| USFRA's Fastest Woman - Rhonnie Vesco |
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| Rhonnie Vesco |
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| 3 dimensional crystal trophy |
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Rookie driver, Rhonnie Vesco received the Utah Salt Flat Racing club's "Fastest Woman" trophy at the annual awards banquet in Wendover, NV on November 8th. She says racing is "in her blood" and she is eager to continue the Vesco Family's Racing Legacy. Her family is very proud of her driving debut on the Salt at the World of Speed event in September at which she drove the 51 year old historic "Little Giant" streamliner to a speed of 233 mph. Thanks to USFRA for a great event and a magnificent trophy!
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Catch Rhonnie and Team Vesco with car #444 Little Giant on True Entertainment's "Bonneville" segment of
"Wreckreation Nation," Discovery Channel
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| Coooooool T-shirts now available!! |
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| Team Vesco's Little Giant 444 |
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Team Vesco's Little Giant 444 streamliner is front and center on SCTA-BNI's World Finals 2008 event T-shirt. Unfortunately World Finals was rained out for this year. The good news is there are a lot of T-shirts still available!
Team Vesco is honored to have its historical race car on this year's shirt.
You can purchase your shirts by going to Bonneville Nationals web site at
www.scta-bni.org. We look forward to bringing 444 to next year's event.
Thank you BNI!
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| Don Vesco holds Hot Rod Magazine's prestigious Top Time Trophy. |
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| Only 30 MPH short of Don's dream of being the First to 500. |
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| Team Vesco is announcing it will return to Bonneville land speed racing in 2010 and continue the quest of becoming the first wheel-driven vehicle to break through the 500 MPH barrier. Don Vesco established the current record at 458 MPH in 2001. Since Don's passing in 2002, the team has been planning a return to the salt and realize Don's life long dream. The driver has not yet been selected. However, the #111 Vesco liner is a proven commodity. With an exit speed out of the 5th mile at OVER 470 mph, using only 50% of the dynoed power available, the car has more than demonstrated its capability to exceed the 500 MPH barrier. Rick and Don invested untold dollars and more than 15,000 personal man-hours to get this far. There were many other individuals and companies whose help was essential and greatly appreciated, but never a major sponsor of any kind. Now with Don gone, Team Vesco needs to partner with qualified speed enthusiasts to expand the team and complete this project. Rick is actively seeking individuals with an appreciation for the magnitude of what has been accomplished so far, and an interest in becoming a genuine and active partner of Team Vesco in this epic achievement that will stand alone in the chapters of the world's automotive history books.
Team Vesco has been setting motorcycle and car records at the Bonneville Salt Flats since the 1940s. They have made more runs over 400 MPH than all other competitors combined. Team Vesco and their dedicated, multi-talented crew are confident that they possess the experience, engineering expertise and a vehicle capable of this challenge.
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If you are interested in partnering with Team Vesco for this historic undertaking contact Rick Vesco at teamvescoracing@infowest.com
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"The Turbinator" is powered by a stock 3750 hp @ 16000 rpm internal combustion engine. The shaft (P.T.O.) drives the Turbinator's four-wheel drive system. The exhaust pressure is only 60 p.s.i. Lance Morris Engineering along with turbine expert, John Walters will modify the unit to produce a reliable 4400 hp @ 16500 rpm. It will be dyno tested at Bernie Little's facility in Seattle, WA, home of the Miss Budweiser hydro-plane.
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This custom 2:1 reduction gear case was engineered by Bob Hodgkinson. It reduces the engines 16,500 rpm by 1/2 . The ring and pinion ratio of 1 to 1 will be lowered 1.25 to 1 for 2009. Sponsors for this gear box: Jiffy Machine El Cajon, CA. Carpenter Steel & Techonology world wide,Ramtreat, and The Gear Works, Portland, Oregon. Thank you for the great workmanship.
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This is the location of the 2 to 1 gearbox, bolted just in front of the air intake. This was a huge problem during our 2001 record attempt of 458 mph. The gear box restricted the air flow creating cooling problems. Don had to back off the throttle 13 times on the 1st run and 9 times on the return run just to keep the egt below 1500. Our speeds were within 1 mph each way. See 2009 updates.
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| 28" added |
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The car was lengthened by 28" so that the gear box could be moved forward allowing unrestricted air flow into the turbines compressor section. The black tube is now the gear box mount and houses the new drive shaft. There will be new automatically adjustable air scoops fitted to the body - open full at slow speed and will progressively close off with acceleration.
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| Air redirect |
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Here is another view of the air flow redirect into the turbine's inlet. It's a very clean, straight shot. The air scoop and sheet metal duction has yet to be completed. Lance Morris & Robbie Faulkner will work out the details and design an adjustable air inlet "scoop" system. Thanks to Morris Industries and Advanced Engineering.
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| Gear box mount |
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Here is a view of the new gear box mount (just above Suzuki) without the driveshaft installed. By lowering the final gear ratio and establishing proper air flow we should go from 73% rated rmp or 50% h.p. up to 95% - 100% rated power. The goal is to attain just over 500 mph on the standard SpeedWeek track length of 5 miles. However we will need 3 to 3 1/2 miles to stop...Help!!
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| Preperations for '09 begin. #444 car on left, Turbinator on right |
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| Check out the difference in length. #444 is 26', while #111 is 33'. |
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The trailer will be modified to accept the additional
38" inlet extension.
| Trailer mods are complete with new jet black expoxi paint.
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