9 replies to this topic

[Phil Harms]

A friend and co-worker recently purchased an Australian-based LSR car and is interested in any info, photos, etc. to go along with the car. It arrived in So. Calif. two days ago and he is in the middle of uncrating it and trying to figure out what he has.

The creator/driver is a guy by the name of Glen Davis; the car goes by the name of Woomera1 or Challenge. I understand it only ran twice --- got up to 200 mph or so --- in the 1996 time frame. It was designed for 500 mph. Don't know what happened after that or what became of Davis. I know there are quite a few Australian-based TNF members; maybe someone can fill in some details on this interesting car.

[David Hyland]

Phil,

You've probably already done this yourself, but anyway: some Googling turned up this website, which makes reference to "Glen Davis", "Woomera 1" and "Challenge" but seems to refer to a 2003 timeframe.

This page, from June 1998, says "Unfortunately Glen Davis doing the Wheel Driven Record in April was unlucky he was also hit with flooding and had to abandon his attempt".

But no piccies, I'm afraid. Hope this helps.

David.

[mark f1]

Phil,

I've just dug up 3 photos of the car I took at the Melbourne Motor Show in circa 1992/93. It was powered by two turbocharged Jaguar V12 engines, not sure of their displacement, but they were big (8 litres?).

I'm not sure if this is the same car, I think there were a couple of models built, but I could be wrong on that. It was a massive car, very long and narrow, maybe 4 feet wide but at least 30 foot long.

I'll try and post the photos soon.

Mark

[mark f1]

Here they are. First time at posting pictures, so I hope it works!







Cheers
Mark

[dolomite]

They are Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, not Jaguar.

[Ray Bell]

Nor 8 litres apiece, I daresay?

[mark f1]

I'm pretty sure I used to have a publicity card for it which gave all of the specs. Lost over time and moves to 2 other cities unfortunately.

[D-Type]

Originally posted by dolomite
They are Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, not Jaguar.

Curioser and curioser.
The first site that David Hyland found describes the engines as Merlins on the front page but as Meteors in the specification.
As far as I know, the Meteor is a Merlin-derived engine used in some form of army vehicle. A magazine article I read somewhere about a road car said that The Meteor is better than a Merlin for car use as it is designed with a relatively wide power band as opposed to the almost constant speed characteristics of an aero engine. But I suppose that for a LSR car that doesn't really matter.

[Catalina Park]

The main difference between a Merlin and a Meteor is that one drives a prop and the other drives a gearbox. So for a wheel driven vehicle you use a Meteor and build it to the spec of a Merlin (or better)
I have a sticker from the team dated 1993 when the car was called "Challenge"

[cm50]

You are right and I am sure that the Meteor was the power unit for the Centurion Tank