Speedster Purchase??? Really?

[Jim Liberty]

If it has wheels and a motor, I love it. I have a 2-CV, a Type II Transporter, and 356s. They are all their own joy to drive.

...............................................Jim.

[John Weyand]

Didn't Mike Dejonge once say that he could produce any panel for the Speedster except the serial number?

[Ron LaDow]

I was pretty busy building engines for the "Rare Bear" racing team,

That evaporative oil cooling system is quite clever; saved, what, 3^2' of intake?

[John Slack]

This can easily fly off on a tangent, but the mods will move it to 'off topic' at their leisure.
How in hell did you test the Rare Bear's R-2800 for power as a baseline and how did you test for any gains?

Ron, the larger radial engines actually had a device called a torquemeter that was used to measure torque. The torque and the RPM then just became a function of mathematics. That of course over simplifies the process. But we could see from moment to moment the effects of engine conditions and tuning. My dad could easily spot at full throttle and 4200 horsepower a spark plug laying down, As that was about a 120 horsepower loss.

With the Merlins there was no torquemeter so calibrated fuel flow was used to watch power output, no where near as accurate as sensing the torque produced.
John

[John Slack]

I was pretty busy building engines for the "Rare Bear" racing team,

That evaporative oil cooling system is quite clever; saved, what, 3^2' of intake?

The boil off oil cooling system was installed after we sold the airplane in 2006. My thoughts on the system are based on conversations with the designer/builder of the system. That system is a reliable system but it has it's plus and minus factors now that they have moved the carburetor inlet above the engine. But I won't go into those as the people that operate it now may or may not understand those issues and that is their issue to fix. The end result is that was after my involvement and even though the air inlet over the nose, and the boil off oil cooling system were both once upon a time on our wish list, the other factors were something I did not fully understand at the time.

John

[Tim Herman]

In case anyone is still looking, call off the search! I was able to recover Speedster 83268 a number of years back. She was within an hour of me all along, a bit of a "death bed confession" ...or guilt trip lead to a quick and easy recovery.

[Martin Benade]

Any chance of us hearing the story, even if the names are left out? Did you have to pay money?

[Wes Bender]

Yeah Tim, now I won't be able to sleep until we find out what happened...