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| Skatecar (180 Posts)
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Lean steering
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On 1/26/2004 Duane
wrote in from
(68.15.nnn.nnn)
In a constricted space like a skatecar, you really can't lean like you do with a luge. You can, however, use your hands and arm strength to impart a force useful for steering. I assume some of the original skatecars had uprights or similar to grab onto, these weren't steering arms per se, but allowed the driver to torque the car over to a lean. I suppose the real spec is to have a leaning body on the car responsible for steering. It is much safer to use rack & pinion with a 3:1 or 4:1 reduction (moving the steering arms 4 inches makes only a 1 inch move in the tie rods) and a non-leaning body, this also isolates the steering arms from jolts from road irregularities. It probably also takes the fun out of it, so I'm all for "lean" steering, its what makes it a skateboard, at least in theory.
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arab's stuff
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On 1/25/2004 hc
wrote in from
(68.122.nnn.nnn)
arab,
in your pic, is that the turner kneeboard (with the green wheels)?
and what is that red low-rider skateboard with the white stripes (looks like a carveboard).
also, what's the story on this turner,
http://www.geocities.com/sk8sanjose/turnerluge.jpg
regarding brakes, I believe you are refering to the (brakeboard.com) brakes.
regarding turning, I don't see how skatecars can be manueverable if the rules allow only lean to steer trucks, (no way to throw a leg out).
Maybe my hand assisted steering idea can be useful here.
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Hey Arab,,
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On 1/24/2004
Shane
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
Hey Arab,who had the skate car that was aluminum,feet first,about a 45 deg nose and sides.i remember this from around 78.plus i seen it in SanFransico in 80 in a skate shop.it was closed so i didnt get to check it out.i think it might of been sponcerd by stroker trucks,i have a blurred vison of the decal on the side.
being from a small town in Oregon all the skate world revovled around Skateboarder mag.boy that was a long time ago.now its Concreate wave mag.
and also what happend to all the stand up down hill skateboarders?i can only remember Guy Grundy.
Thanks.
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Skate Cars
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On 1/23/2004
Arab
wrote in from
(24.24.nnn.nnn)
Heres some photos of the exhibit I did at the X-Games
L-R
Hesters "White Lightning", Jack Smiths "Vetter", Roger Hickeys "T.O." and Skoldbergs "Hobie"
Inside of Hesters car, the handles in the front are break and parachute release.
Skoldbergs car
I rode all 4 of the above cars in the sloped parking lot at Jack Murphy stadium, Hickeys car was the Body Only, but since it was a feet forward car I just threw it on top of myself and my luge and went for it, When the body of these cars comes down on you, it is a whole different world.
Looking back, though I never raced these things, I have had a love and passion for them since I helped Chuy build his Santana car along with Dave Dilberg when he was building his car.
I helped broker the sale of the OG SeaSki/Powerflex car some years ago, I think Ed Economy has purchased it recently, he also owns Harvey Hawks "Ick Stick" Knee Car and 2 extremely rare Dilberg "Banjo Boards" and sonme other killer downhill goods.
I found the Hickey Body by accident when I was on the board of directors for the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, Hickey had lost it somehow, and I was stoked to beable to reunite him with it.
I brokered the sale of the White Lightning to Todd of Skatelab where the car now resides.
I'm trying to help Jack regain ownership of his car
Dilbergs step son is rumored to have his old car along with one of his Banjo Boards that has the foam fibreglas lay down body cutout attachment thing.
I have a line on a few other cars that I'm trying to follow through on.
I'm curious how those skatebreaks that attach to Randal trucks work, it could really open the door for a new bread of Skate car, I really dont know if the cars could out run a modern day street luge, well definately not ona hill with turns, but in a straight line it would be interesting to see.
Jack-Do you think you could still fit in your car?
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Skatecar Breaks
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On 1/22/2004
Arab
wrote in from
(24.24.nnn.nnn)
Brakes-There was several cars back in the 70's that used a piece of spare tire attached to an arm that you would push down and make contact with the street surface to stop, the thing about this was, they would lift the wheels off the ground and the car would go into a spin and crash.
Breaking was probably one of the biggest concerns at Signal Hill, I have video footage of Guy Grundy at Signal Hill making the the guiness book for being the first person to crack 50mph on a skateboard, keep in mind that it was on a board that had Loose Ball Stokers, the following year was a small race that was primarely standup racing, some of that footage is great also, the next year the skate cars came out, most of the crashes were due to break failure, this footage is classic never before seen stuff, the best thing in all this footage is, the guy on the big wheel and no shirt that bombs the hill.
Jack-Did the #'s I gave to you help?, I was at Bellmars yesterday to pick up a new blank, I forgot to ask him if you contacted him yet.
Also, In 1998 I did a downhill skateboard exhibit at the X-Games in San Diego, I had about 50 some odd downhill/slalom racing items in the exhibit, includeing the largest collection of Skatecars since they had raced back in the 70's, the cars that I used in the exhibit was
Hesters "White Lightning"
Bob Skoldbergs "Hobie car" (Talked to Bob at ASR monday, it was great to see him)
Jack Smiths "Vetter car"
and
Roger Hickeys "????Car"
Somewhere I have pictures of the exhibit that I'll post here when I find them.
In the exhibit I had some slalom stuff, I had tried to no avail to get Slalom into the X-Games, I realized that these morons werent really even interested in doing Standup, that year they did a Demo Stand Up race, it was so gnarley and exciting I couldnt believe that they didnt follow through with it.
Highlite of the Downhill event was Tom "Wally" Inouye, he was one of the first racers to make a clean run when practice started, everybody was pretty sketchy and had problems getting through the chicanes at the top, Wallys first practice run was blazing fast straight out of the gate, I was walking up the hill and seen Wally take off, I was like s#@! he aint gonna make it!, as he flew down through the chicanes I was thinking, damn he is gonna make it, when he went past me I couldnt even see him, the hay bales were stacked 2 high and Wally in full tuck barely stood higher then the bottom bale.
*
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Lies
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On 1/21/2004 Duane
wrote in from
(165.121.nnn.nnn)
In fact exactly 50% of what I post here from now on will be lies
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Turning - hell yes
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On 1/21/2004 Duane
wrote in from
(165.121.nnn.nnn)
I'd like to make one that turns well, even if it is not required to complete the course. I've been dying to build something my own fat a@@ will fit into for 20 years. The others I've built turn very well, the race for them is quite curvy and 40+ mph, but it is not lean steering, rather hand operated rack and pinion. Very stable. Turning is also good if something goes wrong. Wheels always get a high degree of secrecy, and in a skatecar, no one need know what you run, or how you run it, save for officials. I like that. Nothing like making up big lies around the water cooler, then watching your competitor try to copy your bs!
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Razor kart
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On 1/21/2004 RR
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
Any of you checked out razor go karts?
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Mouth of the South
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On 1/21/2004 Hamm
wrote in from
(199.41.nnn.nnn)
Geezer,
Ted Turner never stopped racing sailboats. He's been active in catermanran racing untill fairly recently. He also passed the bug onto his kids. They are regulars on circuit in your very same Mid-Atlantic area.
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Turning Skate Cars
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On 1/21/2004
Jack Smith
wrote in from
(207.114.nnn.nnn)
Most of the skate cars back in the late 70's couldn't turn much at all. For most of them it was "man, I sure hope I'm lined up straight". However, the more technically advanced cars like Hester's, Leonards, William's and mine were capable of turning. As I have previously posted my car ran a Stroker in front and an axle in back that had no lateral play, just up and down.
Once when I was testing my car without the shell, trying different wheels, etc... I got in a hurry and forgot to put the axle nuts back on the Stroker. So there am I somewhere between 45mph and 50mph when I pass over a small drain at the bottom of the hill. All of sudden, there is a terrible screeching sound and I'm experiencing rapid deacceleration, both front wheels had come flying off when I passed over the drain.
The Stroker was scraped up a bit, we slapped the wheels and NUTS back on and kept testing. We ran the same Stroker at both Signal Hill and Akron.
We even tried wheels made out of solid aluminum, no urethane tread at all. I had read an article about the rocket cars at Bonneville using aluminum wheels, so I thought ...what the heck. Stupid idea.
More later.
PS - I always thought the chutes were lame. Mine worked, but I only used it for show.
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Turning? NOT!!
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On 1/21/2004 DAve G
wrote in from
(207.69.nnn.nnn)
Bob,
some of them even had fixed rear axles! And the lean/ground clearance was minimal if they could turn
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Geezer-X gets credit
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On 1/21/2004 shrox
wrote in from
(165.247.nnn.nnn)
Hey Geezer-X! I posted your parachute antics on http://www.streetluge.net/webbbs/ and now everyone thinks I did it! Come over and clear up the confusion, might be some street luge application questions as well.
shrox
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Turning??
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On 1/21/2004
bob
wrote in from
(68.48.nnn.nnn)
How well did these skatecars turn....... or not. Lets say could one of them make it down GMR??? or any race track that we use for the other gravity sports?
bob
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pain
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On 1/21/2004 DAve G
wrote in from
(207.69.nnn.nnn)
Hey Eric..You should attach the chute to your self, at which time you could enjoy paragliding and bombing all in a short period of time ;-)
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Clarification
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On 1/21/2004 Geezer-X
wrote in from
(149.2.nnn.nnn)
It wasn't purely skatecar related. I was standing up at the time of the...uhhh...deployment. I had ***planned*** on using the 'chute with the fairing, since it was wicked difficult to foot brake whilst trying to hang onto the thing. Plus, I push mongo, so....
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oops
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On 1/21/2004 Dave G
wrote in from
(207.69.nnn.nnn)
I meant "linear"
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chutes
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On 1/21/2004
DAve G
wrote in from
(207.69.nnn.nnn)
Whooly Mooly Walgren!! 8' ??? I didn't know we were trying to duplicate an AC Cobra's ability to come to a complete stop after accelerating to top speed!! I was thinking more of "skatecars" where you are in a prone position w/ arms outstreched, and braced against a handle set-up that could help stabilize lateral movement!
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aero for dummies
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On 1/21/2004
sean c
wrote in from
(207.5.nnn.nnn)
so what's best for the rear portion aero-wise? a half sphere, a cylinder (think hockey puck), or a quarter sphere (if so, flat end on the top or bottom?).
sean c
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Shoots
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On 1/20/2004 Duane
wrote in from
(68.15.nnn.nnn)
Unless its for the photogenic finish, this parachute thing is pretty silly. It pretty much puts the ki-bosh on dual racing. Even the Soap Box Derby knows the value of an actual race, running against the clock would be a shame. A hill that goes back up would be recommended for the first race, a good safety feature for those with "breaks". A foot-actuated drag brake with a piece of motorcycle tire rubber, can haul down a skatecar in a big hurry, and is awful simple to rig up. The blue smoke turns out to be fairly photogenic, as well. If forced to use a parchute, I'll have a 12" ready, right off of my Estes model rockets. Hate to have a big chute in big side winds.
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Chute deployment "how not to"
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On 1/20/2004 Geezer-X
wrote in from
(149.2.nnn.nnn)
So I found a nice military surplus drogue chute, about 8' in diameter, I figured it would be cool to deploy it, Don Garlits style when I raced the faired downhill thing. I made a neat aluminum bracket with a spring and flaps and a pull pin, and tested it on my usual hill. Imagine my surprise when I in fact couldn't counter the deceleration, and did a forward flying leap off the nose of the board when it opened. I was eating asphalt and crow in equal quantities. Unless you're attached to the board, always attach the 'chute to yourself.
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Chute deployment
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On 1/20/2004
Dave G
wrote in from
(207.69.nnn.nnn)
Hugh R.
In regards to your question of chute deployment: If I'm not mistaken, Dave D's "Turd Shaped" car used compressed air thru a 3" aluminum tube
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Aero for dummies
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On 1/19/2004 Geezer-X
wrote in from
(149.2.nnn.nnn)
For slow things like skatecars (relative to cars and airplanes) Your basic teardrop is good. Rounded entry, widest through the shoulders 30% back (give or take) and the longest tapering tail you can get away with. Turd-shaped, essentially.
Anecdote: Ted Turner, before he was a media mogul, was a very succesful racing sailor. He was skippering an America's cup yacht, and was asked about the very unusual underhull profile of a rival boat, which had a peculiar blunt trailing edge. His reply was "Why, anybody knows even a turd is pointed at both ends", So there you go.
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My first skatecar
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On 1/18/2004
Jack
wrote in from
(63.93.nnn.nnn)
Great post David.
The Vetter Streamliner was actually my second skatecar. The first was a plywood and aluminum press plate creation that I built along with my friend Cliff Marshall for a soap box derby type race in Morro Bay. The chassis was 3/4" plywood, bulkheads were 1\2" ply and the skin was aluminum press plate that Cliff and I had plenty of as both of us worked for the local newspaper. The car was a head first model. The whole nosepiece unbolted to allow me to slide in. For brakes we hooked up a couple of side pull bicycle brakes on the 3" tall urethane elevator glide wheels that Roller Sports had sent me a couple of years before. The brakes were activated by squeezing handles mounted to a couple of vertical posts that I held onto. For the rear truck we used a Ram truck with axle extenders, we also fabricated turn limiters, so the truck would not have to much movement. We ran a stock Stroker in front.
The car actually performed quite well, easily winning the race. When I look back I sometimes wonder what the heck I was thinking, if I had crashed, the aluminum press plate would have ripped me to shreds. Not too mention what would have happened if I had encounterd a curb. Ahhh..the bravado/ignorance of youth.
The cost was about $100 for this skatecar. Guess what we spent on the Vetter Streamliner.
I'll post some pics of my first skatecar soon.
The car was sat for years in an empty lot behind Gary Fluitt's house in Los Osos.
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Fla. Skatecar
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On 1/17/2004 David Bonnell
wrote in from
(152.163.nnn.nnn)
Regarding the areo mistakes that was wrote in about the 70s skatecars.(speaking for my self) I was a teenager in the 70s when I came up with my idea of my skatecar.With nobody else to influence me on and virtually no downhilling was being done here in cental Fla. I thought building a car was cool no matter if had the correct design or not.At that age I was interested in a cool looking shape more than function.To even make it more interesting this car was originally design to sit on top of a long surf board that I had cut to fit until my mother backed over the surf board with the car one day by accident. But its a stable ride at 62-63 mph non-assist and I hit over 70 with assist and thats here in Fla.Yeah Fla. imagination has inflenced skateboarding so much,what we would have done without it????.
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Hill size
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On 1/17/2004 hugh r
wrote in from
(68.232.nnn.nnn)
What size hills would you think would be appropriate for consideration?? Length and grade?? HR
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