Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Gravity Racer World Record... NOT!


just ran across this, and the first minute or two of this clip is pretty amazing.  Until I got to the part where Guy Martin heard the "World Record" for a gravity racer... 84 mph.  You think we should tell him that when he was in kindergarten, BMXers built pieces of crap out of spare parts called GPV's, gravity powered vehicles.  At the Palm Springs tramway race in 1987, Tommy Brackens passed the camera motorcycle on his GPV, which was doing 85 mph... in a turn.  I've personally watched GPV's hit around 90 mph and skate luges hit 110 mph+.  Here's the next video, where Guy "breaks the record" at 85.612 mph.  Just fast forward til the end.  Then he crashes trying to go faster.  It's a good crash, worth the watch.

Hey Guy, it was a cute little go kart you guys built... but this is how you go fast using gravity:


I went to this event with NorCal friend John Ficarra, who didn't fair so well.  On that day engineer Dan Hannebrink's fairing won the day.  There were a few other events, and Hannebrink crashed hard in one.  He had the technology, but not the balls of pro BMX racers like Tommy Brackens.  Here's the lead up to the video above, starting 5:10 in the clip.  You were 5 years old when this happened Guy Martin.

 I've got two new blogs now:

Crazy California 43

WPOS Kreative Ideas

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