Here ya go, kiddos! SpeedWeek 2025's topic now exists.

[Joe]

Does anyone know what happened to SuperfastMatt? His Streamliner with the 1000cc engine was doing really well, with a top speed of 261 mph.  That was on August 5th, and after that, no more data is in the results.

[ronnieroadster]

When the 911 fuel roadster got into the spin a front tire rolled off the wheel once that happened the car dug into the salt and rolled. Donny said this was going to be the last run for the car so it was loaded for bear looking for a 300 MPH run. The plan was to retired the car after the run and i believe put in a museum.  There's been a number of wrecks for cars being retired after their final run only to end up crashed during that final run!  If it was me I would say I'm parking the ride for a while never going to jinks things saying retiring the car after the run  Donny is fine he actually said its going to take more than a little compounding of the paint to clean things up 

[TAKERRY]

Well anyway I enjoyed the live broadcast. I only wish they would have considered another day or two.

[tallguy]

What is the reasoning behind keeping everyone in the dark about the true dangers of LSR?

But is anyone really in the dark about the true dangers of LSR? I mean, I assume it's pretty clear to everyone what can happen when someone loses control of a car going 300 or 400 mph. Not trying to be insensitive at all, but having a bad day is just one of the many potential costs of doing business in this sport. If you're willing to take the risk, then the best course of action is to try to make the car as safe as possible and to not dwell on what might go wrong, because as everyone knows...it might go wrong. I just think that beyond trying to be as safe as possible, it's counterproductive and unhelpful to think about crashing if you've already decided that you're going to participate in the sport...

I agree.  Nobody can change the past, but we can learn from it, and -- with a little luck,
perhaps -- make improvements that will make racing safer.  I saw a video of Speed Demon in the air, but that video didn't make it clear to me what went wrong (i.e., blown tire?).  Then I read on the SCTA results page that Speed Demon "spun out", which
suggests to me that there was too much power applied (to the drive wheels), compared
to the traction that was available to them.  No, I don't have an easy solution to this
issue.  Speed Demon rolled this way a few years ago, when George Poteet was driving.

An endo (as seen in the video) seems much more brutal than just getting sideways and
rolling/tumbling.  I'd like to know more about what made the car flip so high.  What part
of it (apparently) "dug into" the ground?  Could a design change help prevent this when
a car does get sideways?  No, I don't like watching vehicular crashes.  But there may be
something useful to be learned from this, if there are other videos of it.

[theazoldcrow]

 :clapHad the pleasure of meeting, and talking with Robyn ( Bert Monroes grandaughter ) at the Bend in the Road camp,,,,, she was a pleasure to meet, talk with and take pictures with,,,,,,,, she sends her love to you also Slim !     Crow, TBitRG p.r dood    Crow.  p.s still have your green chair in the Bred Truck,,,, but yo azz was missing !   lololololol

[kiwi belly tank]

There is a lot of misinformation about the Speed Demon 3 liner that is confusing people & it should really be called the Maro Demon. The body & most of the chassis was not Poteet Speed Demon, it was the Maro Special that was built by Tom Hanna for Bobby Moore. The first time Bobby went 300 it made a snap right turn & spun. At that time we still had hard salt crust so it didn't dig in. That was the last time it ran until Jim Knapp bought it but I don't think he ever got it into it's bad aero speed zone. With new front & rear chassis clips to make it RWD with ex-Speed Demon components it was then called SD3 but the Maro body was unchanged. As the 4WD Maro when it came unglued, the rear did not come around, the front aero snap turned it right.
Large vertical sail panel on the front of a liner is something I've had to deal with before. The Herbert Steen 4 engine liner was a vertical wedge design (Target 550 is the same) & at about 300 it also made a right turn & threatened to go through the timing tower. My fix for what was a design built previous to me coming on board was to lower the top & raise the bottom to reduce the pressure buildup & give it somewhere to cross over under the car. It later went 380 & never had that problem again. Betsy had a vertical nose but with a round bottom it could bleed off the difference.
I've learned a lot working with liners over the years & if you look at the nose on mine, it has a duck bill look to it for this reason. Most of the air goes over the top with the bottom going into the front tunnel & diffuser but with very little going down the side to sail panel area. It's also a round bottom design where I'm attempting to manage the air with tunnels. I'm not an aerodynamicist but I have been describer as a person who can see the air & have helped a lot of other cars go fast.
  Sid.

[bubruins]

While i realize how sensitive it is to talk about bad accidents, as someone building a car in a class with a 302mph record, the more information we have about safety the better. The video I've seen of the SD3 accident the car would have been at the rear 3/4 perspective when things went wrong. An incredible amount of dust was kicked up before you see the car in the spin, which makes me wonder if the front dug in causing the violent spin. Hopefully someone with a better perspective will find a way to inform builders to improve safety.

[TrickyDicky]

There is a lot of misinformation about the Speed Demon 3 liner that is confusing people & it should really be called the Maro Demon. The body & most of the chassis was not Poteet Speed Demon, it was the Maro Special that was built by Tom Hanna for Bobby Moore. The first time Bobby went 300 it made a snap right turn & spun. At that time we still had hard salt crust so it didn't dig in. That was the last time it ran until Jim Knapp bought it but I don't think he ever got it into it's bad aero speed zone. With new front & rear chassis clips to make it RWD with ex-Speed Demon components it was then called SD3 but the Maro body was unchanged. As the 4WD Maro when it came unglued, the rear did not come around, the front aero snap turned it right.
Large vertical sail panel on the front of a liner is something I've had to deal with before. The Herbert Steen 4 engine liner was a vertical wedge design (Target 550 is the same) & at about 300 it also made a right turn & threatened to go through the timing tower. My fix for what was a design built previous to me coming on board was to lower the top & raise the bottom to reduce the pressure buildup & give it somewhere to cross over under the car. It later went 380 & never had that problem again. Betsy had a vertical nose but with a round bottom it could bleed off the difference.
I've learned a lot working with liners over the years & if you look at the nose on mine, it has a duck bill look to it for this reason. Most of the air goes over the top with the bottom going into the front tunnel & diffuser but with very little going down the side to sail panel area. It's also a round bottom design where I'm attempting to manage the air with tunnels. I'm not an aerodynamicist but I have been describer as a person who can see the air & have helped a lot of other cars go fast.
  Sid.

Jim Knapp did make a pass at 309.438 mph in March 2019 (Top Time at DLRA Speed Week).

[ronnieroadster]

Many of us witnessed the front tire with spindle and a section of the front axle attached from the SD3 came into the pits at a high rate of speed. Thankfully no one was hit only damage was a dent in the side of an early sixty's Ford pickup which finally stopped the traveling tire.
Hearing the screams watch the tire no doubt helped keep many from getting hit.  Seeing this certainly gives me pause about how dangerous what we do can be.  Hopefully something can be learned about the cause and possibly help a future build be a bit safer.
Ron

[bubruins]

Jim Knapp did make a pass at 309.438 mph in March 2019 (Top Time at DLRA Speed Week).
[/quote]

The new changes appear to be a non driven front suspension and power train. Granted, those changes appear to have been made by the Maxwell team responsible for SD2, which made more 400mph+ passes than any other land speed vehicle ever. My armchair quarterback take is similar to Kiwi's, that the slanted front would generate more front downforce and pressure than SD2. That may have been a wise design choice for an AWD drivetrain, but it is hard to understand if the trade off for front grip would be worth it RWD. Again, hopefully someone with more specific knowledge of the car and not wildly speculating will chime in, if not here on YouTube or somewhere. It's a tragedy that this accident happened and I hope others can be prevented.

[kiwi belly tank]

Knowledge should be shared from spins & crashes to make this sport safer & not just covered up, even  when it involves a fatality.
  Sid.

[John Burk]

Front wheel drive cars don't spin .

[bubruins]

Ask Brian Gillespie if FWD cars can spin.

[racergeo]

 
  If a FWD car had one front tire fail, I don't think it would spin, it would dig into the salt and violently flip over. When I spun my FWD lakester it was on it's way over till both parachutes hit and snapped it straight. I've always thought i was just a fraction of a second from doing a number of high speed rolls

[TrickyDicky]

I see that Jay Meagher/Valley Fever made a return run at over 375 mph for a 361 record on the last day of SW.  Previous record holder was the original Speed Demon from way back in 2008!

Possibly the fastest run Valley Fever has ever made.