Speed Dreams: The Fastest Place on Earth....

I seem to recall there was at least on Locostbuilder on this program...

Enjoy!

Got it recording now.

quote:

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Originally posted by twybrow
Speed Dreams: The Fastest Place on Earth....

I seem to recall there was at least on Locostbuilder on this program...

Enjoy!

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Really enjoyed that

Great.
Would love to be there.
Is it next Sunday?

Just watched it. Utterly captivating. What a bunch of 'lads.'(some about my age).
Part 2 is same time next sunday according to the BBC website. I'll be glued. It was a great programme fabulously narrated by Bill Nighy.

I loved it. few times just found myself smiling out of pure joy. the misses played tetris.

IIRC Flak was involved with Briz's Weslake but it looks like it never made the final cut

Neil

Yes, I was involved with the Weslake. It was the only vehicle cut from the show, and we weren't impressed at all. And we haven't really been given a very good reason. We'd originally been told 3 bikes had been cut.

We are still there in the background on a few shots, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, we are going back next year for another go, if all goes to plan.

The whole group of people involved were great, made it a really enjoyable experience

Just watched it on the iplayer, very good stuff.. I want a workshop like they have...

And to think, the EU wants to ban all that sort of thing...

Vote UKIP!

Caught up tonight. Relegated the mrs to the other room to watch 'stenders

I like the phrase "my hearts going like a stolen moped's engine"...

"I like the phrase "my hearts going like a stolen moped's engine"..."

That line made me chuckle as well

cant wait for the next episode

Watchin' it now

Just watched part two

LOVED IT !!!

Well I liked the concept, but come on, the amounts of let down where unbelievable.

The only one to have gone on a Dyno tun was the group with very little technical abilities with the old Triumph, the old Indian only shown going for a run up a private lane.

To be spending that much time on the bikes (car) not to have the engines run under load for some time or at least some way of proving them out first before shipping out is pure nuts in my mind.

Was it pressure from the TV company to rush things and push people a year before they are ready all in the name of a TV show. The Mike Page group I could possibly understand, but for the rest of them portrayed as dedicated, fanatical and technical people seems unbelievable to be so far off the mark.

A case of the strange men from Briton, from in their sheds putting a smile on when failure strikes.

Yes I would love to try it, perhaps one day!

Adrian

[Edited on 14-1-13 by AdrianH]

Most of the bikes had dyno time actually, the BBC weren't there to film most of them. The BBC actually had little to do with it other than following us around, they didn't push any of it, or organise any of it either. They found out we were all going and thought it'd make a decent show.

Dyno time is pretty useless anyway, you can't tune the bike for the difference in altitude, heat and humidity you get up there.

4 miles flat out, at 45deg C ambient and 4500ft. It's a very harsh environment to run any vehicle in. Take a 200mph road vehicle there and it'll struggle to get to break 150mph. You're 30% down on power before you even start. It's nothing like as simple as you might think to build something reliable to take out there.

Drag or circuit racing just isn't the same. There is nowhere in the UK to test these vehicles that even comes close. The shortest track at Bonneville is 4 miles total (2 timed miles, 1 run up and 1 to stop), the long track for the streamliners is timed over 5 miles with a mile run up and 3 miles stopping distance.

Take the Indian, the original road bike would have been flat out at 50mph. The amount of engineering work in tuning the engine to the point it can take a bike to over 80mph in that environment is no mean feat. There's a reason why a lot of the records can seem slow, it's because it's kin' difficult! There's people there with a lot of money in projects, some are professional racers with pro teams, some have been going there for years, and they all struggle to get the best from their vehicles.

No one did it because they thought they could easily smash a record, or because they thought it would be easy. This was a huge challenge, and yes we're going back next year to have another go. With different bikes and some experience. But one thing is for certain, we'll be having a lot of fun!

respect to one and all. would love to go just to watch, to run up the salt, no matter what speed, must be a hell of an achievement........

Fair enough!

Just the way it seemed portrayed to me with comments, that the flower of Scotland could not be tested in the UK and showing the two guy's with the complete home made bike just revving it before they packaged it for shipping.

For example: to have heard that the guys with the home made, had power runs of some form would have given me more conviction they had tested everything they could before hand then believing they had an untested engine blow on it's first run.

Don't get me wrong, the amount of skill on that bike to build the engine alone is inspiring. Just found the portrayal of everyone as dreaming eccentrics to be stereotypical.

In fact from what I saw the Dave and PJ team did the best out of all.

I also note that the Indian in the Bert (Burt) Monro film was more 950cc towards the end of all its rework compared to the Indian which was it 740cc?

Adrian

Cheers for the explaination flak. I've never really followed the goings on at Bonneville until watching these programmes and I did think the runs seemed a little low on speed at times. All makes sense now. That Indian and the bloke on it was excellent, lockwiring his leathers together to get through scrutineering was class

Comments about the Flower testing was there's nowhere you can test it. Engine dyno time is easy, but testing the built vehicle is a whole different ballgame.

The Triumphs supercharger siezed solid, could have happened during testing. Those guys have years of drag racing experience, and know what they are doing. Just bad luck.

Chris's Indian was based on a 500cc 741B engine, reworked to 600cc

Flak, we're you in the show? I'm intrigued, sounds like you had a fair bit to do with it all? Have I missed something?

I also loved it. Made me remember why I love cars and racing - the people and the commaradery. Nothing like it.....

I went along with one of the bikes that was cut from the final show. There were actually 7 vehicles due to be in the show, one got cut and it was the one I was crewing for. This bike:

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=8660.0

I met Briz when he made my custom frame a few years ago now, and we've since become really good friends. Shaun Allen who was crewing for Chris was originally crewing for Briz, but ended up helping out with Chris's bike too

Chris travelled with us all the way. He's a great guy

I generally stayed outta the way of the cameras, but I'm there in a few shots

Wow, very cool.

Was it as mind blowing as it looked? Did you get a run up the salt?

I didn't get a run, we had our fair share of problems too. We did run the bike several times each day though.

As for the salt, yes its a mental place....

We started off in LA, spent a week or so there, picked the bikes up, drove to Wendover, 10days of speedweek, then back to LA for another week.

Here's a few of my pics

Long Beach


Bike collection




Deserted Motel - 42deg here when we stopped at 7pm...


The important stuff





Chris lockwiring his leathers :lol:










Briz's Weslake thats been cut










The BBC crew on the bikes

Jaw dropping pics, thanks for sharing. Shame the bike was cut from the final piece- looks really interesting.

Very jealous, a real dream of mine you've realised

Watched it last night, looks an amazing trip! Certainly not an easy place for engines or people! How was the sunburn?

Just finished watching it on iPlayer - I thought both programmes were very good, especially the 'scattering of the ashes' in the last few minutes - very moving.

pictures--------

Thanks chaps...

No sunburn, Factor 80 had that under control!

It averaged 110F most days, peaked one day at around 115F. Dropped to around 80F overnight



Didn't want to come back, thats for certain!

[Edited on 16/1/13 by flak monkey]