33 replies to this topic

[stuartbrs]

Would have to be Castrol R surely??

I put a tiny little capful into the fuel tank of my Mini before taking her to the track, just to get that nostalgic smell, lovely!!

Does anyone else have any favourite "racing aroma`s" ???????

[eldougo]

Would have to be Castrol R surely??


Ill 2nd that love that smell................ Hope the mini keeps going!!!!!!!.

[eldougo]

stuartbrs .......HI there ....... I am going to Hobart in 3 days time . Ill look out for the MINI.
JUST FOLLOW THE SMELL.
SEEyou bro.

[stuartbrs]

Hope you enjoy our little town Eldougo!! You`ve certainly picked the best time of year to be here!! Make sure you spend some time at the wharf, and Salamanca Market, the taste of Tasmania is on and its the start of our summer festival, you will have a blast!

Hobart really comes alive at this time of year, especially once the Sydney to Hobart yaughts start to arrive.

There are lots of really good Mini`s down here now. A few years ago there were some fairly nasty ones getting around that I just wanted to take home and make right. Nowadays everyone wants one and the only ones on the road now have all been restored and look fabulous. You used to be able to pick them up registered for around $400, not so anymore. I rescued mine from the wreckers nearly 8 years ago and wouldnt give her up for the world!

Anyway, enjoy your stay here!!!

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by stuartbrs
Would have to be Castrol R surely??

I put a tiny little capful into the fuel tank of my Mini before taking her to the track, just to get that nostalgic smell, lovely!!

Does anyone else have any favourite "racing aroma`s" ???????

Merguez and frites at 2am at Le Mans ;)

pete

[Buford]

Yeah - it always reminds me of my childhood and going to the indoor winter AAA Midget races at Chicago's International Amphitheater. I always loved that smell except then it was called caster oil. Of course I did not know it was actually child abuse by 2002 standards. Not only was it all the toxic fumes, but my father also smoked big cigars through it all. I don't think there was any real oxygen all night long. But I lived through that too.

[eldougo]

I don't think there was any real oxygen all night long. But I lived through that too. QUOTE BUFORD

I

[Zakspeed85]

Well I think I will have to step out of grand prix racing and say nitromethane coming from a nostalgic front engine top fuel dragster at Indianapolis.. my first real racing experience..brings tears to your eyes, literally.

[eldougo]

I don't think there was any real oxygen all night long. But I lived through that too. QUOTE BUFORD

WOOPS I don,t konw what i did then sorry.



What i ment to say was that being indoor with that smell would be GREAT ,outside at the
Sydney speedway was a great way to inhail a lungfull . An Burford after what you have lived through behind the wheel. Cigars an castrol R where just a test of your longevity.

[dbw]

years ago at a vintage race i was passed[and followed for a short time!]by a birdcage maser at that time owned and driven by sid colberg....i was stunned by the smell..a toxic and intoxicating mixture of castrol r, hot dunlop racings and a unique[ to this day] component of burning italian clutch lining[and knowing sid a bit of "pop" in the gas......and of course the noise...

the most lingering memory was the smell of my old 550 when i opened the rear...the sickly sweet smell of old castor oil that was in the process of returning to solid form...then it took on a different aroma when things had warmed up...

slightly ot but i've noticed that my 35b has no real distinctive scent when cold after storage....but when hot[not just warm!]it's also a unique and and captivating mixture of mostly hot fluids both petroleum and water based..

and by the way, castol r won't stay in solution well in a gas tank
[ever notict the guys shaking their bikes to get things mixed well before a start?]..it can also gum your your carb if used often..i use a product sold in the us called "blendzall"..specially made for two-strokes that won't go out of solution in your tank....i throw a pint in the 356 occasionally just for the valve guides and my personal pleasure.

[bill moffat]

simple one this. Take yourself to the Brighton speed trials in the Autumn. £5 or so takes you "downstairs" to Madeira Drive itself. Wander freely amongst some wonderful 2 and 4-wheeled machinery . Then order cod and chips from one of the "chippies" and find yourself a table. British cooking at its best with the additional aroma of Castrol R, tortured clutches and a touch of the ozone. Sophisticated maybe not , but the clubbie atmosphere knocks spots off many of the precious historic events that have appeared over the years..don't miss it !

[bobbo]

Castrol R: YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY!

Used to use it in my TR2, my R8 Gordini and, a few years later, in my Honda 350-4cyl motorcycle. Smelled WONDERFUL!

Bobbo

[marion5drsn]

I have often wondered what they put in the old Elto midgets back at Yellow Jacket Speedway in Philadelphia in 1947. It was certainly aromatic stuff, probably the genuine castor oil. This was the same type of oil used in the old rotary radials in WW-One and it supposedly made the pilots have diarrhea and other problems. What do the two stroke motorcycles use now? M.L. Anderson

[Ray Bell]

Elf... many of them...

And modern oils of all descriptions.

[Milan Fistonic]

One of the first books on motoring and motor racing I bought, way back when I was still at primary school, was a paperback edition Ken Purdy’s The Kings of the Road.

The final chapter in the book is titled What Hope for Tomorrow? and it ends with this paragraph.

The little band of black reactionaries is small but determined. It has its outriders and patrols, its spies and counterspies and even its unknown soldier. He was a tanker lieutenant with Montgomery’s Eighth Army in North Africa. One day, looking over some captured German hospital stores, he came upon a quart bottle of caster oil. He held it in his hand and thought of many a happy hour at Brooklands in the days when only castor oil would stand up to the demands of racing engines and the fumes of it hung in the air over the circuit like mist at sunrise. He put the bottle into his pocket, and that night, back at base, he called a few of the faithful to his tent. There he had prepared a piece of tank armour plate brought to red heat by blow torch, and when the company was assembled a bit of the castor oil was lovingly decanted upon it, that all might inhale the glorious aroma, and weep for the bellowing, smoky monsters we will never know again.

The first motor race meeting I attended was the 1955 New Zealand Grand Prix which was won by Bira driving the blue and yellow Maserati 250F and the abiding memory from that day is the smell of Castrol R.

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by petefenelon


Merguez and frites at 2am at Le Mans ;)

pete

Yeah, that brings back memories........

[rdrcr]

Originally posted by petefenelon


Merguez and frites at 2am at Le Mans ;)

pete

good one Pete... that is one great smell... the lamb sausage right? Another would be the Grilled Brats and boiling fresh corn at Road America when the vintage guys are there...

But it seems that the intoxicant of choice is Castor. I was weaned on the smell. Gearbox Karts. Like 30 of 'em all lined up... man, makes my eyes water just to think about it...

Now a days the oil of choice for two-strokes is a synthetic like Motul or Yamalube or a Mineral oil like Super Mm, but they just don't have that "smell" like the bean oil.

[Bruce Moxon]

Castrol R

Methanol from the Sprintcars

Avgas in a rally car

The witches' brew that some historic cars run on

Gear oil on my hot exhaust NOT. Spending 20 kilometres or so of competitive with the smell was a bit much. I'd bought the official tee shirt for that rally - I sacrificed it to try to stop the leak (rubber boot where the shifter went in).

Another nasty - the crap that V8 Supercars use - and they run really rich, too - at idle there's no way of being near them. Yuck. I'll probably die from some horrible disease from being near the fumes.


Bruce Moxon

[Dennis David]

... and Oil of Wintergreen for slot cars

[David Beard]

When I finished with kart racing I had a gallon or two of fuel left over which had been mixed with Duckhams R. I used to put it in my 4 stroke lawn mower and chug around the garden getting my fix from the resulting haze.

[rdrcr]

Dennis,

Man, I completly forgot about that wintergreen oil... Some sort of tire goop wasn't it? You're right it was a fine smell.

David, you are a racin' fool aren't you?

[Dennis David]

More of a conditioner than a goop was very popular in the 60's and 70's the golden age of slot car racing.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Dennis David
More of a conditioner than a goop was very popular in the 60's and 70's the golden age of slot car racing.

goop?
It's a lovely word, whatever it is.
http://www.goophandc...om/???????????/

[rdrcr]

Yeah, that's the stuff... I guess I was around for that "era"... there was a slot car facility in my small town and I was a regular at the tracks there... I had some pretty fast gear, sidewinder style motors and all that... it was good, clean, fun.

"goop" a dinosaur term for tire compound that improves the stickiness of the tire...

[Ray Bell]

You didn't get all technical and use angle mounts, did you?

Ahh... the days of the 24-hour slot car races!

[Milan Fistonic]

Oil of Wintergreen was banned at our commercial tracks - it made a mess of the surface.

And with the smell there was no way you could sneak a few drops on to the tyres.

[rdrcr]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
You didn't get all technical and use angle mounts, did you?

Ahh... the days of the 24-hour slot car races!

Yeah, I guess I did at that...

Those 24 hour Le Mans simulations were great fun weren't they?

We just had width restrictions on F/R track, wheelbase, armateur size per scale, stuff like that.

[Lotus23]

Had a buddy who ran his 904 Porsche for 12 hours @ Sebring one year. Where was he less than 24 hours later? With his 10yo son at the local slot car track! Hardcore racer!

Castrol R would have to be way up near the top of my personal olfactory list as well.

The rankest-smelling stuff, IMHO, is the nitromethane run by NHRA dragsters: the biggest clues to its brain-damaging potency are the industrial-strength masks worn by all the crew members. In the meantime you, the hardcore enthusiast, are standing three feet behind them sucking those very same vapors directly into your lungs and wondering why you're getting double vision!

[Dennis David]

Totally OT but has anyone seen the 1/43 RC cars from Konami? They have a number of F1 models such as Williams, Jordan and Toyota. These cars really look great. These must really be new as the boxes are all in Japanese.

[stuartbrs]

Ive just bought one of the FLY Porsche 908`s ( Martini colours ), those slotcars are so detailed and lifelike. We run a club each tuesday with a championship and it gets very competitive!!
We dont have a class for the FLY cars yet, but I just had to have one, even if it only ends up as a display model, they look spectacular. They have Ferraris ( P4, 512`s , 312`s ) , Porsches ( 908`s, 917`s etc ), Chevrons, lots of classic sportscars and they look superb.

Theres something about a detailed model car that actually moves, radio controlled or slotcar.

[DOHC]

Maybe a stupid question, but does "Castrol R" contain castor oil?

PS The blue smoke from castor oil is cool too.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by DOHC
Maybe a stupid question, but does "Castrol R" contain castor oil?

PS The blue smoke from castor oil is cool too.

From Castrol.com......

"The 'R' grades are based on castor oil - a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the tropical castor plant. It's the most effective natural lubricant yet discovered which is why 'R' grades have been used by manufacturers' teams and private competitors alike to win countless national, international and world championships."

[VAR1016]

Yes Castrol R is irresistable; I had an Ariel Arrow 250cc two-stroke 'bike. I ran it on 5-star fuel (101) and Castrol R mixture!

But a scent that has not been mentioned, so far is that emitted by the 1937 Mercedes-Benz W125 brought by the factory to the Festival of Speed.

"Marzipan!" people said as it roared past - and they were right!

PdeRL

[DOHC]

Thanks David!