Other Technologies That Will Need To Adapt

[Lil4X]

I've driven TX-87 from High Island to Sabine Pass - even after the road washed out in '85's Hurricane Alicia and the state never saw fit to replace it. The highway out of Bolivar is now detoured north into High Island, while a series of posts close the old roadbed to traffic. That is until someone blacktopped a nice chicane around the barricades - probably one of the nicer, if shorter, pieces of pavement on our barrier islands. A hundred feet later you're in the sand for the next 30 miles, as you drive through one of the largest wildlife preserves on the Gulf Coast.

Since then a few dedicated dune riders and fishermen still frequent the route on and behind the dunes that line the Gulf shore. I haven't driven the "beach road" since Hurricane Ike in '08 because the beach was littered with stumps and logs washed up from the outfall of the Mississippi, but I understand it's open for brave dune runners. It would be a great secluded place to visit with the Elio, but with limited ground clearance, I may opt for caution and take the Interstate over to Port Arthur and Sabine Pass to investigate the fresh seafood in a couple of favorite restaurants and watering holes.

 

[zelio]

You can drive on parts of Daytona Beach, but the speed limit is 5 or 10 MPH. It seems they town fathers get really put out about running over the tourists. It seems they spend less when in the hospital.

Where is that hospital? If you can spend less there than in town I want to go there the next time I'm in the hospital. Z

 

[wheaters]

Bonneville Speed Week is one of the very few things remaining on my personal "to do" bucket list. I visited the salt in 1997, sadly the week before the event, I couldn't stay on.

I used to work for JCB Excavators and was involved in a minor way on their world record breakng DieselMax project. On the day they ran the car for the first time I had a conversation with Ron Ayers, who was the project chief aerodynamics designer. He challenged me, as a pilot, to estimate the speed potential of the car. I said 400 mph. He smiled and said I was correct, but the car would be limited to 350 mph. The speed at which they took the world record was a very small margin over 350, and in fifth gear out of the six available.

Anyone hazard a guess why (he did tell me the answer)?

 

[KKidd]

I would be surprised if Tire Rack does not have some brand, model and/or size of winter tire that will clear and work on the Elio. Snows are built purposely narrower than A/S and summers, and I know they aren't going to re-invent the wheel. Relative to a comment way back about the rear wheel running in an unclean area of the lane, I have seen lots of tire punctures. A huge majority of them are rear tires. The nail, screw or other lies flat on the road and when your front tire runs it over it kicks up and hits the rear just so. I'm expecting this to be a non-issue on an Elio.

 

[Dustoff]

Bonneville Speed Week is one of the very few things remaining on my personal "to do" bucket list. I visited the salt in 1997, sadly the week before the event, I couldn't stay on.

I used to work for JCB Excavators and was involved in a minor way on their world record breakng DieselMax project. On the day they ran the car for the first time I had a conversation with Ron Ayers, who was the project chief aerodynamics designer. He challenged me, as a pilot, to estimate the speed potential of the car. I said 400 mph. He smiled and said I was correct, but the car would be limited to 350 mph. The speed at which they took the world record was a very small margin over 350, and in fifth gear out of the six available.

Anyone hazard a guess why (he did tell me the answer)?

For future record.
Sandbagging.

 

[Jim H]

I would be surprised if Tire Rack does not have some brand, model and/or size of winter tire that will clear and work on the Elio. Snows are built purposely narrower than A/S and summers, and I know they aren't going to re-invent the wheel. Relative to a comment way back about the rear wheel running in an unclean area of the lane, I have seen lots of tire punctures. A huge majority of them are rear tires. The nail, screw or other lies flat on the road and when your front tire runs it over it kicks up and hits the rear just so. I'm expecting this to be a non-issue on an Elio.

If they don't currently have one they will as soon Elio begins to hire people. They will want to be competitive rather than having Cooper Tires get all the business.

 

[wheaters]

For future record.
Sandbagging.

Nope! The car will never run again, according to the company chairman, Lord Bamford.

 

[Dustoff]

Nope! The car will never run again, according to the company chairman, Lord Bamford.

Got me!
Looking forward to the answer.

 

[wheaters]

Got me!
Looking forward to the answer.

Anyone else?

 

[AriLea]

. . but the car would be limited to 350 mph.
Anyone hazard a guess why (he did tell me the answer)?

The tires. Wayne beat me to it. In may case that was about the only thing I can think of that has a rating at a fixed point. Unless there is a known aerodynamic instability but that's not likely a cut and dried threshold under 500mph.

Only one other thing I can think of, harmonics front to rear could creep up on the short wheel base I suppose.