Petrol head thread!!!

[Dark Lightning]

I saw that elsewhere. I would opt for making it an "SUV", as I'd want the cargo space enclosed. FWIW, I paid about that amount for a new Kia Forte, 9 years ago. It has AC (needed here in southern California), but it isn't electric. Wife and I are considering a hybrid vehicle for her, when the warranty expires on her car, which is in 5 years. I'm on a low-level search for some more old iron. Something that I can maintain myself.

[billy rubin]

isle of man TT 2025

full kneelers

watch the monkey as he shifts the center of gravity to the inside of the turns. a sidecar cant lean, so him hanging off or over is all that keeps the machine stable. without him the chair flies in the turns.

average speed over the whole course for these is 121 mph- country lanes, city streets. the course is 37 miles long, so it takes great attention to learn it and to ride it fast. even the nürburgring is only 17 miles.

ive been lucky enough to ride monkey one time, briefly. hanging off the side f the chair at 60 mph, with your face two inches from the tarmac is unforgettable.

[billy rubin]

[Icarus]

That thing is pretty. The passanger dumbass has a place to hide.  Both those guys are ever so close to learning the real meaning of the descriptive term; Terminal speed.

[Dark Lightning]

Terminal, indeed. I've done some crazy 100+ MPH driving in a highway (126, between Fillmore, CA and Newhall, CA). One lane each way back then, and people died all the time trying to pass on the short stretches where passing was allowed. Posted for a max speed of 50 MPH, btw. Just like Highway 99 from Bakersfield to LA. One lane each way with a passing lane in the middle. Horrendous crashes. Now, it's the 5 Freeway and the 405 Freeway, and the deaths are down by 95% or so. Just more lanes to get stupid in, I guess.

[billy rubin]

sad news

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/racer-dies-trying-set-land-speed-record-utah-salt-flats-rcna223010

A driver died Sunday after he crashed while he was trying to set a land speed record at an annual event on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, event organizers said.

Chris Raschke, 60, died after the crash at around 3:03 p.m. MT, officials with the Southern California Timing Association, which runs the event, said in a statement.

Organizers said the crash happened after Raschke "lost control of his land speed vehicle at approximately the 2 1/2 mile." It occurred during the annual "Speed Week," which opened Sunday.

this team built the fastest wheel-driven vehicles in the world-- no jets, no rockets. V8 piston engines. the record is 470 mph. running a team at this level of competition is a rich mans past time, like sending jeff bezos into space. but unlike the rocket billionaires, these guys line up on the same track available to anybody with a machine and a desire to race.

added

he augered in at 280 to 300 mph

[billy rubin]

life moves on. i have been in touch with watsonian squire, the oldest sidecar manufacturer in the world, still messing about in the cotswolds.

i asked what it would cost to get me a new windscreen for my antique 1968 watsonian monaco sidecar, and they told me 413 quid, which i already knew, plus 195 more for the shipping across the atlantic . . .

so in american bananas, that works out to be a bit over US$800, for a windscreen assembly, which includes upper and lower metal trim pieces, made of unobtainium.

that is a horrifying price. however, i have convinced myself to pay the piper, because this antique sidecar is otherwise complete, is in extremely good condition, a correct windscreen with factory mounting parts  is currently available, and i have no expectations that it will continue to be available. after all, the stinking sidecar is almost sixty years old. who would keep pieces of something like that on the shelf except some crazy brits?

so i told the man to work up an invoice, and i would pay him. he responded that he was on vacation and would get back to me next week.

i can only assume that he was fleeing the cotswolds because j d vance was coming to vacation. i would do the same.

for those of you who havent been hanging onto my every word regarding this period piece of british motorcycling technology , here's what it looked like when new:



this is quite likely one of the ugliest sidecars ever built.

the hood makes it look even worse than otherwise, but getting hold of one of those is quite unlikely, so the actual sidecar wont look as bad as this one. but it will be plenty stodgy. in a perfect world i would have liked a sleek and aerodynamic expression of beauty, a land torpedo that pieced the airstream with style and grace. but what was available was an antique that more or less resembled an old boot.

but by god, its my old boot, and we re going to run with it!

[Dark Lightning]

^ That's a pretty cool rig, Billy!

[billy rubin]

shitfire, i dunno about cool.

what i have loks like this



but you know what? 1968 isnt coming back.

[billy rubin]

lol

check this out.

this is why you have to make sure the sidecar is heavy enough when you go around inside turns



https://advrider.com/f/attachments/img_0325-jpeg.7163019/

[img]https://advrider.com/f/attachments/img_0325-jpeg.7163019/[img]

some people put sandbags or sealed water buckets in there iof nobody is sitting.

clearly even a passenger isnt always enough

[Icarus]

As a kid I had several Cushmans. One of them had a sidecar.  I used to haul ass around inside corners in order to lift the sidehack wheel off the ground. Dumb kid, big fun.