Unfortunately dead last in Bronze race behind Rockets and some plastic...!
Well ya. That's like being surprised a Cirrus lost in a race to rare bear and an F-18. No RV-8 will ever catch even the slowest Legacy, but look at his speed compare to other 8's and wow.
With all due respect, 222 is indeed fast given the conditions...but it's a whopping 3 mph up on Charlie Greer's RV Blue class RV-6, and maybe not even that much on Stan Sutterfield when you factor out a pylon cut penalty.
Right... And that's racing. Not comparing Kevin's finish to a bunch of Rockets and glass.
Point is, 3 mph faster than the other 4-cyl RV's is not "wow" material. And it's not as fast as Jason Rovey's -8 last year.
LaVelle's Glasair III finished 64 mph faster than 2nd place (also a Glasair III), over 100 mph faster than all but three other finishers, and 140 mph faster than the third Glasair III.
Wow!
Charlie Greer has the fastest 6 in SARL I believe.
Dave Anders' RV4 would wax both of these planes by a substantial margin. A bunch of little aero tweaks can make a big, big difference.
Asking around, I found out that he (Kevin) had changed his prop - and that made the difference.
I would rather watch a close race. The Rockets made a great race of it Friday. I missed Saturdays race.
Point is, 3 mph faster than the other 4-cyl RV's is not "wow" material. And it's not as fast as Jason Rovey's -8 last year.
LaVelle's Glasair III finished 64 mph faster than 2nd place (also a Glasair III), over 100 mph faster than all but three other finishers, and 140 mph faster than the third Glasair III.
Wow!
What we need is an RV class
What we need is an RV class
From MT to ?
Asking around, I found out that he had changed his prop - and that made the difference.
What we need is an RV class
Something needs to be done. Hard for any RV or Rocket to compete against a 650hp Mustang.
Old Hartzell, but seems to have come in behind a Catto...sorry, I'm biased...
You wanna go real fast, put a fixed pitch on a RV and spin it at 3000 rpm+
Went from a 3 blade to a 2 blade Hartzell (old style airfoil) prop. Reportedly gained 7 knots. still couldn't beat the 409 Varisleazy in the final division race.
Klaus ran a parallel valve O-360, not a 409. .
The RVs are not really competing against the high powered stuff in Sport Class. More RVs can only help the sport even if it's a bit of a procession.
I agree! Sport is the future of Reno if it is to survive. I think Strega calling it quits is going to really hurt the non-pilot crowd attendance so guys like Kevin in the NXT will be the draw.
I think I'll try SARL before Reno but maybe one day.
I clocked a 273 average lap speed with my 4 cylinders.. And it carried 2 people, tools, spares and 10 days worth of stuff from Kansas City.
For reference, Strega was sold before the races, Tiger is calling it quits.
-----found myself in front of my own Longez and even a Glasair I in the Bronze race on Sunday.
How did you con a ride in the jet for the Unlimited Gold?? Where do I sign up
Pretty sure the announcer said Kevin Eldredge -------------- but then as many errors as they uttered during the races, who knows ??? Might have been the Easter bunny for all I know.
Charlie Greer has the fastest 6 in SARL I believe. Probably has some aero tweaks the others don't and a pretty strong engine, refined over time. Charlie was equally impressive at Reno.
Dave Anders' RV4 would wax both of these planes by a substantial margin. A bunch of little aero tweaks can make a big, big difference.
Tracy Saylor was involved in the very early days of cross country racing-Sun and Fun and the Oshkosh races.
Apples to Oranges. Anders has a pretty radical Lycon angle valve 360. N25TS had parallel valve 360. Tracy Saylor/Charlie Greer RV6 was pretty much trashed at San Diego, pulled loose from tie downs in violent wind storm. And yes it did have a lot of small but significant airframe mods. Tracy Saylor was involved in the very early days of cross country racing-Sun and Fun and the Oshkosh races.
I tested both props during the evenings at Stead and found at 2750rpm both props made exactly the same speed. But, when I increased 100 rpm the 2 bladed Hartzell kept pulling!!!!
The last test for the R series engines will be a thorough ASTM test to include using 91 unleaded fuel.
Dan, you raise an interesting scenario.
Thing is someone has to be able or willing to do the testing. And if my backside was in one, it would need to be proper testing. I know of two such places to do that and it is not cheap to do.
Just running an engine on a simple dyno and claiming all is good would not cut it for me.
But an interesting thought experiment indeed!
Detonation testing is typically done on a dyno with proper instrumentation, alternately with a data acquisition system on the vehicle with someone smart riding shotgun and watching the graphs. The dyno is the better/ safer environment to gather the initial data IMO.