Thread: Hydro pics

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    #41
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    Tunnel boats have played with the airbag system you speak of, this boat the driver pancaked the boat and it basically cracked in 2 down one sponson. He recieved some bruises, but was ok. the class is 2.5 lte Mod (A pinto motor juiced) about 110 mph!
    Some where in Kenya a village is missing an Idiot!
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    #42
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    Heading to palm beach race track, will put more pics up and try and add the class of boat.
    Some where in Kenya a village is missing an Idiot!
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    #43
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jetcruzr View Post
    Better Pic!

    Think he looks just a tad bit happy there???????
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #44
    Competitor / Contributor jetcruzr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ratickle View Post
    Think he looks just a tad bit happy there???????
    Some background notes about that piture...

    Merely making to the race was a huge challenge. We had blown up our good engines in the previous weeks racing, and were looking at missing the Detroit race...our hometown race. I had been collecting bits and pieces of parts salvaged from other blown up engines over the years and for the "just in case" scenario. The only possible way that we could make this race, was to take all of these garbage, blown up parts and assemble them into a running grenade. I am talking about connecting rods and pistons with huge dings and nicks in them. The valvetrain was old warn out valves and springs that had been cylcled out long ago. The heads were in terrible shape and needed to be welded and re-machined. The block was in terrible shape as well. It needed a couple of sleeves installed in it. The only decent part in the motor was the crank. I had no cranks left, so I had to buy one. I did not want to spend much money on a good crank, only to have all of this combination of junk grenade and take out a brand new good crank. I bought a cheapo Eagle 4340 crank for this assembly of junk. When I went to my machinist to have all this junk balanced and assembled, he looked at me like I was crazy. He reluctantly machined everything and assembled it for me. When I picked up the motor from the machinist, he shook his head, laughed and said "That thing is never going to last". I did not get the motor from the machinist until late Friday night. Mind you, we had already missed the Thursday test session and Friday's qualifying heats.

    We put the motor in the boat on Friday night. We still had quite a bit of work to do on Satruday morning before heading to the race. We showed up at the shop on Saturday morning and got to work. I was not even going to head to the races until I fired the engine on the trailer to make sure everything would run. In this boat, I had the motor sitting so low in the bottom of the boat (for cg reasons) that we had to run this tiny diameter flywheel. The flywheel was so small that I had to engineer a dual starter system to turn over the motor. Freshly built motors were always hard to get started even with 2 starters cranking. While attempting to trailer fire this new old engine, we could not get it to crank fast enough to get it to fire. At one point, I threw in the towel and told the guys that we were not going to make the race. I actually jumped in my truck and left the shop. After getting the road a ways, and having thrown in the towel I was now relieved and all of the pressure was off. Now relieved of the intense pressure and stress, my brain bagan to work properly again. A light bulb clicked on. I did a quick "U-ey" in the road and hauled azz back to the shop. The guys were still there putting stuff away. I cannot exactly remember what fantastic idea that I had was, but we ended up throwing everything in the hauler, hooked up the boat, and hauled azz to the race.

    By the time we got to the pits, it was late afternoon and we had missed all of our qualifying heats. The only way that we were able to participate was by way of "commissioners option". We were granted the option. So, the first time the boat hit the water was to race in the final on Sunday morning at noon. We did manage to get the motor to fire on the trailer. Once launched the motor fired right up. I did my usual warm up of running a lap at 3000 rpms to let the motor warm up. Next lap at 4000 rpms. By now everything is nice and warm and running well. At the start, I had the inside lane and nailed the start. After the first turn, I was in the lead...which is what every hydroplane racer wants. This is often where races are won or lost. Although I was in the lead, it was not by much. Ken Brodie was on my hip, and gaining speed. By the end of the straigtaway, Ken had passed me by 1/4 of a boat length. My boat could out turn his and out accelerate his all day long, but by the end of the straightaways, he would usually pass me. All I had to do was hope that the old "junkyard dawg" stayed together. Ken and I ran 4 laps side by side, exchanging the lead every lap. On the last lap, I was able to out-turn him and out-accelerate him to the finish line, to win the race. During the cooldown lap, I actually ran out of fuel and had to be towed to the podium to accept this trophy. Naturally there was some protesting from the Brody team about me being determined the winner, not having qualified for the race.

    All of this is perhaps why the smile is so big...and Miss Silver Cup model is not too shabby either...

    The old "junkyard dawg" engine ran like a top! That was in 2003. I still have that engine and plan to convert it to a gasoline engine to be installed in a certain offshore boat. Stay tuned.......
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    #45
    Founding Member Buoy's Avatar
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    Great story!!
    "Keep the bottle on the bar Ira, I won't be long".
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    #46
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    Some where in Kenya a village is missing an Idiot!
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    #47
    I know this is an old thread but what the hell.
    Here's mine,
    1959 Biesemeyer 4pt Hydro



    More info >>>> http://www.supernova19.com/resurrect...oint_hydro.htm
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    #48
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    That is an incredible looking boat. It's like early euro Bond style.

    And it's a true 4 point?
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #49
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    Aha, found some of your runs?

    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #50
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    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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