grains of salt

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

'Nardo responds to my account of the Fiat-backed 164 Bonneville run. Of his
own 158 mph he says: "Also, I might add, that speed was not maintained for the
length of time required to achieve a Bonneville record. What is it, 10 miles
each way?"

The year the 164 was there the FIA course was 11 miles start to finish, the
short course seven miles. I believe the FIA traps is traditionally a measured
mile. The short course, used by SCTA and USFRA, may have a shorter traps, I
don't know. Seven miles is generous enough, when you consider the speeds
reached on 1/4 mile dragstrips, and short-traps dragstrip timing has reached
levels of precision which make the old stopwatch-timed mile a quaint relic of
olden times. 

>> Also in question, the accuracy of the speedo-

Well, yes, there is that.

>> Maybe my mechanic is just better?  ;^ o

Than Don Black? Probably. Il Fossile was, after all, only an east-coaster, and
the stuff he learned about wrenching at Portello from those Chiti people was
probably obsolescent.

On another question, the "gurls are from Venus, boys are from Uranus" thread,
if I am reading the Italian text correctly, that year a chick named Pat
Zimmerman (purdy, too-) drove a two-liter fuel lakester prepared by Joy
Summers to a class record of 200.355 mph. Think what she'd have been able to
do with the right glands-

Cordially

John H., who would never doubt a Texan
Raleigh, N.C.

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