Midair at Reno Air races

[Boris Badenov]

While certainly not monsters, my old Volvo’s get down the road.

My Volvo V70R station wagon claims 300HP stock and my C30 was 230HP stock and is probably 270HP+ after mods.

DID YOU GET MY V70R? Someone did. I miss it every day. God-awful haldex and ludicrous first gen "adaptive suspension" notwithstanding.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

DID YOU GET MY V70R? Someone did. I miss it every day. God-awful haldex and ludicrous first gen "adaptive suspension" notwithstanding.

Got mine in Florida, it was a mess. Stole it and trailered home. A Volvo specialist in Lexington got it back together. When I bought the shocks, AMEX denied the transaction. I think they have a cooling-off period for folks preparing to fix all the stuff wrong with their 70R’s. $2500 seemed like a good deal.

C30 T5 has been wonderful. I went too far with the mods and regret the exhaust system. Teens with loud Civics and WRX’s want to hang out and talk cars. Maybe they just want me to buy them beer.

 

[inigo88]

I would argue not so much "safety" as "cost" and "insurance". The entire reason they aren't at Cleveland anymore is because of Bill Odoms wreck in Bequine - a modified P-51 (weird, left-wing shorter than the other I believe) - anyway - he crashed into a neighborhood and killed a mom and her kid I think). Anyway...Cleveland was a YUGE spectacle/event. Then they were dormant a while. Then Mojave. Then Reno. I think they had some in Florida at some point - not sure. Anyway, they come and go. People have consistently been killed air racing since the 20's when big races started. They have gotten better/safer, but still people die. And will continue to die as long as they race. But they'll always race. It's just a thing.

We gotta bring Mojave back.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

30K+/- deaths on the roadways every year. Of course, car travel is a norm and, generally, necessary within our culture; still, 4 deaths - however tragic - over a dozen years seems almost irrelevant if one compares it to travel by automobile, no?

4 compared to, roughly 320K?|

I'm sorry for the families of the four, but good gawd amighty, the rate/frequency seems inconsequential unless one really, really just hates air shows.

No requirement, of course, to reply, but why the focus on such a minimal loss vis-a-vis daily reality on the roadways, by fire and accident, or even suicide?

Not sure of the comparison, when cars are around 24/7/365 in all 50 states. How many annual national air races, of this type/magnitude, do we have? Fairly low amount. So when people die here, it stands out - for the rare event that it is.


As for cars, I agree with you. As you know, deaths and accidents have gone way up since the pandemic. I’ve never seen such inconsiderate or aggressive drivers than now. It’s crazy.

 

[WacoFan]

I think the first one in the modern era was Stilleto back in the '80s, there might've been more since but I'm not a historian. I think they clipped the wings, ditched the scoop and put the radiators in the wing gun bays with an intake/exit that I have no knowledge of. It was built by some pretty smart people at the time and it was fast.
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The problem most racers find themselves butting heads with is trying to dissipate heat. You can trim everything down and reduce drag but if you want to go fast you have to make more power and making power creates more heat. I think Stilleto was Zueschel attempting to get really slippery and not push the engine so much, you can't win if you don't finish. I wasn't there, but I know people who were. Galloping Ghost had a boil off system and no scoop and it was fast, if you can figure out a way to keep the fluids on a Mustang cool without adding drag it's a rocket. But you have to carry a tank of ADI (50/50 water/methanol mix) big enough for the coolant radiator and the oil cooler, this all adds weight and you need to make sure that weight doesn't effect the handling of the airplane. I'm not saying anything but I can recall Lyle saying he was pushing forward on the stick coming around pylon 8 in the Bearcat once, and he was not happy about it. What do I know? I'm just a mechanic.

This is the one. Beautiful machine.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

*downshifts to 3rd, passes you in the cruising lane, flips you off*. If you'd just get the mom-van out of the passing lane, everything would be fine! Passing lane cruisers are the sole cause of the downfall of Western Society. They all vote for Trump and kick puppies for fun. It is time for a Jihad.

Well, at least your face isn’t in a MacBook when it should be on the road…

 

[Autothrust Blue]

No, you’re right. We should be reevaluating everything to do with our •ed up transportation system, from the way it requires people to own an expensive, depreciating asset that spends 90%+ of its time sitting unused, to the needless deaths due to collisions and pollution, to the massive subsidies society gives to everything to do with automotive culture, to the way isolating ourselves in boxes for most of our day drives the intolerance and hatred spreading through society.

There are those of us who are unwilling to normalize transportation violence. Ironically, it took a kid growing up the Southern California suburbs moving to a place where rail was even available to realize that Everything We’ve Done For Fifty+ Years Was Wrong as regards transportation…anyway:

Let’s add to your post the fact that the roads in North America are designed for No Users Other Than Cars, that even at a speed as low as 25 mph in an auto-pedestrian collision that serious injury to the pedestrian is likely (and there’s a 10% chance of killing the pedestrian), that the automotive industry has fought tooth and nail to oppose safety features (passive, or otherwise), that our government and people alike somehow seem unwilling to have automatic speed enforcement systems, that the larger cars get the more likely people are to kill their own kids in front- or back-over accidents, that the industry is perversely incentivized to produce larger and heavier cars and that when people are hit by those cars they’re also twice as likely to be fatally injured…

@Bob Ridpath

 

[Autothrust Blue]

The insurance industry is usually a pretty good barometer for the sensibility of risk when we're too close to something to rationally evaluate it. Racing airplanes at the same time (versus time trials) always struck me as a bad idea. I'm in the camp of believing people should be able to kill themselves however they see fit, but no way should this be something the public is anywhere near.

Directing energy at the crowd, quote willing participants or otherwise unquote, is going to result in someone getting soaked in court.

 

[Plata]

I agree and I doubt we'd find ourselves at odds on our great nations motorways. I've always appreciated the "sleeper", something unassuming that turns out to be a monster, especially if it's well done. I think Newman had a hot rod Volvo wagon, I'd love to have that to shame roll stoppers and the turn signal oblivious.

Newman’s hotrod Volvo sold earlier this year on Bring a Trailer.

 

[BravoHotel]

If they become the Shemya Air Races, or the Johnson Atoll Air Races, they can be guaranteed to have no encroachment around the airfield.

Or the Midway air races. FWS would have an absolute kitten.

 

[knot4u]

This is the one. Beautiful machine.

There's a reason why it was called "The Galloping Ghost", that airplane had a looooong history of air racing, some of it under a different name and it was fast and successful. I'm not uncertain about whether or not these races should be run, they've been doing it for over a 100 years. I have an idea, go give two kids any sort of transportation and time how long it takes them to start racing, it's human nature. Those kids might be the most polite examples of exemplary child rearing you've ever seen but once you put them solo in a conveyance in a race the fangs will come out. It's human nature and instinct to always be faster or better than your competitor is concrete. Do you watch football? I don't, but it's basically the same thing purified or distilled in a different direction. Lots of blood sweat and tears. I've always said I'd like to see the Bearcat again but I have no intention of working on it, I'd just like to touch it again and say hello.

 

[Bob Ridpath]

There are those of us who are unwilling to normalize transportation violence. Ironically, it took a kid growing up the Southern California suburbs moving to a place where rail was even available to realize that Everything We’ve Done For Fifty+ Years Was Wrong as regards transportation…anyway:

Let’s add to your post the fact that the roads in North America are designed for No Users Other Than Cars, that even at a speed as low as 25 mph in an auto-pedestrian collision that serious injury to the pedestrian is likely (and there’s a 10% chance of killing the pedestrian), that the automotive industry has fought tooth and nail to oppose safety features (passive, or otherwise), that our government and people alike somehow seem unwilling to have automatic speed enforcement systems, that the larger cars get the more likely people are to kill their own kids in front- or back-over accidents, that the industry is perversely incentivized to produce larger and heavier cars and that when people are hit by those cars they’re also twice as likely to be fatally injured…

@Bob Ridpath

I'm not exactly sure how to respond (and know you aren't expecting me to do so). Still, amongst many other things in my life, this resonates.

I agree completely and it's trite to simply say "that's just the way it is" but, well, it is

I got tired, emotionally and spiritually, of cutting people out of cars and giving last rites on the scene of accidents and doing funerals for the dead; too common occurrences even within the relatively small area we covered. Most people/drivers have little understanding or appreciation of the lethal weapon they use every day for common and necessary purposes.

It's just the way it is, sadly and with significant personal cost which only matters when it strikes close to home.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I'm not exactly sure how to respond (and know you aren't expecting me to do so). Still, amongst many other things in my life, this resonates.

I agree completely and it's trite to simply say "that's just the way it is" but, well, it is

I got tired, emotionally and spiritually, of cutting people out of cars and giving last rites on the scene of accidents and doing funerals for the dead; too common occurrences even within the relatively small area we covered. Most people/drivers have little understanding or appreciation of the lethal weapon they use every day for common and necessary purposes.

It's just the way it is, sadly and with significant personal cost which only matters when it strikes close to home.

When BART was opened in 1972, then-Mayor of San Francisco, Joe Alioto, said something to the effect of "for far too long, we've let the automobile reign supreme, and now we're doing something about it."

Who would have thought the 1970s would be an American high-water mark of fixing this problem?

 

[Boris Badenov]

our government and people alike somehow seem unwilling to have automatic speed enforcement systems

They'll never take our...FREEEEEEDOMMMMM!!!!!!!1111wunwunwunwun

Speed cameras are about as realistic (and silly) as semi-auto "evul black gun" confiscation in the United States for the foreseeable future. I mean this is setting aside all of the moral, legal, cultural, etc. etc. arguments. It's simply not going to happen. Find a drum to beat relentlessly upon which might actually be heard.

 

[Boris Badenov]

A Volvo specialist in Lexington got it back together.

There's a Volvo specialist in LEXINGTON? Well, I dunno, I guess it makes a certain kind of sense. Most of the professors at UK probably aren't wrenching on their 240Ds in the driveway.

 

[Bob Ridpath]

I figure I've got 10, maybe 15, years left - if I'm lucky or fortunate. Might be less. I hate the knowledge of that but it is what it is. Not anxious to find out about whatever comes next but I'm gonna' and I have absolutely no say in that.

Point being only that today (and until we can't) there are choices to be made. We can influence, we can be involved in the lives of others and within the community in which we live, we can choose to vote our conscience in local, state and national elections. We can mentor someone else for a relatively minimal cost in time. We can choose to matter while we live and breathe.

Or we can just bitch and point out all the wrong which we see around us.

Either way, we have a choice and can truly make a difference, however small as the days of our lives pass quickly by.

 

[ahw01]

I figure I've got 10, maybe 15, years left - if I'm lucky or fortunate. Might be less. I hate the knowledge of that but it is what it is. Not anxious to find out about whatever comes next but I'm gonna' and I have absolutely no say in that.

Point being only that today (and until we can't) there are choices to be made. We can influence, we can be involved in the lives of others and within the community in which we live, we can choose to vote our conscience in local, state and national elections. We can mentor someone else for a relatively minimal cost in time. We can choose to matter while we live and breathe.

Or we can just bitch and point out all the wrong which we see around us.

Either way, we have a choice and can truly make a difference, however small as the days of our lives pass quickly by.

I flew with an 87yo CFI when I was in Indiana. Just sayin'

 

[Autothrust Blue]

They'll never take our...FREEEEEEDOMMMMM!!!!!!!1111wunwunwunwun

Speed cameras are about as realistic (and silly) as semi-auto "evul black gun" confiscation in the United States for the foreseeable future. I mean this is setting aside all of the moral, legal, cultural, etc. etc. arguments. It's simply not going to happen. Find a drum to beat relentlessly upon which might actually be heard.

What quote freedom and/or liberty do you think automatic speed enforcement deprives you of? Be specific.

 

[Murdoughnut]

What quote freedom and/or liberty do you think automatic speed enforcement deprives you of? Be specific.

The freedom for affluent folks to get away with their crimes. That’s the only conclusion I can come to listening to people complain about red light cameras.

 

[Bob Ridpath]

I flew with an 87yo CFI when I was in Indiana. Just sayin'

I was surprised at 911 by the number of 100+ year olds who were called in for EMS dispatch; still they were the outliers. Sadly, as a minister for several decades I officiated at more funerals for children and adults under 60 than I did for those we generally consider as elderly. All of us live till we don't, whatever our allotted days