Manky Monkey Motors

https://grrc.goodwood.com/section/festival-of-speed/

Amongst other things, drag racing's "Big Daddy", Don Garlits is attending this years event and apparently is bring over Swamp Rat 1. (392 Hemi with carburettors)

You know how some people have "been there and got the Tee shirt", well Don's one of 'em.  Here are a few interesting facts about the man.

Don was one of the American team that came to the UK with Swamp Rat VI back in 1964 for the first Dragfest events (these events, along with Sydney Allard, are what got drag racing started in the UK), and by then he'd been racing for well over a decade as he started back in 1950

He drove the first dragster to top: 170 180, 200, 240, 250 and 270mph on the standing quarter.

He also drove the first dragster to top 200mph on the 1/8 mile.

In 2002, aged 71, he took Swamp Rat 34 out of the museum (as ya do) and achieved a speed of 323.04mph!

At age 82 he's been estting records with an electric dragster     http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/02/big-daddy-don-garlits-82-sets-yet-another-national-drag-racing-speedelapsed-time-record/
(Photo courtesy Devastation Motorsports)

Wikipedia says he "perfected" the rear-engined top fuel dragster (the standard format for today's machines). Before the rear-engine format (where the driver sits in front of the power plant), the divers sat behind the engine, straddling the diff with the clutch somewhere near their feet.

It was with the early format that that Don suffered serious injury in 1970 when the transmission exploded, cutting the car in half. A young spectator was seriously injured by part of the flying debris. see http://wediditforlove.com/BigDaddy.html


http://www.garlits.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Garlits

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/02/big-daddy-don-garlits-82-sets-yet-another-national-drag-racing-speedelapsed-time-record/

That's a hell of a photo isn't it.

Goodwood have announced some of the motorcycle racers who'll be at the FoS, and they include:

Valentino Rossi
Casey Stoner
John McGuinness (fresh from his win in the Senior at the TT)
Bruce Anstey
James Hillier
Carl Fogarty
Cameron Donald
Ryan Farquar
Giacomo Agostini
Chaz Davies
Leon Haslam
Ryuichi Kiyonari
Sylvain Guintoli
Jonathan Rea
‘King’ Kenny Roberts

Some photos from Friday 26th.

Display outside Lord March's front door

Display with "Babs" in the foreground, making her way up the hill

Don Garlits in Swamp Rat I (just trundling along after a burnout)

BMW Motorrad stunt rider Mattie Griffin, this guy can ride!!!!

Promo mini on the Perkins stand  ;D   28th June update - Its on the Cummins stand (thanks Trev :D)

Sunbeam engine - proper!

The Blitzen Benz of 1909. 21.5 L (25,000cc) in 4 cylinders

The land speed record Darracq from 1905.

V8 of 25,400cc.

The driver threw this into the corners, opposite lock 'n' all...... wow!

Babs' 27.1 Litre V12 Liberty engine from 1923

One of the stars of the event, the 1911 Fiat S76. 300HP 28,400cc in only 4 cylinders.

When driven at Saltburn Sands in 1911 its flame throwing exhausts blew the hats off pedestrians when driven to break the World Flying-Mile Land Speed Record

The 1908 Mors Grand Prix car. 1908, 12.8 Litres, 4 cylinders

Swamp Rat again

A brace of Heskeths

Honda's 2015 RC213V MotoGP bike.

This one was has just been ridden up the hill by Casey Stoner

Rover P6 - never seen one like this before!

I'd love to go to the Festival of Speed but I should have done it when I was still working - bit expensive now compared with other things I might be doing instead!

Beautiful machinery & some beautiful photos Tony.

Was hoping to go there this year, but alas not to be. Nice pics.

No blower belt, came off after the first burn out.

1911 Fiat S74 returning to the paddock after a run

Sunbeam returning

From one of the many (many) display stands, a reverse-head 'modern' Triumph twin.

Have seen reverse-headed non-Hinckley Triumph motors before (in fact I know of a very neat one in the throws of completion at the moment), but this is the first Hinckley I've seen.

The Cummins-engined "Napier" look-a-like...............

And again.

Inside the cockpit of the Cummins "Napier"

Mercedes Benz 300SLRs  including the 1955 Mille Miglia 1000-mile road-race winning car, number 722, of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson where they drove non-stop for more than 10 hours and averaged 97.9mph.

Some close-up shots of Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I from 1957 with its 7.4 litre supercharged motor (with new drive fitted!  ;))

Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I

The pillow stuffed in the air intake is probably to stop "foreign objects" finding their way into the motor when the car's left unattended.

Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I

Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I

Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I

Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I

Kinda driver's eye view

Ducati Desmosedeci CP3 990cc four cylinder MotoGP bike from 2003 in foreground, GP6 from 2006 next to it.

The office of Richard Petty's 1970 Plymouth Superbird Nascar (7.0 litre V8 up front)

Ferrari's of Villeneuve, Prost and Alboretto

Endurance race cars as driven by Derek Bell

Lotus Cosworth 3 litre V8 Formula 1 car from 1967.

The great Jim Clark won the car's debut race at Zandvoort, and three further victories that year.

If you're gonna have an ornament in your garden, I guess this is a bit better than a garden-gnome...........

This is a Jaguar XJ220 from 1991, but no "ordinary" XJ220.

The original concept idea was to have the car powered by a Jaguar V12, but when production got underway, the power plant became a TWR engineered version of the twin-turbo charged 3.5 litre V6 (as used in the Metro 6R4 rally car).

This car was commissioned by Nigel Webb, and Don Law Racing fitted the originally intended Jaguar V12.

In 1992, the XJ220 was the fasted production car with a top speed of 213.478mph. It was knocked of its crown with the introduction of the McLaren F1.

The Red Arrows putting on their usual impressive display

Worth going just to get close up to all that history.

                   is it perkins,got cummins on the reg plate.

Ooops! Quite right sir  :D. To quote Captain Mainwaring, "I wondered who'd spot that first"

The Hillclimb is in use throughout the weekend by a huge variety of vehicles from competition machines over 100 years of age, through the ages to 'current' racing machinery of various disciplines (F1, Indy, Motorcycles, Nascar, Sports etc), along with demo runs of the new 'supercars'.

The 'track' is relatively narrow and is straw-bailed throughout its length. Some sections have a little bit of run-off, but in general its relatively tight. A top car/driver combination can make the 1.16 miles from start to finish in under 50 seconds, which is impressive to see.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/goodwood-festival-of-speed/11704780/Goodwood-Festival-of-Speed-2015-Top-10-Shootout.html

One particular left hander, Molecomb, is the one that each year finds itself with cars piling into the bales, and this year was (unfortunately, and expensively) no exception......
http://thedrivenblog.com/2015/06/27/watch-all-the-crashes-from-the-2015-goodwood-festival-of-speed/

A key element that can get taken for granted are the marshals (volunteers, as is the way at most motorsport events) and they do a cracking job in sorting things out once an incident has occurred, and when all repaired and is as should be, the runs re-commence.
If it weren't for them, then most events simply wouldn't happen.

Looks like a couple of those crash videos have been removed Tony.

I remember Don Garlits moving from front engined cars, to rear engined rails after he lost a foot when a gearbox exploded.