I didn't even know of this one, I only knew of the beautiful Mooneyes Moonliner
This Streamliner was no clinker, it set a record of 8.35 @ 178 in the spring of 1959 at Bakersfield
In 1964, Dean Moon (of MOON Equipment fame) purchased the V-12 Allison powered streamliner
It doesn't get much more classic than this full chute beer advertisement... that was simply iconic 1974, when Budweiser simply hired it for a commercial, and Gray Baskerville was on hand for the photo shoot
In 1965, a Jocko streamliner was put on a top fueler... and there was inherent problems with cross winds, now that the front tires were partially enclosed. Plus, it was too much downforce on the front end, hampering steering
My guess is that the streamlining worked well to help the cars go faster, but they didn't understand the aerodynamics well enough to prevent lift or prevent instability.
ReplyDeleteI just read on Car & Driver that someone made a documentary about Moon Equipment and are looking for a distributor. There are links to a trailer and "making of" video at the end of the article.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a46619090/mooneyes-documentary-hot-rodding-details/
right, they were working by the seat of their pants, instead of a wind tunnel and a weight scale, to see how the wedge needed to be shaped to get the right amount of downforce on the front, and on the back, evenly distributed. Lots of smart people had a lot of theory, and a little experience, but the cost of experimenting on a track? Ridiculously dangerous.
DeleteThanks for the info on the Moon doc, and the link!