chainsaw racing
John G. De Armond
>>As to spending my money, I already have - in the form of a totally trashed
>>racing chain saw and severe damage to light alloy motorcycle carbs. Most
>Hmmm, what's a 'racing chain saw'? Sounds like an interesting event,
>but where do you sit? :-)
Actually you stand as far behind the thing as you can :-) The contest is
to see how fast one can cut a standard log - usually about 4 ft in diameter
in the East and about 6 feet in the West (so I'm told, having never
raced out west). Cut times when we were involved 20 years ago avereaged
under 3 seconds for the nitro class and <6 seconds for the alcohol class.
My alcohol saw was a McCoulloh Super Pro 80 with an 81 cc engine
running 2 pumper carbs and an expansion chamber. Bar length was a
tad under 6 feet. Peak power was at about 14,000 rpm and blades
lasted one pass between sharpening. The sharpening techniques were
very secret.
The nitro saw was one of the old gear-drive saws that use the
go-kart-style 100 cc engines. An overbore brought it up to about
125 cc. The 90% nitromethane/methanol mix was fed by dual 40 mm
pumper carbs, each with its own reed valve assemly. Estimated
power was 30 hp at 14,000 rpm. We did some experiments with
100% nitromethane in one carb and hydrazine in the other. Since
the mixture is hypergolic, this did not prove practical at race time.
The operator dressed quite similiarly to a top fuel drag racer, with
fireproof suit and breathing mask. The engine was started on gasoline
with an electric start-pack and was converted to nitro as it warmed up.
My mentor and partner (I started when I was 15), a fellow named
John Davis was a champion racer and engine builder. We were also into
karting with about the same engine setup at the same time.
Ahh, nothing like the smell of nitro and castor fumes wafting
through the woods in the morning :-) Of course, the greenies
would now probably be on us for killing misquitoes.
John
--
John De Armond, WD4OQC | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress
Radiation Systems, Inc. | than we can prostitution on pimps. Both simply
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{emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd| - Dr. W Williams | **I am the NRA**
Chris Luchini
>e...@Apple.COM (Mike Smith) writes:
>>Hmmm, what's a 'racing chain saw'? Sounds like an interesting event,
>>but where do you sit? :-)
>
>Actually you stand as far behind the thing as you can :-) The contest is
>to see how fast one can cut a standard log - usually about 4 ft in diameter
>in the East and about 6 feet in the West (so I'm told, having never
>raced out west). Cut times when we were involved 20 years ago avereaged
>under 3 seconds for the nitro class and <6 seconds for the alcohol class.
>
>
>Ahh, nothing like the smell of nitro and castor fumes wafting
>through the woods in the morning :-) Of course, the greenies
>would now probably be on us for killing misquitoes.
My only comment is: Wow! The things people will do for
fun!(?) Well have fun, but stay away from the trees on my land.
Then again, they would not even be a warm up for you!
(30 horse power chain saw? you have got to be kidding.)
Jeff Cook
> e...@Apple.COM (Mike Smith) writes:
>>Hmmm, what's a 'racing chain saw'? Sounds like an interesting event,
>>but where do you sit? :-)
> Actually you stand as far behind the thing as you can :-) The contest is
> to see how fast one can cut a standard log - usually about 4 ft in diameter
> in the East and about 6 feet in the West (so I'm told, having never
> raced out west). Cut times when we were involved 20 years ago avereaged
> under 3 seconds for the nitro class and <6 seconds for the alcohol class.
[...]
> The operator dressed quite similiarly to a top fuel drag racer, with
> fireproof suit and breathing mask. The engine was started on gasoline
> with an electric start-pack and was converted to nitro as it warmed up.
I've seen this on ESPN. I didn't see any warm-up, though. Was this a
different style of racing, or have the rules changed in the last twenty
years?
What I saw was each guy standing next to his chain saw with the motor
off, so they had to race from a dead start. When the race began, they
would bend over and yank on the cord--hopefully only once. (The guy who
had to yank twice usually lost.) They would then pick up their saws and
cut the log. The whole race didn't last more than a few seconds, and
those saws just SCREAMED. Amazing sight--very impressive.
This looked mighty dangerous to me. If one of those saws had a kickback,
I'll bet it would cut you in half before you knew what hit you.
--
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Jeffrey L. Cook (new addresses) --> Jeff...@FtCollins.NCR.com
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John G. De Armond
>I've seen this on ESPN.
Great! So we've made it to the big times, eh :-) I'll have to watch.
I had no idea it had gotten that big.
>What I saw was each guy standing next to his chain saw with the motor
>off, so they had to race from a dead start. When the race began, they
>would bend over and yank on the cord--hopefully only once. (The guy who
>had to yank twice usually lost.) They would then pick up their saws and
>cut the log. The whole race didn't last more than a few seconds, and
>those saws just SCREAMED. Amazing sight--very impressive.
Those guys were probably running production class saws or perhaps
they've changed the rules. In the old "top fuel" class, aux starting
was mandatory. We started off trying to pull-start ours but a
combination of 13:1 compression, >40 degrees of spark lead and
nitromethane or alcohol resulted in backfires that would literally
break fingers.
>This looked mighty dangerous to me. If one of those saws had a kickback,
>I'll bet it would cut you in half before you knew what hit you.
Yeah, and I'll bet that the safety nazis also got rid of the good stuff
like nitro and the like. That's probably why they do cold starts now.
I'll bet it's still fun to watch.
john