Target 130

 

Bill Anderson weights in on his anomalous Weslake-powered, sidecar, lay-down machine: "Since building the sidecar I have always tried to set targets.  The first target was 120 which it past quite easily.  The next was 125 which took a bit longer to achieve.  At Bonneville in 2010 it ran a top speed of 125.715 mph.  Now its 130.  I don;t know how much a 500 pushrod single can give so I am trying to give it all the help I can.  Some time ago Wes wrote about being told "I can tell you 30 ways to go 1 mph faster but I can't tell you one way to go 30 mph faster".

Reducing drag and good airflow is vital to small capacity engines.  To try and improve the aiflow and reduce drag I built a new body over the winter.  I like to all my work myself.  Its just the way I've been all my life.  The new body will I hope make for a smoother airflow and hopefully 130 will become a reality.  The body is fiberglass and was made from a male mould.  As it is a one off I used a male mould rather than a female.  If I were making 10 bodies then I would have made a female mould.  The mould was made from corrugated paper and drywall "mud".  It sounds pretty bad but a mould doesn't care what its made from.  Rather than spend a lot of time trying to seal it I used aluminum foil as a "release agent".  Polyester resin doesn't adhere to foil so it is perfect for the job.  3M low tack adhesive was used to keep the foil in place.  
 

 

Lay up was straight forward but with a male mould the surface tends to be a bit rough.  A very thin coat of Bondo and smoothing and you have a pretty good surface.  So now all that remains is to see if my ideas have any merit.  Its first outing will be at El Mirage May 19-20."