Today I Learned (TIL)

In reply to slefain :

Keep fighting the good fight.

TIL from a dictionary:  

Cabal:   noun

1. a secret political clique or faction.

So aren't your accusers in a Cabal?

The 250cc, and later the 350cc, were Harley-Davidson Aermacchi, made in Italy. 

Harley bought half interest in Aermacchi in the early '60s, and imported the 250cc more or less unchanged as the Harley Sprint (Aermacchi had made military aircraft before and through WWII. Somehow they found little market for their products after Il Duce and moved on to motorcycles). 

I believe all of the horizontal cylinder bikes were Italian 4-stroke OHV machines.  The upright cylinder 125cc, 165cc, and 175cc Harleys all had 2-stroke engines and were made in the US.  The 165cc and 175cc versions were essentially enlarged versions of the 125cc. 

Strictly speaking, only the 125cc was called a Hummer.

Funny thing is, Harley didn't design their 125cc 2-stroke bike.  It was taken as war reparations from DKW in Germany after WWII.  The DKW design was produced as the Harley Hummer in the US and as the BSA Bantam in Great Britian.  There was also a Russian version.

The 'invasion' of inexpensive Japanese lightweight bikes first ended production of the domestic 2-stroke bikes in the early '60s.  The Italian bikes continued to be imported by Harley through the late '70s when AMF-Harley finally ceded the lightweight market and sold their interest in Aermacchi.

My brother traded his wife's Ford Escape in for a Nissan Roque; TIL the Rogue has only 3 cylinders.  Says he gets 38-42 mpg.

TIL that the biggest MR2 meet in North America happens in New York. Huh. Maybe I'll have to check that out next year.

TIL a little more about the other half.    Our son's boss bought her husband an anniversary gift of a bottle of Champagne, he's a collector, even has a chilled room in the house with a keypad and retina scan lock.   She presents him with the bottle, he's appreciative and asks how much it costs.   "I duno, I never looked".  She fishes out the receipt, >$27,000!

No, no, bring it back, that's way too much.  She returns the bottle, has a meeting with Ian but has the boo boo face on.  After explaining this, Ian made some calls, got the same bottle for cost + 20% + tax.   $13,000.

Rather than put his greasy fingers on it, Ian brought it to a shop in Manhattan and had it professionally wrapped.  It looks nice.

.... and here we are trying to scratch cars together.

914Driver said:

TIL from a dictionary:  

Cabal:   noun

1. a secret political clique or faction.

that's your t-shirt right there

TIL  warmed garlic bread slathered in peanut butter is a nice breakfast with hot black coffee.

TIL top fuel dragster engines don't have a cooling system.

In reply to 914Driver :

Slather peanut butter on bacon- so good you can't stand it

RonnieFnD said:

TIL top fuel dragster engines don't have a cooling system.

Neither do Top Alcohol engines.  Solid aluminum blocks and heads.

They used to sell water fill necks for old 392s, Pontiacs, etc, fill the engine with water but no radiator or water pump.  It only has to run for half a minute or so.

The crazy thing is, there are alcohol fueled street rods with no cooling systems!

A top fuel engine makes about 540 revolutions in a pass.  Including burnout, it needs to last about 900 revolutions in total.

The fuel cools it, right? Streetwiseguy, can you break that down? 3 sec run at x rpm, burn out etc. I'm amazed that it is that low....TIL

8000 rpm is...6 into 600, 100, plus 6 into 200 is 35, so 135 revolutions per second.  Times 4 seconds is 400 plus 120 plus 20 is 540.

Burnout would add a second at medium speed, plus a few seconds at a 1500 or so idle..it just seems absurd, doesn't it, but that's why we don't use heavy  nitro mixes at Bonneville.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Another interesting fact: "At maximum throttle and RPM, the exhaust gases escaping from a dragster's open headers produce about 900–1,100 pounds-force (4.0–4.9 kN) of downforce.

In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :

I don't get the whole Elvis PB & banana, no texture mouth feel of PB & bacon.

914Driver said:

In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :

I don't get the whole Elvis PB & banana, no texture mouth feel of PB & bacon.

Yep. You've got to have Kraft or Duke's mayonnaise on it to make that work with fresh Lays Potato chips on the side.

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

Another interesting fact: "At maximum throttle and RPM, the exhaust gases escaping from a dragster's open headers produce about 900–1,100 pounds-force (4.0–4.9 kN) of downforce.

They used to direct the exhaust at the (fairly hard) rear tires to blow them clean, in the 60s.  Then someone got the bright idea to point them up, and they had more traction as a result.

That was back when you were basically sitting with your tender bits snuggled up against the back of a Pontiac rearend.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

Another interesting fact: "At maximum throttle and RPM, the exhaust gases escaping from a dragster's open headers produce about 900–1,100 pounds-force (4.0–4.9 kN) of downforce.

They used to direct the exhaust at the (fairly hard) rear tires to blow them clean, in the 60s.  Then someone got the bright idea to point them up, and they had more traction as a result.

You had "weedburners" and then they went to "zoomies". Tommy Ivo talks about having a very early set, and he cracked the throttle in the burnout box and just about bowled everyone over along the sides of the track.

Another neat fact on Top Fuel/Funny Cars is that they are cramming so much fuel in that they run pretty much on the razor's edge of hydrostatic lockup. They also tailor power per cylinder with slightly shorter or longer connecting rods. 

In reply to NickD :

Tommy Ivo also had four engines. 
 

Those machines are nuts. Just went on Sunday and it had been a while, I forgot just how gnarly the experience is. Also, don't stand right in the exhaust path when they fire up after a rebuild. It hurts. 

TIL that I have Resting Bitch Face.

I mentioned to my friend's fiance that my niece and nephew are scared to death of me, and she goes "Well, when I first met you, of the people in our group, you scared me the most because you're tall and...you...have Resting Bitch Face. "

When people bring up vintage paint schemes it's usually Martini or the seriously overdone Gulf colors. Few people mention Rothmans, and no one talks about Chevy vans. I have learned that this was a thing, and that Chevys were somewhat popular Rally support vehicles in Europe.