Cool stuff about turbo Mini land speed record attempt
Turbo Mini Forums

A combined response to this thread and the Land Speed Record thread - Speedos are very inaccurate and usually optomistic. Converting rpm to speed via gear charts can be more accurate, but is also usually optomistic. I drove the one liter car for Mini Mania/Computer Car at Bonneville in 1997 in both I/Blown Gas Altered (sufficient speed but couldn't hold boost through the timed mile to break the 102 mph record) and I/Gas Altered (set record). I also drove the Computer Car/S&M Minis car in H/Blown Gas Altered in 1998 and 2000. (Class I is 750 to 1000 cc and Class H is 1001 to 1500 cc.) Attached (hopefully) is a pic of the dash plaque for my best run in 2000 at 117.112 mph. This was a turbocharged 1293 running 14 pounds of boost on a 105 F day and turned 7200 rpm (very good quality tach) flat out through the flying mile. Using gear charts for the 3.2 diff and the diameter of Hoosier vintage racing tires gives 124 mph, a six percent error from the measured speed. Tire slip and other factors come into play over 100. Time slips for many other Bonneville runs as well as time slips for numerous drag races with a Mini (provides trap speed at the end of the quarter mile) at an NHRA sanctioned track show similar errors when compared to gear ratio to mph conversions. You're just not going as fast as you think you are. Road racing provides no documentation of top speeds, so ..... My experience on road courses with the same cars raced at Bonneville says 115 to 120 is doable with a very strong motor (130 to 140 hp), more than that is pretty rare. For street cars a mildly modified S (say about 90 hp) shoukd break 100, but not by much. The speed versus horsepower curve for a brick shaped car goes exponential over 100 mph.

By the way, for drag racing or Bonneville it's common to retard the ignition timing several degrees to gain speed on the top end rather than advance it. Applies to normally aspirated and blown cars. MSD makes numerous multi-stage ignition boxes for that purpose.

It's also reasonable that a road racing car can have a higher top speed than a Bonneville car, a case of horses for courses. If you really can pull a bajillion rpm to get 120 plus mph with a road racing final drive ratio, you are almost immediately backing off for the next corner rather than holding it wide open. At Bonneville the speeds are measured over a full mile after a two mile run-up, which requires a little more conservative rev limit. High boost and moderate rpm is a common formula in the blown classes on the big white dyno. Altitude, air temperature and rolling resistance also affect Bonneville speeds.

What happened to the H/BGALT record? The day after our 117 run (within 1 mph of the record) a Datsun B210 pushed the record to 139.800. Lacking an aftercooler we had reached the point of diminishing return on increasing the boost, and nothing possible with an A-Series was going to get us another 22 mph anyway. The Datsun record still stands and a Geo Metro has pushed the various class I records to the 120 to 130 range. Class H and I records are still within reach for a Mini in the Mini Pick-up and Modified Mini-Pickup classes.

RJM

From this thread on Mini Mania:
http://www.minimania.com/web/startreturn/1...1/msgthread.cfm

I found it interesting that a 14psi 1293 @ 7200RPM was limited to 117MPH. I'm sure my car could top 100MPH. Would like to have a sanctioned, properly timed course to measure the true top speed on.

1275 with Back Door Turbo

Sorry that looks garbled. I pasted a message from another board in first, then a link to the thread, then my comments. The first part was written by the guy who made the speed record attempts at Bonneville.

1275 with Back Door Turbo

Would a 998 turbo mini qualify as a Blown Gas Coupe?

The record stands at only 110mph for Class I.

Wouldn't it be cool to hold a Bonneville Salt Flats Record ????

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

They used to do this sort of thing in the UK at Elvington and Woodbridge way.

Wasn't the Hamster trying to set a new UK record when he crashed?

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

be interesting to see what we could got one day.

Best 1/4 mile 13.2 seconds @116 mph
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on a carb?
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on Injection?

http://www.mattwoodsphotography.com

Bonneville creates its own problems, with heat, altitude, and drag from the salt all proving problematic. Would love to go to bonneville one day, its on 'the list'!

J

I was just wondering that, what affect would the surface have on rolling resistance etc?

Edited by stevieturbo on 20th Nov, 2006.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will