Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The World's Fastest Car~ "The Bloodhound SSC"


Uploaded on May 5, 2010

http://www.enfield-ebp.org.uk in partnership with http://www.bloodhoundssc.com bring the worlds fastest car to London in order to inspire children to take up science and engineering.

Bloodhound SSC (officially capitalised BLOODHOUND SSC, BLOODHOUND supersonic car) is a car created by the international education initiative Bloodhound Project (BLOODHOUND Project) to attempt a 1,000 mph world land speed record.

The team aim to break the land speed record with the pencil-shaped car, powered by a jet engine and a rocket designed to reach 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h) together with a Cosworth CA2010 Formula 1 V8 petrol engine auxiliary power unit.

It is being developed and built with the intention of breaking the land speed record by 33%, the largest ever margin.[1]

If £15 million of sponsorship funding is obtained the construction should be complete by the end of 2012 and the record attempts should take place in 2013 and 2014.[2]

BLOODHOUND SSC will be tested on the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa where a track 20 km long, 500 m wide has been cleared by a local workforce, employed by the Northern Cape Government.

Bloodhound SSC

Logo of the project and image of the vehicle
Predecessor ThrustSSC
Class Land speed record vehicle
Engine Rolls-Royce Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan
Falcon HTP hybrid rocket
Cosworth CA2010 Formula 1 V8 race engine (APU)
Length 13.5 m (44 ft)
Width 1.9 m (6.2 ft)
Kerb weight 6,422 kg (14,160 lb) (fuelled)

Development

The project was announced on 23 October 2008 at the Science Museum in London by Lord Drayson - then Minister of Science in the UK's Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills - who in 2006 first proposed the project to Richard Noble and Andy Green (the two men, between them, have held the land speed record for 29 years).

Richard Noble, engineer, adventurer, and former paint salesman,[3] reached 633 mph (1,019 km/h) driving turbojet-powered car named Thrust2 across the Nevada desert in 1983. In 1997, he headed the project to build the ThrustSSC, driven by Andy Green, an RAF pilot, at 763 mph (1,228 km/h), thereby breaking the sound barrier, a record first for a land vehicle (in compliance with Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile rules).

The task of driving the Bloodhound will fall to Wing Commander Green, who will lie feet-first in the Bloodhound SSC. As the car accelerates from 0-1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h) in 42 seconds, he will experience a force of approximately 2.5g (two-and-a-half times his body weight) and blood will rush to his head.

To slow the vehicle, Green will deploy air-brakes at 800 mph (1,300 km/h), and subsequently parachutes at 600 mph (970 km/h), with disc brakes used below 250 mph (400 km/h). As he decelerates, experiencing forces of up to 3g, blood will drain to his feet, with a risk of driver blackout. To condition his body for these intense g-forces, he will practice in a stunt aircraft, flying upside-down over the British countryside.


Design

The project is based in the former Maritime Heritage Centre on the Bristol harbourside, located next to Brunel's SS Great Britain. This building has been renamed the Bloodhound Technical Centre (BLOODHOUND Technical Centre).[citation needed]

Aerodynamics

The College of Engineering at Swansea University has been heavily involved in the aerodynamic shape of the vehicle from the start. Professor Oubay Hassan, Professor Ken Morgan and their team have used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in order to provide an understanding of the aerodynamic characteristics of the proposed shape, at all speeds, including predicting the likely vertical, lateral and drag forces on the vehicle and its pitch and yaw stability.[4]

This technology, originally developed for the aerospace industry, was validated for a land-going vehicle during the design of ThrustSSC. It was this involvement with the previous land speed record that prompted Richard Noble to approach Swansea in April 2007 to see if they could help with this latest challenge.

Swansea University's School of the Environment and Society was also enlisted to help determine a new test site for the record as the test site for the ThrustSSC record attempt has become unsuitable.[5]
 

Wheels

The four 36-inch (910 mm) diameter wheels will rotate at up to 10,200 rpm and will be forged from solid aluminium to resist the 50,000 g centrifugal forces.[6]


Construction

 Engineers produced the scale model which was exhibited at the launch, and will integrate the engineering behind the car into its curriculum, working with design team, led by Chief Engineer Mark Chapman. The car will be built at a site in Bristol.[7] 

The site will include an educational centre.[8] A full scale model was unveiled at the 2010 Farnborough International Airshow,[9] when it was announced that Hampson Industries would begin to build the rear chassis section of the car in the first quarter of 2011 and that a deal for the manufacture of the front of the car was due.

Chief Engineer Mark Chapman says, "We aim to shake down the vehicle on a runway in the UK at the beginning of 2013."



Full scale model



Education

The Bloodhound Project is first and foremost an education project designed to inspire future generations to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by showcasing these subjects in the most exciting way possible.

The education program covers all phases (ages) of education from primary through to secondary and further education, plus Bloodhound@University. Any school, teacher, youth group or home educated family in the world can register their details on the BLOODHOUND SSC website and download the free curriculum resource materials.

Education institutions in the UK or South Africa can request a visit from a member of the Bloodhound education team or STEM Ambassador who will work alongside a teacher and deliver a presentation on the project.

There are also workshop activities for schools with a focus on learners aged between 9 and 14 years of age and the reasons why Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape has been selected to run BLOODHOUND SSC.

The Bloodhound education program is also working with other STEM interventions and initiatives to ensure the Project reaches as many schools as possible. These include F1 in Schools (Bloodhound Class), the Smallpeice Trust, Primary Engineer, Science Made Simple and Young Engineers.


 Uploaded on Oct 24, 2008

 equinoxgraphics

Equinox Graphics is proud to present the visualization of Bloodhound SSC, the trans-sonic rocket car aiming to smash the current land speed record and raise it to a mind-bending 1000 mph (Mach 1.4).

The car is being designed and built in Britain, and Equinox Graphics has had the privilege of working in association with the design team to bring the car to life.

The minute-long viral video was produced on time and at High Definition (1920x1080, 25fps, full GI/radiosity) in just three weeks - including rendering time on our computer cluster.

The animation has proved extremely popular with the world's media, and has proved to be the ideal medium for engaging the public's imagination. It has so far been featured on BBC news (TV and online), and on stations as diverse as CNN and Al Jazeera.

More detail at www.bloodhoundssc.com and www.equinoxgraphics.net

 

 

Source: Wikipedia 


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Thrust SSC~ "Supersonic Land Speed Record"

 
Uploaded on Apr 19, 2007

On the 15th October 1997 Thrust SSC became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. Piloted by Wing Commander Andy Green of the RAF, an average speed of 763.035mph over the flying mile was achieved

The music is from the game GTR2 and is called Spa 24hrs.

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1960 Vespa 400 Micro-car~ "With a 1200cc Harley Davidson Sportster Engine"

 
Uploaded on Jun 13, 2010
 
I've had a ton of emails asking for more shots of the build and video of it running down the street. Here a short clip to give you some idea of what we did to build this wild ride. Its a mix of video and photos. Of course, there was ALOT more to it than just what you see here.
Enjoy!

The Vespa 400 is a rear-engined microcar, produced by ACMA (Ateliers de construction de motocycles et d'automobiles) in Fourchambault, France, from 1957 to 1961 to the designs of the Italian Piaggio company. Two different versions were sold, "Lusso" and "Turismo".

The car made its public debut on 26 September 1957 at a press presentation staged in Monaco.[2] The ACMA directors ensured a good attendance from members of the press by also inviting three celebrity racing divers[3] to the Vespa 400 launch.[2]

The 400 was a two seater with room behind the seats to accommodate luggage or two small children on an optional cushion. The front seats were simple tubular metal frames with cloth upholstery on elastic "springs" and between the seats were the handbrake, starter and choke.

The gear change was centrally floor mounted. The rear hinged doors were coated on the inside with only a thin plastic lining attached to the metal door panel skin allowing valuable extra internal space.

On the early cars the main door windows did not open which attracted criticism, but increased the usable width for the driver and passenger. Instrumentation was very basic with only a speedometer and warning lights for low fuel, main beam, dynamo charging and indicators.

The cabriolet fabric roof could be rolled back from the windscreen header rail to the top of the rear engine cover leaving conventional metal sides above the doors.

The 12 volt battery was located at the front of the car, behind the dummy front grill, on a shelf that could be slid out. The spare wheel was stowed in a well under the passenger seat.[2]



Vespa 400
Manufacturer ACMA
Production 1957-1961
Assembly Fourchambault, France
Class microcar
Body style 2-door Cabrio coach Turismo
Layout RR layout
Engine 24.0 cu in (0.4 L), I2, Two-stroke
Transmission 3-speed manual
Wheelbase 1,693 mm (66.7 in)
Length 2,850 mm (112.2 in)
Width 1,100 mm (43.3 in)
Height 50 in (1,270 mm) [1]
Curb weight 375 kg (827 lb)

 

Specifications

Engine
Two cylinder, two stroke, air cooled. Bore, stroke: 63 mm x 63 mm (393 cc). Motor cyclists at the time were used to mixing oil into their fuel, but the manufacturer belatedly realised that this might compromise the 400's standing as a "car", and from the summer of 1958 "two stroke oil" was held in separate reservoir with a semi-automatic dispenser on the right side of the engine bay.[2]
Compression ratio
6.4:1 with 12 hp, later increased respectively to 6.6:1 and 14 hp.[2]
Suspension
Four wheel independent. Four double acting hydraulic shock absorbers with coil springs. Front anti-roll bar.
Manual transmission
3 speed plus reverse, with 2nd & 3rd synchromesh. 4 speed available in non-U.S. markets.
Brakes
Hydraulically operated drums of 6.75 in (171 mm) diameter.
Performance
With only 18 hp (13 kW), top speed is 50 to 55 mph (80 to 90 km/h), depending on road grade, wind conditions, etc. Achieving top speed takes a leisurely 25 seconds. Fuel economy is about 5L/100KM.
The British Motor magazine tested a 400 de luxe saloon in 1959 recording a top speed of 51.8 mph (83.4 km/h) and acceleration from 0-40 mph (64 km/h) in 23.0 seconds and a fuel consumption of 55.3 miles per imperial gallon (5.11 L/100 km; 46.0 mpg-US).

The test car cost 351,725 "old" French Francs,[1] usefully cheaper than the 374,000 "old" French Francs domestic market starting price quoted towards the end of 1958 for the cheapest version of the larger but (even) less powerful Citroen 2CV.[2]


Vespa 400 Engine

 

Vespa 400 Dashboard

 

Source: Wikipedia 


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How Its Made~ "Vespa"


Uploaded on Aug 14, 2009
 rmschvey

A visit to the Vespa scooter factory.


Vespa [ˈvɛspa] is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.

The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy—to a full line of scooters and one of seven companies today owned by Piaggio—now Europe's largest manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles and the world's fourth largest motorcycle manufacturer by unit sales.[1]

From their inception, Vespa scooters have been known for their painted, pressed steel unibody which combines a complete cowling for the engine (enclosing the engine mechanism and concealing dirt or grease), a flat floorboard (providing foot protection), and a prominent front fairing (providing wind protection) into a structural unit.


History

Post World War II Italy, in light of its agreement to cessation of war activities with the Allies, had its aircraft industry severely restricted in both capability and capacity.

Piaggio emerged from the conflict with its Pontedera fighter plane plant demolished by bombing. Italy's crippled economy and the disastrous state of the roads did not assist in the re-development of the automobile markets.

Enrico Piaggio, the son of Piaggio's founder Rinaldo Piaggio, decided to leave the aeronautical field in order to address Italy's urgent need for a modern and affordable mode of transportation for the masses.

Concept

The inspiration for the design of the Vespa dates back to Pre-World War II Cushman scooters made in Nebraska, USA. These olive green scooters were in Italy in large numbers, ordered originally by Washington as field transport for the Paratroops and Marines.

The US military had used them to get around Nazi defense tactics of destroying roads and bridges in the Dolomites (a section of the Alps) and the Austrian border areas.


Vespa 150 TAP, modified by the French military, that incorporated an anti tank weapon

Design

In 1944, Piaggio engineers Renzo Spolti and Vittorio Casini designed a motorcycle with bodywork fully enclosing the drivetrain and forming a tall splash guard at the front. In addition to the bodywork, the design included handlebar-mounted controls, forced air cooling, wheels of small diameter, and a tall central section that had to be straddled. Officially known as the MP5 ("Moto Piaggio no. 5"), the prototype was nicknamed "Paperino" (either 'duckling' or Donald Duck in Italian).[2]


Piaggio MP5 "Paperino", the initial Piaggio prototype
 

Enrico Piaggio was displeased with the MP5, especially the tall central section. He contracted aeronautical engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, to redesign the scooter.[2]
D'Ascanio, who had earlier been consulted by Ferdinando Innocenti about scooter design and manufacture, made it immediately known that he hated motorcycles, believing them to be bulky, dirty, and unreliable.[3]

D'Ascanio's MP6 prototype had its engine mounted beside the rear wheel. The wheel was driven directly from the transmission, eliminating the drive chain and the oil and dirt associated with it. The prototype had a unit spar frame with stress-bearing steel outer panels.[3]

These changes allowed the MP6 to have a step-through design without a centre section like that of the MP5 Paperino. The MP6 design also included a single sided front suspension, interchangeable front and rear wheels mounted on stub axles, and a spare wheel. Other features of the MP6 were similar to those on the Paperino, including the handlebar-mounted controls and the enclosed bodywork with the tall front splash guard.[2]

Upon seeing the MP6 for the first time Enrico Piaggio exclaimed: "Sembra una vespa!" ("It resembles a wasp!") Piaggio effectively named his new scooter on the spot.[3][4] Vespa is both Latin and Italian for wasp—derived from the vehicle's body shape: the thicker rear part connected to the front part by a narrow waist, and the steering rod resembled antennae. The name also refers to the high-pitched noise of the two-stroke engine.[citation needed]
 

Product

On 23 April 1946, at 12 o'clock in the central office for inventions, models and makes of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Florence, Piaggio e C. S.p.A. took out a patent for a "motorcycle of a rational complexity of organs and elements combined with a frame with mudguards and a casing covering the whole mechanical part".[5]

The basic patented design allowed a series of features to be deployed on the spar-frame which would later allow quick development of new models. The original Vespa featured a rear pillion seat for a passenger, or optionally a storage compartment.

The original front protection "shield" was a flat piece of aero metal; later this developed in to a twin skin to allow additional storage behind the front shield, similar to the glove compartment in a car. The fuel cap was located underneath the (hinged) seat, which saved the cost of an additional lock on the fuel cap or need for additional metal work on the smooth skin.

The scooter had rigid rear suspension and small 8-inch (200 mm) wheels that allowed a compact design and plenty of room for the rider's legs.

The Vespa's enclosed, horizontally-mounted two-stroke 98 cc engine acted directly on the rear drive wheel through a three-speed transmission. The twistgrip-controlled gear change involved a system of rods. The early engine had no cooling, but fan blades were soon attached to the flywheel (otherwise known as the magneto, which houses the points and generates electricity for the bike and for the engine's spark) to push air over the cylinder's cooling fins.

The modern Vespa engine is still cooled this way. The mixture of two-stroke oil in the fuel produced high amounts of smoke, and the engine made a high buzzing sound like a wasp.[citation needed]

The MP6 prototype had large grilles on the front and rear of the rear fender covering the engine. This was done to allow air in to cool the engine, as the prototype did not have fan cooling. A cooling fan similar to that used on the MP5 "Paperino" prototype was included in the design of the production Vespa, and the grilles were removed from the fender.[2]

Glove box on newer Vespa PX.


Launch

Piaggio filed a patent for the Vespa scooter design in April 1946. The application documents referred to a "model of a practical nature" for a "motorcycle with rationally placed parts and elements with a frame combining with mudguards and engine-cowling covering all working parts", of which "the whole constitutes a rational, comfortable motorcycle offering protection from mud and dust without jeopardizing requirements of appearance and elegance".

The patent was approved the following December.

The first 13 examples appeared in spring 1946, and reveal their aeronautical background. In the first examples, one can recognize the typical aircraft technology. Attention to aerodynamics is evident in all the design, in particular on the tail. It was also one of the first vehicles to use monocoque construction (where the body is an integral part of the chassis).

The company was aiming to manufacture the new Vespa in large numbers, and their longstanding industrial experience led to an efficient Ford-style volume production line.

The scooter was presented to the press at Rome Golf Club, where journalists were apparently mystified by the strange, pastel coloured, toy-like object on display. But the road tests were encouraging, and even with no rear suspension the machine was more manoeuvrable and comfortable to ride than a traditional motorcycle.

Following its public debut at the 1946 Milan Fair, the first fifty sold slowly—then with the introduction of payment by installments, sales took off.


There is Tons more Info on the Vespa and its History at Wikipedia.org Check it Out!


Source: Wikipedia


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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Board Track Racing~ "This Had to be So Cool Back Then"

Uploaded on Aug 15, 2010

Vintage Racing found at www.motoredbikes.com


Uploaded on Nov 4, 2009
Track racing in Bielefeld, Germany. Many thanks to RC Zugvogel Bielefeld, the owner of the track.
We had a great time!

Board track racing was a type of motorsport popular in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s. Competition was conducted on circular or oval race courses with surfaces composed of wooden planks. This type of track was first used for motorcycle competition, wherein they were called motordromes, before being adapted for use by various different types of racing cars.

The majority of the American national championship races were contested at such venues during the 1920s.
Board tracks proliferated in part because they were inexpensive to construct, but they lacked durability and required a great deal of maintenance to remain usable. Many of the tracks survived for as little as three years before being abandoned.

With the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, board track racing disappeared rapidly. However, several of its most notable aspects have continued to influence American motorsports up to the present day, including: A technical emphasis on raw speed produced by the steep banking; ample track width to allow steady overtaking between competitors; and the development of extensive grandstands or stadium-style spectator seating surrounding many of the courses.


History


Construction of a board track at Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1916

Motorcycles racing on a board track in 1911

Some early board tracks were circular. This is a view of the Los Angeles Motordrome, the first of its kind.

Barney Oldfield (left) racing a car on a board track in 1915

Qualifying speeds at two-mile Tacoma Speedway were sometimes higher than those at Indianapolis.

Location Track length Years active Location Track length Years active
Playa del Rey, California 1.0 mile (1.6 km) 1910–1913 Cotati, California 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1921–1922
Elmhurst, California 0.5 miles (0.80 km) 1911–1913 Kansas City, Missouri 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1922–1924
Chicago, Illinois 2.0 miles (3.2 km) 1915–1917 Altoona, Pennsylvania 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1923–1931
Des Moines, Iowa 1.0 mile (1.6 km) 1915–1917 Charlotte, North Carolina 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1924–1926
Omaha, Nebraska 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1915–1917 Culver City, California 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1924–1927
Brooklyn, New York 1.0 mile (1.6 km) 1915–1919 Salem, New Hampshire 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1925–1927
Tacoma, Washington 2.0 miles (3.2 km) 1915–1922 Laurel, Maryland 1.125 miles (1.811 km) 1925–1926
Uniontown, Pennsylvania 1.125 miles (1.811 km) 1916–1922 Miami, Florida 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1926–1927
Cincinnati, Ohio 2.0 miles (3.2 km) 1916–1919 Atlantic City, New Jersey 1.5 miles (2.4 km) 1926–1928
Beverly Hills, California 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1920–1924 Woodbridge, New Jersey 0.5 miles (0.80 km) 1929–1931
Fresno, California 1.0 mile (1.6 km) 1920–1927 Akron, Ohio 0.5 miles (0.80 km) unknown
San Carlos, California 1.25 miles (2.01 km) 1921–1922 Bridgeville, Pennsylvania 0.5 miles (0.80 km) unknown
[7]
The first board track for motor racing was the circular Los Angeles Motordrome in Playa del Rey, California, built in 1910.[1]

Based on the same technology as European velodromes used for bicycle racing, this track and others like it were constructed with 2-inch (51 mm) x 4-inch (100 mm) boards, often with turns banked at up to 45 degrees. In some cases, such as the track at Culver City, banking was 50 degrees or more.[2]

Longer tracks were later built - some up to 2 miles (3.2 km) long by 1915 - and lap speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour became commonplace.[3][4][5]

Interest in motorsport was exploding during this period and by 1929, at least 24 board tracks had been built around the country, although by 1931, 20 of the 24 had been shut-down or abandoned, and from 1932 on there were no more championship-level races run on boards.[6][7]

 The tracks were relatively inexpensive to construct compared to more permanent facilities - the total facility cost of the 2-mile (3.2 km) Tacoma Speedway was just $100,000 in 1915, compared to the $700,000 spent in 1909 just to pave the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway.[8][9]


Racing on these tracks often drew large crowds of paying spectators. In 1915, a crowd of 80,000 was reported in Chicago, three weeks after only 60,000 had attended the Indianapolis 500.[6]

Relatively small and isolated Tacoma (population 83,000 in 1910) had turned out 35,000 to see a race the year before.[10][11]

 To attract both competitors and fans, race promoters offered what were then considered sensational amounts of prize money - a total purse of $25,000 was not unusual around the time of World War One.[12][13]

After WWI, the Automobile Association of America's Contest Board resumed and re-organized the National Championship system.[14]

From the beginning of the 1920 season to the end of 1931, the AAA sanctioned a total of 123 championship racing events on 24 different race tracks, and 82 of those races were run on wooden surfaces. (Of the remainder, 12 were on the bricks of Indianapolis, and the other 29 were on dirt tracks or road courses.)[15]
 

Safety

The first track in Playa del Rey was banked at a 3:1 pitch (about 20 degrees), but later tracks were built with higher banking and some motorcycle tracks were banked up to 60 degrees.[16][17]

Even though the physics of such track designs were intuitively obvious, it was not until construction of the Beverly Hills track in 1919 that builders began to incorporate engineering knowledge that had been known to railroads for decades.

At Beverly Hills, designer Art Pillsbury, who eventually worked on more than half of the championship-caliber board tracks nationwide, first employed the Searle Spiral Easement Curve, and the effect on car handling was pronounced.[18][19]

According to Pillsbury, a correctly engineered track could be driven without steering - the car would steer itself simply due to the track geometry.[18]

The effects of theses changes were higher cornering speeds and higher G-forces on drivers, but not necessarily greater safety.

Driver fatalities continued to mount on board tracks into the 1920s, and included four Indianapolis 500 winners, three of which occurred at the Altoona track (another Pillsbury design) in Tipton, Pennsylvania, and three in the same years in which the driver won at Indianapolis.

Winner of the 1919 Indianapolis 500, Howdy Wilcox died in an Altoona race on September 4, 1923, while co-1924 winner Joe Boyer and 1929 winner Ray Keech both suffered fatal accidents at the facility in the same years as their Indianapolis 500 wins - Keech's occurring only seventeen days after, on June 15, 1929. Gaston Chevrolet, winner of the 1920 Indianapolis 500, perished that same autumn, on November 25, 1920, in a Thanksgiving Day race at Beverly Hills.[20]

Even when the cars did not crash, racing on a board track was exceedingly dangerous due to flying wood splinters and debris, and due to the primitive tire technology of the era.[21][22]

In one oral history taken from a driver, he told a tale of wooden shards driven into the faces of drivers and riding mechanics, and sudden catastrophic tire failures caused by track conditions.[23] Cars were fitted with anti-splinter devices to protect their radiators.[24]

On the motorcycling motordromes, the situation was also very dangerous and the danger was aggravated by the riders' lack of proper safety equipment.[25]

 Fans sat above the top of the track, looking down at the racers. When a rider lost control, he could slip up off the track and into the crowd. Many fatalities occurred, often involving spectators.

The velodrome at Nutley, New Jersey, a 1⁄8 mi (200 m) oval banked at 45 degrees (generating lap times of 8 seconds or less) and built from 1 in × 12 in (25 mm × 300 mm) lumber on edge, was "unquestionably the deadliest".[26]

On September 8, 1912, "Texas Cyclone" Eddie Hasha was killed at a motordrome near Atlantic City in an accident that also killed 4 spectators and injured 10 more.

The deaths made the front page of the New York Times,[27] and the press started calling the short 1/4 and 1/3 mile circuits "murderdromes".[17]

The 1913 motorcycle championship races were moved to a dirt track because dirt was safer.[28]

The national organization overseeing motorcycle racing banned all competitions on board tracks shorter than 1-mile (1.6 km) in 1919.[29] One by one, the manufacturers withdrew their support due to the negative publicity.[25]

The end of board tracks

A major contributor to the demise of board tracks was the high cost of maintenance. There was no suitable wood preservative available, and depending on climate, tracks needed new boards every five years on average.[19]

Resurfacing required as much as a million board feet of new lumber per 1.25 miles (2.01 km) of track, which would have cost around $125,000 at the prices prevalent at the time.[19]

Thus, during the last decade of the board tracks, carpenters would repair the tracks from below, sometimes even during a race, while the cars raced overhead at 120 mph (190 km/h) or faster.[23]

An additional factor was that as speeds increased, overtaking became more difficult - the fastest car would almost always win the race, as long as it held together long enough to finish.

This led to spectators turning their attention to the less-predictable racing that was taking place on dirt tracks.[30]

Though board tracks disappeared from the National Championship scene in 1932, a few smaller tracks did continue to operate for some years afterward.

For instance, the Coney Island Velodrome hosted midget racing until at least 1939, and Castle Hill Speedway in the Bronx ran midgets into the 1940s.[31][32]

Source: Wikipedia.org 


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Simply click this link and Grow as you Go Come and Play In Traffic With Me and My Team at Traffic Authority!

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100 Year Old BSA~ "Starting On Its 100th Birthday"

Uploaded on Apr 12, 2011

It left BSA works on 12th April 1911. This video shows it starting on its 100th birthday (12th April 2011). It was restored by David Pattison after lying in a shed for 86 years. It is believed to be the oldest BSA in the world. Its frame number is 247.

Starting up a 100 Year Old BSA on Its 100th Birthday! 

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Daimler Reitwagen~ "The First Motorcycle?"



Uploaded on Jul 30, 2011

Specifications: wood frame, handlebar steering, 36'' wheelbase, 110
lbs., single cylinder engine, vertical, air cooler, full stroke 58 X
100 mm, hot tube ignition, 2:1 compression ratio, 16 cu. in., 0.5
horsepower, single belt drive transmission, no reverse.

Note:
http://www.stanleymotorcarriage.com/SteamPacingBike/index.htm
Thanks for the comments :P

The Daimler Reitwagen ("riding wagon") or Einspur ("single track") was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885, and is widely recognized as the first motorcycle.[3][4][5] Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle" for this invention.[6][7][8] Even when the three steam powered two wheelers that preceded the Reitwagen, the Michaux-Perreaux and Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884 Copeland, are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle,[9][10][11] and the forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use its overwhelmingly popular engine type.[12][13][14][15]


 
Uploaded on Sept. 29, 2010

This is a high quality shortened version of the video.


First motorcycle?

The Reitwagen's status as the first motorcycle rests on whether the definition of motorcycle includes having an internal combustion engine.

The Oxford English Dictionary uses this criterion.[16] The use of four wheels instead of two also raises doubts.[1][11] Even if the outriggers are understood only as auxiliary stabilizers, they point to a deeper issue in bicycle and motorcycle dynamics, in that Daimler's test bed needed the training wheels because it did not employ the principles, well understood in 1884, of rake and trail.[14][17]

For this and other reasons motoring author David Burgess-Wise called the Daimler-Maybach "a crude makeshift", saying that "as a bicycle, it was 20 years out of date."[18] Cycle World's Technical Editor Kevin Cameron, however, maintains that steam power was a dead end and the Reitwagen was the first motorcycle because it hit upon the successful engine type, saying, "History follows things that succeed, not things that fail."[14]

Though it is rarely mentioned in motorcycle history, Enrico Bernardi's 1882 one-cylinder petrol-engined tricycle, the Motrice Pia, could claim priority, as the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle.[19][20]



Daimler Reitwagen
Daimler Reitwagen
A Reitwagen replica at the Mercedes-Benz Museum
Manufacturer Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach
Also called Einspur "single track"
Fahrzeug mit gas bezw. Petroleum Kraftmaschine "Vehicle with gas or petrol engine"
Production 1885
Assembly Stuttgart
Engine 264 cc (16.1 cu in) air-cooled four-stroke single. Crank start.
Bore / Stroke 58 mm × 100 mm (2.3 in × 3.9 in)
Top speed 7 mph (11 km/h)[1][2]
Power 0.5 hp (0.37 kW) @ 600 rpm[1][2]
Ignition type Hot tube
Transmission Single speed, belt drive (1885)
Two speed, belt primary, pinion gear final drive (1886)
Frame type Wood beam
Suspension None
Brakes Front: none
Rear: shoe
Tires Iron over wood rim, wood spokes.
Rake, Trail 0°, 0 mm
Weight 198 lb (90 kg)[1] (dry)

 

 

Development

Drawings from 1884 showed a twist grip belt tensioner, complex steering linkage and used a belt drive. The working model had a simple handlebar and used a pinion gear 
drive.
 
"The first motorcycle looks like an instrument of torture", wrote Melissa Holbrook Pierson, describing a vehicle that was created along the way to Daimler's real goal, a four wheeled car, and earning him credit as the inventor of the motorcycle "malgré lui," in spite of himself.[21]

Daimler had founded an experimental workshop in the garden shed behind his house in Cannstatt district of Stuttgart in 1882.[22] Together with his employee Maybach they developed a compact, high-speed single-cylinder engine, patented on April 3, 1885 and called "grandfather clock engine."[23][24]

 It had a float metered carburetor, used mushroom intake valves which were opened by the suction of the piston's intake stroke, and instead of an electrical ignition system, it used hot tube ignition, a platinum tube running into the combustion chamber, heated by an external open flame.[10] It could also run on coal gas.[4] It used twin flywheels and had an aluminum crankcase.[13]

The Daimler-Maybach grandfather clock engine of 1886
 
Daimler's and Maybach's next step was to install the engine in a test bed to prove the viability of their engine in a vehicle.[13]

Their goal was to learn what the engine could do, and not to create a motorcycle; it was just that the engine prototype was not yet powerful enough for a full size carriage.[10][22] The original design of 1884 used a belt drive, and twist grip on the handlebars which applied the brake when turned one way and tensioned the drive belt, applying power to the wheel, when turned the other way.[22]

 Roper's velocipede of the late 1860s used a similar two way twistgrip handlebar control.[25][26] The plans also called for steering linkage shafts that made two right angle bends connected with gears, but the actual working model used a simple handlebar without the twist grip or gear linkage.[27] The design was patented on August 29, 1885.[28]

It had a 264-cubic-centimetre (16.1 cu in) single-cylinder Otto cycle four-stroke engine mounted on rubber blocks, with two iron tread wooden wheels and a pair of spring-loaded outrigger wheels to help it remain upright.[13] Its engine output of 0.5 horsepower (0.37 kW) at 600 rpm gave it a speed of about 7 miles per hour (11 km/h).[1]

Daimler's 17-year-old son, Paul, rode it first on November 18, 1885, going 5–12 kilometres (3.1–7.5 mi), from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim in Stuttgart, Germany.[3][22] The seat caught fire on that excursion,[1][22] the engine's hot tube ignition being located directly underneath.[29]

Over the winter of 1885–1886 the belt drive was upgraded to a two-stage, two-speed transmission with a belt primary drive and the final drive using a ring gear on the back wheel.[22] By 1886 the Reitwagen had served its purpose and was abandoned in favor of further development on four wheeled vehicles.[22]


Replicas

The original Reitwagen was destroyed in the Cannstatt Fire that razed the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft Seelberg-Cannstatt plant in 1903,[30] but several replicas exist in collections at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Honda Collection Hall at the Twin Ring Motegi facility in Japan,[31] the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Ohio,[30] and in Melbourne, Australia.[32]

 The Deutsches Museum lent their replica to the Guggenheim Las Vegas The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition in 2001.[2] The replicas vary as to which version they follow. The one at the AMA Hall of Fame is larger than the original and uses the complex belt tensioner and steering linkage seen in the 1884 plans,[27][30] while the Deutsches Museum's replica has the simple handlebar, as well as the ring gear on the rear wheel.[2]

Source: Wikipedia 

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