proper environment as it would be a totally new challenge for all of us to see just how quick we could make them go. There would certainly be some spectacular pile ups in the process.

Having fun in Sicily.

Re the P34 Tyrrell 6 wheeler, every time I read something these days about the car, there is a different reason proffered for it's design concept so the waters seem to be getting ever more muddied. IIRC at the time the stated idea was to get better aerodynamic penetration and airflow along the car with the same front contact patch area. Designers accepted that by the time the airflow reached the rear wheels it was very disturbed anyway, but this concept removed the turbulence created by the normal front wheels.

This was the same reasoning that left the engines exposed on the previous generation of cars, i.e. there was no point in carrying the extra weight of body panels as the air was already very disturbed behind the front wheels.

Now a theory is being peddled that it was to do with extra grip in the wet as the front pair of wheels cleared the way for the rear pair (of fronts) and the frontal area was the same as a conventional car - which is of course true, but frontal area alone is not directly proportional to drag. Drag is proportional to the product of frontal area and the drag coefficient. Reduction of the latter was the object of the exercise.

Will the real Derek Gardiner please stand up and tell us.

The radial engined DHC3 Otter is still flying in Canada. Check the reg. on this one.