#or at least a second turbine on the same shaft | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

scuttle-buttle · 4 years ago

Text

WC: 1973

Rated: E

Tags: technically unprotected smut, fluff, tiny bit of german

✈

“Have you checked the gauges?”

“Yes, Niki,” you huff at his question through your microphone. This was at least the third time he’d asked you to go over everything.

“What about fuel?”

You point to the little meter that showed the tank levels. “Still full.” Your husband turns to face you in the cockpit of the small plane. The look he gives you is one of false annoyance. You know he’s just doing this to be as safe as possible, to minimize risk. “Sorry, sorry,” you offer him a guilty grin. Your husband’s brow cocks before he turns back to the dashboard panel.

His little private jet only held capacity for maybe 8 people total, but today it was just you and your husband. He always said he would teach you how to fly but you never figured that you would be brave enough to follow through with learning. Now here you sit, engine purring under you, a pair of thick headphones over your ears. For the first time Niki was going to let you handle your flight - all of it. Of course, he still had the ability to use the controls on his side of the small cabin, but he made it clear that he would only do so in case of a serious emergency.

“Everything has been checked over and ready for flight,” you confirm.

He tilts his head to offer you a smile. “Gut. When you are ready, Liebling.”

Taking a deep breath, you open up the radio communication line with the air traffic control tower. You recite the technical jargon that Niki had taught you. “This is Lauda 1 requesting clearance for taxi and take off on runway B, north side, over.”

Static comes over the line for a second. “Lauda 1 you are cleared to taxi and take off from runway B, north side, over.”

You release the brakes before pushing the throttle the faintest amount. With one hand on the yoke and the other on the lever you slowly guide the plane towards the runway. It had taken a good six months of Niki being annoyed at you calling it a ‘steering wheel’ before you finally called it by its proper term.

You lined the nose of the plane up with the lines on the runway tarmac. Once you are satisfied with your positioning you pause to let the turbines rev and build up power. With a swallow you lean towards Niki. “You won’t let me fuck this up and kill us both, right?”

“Of course not. But you don’t need to worry about that, you will be fine, Liebe. I know it.” He’s relaxed next to you, as though he’s at home sitting on the couch reading one of his racing magazines.

“If you say so. I love my brother but I’ll be damned if James gets custody of the girls,” you snark with a laugh, all while releasing the brake and pushing the throttle again. Niki’s own snort can be heard over your radio headset.

The plane accelerates under your guidance. You maintain a firm but steady grip on the controls; finally you push the thrust lever all the way. The small aircraft wobbles with friction as it speeds down the track. Suddenly, the front lifts, giving a weightless calm as the nose begins to ascend into the air.

Once you have gotten far enough off the ground you flip the switch to raise the landing gear. Niki has been silent letting you work the last five minutes or so. Over the crackle of your headsets he instructs you “that was very good. Now get us to cruising altitude.”

“Yes, sir,” you acknowledge with a mock salute.

This is by no means the first time you have been in a plane, let alone flying a plane, with your husband. But it is the first time that it is you truly flying. As you travel you admire the view in front of you. It felt like you were seeing the clouds and the sunshine for the first time. The blue nearly overwhelmed you with its vibrancy. You couldn’t help but bite your lip to hold back the way your cheeks threatened to split with how hard you were beaming. Every so often you remember to check back on the gauges and meters to ensure that everything is working properly.

You don’t notice how your husband watches you from the seat beside yours. He admires your confidence at the new skill, completing the tasks with ease. He admires how bright your eyes are, lit by happiness and the light of the sky outside the windows. He admires the fact that even after close to fifteen years of marriage you still humor him and his passions.

When you finally break away from the view to look over at Niki he’s already got his eyes on you. His bottom lip is caught in his teeth. “What?” He raises his brows in question at you. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Can I not look at my meine schöne Frau?” he teases you. Even after so many years you still feel the heat rise in your cheeks when he calls you beautiful. “You look good flying my plane. You should do it more often.” Both of your hands remain on the yoke; his hand comes to rest on your thigh, giving you a little squeeze. He leaves it there the rest of the flight.

After maybe an hour or two you have circled the jet back towards the airport. Calling in, you get clearance to land on the same runway you had departed from. Carefully you lower the plane’s altitude to prepare for landing. Flipping the switch, you can just hear the grind of the wheels as they lower.

“The trick here is-”

“You want to line the stripes on the runway next to the nose visually, otherwise it’ll be crooked and I’ll go off the tarmac,” you finish for him.

He chuckles. “See, I don’t even know why I’m here. You don’t need me.”

“Of course I need you, I always need you, Niki.”

He lets you focus as you pull back on the throttle and slow your speed, further lowering to the ground. You line up just as he taught you with the painted runway up ahead. Gently you touch down, the plane jolts as it makes contact. You brake the jet to an acceptable speed to taxi. Adrenaline courses through you. I just flew a plane! you cheer to yourself.

Once the vehicle is parked within the hangar you shut off the engine. Quickly you leave the cockpit to stretch your legs in the spacious passenger cabin. Turning to your husband, your jaw is dropped. “Is this what it feels like? Every time you drove the car? Christ, Niki, I feel like I could do anything! The absolute rush!” Niki has come up behind you, so you face him before bringing his lips to meet your own.

The kiss is full of passion and energy. It deepens as you stand there in the middle of the cabin. You push him away and down into a couch-like seat. He grunts in surprise when you forcibly yank his pants from his hips. When they are to his knees you give up in favor of pulling off your own. Niki wastes no time in tugging you back to him, his mismatched lips attaching themselves to the column of your throat. You, in turn, drag your heat along his hardening shaft. When he is ready you push his cock inside your throbbing core with a groan.

Breathily, you ask “why have we never done this before now?”

His mouth moves away from your jaw to meet your gaze. “Fucked on a plane? I didn’t know you wanted to,” he huffs in amusement.

You start to push and pull your hips at a dizzying pace above him. With each pump the ridge of his cock hits you perfectly. Niki tosses his head back in pleasure, a long moan tumbling out as your walls squeeze him. His hands help to guide your hips as you ride him. “They don’t call it joining the Mile High Club for nothing, love.”

“Not sure-” he grunts at a particularly hard snap of your pelvis “-this counts.”

You shove your fingers between his curls, a bit shorter and a few streaks of silver lining near his temples, and pull his head to rest against yours. “Are you complaining?” you breathe out along his lips. Never once does your pace falter. Instead of answering he gives you a bruising kiss.

It isn’t long before his thumb finds your center, rubbing harsh patterns against your aching clit. He knows exactly how to toss you into the abyss; exactly when you are near shattering. Within seconds you are shouting out his name, clenching around his still-pistoning cock. His own cries of bliss come shortly after.

Resting atop him, Niki rubs his fingers along your clothed back. You hum into his throat where your head lays. “You did so well today, Liebling. I’m very proud of you. Pretty soon you’ll be a better pilot than me.”

You smile into him. “Bullshit,” you laugh. “Me compared to the great Niki Lauda? Impossible.” You pinch the softness of his side.

He gives a laugh of his own, his chest rising with the action. “You never know, could surprise us all.”

You roll your head onto his shoulder to be able to look up at him better. “Mmm, but with you I’ve always known.”

Niki drops a sweet kiss to you. His expression is delicate as he peers down at where you sit atop him. He scrunches his nose as he tells you “I think I knew first. I know I did.”

You study his face for a moment. His tone is confident, like there’s no way he could possibly be wrong about when you first got together so many years ago. You know that the moment for you was pretty early, before you officially even went on your first date. Curiosity wins out. “Oh really?” You sit up on his lap. “And when was that, since you’re so sure?”

“I asked if you would rather go with Hunt than come see me at Ferrari. You nearly jumped out of your skin with how hard you cringed at the idea of him.”

You’re shocked by his confession. “Alright but he’s my brother,” you groan and laugh at the same time, “and…” you think back to that day, “wasn’t that maybe five minutes after we’d met?”

“Yes, but I did not know that at the time. I thought, ‘hmm, an attractive woman that doesn’t want to sleep with that arschloch but instead visit me at the track? She’s someone special’. And I wasn’t wrong.” He brushes a thumb on the skin of your cheek.

“You know, you always tell me that you aren’t good at these things. Romance and the like.” You look up at him from under your lashes.

“And?”

“That was such a lie, Niki. You’re always so sweet to me.”

“Only you, Liebe.”

The two of you right yourselves to leave the airport for the day. The sky is clear as you walk to his car parked outside the hangar. Reaching out, you find your husband’s hand and hold it tight. “So, when can we do this again?”

He turns to face you from where he stands next to you. “That eager for more already?”

“It’s addicting, Lauda,” you shoot back playfully. So many times since you met he had described the drive or flying as addicting. To be faster, to be better, to go harder.

Niki stops suddenly, lips pursing. “Just to be clear, are you talking about flying or the sex?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” you wink.

Tag list: @ay0nha @apparrio @livvyshmiv @fictionlandslanddreams @vinylrosess @typical-bistander @ntlmundy @mymagicsuitcase @anteroom-of-death @somethingthatsaysbubbles @lieutenantn @multiversemarielle @trashbin2 @whatawildone @metalbreakfast @laura-naruto-fan1998 @greeneyedblondie44 @godidontevenknowwhat @marchingicenotes7 @mysticalexpertdaze

@loliissmut @fandom-princess-forevermore

#beyond the checkered flag #niki lauda rush 2013 #daniel brühl #daniel bruhl #daniel bruhl niki lauda #rush 2013 #niki lauda x reader #niki lauda fanfiction #sleeping with the enemy #scuttle-buttle #niki lauda

70 notes · View notes

itcars · 7 years ago

Photo

First Look: The Audi PB18 e-tron Concept

The all-electric Audi PB18 e-tron represents a radical vision for the high-performance sports car of tomorrow. Conceived and created in the new Audi design studio in Malibu, California, with the benefit of extensive experience gained in the wind tunnel and on the race track. The technical concept behind the PB18 e-tron has been devised using expertise gained during the Audi Le Mans racing program, and the realization of that concept was the responsibility of the experts at Audi Sport, the Audi high-performance subsidiary. The name “PB18 e-tron” refers both to the Pebble Beach venue for the premiere and to the technological DNA it shares with the Audi R18 e-tron LMP1 racing car.

Consistently focused concepts for use

At first sight, the Audi PB18 e-tron shows its kinship with another spectacular concept car from the brand – the Audi Aicon from 2017. This holds true not only for characteristic design elements like the side windows that angle inwards and the significantly extended wheel arches, but also in terms of their all-electric drivetrains using advanced solid-state battery technology for energy storage.

This, however, is where the similarities end. While the Aicon was designed as a fully automated, long-distance luxury vehicle – a business jet for the road – the creators of the PB18 e-tron designed it as a radical driving machine for the racetrack and road. Dynamics and emotion top its list of specifications. Parameters like propulsive power, lateral acceleration and perfect ergonomics determine each detail. And driver-orientation is in a completely new dimension.

The internal working title at Audi for the showcar project was “Level Zero” – as a means of explicitly differentiating its development focus from other Audi projects that are currently working towards bringing levels 3, 4 and 5 of autonomous driving to the road. In the Audi PB18 e-tron, the driver is the absolute centre of attention. There are therefore no complex systems for piloted driving on board and no comfort features to add weight. In their place are a driver’s seat and cockpit that are integrated into an inner monocoque shell that is moveable laterally depending on how many occupants are on board. When driven solo, the monocoque can be positioned in the centre of the interior as in a monoposto – the perfect location for the racetrack. This is made possible not least by the by-wire design of the steering and pedals; a mechanical connection of the control elements is not needed.

Gael Buzyn is Head of the Audi Design Loft in Malibu, where the Audi PB18 e-tron was born. He describes the most important item in the specifications: “We want to offer the driver an experience that is otherwise available only in a racing car like the Audi R18. That’s why we developed the interior around the ideal driver’s position in the centre. Nevertheless, our aim was to also give the PB18 e‑tron a high degree of everyday usability, not just for the driver, but also for a potential passenger.”

When the driver’s monocoque is moved into the side position, from where the PB18 e‑tron can be steered in everyday driving like a conventional road vehicle, there is room for a passenger. An additional seat can be accessed on the other side, integrated low above the ground and equipped with a three-point seatbelt. The driver also benefits when getting in and out from the easily accessible outside position of the monocoque, which can be moved when the door is open up to the sill.

Inspiration drawn from motorsport

The Audi PB18 e-tron package follows the traditional architecture of a mid-engine sports car with a cab that is positioned far forward. The car’s centre of gravity is located behind the seats and in front of the rear axle – which benefits the driving dynamics. This does not involve the engine-transmission unit, as in a car with a conventional drive system, but rather the battery pack.

A mix of aluminium, carbon and multi-material composites ensures the body of the Audi PB18 e-tron has a low basic weight, not least thanks to the innovative and comparatively light solid-state battery. A total weight of less than 1,550 kg (3,417.2 lb) can be expected.

The PB18 e-tron is 4.53 metres long, 2 metres wide and just 1.15 metres tall. These dimensions alone speak of a classical sports car. The wheelbase is 2.70 metres and the overhangs are compact. Viewed from the side, the eye is drawn to the gently sloping roof line which is pulled far to the back and features massive C-pillars. Together with the large and almost vertical rear window, this design is reminiscent of a shooting brake concept – the synthesis of a coupé with the rear of a station wagon. The result is not only a distinctive silhouette but also a clear bonus in terms of cargo space, which is usually at a premium in sports cars. Here, 470 litres is available, and can be fully exploited using the exclusive customised luggage designed to fit the cargo space – even if the luggage in this car frequently consists of nothing but a helmet and racing overall.

A flat red band of lights extends across the entire width of the rear and underscores the horizontal orientation of the vehicle body. The cabin, placed on the broad shoulders of the wheel arches, appears almost dainty from the rear. The rear diffuser air outlet has been raised high – another functional feature borrowed from motorsport. The diffuser can be moved downwards mechanically to increase downforce, and the rear spoiler can be extended rearwards for the same purpose.

The widely extended wheel arches located opposite the central cabin are noticeable from every angle. They emphasise the extremely wide track of the PB18 e-tron and thereby illustrate the dynamic potential of the car and the obligatory quattro drive. The large 22-inch wheels, each with eight asymmetrically designed spokes, are reminiscent of turbine inlets – together with the air inlets and outlets of the wheel arches, their rotation ensures excellent air supply to the large carbon brake discs.

The front is dominated by the familiar hexagon shape of the Singleframe grille, with an emphatically wide and horizontal cut. The brand logo is positioned on the bonnet, in the typical Audi sports car style. Large air inlets to the left and right of the Singleframe supply the necessary cooling air to the brakes and the front electric motor. Wide and flat light units with integrated digital matrix technology and laser high-beam headlights complete the face of the PB18 e-tron.

The laser high-beam headlight with its enormous range is especially emblematic of the transfer of know-how from motorsport: This technology made its debut in the Le Mans R18 racing car, where the maximum light output at speeds topping 186mph offered a crucial safety advantage at night as well.

The Audi designers have taken a new tack in the pursuit of optimal air flow through the bonnet, which dips sharply and acts as a lateral bridge running across the nose, connecting the two accentuated wings and also doubling as an air deflector - a design that is familiar from racing prototypes.

At the same time, this layout offers the driver a unique quality of visibility, and not just on the race track. Looking through the large windscreen from the low seating position, the driver sees precisely into the opening of the ventilated bonnet and onto the road, and can thus perfectly target the course and apex of the bend. Mounted within the field of vision is a transparent OLED surface. The ideal line of the next bend can be shown on it, for example, precisely controlled with data from navigation and vehicle electronics. In normal road traffic, on the other hand, the direction arrows and other symbols from the navigation system find a perfect place here in the driver’s field of vision, like a more conventional head-up display.

The large-format cockpit itself is designed as a freely programmable unit and can be switched between various layouts for the racetrack or the road, depending on the scenario for use.

Emotion without emissions: 3 electric motors & quattro drive

The concept uses three powerful electric motors – one up front and two in the rear. The latter are centrally located between the steering knuckles, each directly driving one wheel via half-shafts. They deliver up to 150 kW of power to the front axle and 350 kW to the rear – the Audi PB18 e-tron is a true quattro, of course. Maximum output is 500 kW, but with boosting the driver can temporarily mobilise up to 570 kW. The combined torque of up to 830 Nm (612.2 lb-ft) allows acceleration from 0 to 62mph in scarcely more than 2 seconds – a speed that differs only marginally from that of a current LMP1 prototype.

In normal road traffic, the driver can limit the maximum speed in favour of range. This limitation is easy to deactivate on the racetrack and can be adapted to local conditions.

The focus is not only on powerful performance but also maximum efficiency. While being driven, the Audi PB18 e-tron recovers large amounts of energy: up to moderate braking, the electric motors are solely responsible for decelerating the vehicle. The hydraulic brakes only come into play for heavy braking.

The concept of separate electric motors on the rear axle offers major advantages when it comes to handling. The Torque Control Manager, which works together with the Electronic Stabilisation Control (ESC), actively distributes the power to the wheels of the front and rear axles as needed. This torque control provides for maximum dynamics and stability. Thanks to the virtually instantaneous response of the electric motors, the control actions are lightning-quick. The drive concept of the Audi PB18 e-tron adapts perfectly to every situation, whether involving transverse or longitudinal dynamics.

The liquid-cooled solid-state battery has an energy capacity of 95 kWh. A full charge provides for a range of over 310 miles in the WLTP cycle. The Audi PB18 e-tron is already designed for charging with a voltage of 800 volts. This means the battery can be fully recharged in about 15 minutes.

The Audi PB18 e-tron can also be charged cordlessly via induction with Audi Wireless Charging (AWC). This is done by placing a charging pad with integral coil on the floor where the car is to be parked, and connecting it to the power supply. The alternating magnetic field induces an alternating voltage in the secondary coil fitted in the floor of the car, across the air gap.

High-tech from the LMP1 class: the suspension

The front and rear have independent suspension on lower and upper transverse control arms, and, as commonly found in motor racing, a push-rod system on the front axle and pull-rod system on the rear – in both cases with adaptive magnetic ride shock absorbers. The suspension of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro Le Mans racing car served as the model for the basic architecture.

The wheels measure 22 inches in diameter and are fitted with 275/35 tyres in the front and 315/30 in the back. Large carbon brake discs with a 19-inch diameter, in conjunction with the electric brake, safely and steadily decelerate the Audi PB18 e-tron even in tough racetrack conditions.

The path to volume production – electric mobility at Audi

Audi has been developing vehicles with all-electric or hybrid drive since back in the late 1980s. The first production offering of a car combining a combustion engine with an electric motor was the Audi duo from 1997, which occupied the body of an A4 Avant. A landmark technological development for electric cars was the R8 e-tron, which was unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and in 2012 set a record lap time for an electric car on the North Loop of the Nürburgring.

Audi added a first plug-in hybrid to its range in 2014 in the guise of the 150 kW (204PS) A3 e-tron – its battery units can be recharged by recuperation and cable, and give it an all-electric range of up to 50 kilometres in the NEDC. The Q7 e-tron made its debut in 2016: It is powered by a 3.0 TDI engine combined with an electric motor, with a combined 275 kW (373PS) and 700 Nm (516.3 lb-ft) of torque. It accelerates from a standing start to 62mph in 6.2 seconds and is particularly efficient. In all-electric mode, it has a range of up to 34 miles while producing zero local emissions. It is also the world’s first plug-in hybrid with a V6 compression ignition engine and quattro drive.

Another concept car unveiled by Audi in 2015 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, was the e-tron quattro concept – the forerunner of the brand’s first all-electric-drive production automobile.

As a radically reconfigured SUV it offers a range of more than 248 miles in the WLTP cycle with the spaciousness and comfort of a typical full-size automobile from Audi. The production version of this groundbreaking e-SUV, named Audi e-tron, will debut in September 2018.

Roadtrip, circuit or piloted city-mobile – a new mobility service

Audi has meanwhile been building a new family of visionary automobiles since 2017 as a preview for the next decade – electrically powered and precisely focused on their respective use scenarios. Cars currently in the market are always conceived as a versatile synthesis between highly conflicting requirement profiles – in practice, this often means compromises must be made. In contrast, the current concept cars will occupy a new, consistent position in an increasingly diversified market. The Audi Aicon long-distance luxury vehicle started things off at the IAA 2017; the PB18 e-tron is now marking another milestone. Additional vehicle concepts, such as those for example for urban traffic, are already being developed and will make their public debut in the coming months.

As part of a premium sharing pool with highly individual models, they will all sharpen the profile of the Audi brand even further in the future – as custom-tailored products and services for highly demanding customers who want to combine mobility, emotion and experience in every situation of their lives. These customers can then decide whether they only want to use the vehicle of their choice temporarily and exchange it for another when needed, or if they would rather purchase it permanently, as today.

#Audi PB18 e-tron #Audi #PB18 e-tron #PB18 #cars #news #first look #electric cars #tech #concepts #concept cars #german #germany #featured

387 notes · View notes

spiritual-doctor4u · 7 years ago

Text

INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES AS ONE CLUSTER BY DESIGN - powered by Gravity

INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES RUNNING ON GRAVITY POWER - by design

NATURE GAVE US THE DESIGN FOR OUR FACTORIES IN THE FORM OF HUMAN BODY MACHINE - START AT THE TOP (mouth) & FINISH AT THE BOTTOM(rectum) & STILL ABOVE THE GROUND (on legs) RENEWABLE ENERGY To reduce our carbon foot prints we have planned to go green with energy harnessed from wind, sun, tidal waves, and biogas/natural gas. But we forgot about the most potent force of GRAVITY. When gravity is used in piecemeal or as an after thought then it is not economical. It is now proposed to plan at corporate level to use the power of gravity by design. Large complexes capable of accommodating hundred or more, small to medium industrial plants is being planned on wasted plateaus/hillocks’ instead of flattened individual plots of prime land. MAJOR COST OF PRODUCTION IS MATERIAL HANDLING COSTS Material handling costs form a major component of the total cost of production. It can range from 50% to 70% of the total cost, depending upon the type of product and manufacturing route. The basic function of layout planning is to facilitate movement of materials with the least cost. This function will now be full filled by delivering and storing the raw materials up hill of the processing machines and moving the in process materials and finished products by gravity, totally free of cost. THE BASIC THEME The theme is to have the raw materials uphill of the industrial factories and use gravity to move materials at every storage /processing point by choice and design. A very large hill/plateau will be chiseled into ten basic steps measuring 5m high by 5m deep each all along the outer perimeter of the plateau/hill. In a nut shell it will resemble a giant sports stadium in reverse, wrapped around the plateau. Each industrial plant/factory will be allocated and laid out as a narrow strip from top to bottom of the plateau. The top of the plateau will be connected by a long meandering wide road to the bottom step of the plateau, and the in coming highway to facilitate movement of materials just once, the first time and never again. TOP TO BOTTOM APPROACH The raw materials arrive by road or rail directly on the top of the plateau, which is large enough to accommodate such traffic. Special purpose cranes and unloading equipment unload the raw materials directly on to the first and second steps. Third to seventh steps house the processing machines which are inter linked by inclined chutes, gravity rollers, slides, idler spirals, self moving stairs, over lapping hoppers, self unloading turrets, and other special purpose conveyors running on gravity, free of charge. Eighth and ninth steps will hold the finished products ready for dispatch/shipment. The final tenth step will accommodate the trucks or railcars for loading by telescopic conveyors under the power of gravity alone. This is how higher productivity and lower costs are achieved. Each step within the individual plant will be inclined instead of being leveled horizontal to facilitate movement of materials from point A to point B under the influence of gravity alone. The storage of raw materials and finished products will be palletized or unitized and strategically positioned on inclined gravity conveyors for instant retrieval and forward motion to the next point of use. SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS & VALUABLE ADVANTAGES The capital costs to set up industrial plants are drastically reduced on account of compactness of design, use of air rights, overall cubic space utilization, and minimum material handling equipments purchase cum installation, and site development associated costs. The cost of production is significantly slashed because of non motorized material handling systems running on gravity power alone. The wasted hilly terrains are utilized more profitably and the prime flat lands are left alone for agriculture and township expansions. The industrial congestion and associated traffic is greatly reduced in the towns and cities. The overall productivity goes up thus reducing the total cost of manufacture and increasing the profit margins, or competing in the overseas international markets. The depth of foundations for the building columns and structures will be minimized on account of common elements/sharing and standardized design for all plants in on the plateau. Vertical shaft giant wind turbines can be installed on the near by hills to generate power for the complex, very conveniently and cheaply. Comparative analysis between the existing and the proposed systems has been attempted to high light the advantages of the gravity powered industrial complexes. The potential savings in cost of manufacture are phenomenal 58% on an average. MORAL OF THE STORY Gravity holds us on to this planet firmly, even when the mighty Earth is spinning so fast that we could easily be shot out in the outer space at the speed of light. In the same fashion we tend to hold on to material things & our acquired sense of Ego as if we are charged up with the power of Gravity. The sorrow in our lives is self generated & the simplest solution is to LET GO. Learn to use the power to let go like we are doing with gravity in the case study given above.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FOR TECHNOLOGISTS & INDUSTRIALISTS

NAME OF INVENTION: DESIGN OF FUTURISTIC INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES USING GRAVITY AS PRIME MOVER

ABSTRACT: The theme of the invention is to have the raw materials uphill of the industrial factories and use gravity to move materials at every storage /processing point by choice and design.

BACK GROUND OF THE INVENTION: To reduce our carbon foot prints we have planned to go green with energy harnessed from wind, sun, tidal waves, and biogas/natural gas. But we forgot about the most potent force of GRAVITY. When gravity is used in piecemeal or as an after thought then it is not economical. It is now proposed to plan at corporate level to use the power of gravity by design. Large complexes capable of accommodating hundred or more, small to medium industrial plants is being planned on wasted plateaus/hillocks’ instead of flattened individual plots of prime land.

001 – FIELD OF INVENTION: Material handling costs form a major component of the total cost of production. It can range from 50% to 70% of the total cost, depending upon the type of product and manufacturing route. The basic function of layout planning is to facilitate movement of materials with the least cost. This function will now be full filled by delivering and storing the raw materials up hill of the processing machines and moving the in process materials and finished products by gravity, totally free of cost.

002 - DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ACT: A very large hill/plateau will be chiseled into ten basic steps measuring 5m high by 5m deep each all along the outer perimeter of the plateau/hill. In a nut shell it will resemble a giant sports stadium in reverse, wrapped around the plateau. Each industrial plant/factory will be allocated and laid out as a narrow strip from top to bottom of the plateau. The top of the plateau will be connected by a long meandering wide road to the bottom step of the plateau, and the in coming highway to facilitate movement of materials just once, the first time and never again.

003 - SUMMARY OF INVENTION: The raw materials arrive by road or rail directly on the top of the plateau, which is large enough to accommodate such traffic. Special purpose cranes and unloading equipment unload the raw materials directly on to the first and second steps. Third to seventh steps house the processing machines which are inter linked by inclined chutes, gravity rollers, slides, idler spirals, self moving stairs, over lapping hoppers, self unloading turrets, and other special purpose conveyors running on gravity, free of charge. Eighth and ninth steps will hold the finished products ready for dispatch/shipment. The final tenth step will accommodate the trucks or railcars for loading by telescopic conveyors under the power of gravity alone. This is how higher productivity and lower costs are achieved.

004 – Accordingly the capital costs to set up industrial plants are drastically reduced on account of compactness of design, use of air rights, overall cubic space utilization, and minimum material handling equipments purchase cum installation, and site development associated costs.

005 - Accordingly the cost of production is significantly slashed because of non motorized material handling systems running on gravity power alone.

006 – Accordingly the wasted hilly terrains are utilized more profitably and the prime flat lands are left alone for agriculture and township expansions.

007 – Accordingly the industrial congestion and associated traffic is greatly reduced in the towns and cities.

008 – Accordingly the overall productivity goes up thus reducing the total cost of manufacture and increasing the profit margins, or competing in the overseas international markets.

009 – Accordingly the depth of foundations for the building columns and structures will be minimized on account of common elements/sharing and standardized design for all plants in on the plateau.

010 – Accordingly vertical shaft giant wind turbines can be installed on the near by hills to generate power for the complex, very conveniently and cheaply.

011 – Accordingly each step within the individual plant will be inclined instead of being leveled horizontal to facilitate movement of materials from point A to point B under the influence of gravity alone.

012 – Accordingly the storage of raw materials and finished products will be palletized or unitized and strategically positioned on inclined gravity conveyors for instant retrieval and forward motion to the next point of use.

013 – Accordingly a table of comparative analysis between the existing and the proposed systems has been attempted to high light the advantages of the gravity powered industrial complexes, below. The potential savings in cost of manufacture are phenomenal 58% on an average.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PARAMETERS EXISTING PROPOSED

SYSTEM SYSTEM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Layout axis Two Three

Level of handlings Ground level twelve levels

Foundations Deep Shallow

Structures heavy very light

Handling equipment Powered Non-powered

Horse power requirement Excessive Optimum

Production Costs {x}

Raw materials 0.20x 0.20x

Misc overheads 0.30x 0.30x

Material handling 0.50x 0.10x

Total Prod cost 1.00x 0.60x

Capital costs {z}

Land cost 0.10z 0.05z

Development cost 0.10z 0.20z

Building 0.20z 0.10z

Machinery/equipment 0.60z 0.35z

Total capital cost 1.00z 0.70z

Grand Total Cost 1.00xz 0.42xz

Floor Space requirement {y}

Processing machines 0.30y 0.30y

Storage of materials 0.40y 0.30y

Handling equipment 0.30y 0.10y

Total floor space 1.00y 0.70y

All figures are based on annual reports of diverse industries.

Rohit Khanna - IN-DUSTRIAL Engineer... IN-EVITABLE

1 note · View note

technato · 7 years ago

Text

Is Google Going Underground With Hypersonic Tech?

High-speed drilling and tunneling machines could revolutionize geothermal energy and enable Hyperloop trains

Image: HyperSciences

Google is carrying out research on hypersonics, probably for new technologies to slash the cost of geothermal energy and tunneling. It could also be acquiring a Washington-based startup called HyperSciences that has already built prototype devices.

In January, Google signed a US $100,000 Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The agreement says “Google’s research division is doing a conceptual exploration of hypersonic trajectories in high Reynolds number ablation regimes,” and calls for NASA to “perform an analysis of a hypersonic projectile traveling through dense atmosphere.”

Hypersonics refers to anything travelling five times the speed of sound or faster, and usually refers to extremely high speed aircraft or weapons, such as Boeing’s unmanned X51 scramjet or the new Russian ballistic missile that Vladimir Putin boasted about last week.

However, according to his LinkedIn profile, the Seattle-based Google researcher working on the project is focused on climate and energy R&D rather than aerospace.

There is one U.S. company working on a renewable energy system using hypersonics: a startup called HyperSciences that was spun out of the University of Washington, also in Seattle. HyperSciences is developing a novel drilling system that fires concrete projectiles at over 2 kilometers per second in advance of a drill bit. It claims that its system can drill deep wells up to 10 times faster than existing systems, enabling geothermal energy “anywhere in the world.”

When contacted by IEEE Spectrum last week, HyperSciences founder and CEO Mark Russell said, “We have been spending some time with [Google].” He would not confirm any investment or acquisition but said that he would have more information later this week, at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. Both companies are attending.

Since it was founded in 2015, HyperSciences has raised more than $2.8 million in early stage investments and received at least $1 million from Shell’s GameChanger incubator. It currently has a $1.9 million Series A funding round open.

Google’s parent company Alphabet has long had an interest in geothermal energy. Last July, its moonshot X division launched a company called Dandelion that is already selling domestic geothermal systems to homes in New York state. Dandelion’s systems send water about 150 meters down plastic pipes to reach stable temperatures of 10 degrees C (50 degress F) underground. A heat pump above then uses that water to efficiently warm the house in winter or cool it during the summer.

The technology being developed by HyperSciences should make it cheaper to reach much higher temperatures even deeper down, up to 7 kilometers below the surface. Every few seconds, a concrete projectile is boosted down the drill shaft at over Mach 5 by a combustible mixture of air and diesel gases. The projectile then vaporizes cleanly at the rock face, breaking it up.

Once the well is complete, pipes containing silicone oil rather than water would transfer heat to the surface, where thermoelectric generators would convert it directly into electricity. HyperSciences says such a system will be more efficient than solar panels or wind turbines, and cheaper than conventional carbon-based power stations.

HyperSciences is also developing a tunneling system using the same hypersonic projectile technology. It claims that its so-called Hyper Tunnel Boring and Mining System will be five times cheaper than today’s tunnel boring machines, and be able to dig tunnels two and a half times faster.

Acquiring HyperSciences would pit Google head to head with Elon Musk. His The Boring Company is trying to dramatically improve the cost and speed of tunnel boring, in order to build tunnels for Hyperloop trains and subterranean networks of car-carrying electric sleds.

Google’s agreement with NASA called for the agency to use a database it had developed for the reentry of spacecraft into the Earth’s atmosphere, to simulate the path of variously shaped hypersonic projectiles. NASA would also assess possible thermal protection systems, presumably for the rest of the drilling system.

NASA’s work on the Google project might already be over. The entire process was due to have taken as little as seven weeks, and would have cost Google $99,489.

Of course, Google’s hypersonic research may have nothing to do with HyperSciences. Google would not comment on any potential business relationships but noted that its researchers frequently collaborate with outside researchers and companies, without that leading to an investment or acquisition.

Is Google Going Underground With Hypersonic Tech? syndicated from https://jiohowweb.blogspot.com

0 notes

hudsonespie · 5 years ago

Text

What Does The Future Hold For Shipping?

Remi Eriksen, Group President, and CEO DNV GL discussed some of the upcoming developments in the maritime world in his speech at the Danish Maritime Technology Conference. Read his lightly edited version of these remarks:

Digitalization and de-carbonization are watchwords for the coming decade, and I will try to explain how the maritime industry can navigate these developments to its best advantage. I will use three examples to illustrate how shipping can advance – to become safer, more efficient and at the same time reduce its environmental footprint.

The main question for all of us is: What does the future hold for shipping?

Image Credits: dnvgl.com

Obviously, the future is notoriously hard to predict and a straight answer is far from easy to give.

What I do know is that shipping will continue to play an important part of the world economy for decades to come. But the industry itself, the vessels, the infrastructure, and the systems that connect them could change substantially. We can of course not ignore the current market situation and the structural effect this might have. But, today is not an arena for fear and pessimism. This is an arena for curiosity, innovation and opportunity.

LNG as a marine fuel

Today shipping plays an integral part in the global economy and moves more than 80 percent of world trade by volume. Not only does shipping move the majority share of world trade, but it also does so while emitting the least amount of greenhouse gasses per transported unit.

In the recent COP21 agreement, shipping was in fact left out. Approximately 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions can be accounted for shipping, and the industry will not be left alone. It will have to do its bit. A key question is, therefore: How can shipping reduce its environmental footprint, improve cost-effectiveness while at the same time remain the preferred mode of transportation of goods?

One answer is alternative fuels. Depending on fuel type, greenhouse gas emissions, NOX, SOX, and local particle emissions can be significantly reduced – if we want. The technologies are there. Today the leading alternative fuel for ships is LNG. LNG exists in abundance and is becoming increasingly available as infrastructure continues to be built. Right now – ferries and offshore vessels make up the majority of the LNG fuelled ships in operation, but container vessels and oil and chemical tankers are catching up.

Image Credits: dnvgl.com

Let’s take a closer look at LNG fueled container vessels. Together with industry partners, we have investigated the possibility of using a combined gas and steam turbine system (COGAS) to power an ultra-large container vessel.

The project called PERFECt – Piston Engine Room Free Efficient Containership – has developed an LNG-fuelled concept vessel that is electrically driven. PERFECt has a propulsion concept that has the potential to offer a more efficient, more flexible and greener box ship than current 20,000 TEU diesel-engine-driven container vessels.

This new design combines the exceptional volumetric efficiency of membrane containment technology with flexible electric propulsion to save cargo space and improve fuel efficiency compared to a conventional design. Two 11,000 m³ LNG fuel tanks are located below the deckhouse, giving the vessel enough fuel capacity for an Asia/Europe round trip. With the gas and steam turbines integrated at deck level within the same deck house as the tanks, space normally occupied by the conventional engine room can be used to increase cargo capacity significantly. Separating electric power generation from electric propulsion allows the electric power plant to be moved away from the main propulsion system, giving a great deal of flexibility. In fact, an engine room is not needed anymore. The three electric main motors, which are arranged on one common shaft, can be run fully independently of each other providing increased reliability and safety.

The first phase of the project performed by GTT, CMA Ships and DNV GL showed that the project is technically and economically viable. We are now in the second phase of the project and we have been joined by ABB, the Caterpillar company Solar Turbines, and OMT. We will look at optimizing the COGAS system, using the cooling capacity of the LNG, and further optimization of the hull lines to attain greater efficiency and increased cargo capacity.

3D printing

The next potential game-changer in shipping is additive manufacturing or 3D printing. Not only can additive manufacturing result in new designs for more efficient machinery components, it could also allow spare parts to be produced locally in various ports around the world. This would improve responsiveness to market demands, shorten the time for repairs and contribute to more efficient ship operations.

The technology is already being used for rapid prototyping, but it is now gradually being integrated into existing manufacturing infrastructure, for example in the automotive and aircraft manufacturing industries. It has fewer design restrictions compared to conventional manufacturing processes, it offers possibilities for novel designs, including lightweight products, and has the potential to shorten manufacturing time significantly.

Image Credits: dnvgl.com

The US Navy has started testing the technology onboard ships, to evaluate the potential of producing spare parts. However, this requires trained personnel on board, and the printer will be subject to the motions of the vessel, potentially affecting product quality.

So, there are some issues that need to be thought through. Qualification and certification may present significant challenges because of the potential for variability in specified properties. The traditional qualification methods of repeated testing of an end product produced from a centralized facility will not be sufficient. The distributed nature of additive manufacturing means that the product characteristics determined for one location may be entirely different from another location – owing to software and hardware differences, or other factors.

An additional or ‘second-order’ downside of additive manufacturing for shipping is that the distributed production of manufactured goods may reduce the overall demand for shipping of goods.

Digitalization and autonomous shipping

The shipping industry will have to continue innovating to keep up with the increasing expectations from end-users, charterers, regulators and society at large. This is not just about the technology itself, but also about how successful we are in scaling it to the point where it delivers real financial, environmental and societal benefits.

On that note – we should all keep an eye on all the possibilities that digitalization of shipping holds. Ships are becoming sophisticated sensor hubs and data generators, and advances in satellite communications and antenna technology are improving ship connectivity. This allows for a massive increase in the volumes of data transferred between ship and shore – at ever-lower cost.

Digitalization of information flows will spur the automation of existing processes and functions and positively impact safety and environmental performance. The fleet of the future will continually communicate with its managers and perhaps even with a “traffic control” system that is monitoring vessel positions, manoeuvres and speeds.

Image Credits: dnvgl.com

Fleet managers will be able to analyze this data, enabling them to advise the captain and crew on navigation, weather patterns, fuel consumption, and port arrival. This will help to reduce the risks of human error leading to accidents, increase cost efficiency, and help to improve environmental performance. Some of these data will also be shared. Ports will use the data to help them plan and optimize loading and unloading. Classification societies will analyze the data to check on the status of machinery and hull, letting the owners and operators know when a survey is required based on the condition of the systems, helping them to reduce downtime and avoid unnecessary maintenance.

Onshore, new cloud technologies, such as big data platforms and digital twin technologies will have a dramatic effect on how the industry manages information, and how vessels and their components are designed, built, and operated – all of which will see new digital business models emerging.

A potential game changer that may spring out of the progress within information and communication technology is the advent of unmanned vessels. Unmanned vessels can either be remotely operated from shore, on autopilot or be completely autonomous. Many steps will be needed before fully unmanned ships can become a reality. However; some sort of autonomy is also relevant to manned ships, and it would greatly increase safety through smart decision support.

In order to increase this autonomy, situational awareness needs to be improved dramatically. When it comes to autonomous equipment, it’s predicted that equipment like Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), GPS, RADARS, CAMERAS and LIDARS (light detection and ranging) will be utilized to create situational awareness around the vessel. These are all systems and sensors which are available on the market today.

We have been researching topics around autonomous and remotely operated vessels for several years now in close cooperation with academia and industry partners. Our goal is to develop classification requirements and assurance principles that will allow the safe introduction of this technology in the maritime industry.

One example is the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Application Initiative – better known as AAWA. Our focus in this project is to develop class requirements and principles for assurance of safety and performance. A general principle for new technology solutions to be introduced, is that it must be “as safe as, or safer than” existing solutions. At DNV GL we are in the process of forming the framework that will demonstrate this for various degrees of autonomy. Key in this process will be to undertake comprehensive simulations, HIL testing, and physical trials.

Closing

The key drivers for the coming decade are decarbonisation and digitalisation and offer opportunities for the maritime industry to become safer, more efficient while at the same time reducing its environmental footprint. At DNV GL we are excited to be a part of this transformation. We will continue to work with stakeholders across the maritime world to realize the potential of our industry – so that the outlook for shipping tomorrow will be brighter than today.

Technology Outlook 2025

Click here to read further interesting articles on future technologies

Reference: dnvgl.com

Report an Error

from Storage Containers https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/what-does-the-future-hold-for-shipping/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

itsworn · 7 years ago

Text

Why You Should Go 200MPH with the ECTA

We did it – we just slid into the 200 MPH Club during September’s ECTA Arkansas 1-Mile Challenge with a scant 202.6mph pass. The mistakes had been ironed out, and a final tune-up made sure that every bit of the 5280 feet before us was traversed as quickly as possible.

While we had a solid HOT ROD Special – Rydin Decal’s venerable 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am that was filled with a 518ci all-aluminum big-block Chevy, Bruno-driven three-speed G-Force transmission, and a four-linked, quick-change rear-end with 2.77 gears – along with the experienced team of Jay Bell, Mark Weiler, Eric Gellman, Carl Dillon, Ed Sellers, and Greg Drake, we still had a lot to learn to break the two-century mark.

Land speed racing (LSR) is a curious adventure for those who’ve day dreamt about hitting terminal velocity on just about any open road laid out before us. It’s not the same competitiveness of going toe-to-toe in drag racing, or door-to-door in wheel-to-wheel racing. In fact, what drives most LSR racers is pure curiosity. There’s something to be said about pushing a record further into the speedometer’s reach, you “beat” the other guy or gal that way; but for the most part, it’s a strangely personal pursuit of speed.

There’s really no prize money in LSR, even auto-cross has more payouts, and there’s virtually no fame outside of Bonneville. You’re often not even chasing the times of someone you’re sharing the weekend with – many records are broken years and decades after their last reset. It’s just you and the machine versus horsepower and aerodynamics. Maybe there’s a little bit of ego, when you’re racing for a record, what you’re racing for is an accomplishment that really only a single human being has ever achieved. That accomplishment might be very, very niche- like the Geo Metro of Jim Sievers gunning for 120mph, or a turbine-driven streamliner chasing 500mph – but each is equal in their passion and persistence.

In that focused atmosphere, there’s no room for error in making a record. There’s not another corner that you can line-up and make up time, there’s no pedal-fest where holeshots can be reeled back in. Yes, we’ll argue that your machine is doing most of the work in LSR, there’s just only so fast you can go with one that’s not built properly at this kind of performance knife-edge, but to make a record or a Two Club, it’s still all on your shoulders. You’ve got to make the best use of the start so that you can get up to speed sooner and fight the drag at higher speeds over the most distance. Each shift is vital, especially in our case where this particular engine is unproven in the car for a 200mph mile. We had to make sure that our little 518ci powerplant had the best chance possible at stretching its legs on every single run.

We kicked off the Arkansas 1-Mile Challenge on Thursday with the initial tech inspection and registration. Like any race, Day 0 is something of a homecoming for a group of high-speed misfits. Race weekends bring teams together that are often splintered across the US on a typical day, but it’s one of those reasons why even a bad weekend at the races are better than most good weeks in real life.

Tech as a rookie in land speed racing is necessarily strict – all eyes are on you to prove that you’re not a total idiot (as you’ve got to be a least a little bit of one to engage in motorsports). This includes proving that A) you can read a rule book, B) that your safety gear (cage, belts, suit, etc) is up to snuff for your class and speed, and that, C) you can bail out of the car in case of emergency.

We must’ve shown an honest sense of self preservation, as we passed our bail-out on the first go, and the team had the car ready-to-roll for ECTA’s safety inspection. On Friday, lanes opened for licensing passes. This is where you’ve got to show that you’ve got a good handle of your machine and a reliable sense of placement on course. This is all equally serious, no matter if you’ve got a 150mph goal or a 250mph one – what the race organizers want to see is that the parachutes come out on-time, the right turn-outs are used, and that you and the race car aren’t fighting each other to get there.

Our first run was to the half-mile marker, and it was our first time driving the car ever. It was a soft pass, rolling in and feeling out the Bruno-driven, three-speed G-Force transmission. In short, it’s a three-speed manual with a torque converter, and it used a V-gate shifter. It’s a unique sequential shifter that makes what would be an H-pattern a seemingly simple back-and-forth motion. By pulling the trigger lever on the pistol-grip and pushing it forward, first gear was engaged. Then you release the trigger before pulling back to engage second, and one last click forward for third. The tricky bit is the Bruno drive adds a variable, that the engine RPM and transmission input shaft RPM can be mismatched (unlike a manual, where the clutch keep things locked.) This tidbit didn’t affect our next licensing pass to the three-quarter mark, but it bit us on the first full-throttle pass.

The monstrous Pro System SV1 carb was just a bit out of tune at the start of the weekend, and it bogged at full-throttle. Pulling it back to 95-percent made more power, but the slight pedaling meant that the engine and transmission RPM began to miss-match, blocking third-gear just like if you hadn’t clutched correctly in a normal manual. The third pass was aborted when the throw forward was blocked with a blocky vibration through the shifter. We ended the second day with a respectable, but still boggy, pass to 190mph. It was mostly our fault, we missed third again, but managed to gently hold the shifter forward and breathe off the throttle, which allowed it to fall into third-gear (like it feels when clutchless shifting as the sychros match up), but it was a small delay that penalized our speed on the big end. But, hey, at least all of our ‘chutes were popping after having just learned how to pack them that morning!

These gaffes were annoying, but there was no expectation of a trick shot, and Jay and Eric were constantly helping to problem solve with us through each step of the learning curve. The next morning the best chance we had at getting the 518 up to 200. The cool morning air meant that power would be easier to find, and we were confident that fattening up the carb would allow for healthier full-throttle runs. Coming off the line that morning, things felt good.

There was no bogging, as soon as we rolled into the throttle, the 518 grunted off the line as if it was being pulled by a rubber band. First and second gear clicked by quickly, but almost half of the run was charging through third gear (which, we finally threw successfully.) The half-mile marker came up sooner, and the three-quarter flags were gone in blink. There’s no light-speed moment, it’s just that you progressively have to pay more and more attention to what’s going on further down course. When you’re looking to skip a footfall-field-a-second, it’s world-altering to perceive things at this pace for the first time. We knew that the run was faster, we knew that there was more RPM through the traps, and that everything felt faster – but it’s all but certain as you finally reach for a parachute as you enter the traps, even though it’s also hit harder than ever felt.

At ECTA’s 1-Mile challenge, there’s about a minute alone on the return road as the chase truck catches up. By this point, we’d but come proficient at packing up the parachute and resetting the car for the return trip, but it’s almost robotic as your head floats in the clouds analyzing every bit of the previous run. It’s a bizarre mix of confidence and doubt: you’re sure you’ve gone faster, your six senses haven’t been rattled so hard before… but in that hyper-critical analysis it’s too easy to start picking at the mistakes. It’s a few seconds of self-reflection that’s hard to match in the usual nine-to-five life.

It was an honest surprise when Jay finally quit teasing us and gave the final word: 202.6mph! It was not just good enough for the AA/GC record at the new Blytheville course, but it was enough to enter the ECTA 200 MPH Club. In fact, that little 518 managed to scratch another driver through 200mph, with Greg Drake picking up the wheel and chiseling though several runs in the 190mph range to enter the 200 Club in AA/GRS with a 200.3mph pass.

What’s proven here is less about our gall in chasing a Two-Club in our first land speed race and more about the result of an excellent team. This is really the secret in racing, more than any horsepower or wind tunnel trick: it’s an extra set of eyes over your shoulder. Racing is undoubtedly risky, especially when you consider there’s no real, world-changing prize at the end of the road. There is something special about being a part of a small population of the Earth that’s chosen to break this barrier, but we’d be shakely chiseling at the number much longer without the wisdom and coaching of a great group of racers and crew around us. In motorsport, it takes an unspoken selflessness to operate a stable team. Mistakes happen in every race from all sides of the equation; from the driver, crew, or car. That said, when all three can put up with each other long enough, grow together from each other’s struggles and put the pieces together, that’s what makes the magic happen on track. It’s impossible to ignore that the racing family is one of the main reasons we sign our lives away to this stuff – second to winning your goals, wherever that bar is set.

The post Why You Should Go 200MPH with the ECTA appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/why-you-should-go-200mph-with-the-ecta/ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hot Rod Network

0 notes

itsworn · 8 years ago

Text

Petty, Shelby, Smokey, Garlits, Granatelli, and Parnelli Set The Pace For 1967

1967.

The minds of future automotive archeologists will surely be blown by all that occurred this year, on and off the track. We’d advise them that the hundreds of race cars frozen in black-and-white in the Petersen archive only begin to tell this season’s big stories. Investigating their builders, drivers, successes, and struggles for this final installment of Power Struggles led us down many rabbit holes, into some dead ends, and to the conclusion that American auto racing in 1967 was better than ever before—if not the best ever, period. Eleven of those months offered major events, at least in southern California. The best Grand National stock cars were already trading paint in January on Riverside’s road course. On a Saturday night in November, six teams of top Funny Cars—30 different drivers, plus standby alternates—squared off at brand-new Orange County International Raceway in the Manufacturers Meet.

There were no shortages of race cars or controversies in between. Two years after Chrysler pulled out of NASCAR and just as Ford was ending its 1966 boycott, both factories threatened to flee again in protest of Bill France’s acceptance of each other’s questionable “optional accessories” and one radically streamlined, supposedly independent Chevelle. While General Motors officially extended its own corporate ban of all motorsports into the new year, rabble-rousers Smokey Yunick and Curtis Turner sat on the Daytona 500 pole, more than a dozen race-ready examples of the recently released Camaro materialized for Sebring’s Trans-Am series opener, and aluminum rat motors overpowered the sporty-car competition in the U.S. Road Racing Championship and Can-Am series.

Thanks partly to a booming muscle-car craze, drag strip staging lanes were filled four and five days a week. Thirty-two-car, open-qualifying Top Fuel shows were not uncommon. So many “hot cars” entered NHRA’s February opener that the Winternationals instituted side-by-side qualifying, thus ending a time-honored, time-wasting tradition of single runs prior to eliminations. Another historic first was the all-dragster, one-day PDA Meet at Lions, headlined by 64 blown fuelers (though “only” 62 starters survived brutal qualifying attrition).

Oval-track traditionalists convinced that mid-mounted V8s were the worst idea since women in the pits tried every trick short of sabotage to convince USAC to outlaw the pistonless powerplant entered by the influential Granatelli brothers. The little car with the big engine could’a, should’a, would’a won Indy, but for the best-known bearing failure in history. Collateral damage beyond the one-off gearbox included the end of a Firestone winning streak dating all the way back to 1915. When the Firestone-shod STP Turbine crapped out four laps short of certain victory, A.J. Foyt sped past on Goodyears.

Goodyear provoked and fought tire wars on multiple fronts. M&H Racemasters had been standard dragster equipment for the decade since Marvin and Harry Rifchin rendered recaps obsolete by molding all-new slicks. That monopoly was broken by gifts of Blue Streak tires, cash, and rides in the original Goodyear blimp. Lots of pro racers jumped the blimpless M&H ship, including Don Garlits—who dramatically switched back for U.S. Nationals eliminations, chopped four tenths from his previous-best e.t., and won drag racing’s biggest event on Racemasters.

Most of these historic events and innovations are illustrated here by one or more archive photos. As in all previous installments of this series, unpublished outtakes enjoyed an edge over images found in the author’s private collections of Petersen’s big three monthlies: HOT ROD, Car Craft, and Motor Trend. (Digital HRM back issues are accessible at Club.HotRod.com by Platinum-level members of the HOT ROD Club.) For every negative approved for publication by editors, hundreds more were doomed to decades of darkness in steel drawers.

We’re going back for more of those. Another pictorial historical series, similar but different, debuts in the next HOT ROD Deluxe (Jan. ’18). We’ll begin by winding the clock back to 1955, when Robert E. Petersen instructed photographic director Bob D’Olivo to start tracking, numbering, and preserving any film exposed and processed by PPC employees. Subsequent years will be covered chronologically, one per issue, through the ’50s and into the mid-’60s. So, stick around. Your eyes will be among the first to see images previously seen only by the long-gone employees who shot, processed, rejected, or filed film that’s waited five or six decades to be appreciated.

Power Struggles Series

•Part 1, 1955: Nov. ’15 HRD

•Part 2, 1956: Jan. ’16 HRD

•Part 3, 1957: Mar. ’16 HRD

•Part 4, 1958: May ’16 HRD

•Part 5, 1959: July ’16 HRD

•Part 6, 1960: Sept. ’16 HRD

•Part 7, 1961: Nov. ’16 HRD

•Part 8, 1962: Jan. ’17 HRD

•Part 9, 1963: Mar. ’17 HRD

•Part 10, 1964: May ’17 HRD

•Part 11, 1965: July ’17 HRD

•Part 12, 1966: Sept. ’17 HRD

•Part 13, 1967: Nov. ’17 HRD

An odd, mostly unwritten, near-universal requirement for dragster drivers to complete winning rounds “without outside assistance” stemmed from an era of stripped-down rail jobs pushed by healthy youths in T-shirts and jeans. By 1967, a typical Top Fueler weighed upwards of 1,300 pounds, and its pilot wore a hot, heavy, aluminized firesuit. Some strips further demanded that helmets and even face masks remain in place. These program interruptions delighted fans, who cheered the pusher as he passed and again when his win light finally flickered, and proved irresistible to photographers and editors. Drag racing’s original jungle man, “Jungle” Larry Faust, advanced the hard way during Riverside’s 32-car HOT ROD Magazine meet after Don Prudhomme red-lighted and this car’s clutch fried on the starting line. He returned in time for the semifinals, but must’ve been all worn out, falling asleep against dark horse Glenn Brown (7.41/213.76 to 7.29/212.76), the eventual runner-up. Ironically, Faust’s frustrating outing generated the most publicity of a solid career driving fuel cars for Gene Mooneyham. Bob D’Olivo’s photo is an outtake to at least three different angles appearing in postrace coverage (June ’67 HRM; July ’67 CC).

Smacking a wall and shedding a front wheel just 15 laps into the Motor Trend 500 didn’t stop Curtis Turner from grinding the mile and a half back to Bud Moore’s pit. The damage proved irreparable, however, after rain arrived later this afternoon and NASCAR locked up the cars for a week, on jack stands. When the race resumed, teams were forbidden from any preparation beyond tire inflation. (See Apr. ’67 HRM & MT.)

Like you, we saw this and assumed that the flying ’58 Fairlane surely was done for the day, if not forever more. Research revealed that regional racer Frank Deiny miraculously bounced back for a second-place finish (to Oren Prosser) in Riverside’s Permatex 100 undercard. We also learned that Deiny drove Grand National cars, though never finishing higher than 30th, and is better known as the founder of Speedway Engineering.

Eventual Motor Trend 500 winner Parnelli Jones provided plenty of excitement enroute, spinning out both weekends in virtually the same spot, then recovering in Riverside’s notorious Turn Six. He became the first event champion not named Gurney since 1963’s inaugural. Note the unprecedented sheetmetal stretching that factory teams applied to FoMoCo’s new Fairlane-Comet intermediate. Beyond chopping, channeling, and flaring, some cars sported shortened A-pillars that drooped the roof edges but maintained stock windshield height in the center, where inspectors measured. The streamlining and tunnel-port 427s were loudly protested by Chrysler, which threatened a repeat of its 1965 boycott over NASCAR’s failure to enforce its own rules.

Even Ford’s powerful new tunnel-port 427 must’ve struggled to deliver the Wood brothers’ team to the winner’s circle. Leonard and Glen Wood, who’d crewed for Dan Gurney during his last three (of four straight) Motor Trend 500 wins, came aboard only after Cale Yarborough crashed their Fairlane in practice. The brothers brought along their stash of state-of-the-art, tunnel-port 427s prepared by Holman-Moody.

All we can tell you about this fluke photo is that it came from the shutdown area of Bee Line Dragway near Phoenix during AHRA’s Winter Nationals. None of our usual sources could identify the car or off-road driver, who’d presumably been blinded by oil gushing from the valve-cover breather. We say fluke photo because the preceding frames on this roll are all low-speed parachute shots of Funny Cars slowing to make a turnout. Instead of running for his life when the speeding fueler approached, CC staffer Bob Swaim turned, refocused, and stopped the action for us to enjoy, 50 years later. (See Apr. ’67 HRM & CC.)

It’s awfully tough to stump the network of geezers responsible for identifying numerous cars and people depicted in past Power Struggles, but nobody remembers this manpower struggle during NHRA’s Winternationals. (Help, readers?) Drag Racers Inc. members pointed out that the combination of blown Chrysler and skinny slicks indicates a Top Gas transplant. (See Apr. ’67 HRM, CC & MT; Aug. ’67 HRM, CC & MT.)

After taking a year off from rocking the Brickyard establishment, Mickey Thompson held a February press conference in Irwindale, California, to unveil his most-radical setup yet: a slingshot-style Indy roadster driven by the front wheels, steered by all four (a la hook-’n’-ladder), and pulled by a three-valve (two intake, one exhaust), all-aluminum engine based on a small-block Chevy. A single Crower roller cam in the conventional location actuated one exhaust and two intake valves per pent-roof chamber. Thompson also cast new injectors to squeeze between the dual rocker shafts. Gary Congdon was driving both here and at Indy, where neither this car nor a rear-engined backup got past practice sessions. CC’s Dan Roulston reported that the team ultimately combined surviving parts and pieces from both Huffaker cars into a hybrid that got stranded in line when qualifying closed. (See May & June ’67 HRM; May & Aug. ’67 CC.)

Only after scanning and enlarging this frame did Smokey Yunick’s silhouette emerge from what had looked like a weird shadow or film defect in the original negative. MT photographer Bob D’Olivo got the candid shot prior to the Daytona 500. Curtis Turner debuted the famous “second Chevelle” on the pole with a record average of 181.541, breaking Daytona’s 180-mph barrier and leading the rest of the field by fully three mph. After losing Smokey’s 404-inch “qualifier” motor in a 100-mile qualifying race, Turner stayed in the top five in the main event and led repeatedly before blowing the race engine, too. Nonetheless, this was the most-impressive, most-publicized effort by any Chevy race car since GM halted direct and indirect support in 1963. Mario Andretti went on to win for Ford, his only NASCAR victory. (See May & July ’67 HRM; May ’67 MT.)

It’s hard to believe now that such an itty-bitty spoiler caused a humongous ruckus, but Ford’s brass had been simmering since mid-1966, when Dodge rushed the aero aid into its retail catalog and NASCAR blessed it as a legitimate option. The added downforce transformed ill-handling Dodge Chargers into leaders virtually overnight. Chrysler countered that Ford’s new 427 heads, tunnel-port intake, and headers were not production items, nor were chopped, channeled, sectioned, widened Fairlane and Comet bodies. At Atlanta, Chrysler officials actually encouraged its factory teams to boycott the rest of the season—a plot unrealized only because the Pettys refused to go along with fellow owners Ray Nichels and Cotton Owens. Meanwhile, David Pearson’s Charger was getting checked against one of the plywood templates introduced at Daytona. (See June ’67 HRM; Jan. & June ’67 MT.)

Smokey’s slippery Chevelle met a violent end during Atlanta 500 practice. After lapping effortlessly at 151 mph (while other teams struggled for 149), Curtis Turner smacked the wall, got airborne, and flipped approximately 10 times. He was knocked out but reportedly unhurt. Yunick (at right, pointing, in a rare bareheaded photo) yanked the Tri-Powered 427 and tranny before getting the wreck crushed into a four-foot-square office decoration. (See June ’67 HRM & MT.)

We’re hoping that some of you—ahem—”mature” Midwesterners will fill us in about butchered Chevelle panels wrapped around an old altered chassis. We picked the shot from Detroit Dragway’s AHRA Grand Nationals to illustrate how Funny Car variety was probably peaking in this last season before rules makers began banning Jeeps and roadsters from major events. (See Aug. ’67 HRM.)

Determined to demonstrate that the traditional kings of the sport could draw big crowds without Funny Cars, novice promoter and United Drag Racers Association board member Doug Kruse persuaded Lions operator C.J. Hart to host an all-dragster show paying the largest cash purse ever, from $5,100 to the Top Fuel Eliminator to round money for all qualifiers. Imagine a single Saturday of qualifying and eliminations for 64 blown fuelers, 16 Top Gassers, and 16 injected Junior Fuel rails. The respective winners were Don Prudhomme, Bob Muravez (aka Floyd Lippencott Jr.), and longshot Tom Barres (Jr. Fuel)—plus the estimated 16,000 to 17,000 fans who arrived before Hart had to lock the gates of the overflowing facility two hours early. In addition to pounding out countless aluminum race-car bodies, Kruse designed and assembled the twin-engined Invader roadster that won back-to-back AMBR awards in 1967-1968. He passed away this June 19, just shy of the 50th anniversary of his inaugural, incomparable Professional Dragster Association Championships. (See Oct. ’67 HRM & CC.)

A broken axle instantly spoiled Mark Donohue’s day in Loudon, New Hampshire—but not a season that produced Trans-Am wins with Roger Penske’s Z-28 and the U.S. Road Racing Championship title in Penske’s Lola-Chevy Mark III. This car was the main testbed for joint 302 development by Traco, GM engineers, and Smokey Yunick (who later shared the recipe with HRM readers, Mar. ’68 issue). Vince Piggins, Chevrolet’s racing boss, is often credited for successfully mating 327 cranks to 283 blocks, though countless drag racers did it first, dubbing the resulting hybrid a 301. An entire injected-nitro category, Junior Fuel Dragster, was based on the combination (up to 310 cubic inches).

Sir Mick never could stay away from the salt for long. Getting back to Bonneville with a canopied Indy car should’ve made some news, but we haven’t found a single published photo or any mention of the effort. (See Nov. ’67 HRM.)

This classic Wendover, Utah, photo almost didn’t make the final cut for lack of IDs, but it’s just too cool to put back into the file drawer. Whoever they are, these bikers were responsible motel guests: Another frame on this roll reveals a protective tarp beneath the tools and the British double. (Do you think the leggy blonde is bored yet?)

We ran this scan past Don Garlits—who always remembers everything—but Big doesn’t know what prompted his reaction, nor whom he was signaling, at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Don is sure about the day it happened, pointing out the rotating M&H slicks borrowed from James Warren and Roger Coburn for Labor Day’s eliminations. After he and James both advanced out of the semifinals, Garlits famously offered to return the rubber, his opponent famously declined, and this extra-long (175-inch), super-light (1,170-pound) slingshot won the U.S. Nationals in a career-best 6.77 seconds. Immediately afterwards, he fulfilled a vow to shave his beard in front of fans if he ever ran in the sixes. (See Nov. ’67 HRM & CC.)

If forcing those newfangled Funny Cars into heads-up dragster classes was NHRA’s plot to eliminate them as early as possible, it backfired when Dick Jesse’s radically sectioned, blown GTO and Gene Snow’s injected Dart respectively trophied in BB/ and CC/Fuel Dragster at Indy to qualify for Super Eliminator (which Snow also won). “Mr. Unswitchable” really was: Jesse stuck with Pontiac power long after other Poncho heroes defected to 392 or 426 Chryslers.

Darlington’s Southern 500 was among Richard Petty’s 10 straight NASCAR wins between August 12 and October 1. In a season that will undoubtedly never be equaled, he won 27 of 48 races driving the same ’66 Belvedere that won 13 times the previous year. In the process, he broke another record that folks figured would never be threatened: 54 career wins scored by his daddy, Lee. Darlington Raceway’s enthusiastic flag waver must’ve been wearing insulated underwear on that hot hood. Directly below sat a destroked Hemi whose 404 cubic inches netted a 206-pound weight break for short tracks, improving handling and fuel mileage. (See Nov. & Dec. ’67 MT.)

The hard-fought Trans-Am series�� manufacturers’ championship came down to a Mercury-vs.-Ford showdown in the last of 12 races—and a missing gas cap—at Kent, Washington. Needing to finish one spot higher than the Mustangs, Dan Gurney’s factory Cougar fell back to third after acquiring a black-flag penalty for spewing fuel, a punctured rear tire, and a smashed windshield that forced him to push against the broken glass to see. In the absence of Jerry Titus’s wrecked Mustang, teammate Ron Bucknum held onto the second position (behind winner Mark Donohue) necessary for owner Carroll Shelby to secure a second title for Ford in Trans-Am’s second season. (Drivers would not be awarded individual points until 1972.)

Joseph Granatelli impressed the L.A. media by firing up the turbine (note exhaust heat) at a press party in early April, then drove the car from of the stately Ambassador Hotel’s courtyard to a makeshift photo studio nearby. HRM’s Ray Brock and Eric Rickman teamed up for the static photography.

The sexy skin was among the earliest computer-designed, wind-tunnel-tested race-car bodies. Racing weight of 1,750 pounds was distributed 60/40, left/right, and 45/55, front/rear.

A unique four-wheel-drive system evolved from the mechanism custom-built by Ferguson Formula in England for the previous season’s STP Novi. The engine’s projected four-to-six mpg (doubling Indy’s typical fuel mileage) enabled a small, 48-gallon kerosene load to be strategically distributed inside the chassis.

Little-known factoid: Those perfect rows of rivets were proudly installed by Jim Lytle, who previously built and drove the pair of Allison-powered ’34 Fords known as Big Als I and II. The youngster tried but failed to convince boss Ken Wallis that a race car—unlike the aircraft he’d designed—needed U-joints in the drivetrain to ensure survival throughout practice laps, qualifying, and a 500-mile race. He said he quit after Wallis took issue with the suggestion and demeaned him as “a drag racer, not an engineer” who “should do more riveting and less talking.” Lytle predicted to friends that the car would be fast, but would not finish.

Publisher Ray Brock’s Aug. ’67 HRM editorial lobbied USAC not to penalize future turbines for performance that might’ve been achievable with conventional Indy power: “We think that a Ford or Offy engine in this very same chassis would outrun the rear-engined cars.” A left-foot-operated flapper later attached to the exhaust pipe functioned as an air brake, partially compensating for the absence of compression braking.

In one year, Novi diehards Andy (in suit), Joe, and Vince Granatelli graduated from perennial backmarkers to feared frontrunners while generating priceless publicity for STP.

Note how the turbine’s intense exhaust heat distorts the background. The round shield enabled crewmen to access nearby components during pit stops.

When Andy rushed to meet his coasting driver on the track, the turbine was running perfectly, but no power was reaching the wheels. Only later did he realize that had his crew left the disabled car where it stopped, instead of pushing it back to the pits, Parnelli Jones would’ve been awarded third place, instead of sixth.

The post Petty, Shelby, Smokey, Garlits, Granatelli, and Parnelli Set The Pace For 1967 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/petty-shelby-smokey-garlits-granatelli-parnelli-set-pace-1967/ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hot Rod Network

0 notes