The Tipperary Flying Mile

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David Leikvold
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
Location: Brisbane

The Tipperary Flying Mile

Post by David Leikvold »

The December/January issue of Motor Racing Australia magazine has a 5 page article about a one-off race meeting held near Coonabarabran in NSW in 1957 on a straight 4 mile section of narrow two lane country road. All sorts of race cars and motorcycles of the day competed. Fastest car was a Tornado at 157mph. Fastest bike was a BMW at 149 mph.
Anybody know of any smooth wide roads in any state that we might use?
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
PJQ2
Posts: 184
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 2:04 pm
Location: Melbourne

Post by PJQ2 »

Similar article in "Old Bike" issue 6.
The Tipperary Flying Mile... half a century on.
Five pages, all about the bikes that ran.
Regs,
PJQ
Velocity Science Laboratories
DON NOBLE
Posts: 742
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:37 am
Location: PAIHIA , BAY OF ISLANDS , New Zealand

Post by DON NOBLE »

I have an original copy of WHEELS magazine Dec 1957 , they reported on the event , 2 and a bit pages . One of the competitors was in a fatal accident at the event .
NOW LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND
RED NISSAN WAGON 1986 # 281
2002 F/PRO 125.4 MPH RECORD
2003 F/PRO 140.2 MPH RECORD
2005 F/GC 137.9 MPH RECORD
2006 F/GC 141.1 MPH RECORD
1/4 mile ( drags ) @ Willowbank 14.15 @ 97.61 mph August 2006
David Leikvold
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
Location: Brisbane

ach du lieber!

Post by David Leikvold »

I heard at work today that Monday's episode of Top Gear had them at the VW test track, presumably somewhere in Germany, thrashing a Bugatti Veyron. As you do. Apparently part of the complex is a banked 200km/h turn that leads onto a straight about 4 lanes wide that is FIVE MILES LONG! Aus liebe zum Automobil indeed.
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
DLRA
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Post by DLRA »

Yep watched that. Evidently the Bugatti is advertised at being capable of 250MPH, so of coure these buggers just had to make sure it could it. This being about the only place (local) that they culd find to do it. Interestingly they didn't trust the speedo and were using GPS to check the speed. Once it got to 253 he seemed to hold it there for ages. One thing was for sure everything seemed to go past a lot quicker then it does on the salt. No track could be wide enough if it all turned to poop. You just have to look at what happened to the little bloke when he nearly killed himself the week before when he blew a tyre at 288MPH in a borrowed jet car, it dug in and rolled in the thick damp grass.
Keep the shiney side up........
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David Leikvold
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
Location: Brisbane

not too clever

Post by David Leikvold »

I did see that episode and I couldn't help thinking that running ordinary race slicks on a 300mph car definitely wasn't smart. I think the car would have been a lot safer if it had inline front wheels like all good streamliners and a strong canopy and a steel plate welded into the top of the roll cage or, even better, a forward roll cage like Jack Costella put on the newest Nebulous Theorem, it's almost like a WW11 Spitfire. With just an open cage and a soft surface the jet car was always going to dig in until the Hamster's head was providing most of the resistance.
But having said that I'm looking forward to the first DLRA jet car to turn up at the lake. C'mon, let's add a class for reaction propulsion cars in a few years. Anyone got a bizjet motor they're not using? I'm game!
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
SPOOK
Posts: 164
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:10 am

the tipperary flying mile

Post by SPOOK »

David, be patient ,youneverknow something might just just turn up. Cheers, Spook
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