JUNE 2006

"The Boys R Back Edition"

Okay, on with the show. Coming in a couple weeks is the 34^th Annual Fathers Day Swap Meet at Chemeketa Community College 7:00 - 3:00. The Club did this garage sale as a group a few years ago and had a lot of fun and actually sold some stuff. We will be discussing this at the June meeting and I am sure we will be doing it again, so start looking around for some goodies to bring on over. That weekend will be fairly busy, Club Meeting (15^th), 3^rd Saturday at the Station plus whatever shows are going on and then the Swap Meet and whatever other shows, etc.

Pretty short meeting so not a whole lot of notes. Larry and myself (Rand) worked the crowd. No 50/50 sales, Rod was definitely not pleased! Wes had the tickets with him in Tennessee and Glenn said he would sell tickets at the Super Tour, have not seen any money yet!

Had a couple of visitors and one even joined. Dick Wilson recently moved into Silverton along with his Harleys. He came from up north and used to belong to the Coasters in Vancouver.

A ton of flyers were discussed, etc. Lots of things going on! SACC is sponsoring the High School Car Show at Brooks and the Club was going to ante up for a Fire Extinguisher as part of the give away for the kids, but the Boys from NAPA, Chris & Dan each offered one from the 2 stores, Silverton & Mt.Angel.

Hey, we are out of Club Hats and a couple of members brought up that they would like some and Jazz them up a bit. Bob Bullard and myself will get some info for the June Mtg.

Okay we are still working on ideas, etc for our Car Shows, goody bags, games, etc. Bring your ideas to the June meeting. Sue is all over some neat stuff for the Homer Show so lets all look around at what you have gotten at a show that was keep able and try to come up with a plan on how to get some just as cool. The Club does have some money to spend.

Okay, we’ll be once again meeting at the Countryman Public House on June 15^th around 7:30 PM or whenever you show up for dinner, a beverage or whatever while we wait for Wes to decide to start the meeting or talk. Remember to bring ideas or a beer sign for the auction or even a raffle prize for Larry!!

It was quite a trip, the first thing I will say is "If you are planning on going, or doing something with some of your best friends, all I can say is "DON'T PUT IT OFF DO IT". Wes had ask me to go on this trip with him for years and I just thought that I would do it AFTER I retired but this year I said NO!! this is the time to do it so I said YES!! and man what a time I had.

It was one fast vacation for me, the first weekend we had to do Old Bills retirement parity. Now I'm waiting to see how his new "Don Smith Cheater Cam" works in his big Buick. Bill got so much "Good(?) Stuff" I just know he was thrilled, well maybe not thrilled, maybe just surprised is a better word, I just wish him well on his retirement, and hope he enjoyed the hummer he got, as I know he has always wanted one.

I will try to tell you about our big trip in as little space as possible so here go's...We started out at Pudge's then we were off to Alfalfa Glenn's place in Alfalfa Oregon on Tuesday May 9th. The first shock of the trip was the gas prices when we got to Cal. they made $3.03 a gal. look good. That state was the highest on our whole trip topping out at $3.47 for reg. when Ten. was only (?) $2.47.

We had our first big day when we stopped at the FORD Proving Ground at Yucca Arizona, man what a place, a fully self-contained 3840 acre facility with 50 miles of test roads where they test the new Fords. When we were there they were testing the 2010 models, they do take some of the fun out of it, the 2010's have 2006 body's on them so you don't see the new body style. The things they do to new cars there is something, they were running a new F-100 around the track stopping only for gas, and they do it to other kinds of cars not just Fords . They do that just to see how the new Fords match up to the other makes out there.

The drive through New Mexico, Texas, OK. was fun, I didn't think there would be much to see there but I was wrong. The rain and lightening storm in Texas was something to see, but it would have been better to to have seen it on TV then to be there in it, you have never seen lightening in Oregon like that, thank God. When you hear the thunder THEN see the flash you know the lightening is REAL close.

When we got to Ark. we ran in to our first DRY county, they sold no booze in that county so that made Wes & Bob real nervous. We were well stocked up so there was no danger of us getting scurvy or snake bit but I think it was mostly a "if you can't buy it here do I have enough to get by?".

When we got close to Tennessee the scenery was awesome, I never knew how nice Tennessee was. The only bad thing I can say about Tennessee was the traffic to Pigeon Forge from Nashville was worse then what I face up here in Seattle, 2 hours for 20 miles is not good. The show was big, I've not seen so many outrageous F-100's in one place and every F-100 nicer then the next.

After we left the show we went to the Mecca to all FORD drivers " DEARBORN MICHIGAN" Wes said all "Real" Ford drivers have to go to the heartland of Ford, see the Ford museum, the Assembly plant, before they die. Well I've seen it, what a place to see, and even if you don't drive a Ford( heaven forbid) you will love the museum. There is way to much in the museum for me to tell you about here and not every thing in there is about cars. It was just way to cool, that's all I can say about it, just go and see it and you will NOT be disappointed. The Assembly plant was a real fun place to tour, the tour took us from 10 am to 3 pm when it was only set up to last 2 hours. The trip to Mclaren was cool too, we got to see some of the cars we had seen at the SEMA show. Vinny was the fantastic host as he always is, all I can say is "thanks again " and we hope to see you at the SEMA show this year. We had to leave for home sooner then we would of like to as I had to be back to work on May 30th, so our time in Dearborn was shorter then we would of liked.

Next we went to Mt Rushmore, first time for me and Glenn, and I think I can say for Glenn too, not our last. The country around there was so nice we loved it. We even went to Deadwood to see boot hill and we seen Wild Bill's grave, being a big fan of HBO's Deadwood that was a big kick. Wes and I found a great bar in South Dakota ( go figure) and Wes named it "Pudge's East" it had it all, good looking bar maids, NASCAR stuff on the walls, he even found someone to talk to, imagine that. So I think we will have to make a trip back to it some day.

The Last night out we had a good night of watching Old Bill's retirement parity on tape, (yes Bill there IS a tape of it) we drank a little rum, and just enjoyed the friends that we had spent the last 3 weeks with, damned it don't get much better then that. So again I will say Thanks for asking me to go along it was so much fun and I will never forget it.

Well we showed up at Pudge's on Sunday night the 28th to end it where we started it, 19days before , and it was so good to be back.

There are a lot more story's about the trip to tell, so just ask Wes or Bob to hear some of the better story's as I just didn't have space to write them all.

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-½ gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger. (After reading this tell me a gain just how powerful that new Hemi is. Edd)

With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shutdown by cutting the fuel flow. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces and split the block in half.

In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G’’s. In order to reach 200mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G’’s. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light. Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. The redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

The Bottom Line: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.437 seconds for the quarter mile (10/1/05 Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66 feet of the run (5/25/05 Tony Schumacher).

Putting all of this into perspective. You are driving the average $140,00 Lingenfelter ""twin-turbo"" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the ‘‘Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The tree goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep you foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears you eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster has potted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long course.

That folks, is acceleration. And that’s all for now from "THE GREAT WHITE NORTH" next month I will have the true story about our trip to Ten. EDD

Would like to let everyone know that one for our charter members Doug Turner is a little under the weather. He is at home recovering from a operation. If you get a time give him a call a 503 873 8070. I am sure he would like hearing from you. He likes to talk about just about anything that got wheels or skits. Well Big Bob, Alflafa Glen, Little Bother (EDD) and The Prez. made the trip To The F-100 Nationals in Knoxville Tenn. We drove the F-100's 7000 miles round trip. Don and Brian Littlefield also made the trip. And I think they traveled about the same miles BUT was a l little faster in the plane. Also found Jumbo, Jim and wife, Donnie, The Prez and her other half all from Henry's Half-Tons of Portland. I sure they rode the F-100 plane also. We had a GREAT Trip. Seem a lot of country. Stopped a Ford's Proving Grounds in AZ. BE SURE to stop there if you get a chance. Stopped at Ford dealers along the way for lunch all most every day. Drove some of the old route 66 BUT not as much of it as earlier planed. From Silverton OR to Knoxville TN took us nine days. The show was, for us, four days. Don't know the total number of F-100 trucks at the show. I think I heard around 1800 plus.

The Flywheels did not win any trophies BUT we sure had a great time spending time with old friends. And to me that is what these SHOWS are all about is making life long FRIENDS. BUT!! WHO! would guess we added five more Flywheels to our membership list. One from UT, One from CA, One from AZ, One from WA, and One from West Australia. Which makes The Flywheels Car Club now a World Wide Club. How About That Guys!!!!

The trip home took us to Dearborn MI for three days. Vince from Mclaren Performance, took us on a tour of there two shops. Also took tours of The Henry Ford Museum. Which I think is a HAVE-TO-SEE if you are ever in Dearborn. I think the whole crew will agree. We also did The Ford Rouge Factory Tour where we watched F-150 trucks being build. From there it was on home by the way of Mt. Rushmore and Sturgis SD. Then Teton National Park and Jackson WY and home. GREAT TRIP long drive BUT! would do it again at the drop of a (Ford) hat. Don't know what is the plan for next year. But! you can bet if there is another "ROAD TRIP" you know who will be first on the list. Later down the road, Wes.

Officers Meeting around 7:30 P.M. 6/12/06 my shop. Wes