Dry Lakes Racers Australia

Fired up the Thunderbird today, first time since speedweek last year.
Got a bit of tuning to do once we get to the lake but other than that we're ready to go. New mods for this year are a different head with T140 inlet valves and the twin carbs, pictured below.



I am so looking forward to going for a ride on the salt again

Cheers Mossy

I'm envious Mossy, I attempted another test 'n ' tune ride today, 8 hrs later,discovered a crook coil (it could have been a LOT worse)
MAGGY'S RULE !

Meant to do this a couple of weeks ago but I was a bit disorganised this year.
After running 110 mph last year I was aiming for around 115 mph this year.
Engine wise I replaced the 3134 cams with T140 inlet cams. Only other mods were repositioning the tacho so I could see it better when crouched down and rubber mounting the oil tank.
Took it to Waikerie in November for some testing which was far from satisfactory so I visited Darren Wauchope at Flinders Dyno, operating out of Flinders Motorcycles in Pt Pirie.
First session got it running a lot better than it was at Waikerie but it did show the carbs were flooding over 4,000 rpm.
New bowls and new rubber tipped float needles cured that problem and we then got it tuned up on the 1 1/2"pipes with reverse cone meggas to produce 48.4 hp.
Then tried a couple of old drag pipes I took along which increased power to 49.6 hp with no other changes so that's how we run this year.
First run on the salt Tuesday morning saw the engine pulling well over 6,500 rpm, which was the limit last year, however clutch slip limited the top speed to 110 mph still.
So it was back to the pits for an engine sprocket change and to screw up the clutch spring nuts.
Back on track 2 in the afternoon and did a run of 119.002 mph.
As that was well above the goal for this year I was happy with that and called it quits for this year. However with another gearing change and a couple of other little mods for next year, I'll be looking to crack the 125 mph mark.


Cheers Mossy

Well done Mossy

HRD s make the pinicle of noise ----------but yours was a close second -------you should be happy with your runs !!
faster ----for us all next year !!!!
360 ish days to go
harky

Thanks, I'm Very Happy with this years run
Cheers Mossy

Performance mod for this has consisted of changing the oil tank colour from black to yellow

Ya cant have too much Yellow Mossy.

See ya on the salt.

Dave

I like the secret oil tank aero mods Mossy, & no, the yellow didn't disguise it

Yep yellow is faster for sure Mossy

Final bit of tuning for this years Speedweek And just in case you're wondering why the build thread is 50 Tbird but the bike is now entered as a 54, its because when this build thread started I only had the rigid frame and a gearbox shell. But by the time the bike was finished it turned out to be 1954 spec, which was the last year of the rigid frame and the first year of the big bearing alternator type crankcases and 5 fin cast iron heads.
Cheers Mossy