Waltzing Matilda Jet Powered truck

Think n tyhe Bandag Bullet had 2 screemers in line b hind the cab
BIDSTBC







www.hcvc.com.au/forum/general/9387-spott...bandag-bullet#104957

www.hcvc.com.au/forum/truck_Chat/1752-wh...-bandag-bullet#20053

www.hcvc.com.au/forum/truck_Chat/1214-bi...-boss?start=10#12562


cya

The Bandag Bullet was supercharged and turbocharged (4 turbo's I think) and wheel driven.

Used for burnouts.

No idea what engine it used.

Think the Swish is on track, think the BB started with a 12V71/HT750 combo then may have gone to a 16

Swanny wrote: I maybe wrong but wasn't the The Bandag Bullet another jet powered truck

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The Bandag Bullet used to be conventionally powered and I think it still is – it came after 'Matilda from memory.
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'Matilda was the first "jet drag truck" in the world. In all actual truth , "jet drag trucks" are not that impressive for the public to watch race. They don’t do huge burnouts (always a crowd pleaser) and the launch is not brutal or anything like a topfueller which is very impressive.
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As is typical of all jet engines - the jet winds up at launch, but the truck moves off slowly as the jet thrust builds , compared to a piston engine truck that just launches hard straight away and then the jet engine builds speed up with a lot more power – so they are better at “running down” another truck in a “tail chase” - rather than beating them straight off the line.
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That’s why Jet trucks ultimately became relegated to theatrical shows, and had effects added like lights etc, with fire coming out the stacks and all.
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The air force stunt / formation pilots, when they were using jet planes – used to run the engine at 100% power and use the (actual) planes air brakes etc to control and regulate the stunt jets speed instead of the engine – because of the lag involved in getting a jet engine up to full power.
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When a Jet lands on a aircraft carrier, the moment it gets near the deck, and before the restraining wire even gets a chance to grab it – the pilot hits 100% full power on the engine (with afterburner if its there). That’s because of the “lag” time between the engine getting full throttle – and actually making full power is so great. Think of a turbo, but a lot worse.
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For the landing jet – if it doesn’t grab a restraining wire, or there is a problem or fault – then with only a very short distance to the end of the ship and no catapult to speed them up – already having the jet at 100% power is their only chance of maybe making minimum airspeed to fly again , as they rocket off the ships deck. Many planes have been lost when they didn’t “catch a wire” – and fell into the water.

I seem to remember the BB had two 12/71s............the 16s were basically two 8s bolted together with a bolted cranks,so probably not suitable for extremes............The most I ever saw was Deen bros had a couple of old IH dumpers with 24/71.....two 12 s with the block and crank bolted.

www.hcvc.com.au/forum/truck_Chat/1752-wh...editor-bandag-bullet The Bandag Bullet was a White first.

Bandag Bullit 1980
??



cya

Found this on the net google ( Down Memory Lane with Truck drag racer Bill Gordon) this was before the Bandag Bullet

World speed record run .

Off Topic
But
On subject ..... Sort of

Thanx to Glenn & Mr Google


https://i.prcdn.co/img?regionKey=A1K0BIXWgaigrbwu1wbALw%3D%3D&scale=100

DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH TRUCK DRAG RACER BILL GORDON
Drag truck an icon of glory days
Big Rigs 6 May 2016— Glenn Waterreus
PART OF HISTORY: Bill Gordon and his prized racing truck, The Mean Machine, which was a legend in its day.
MY NAME is Glenn Waterreus. For those of you who don’t know me, in 1994 I was the inaugural National Professional Driver of the Year.
I always had a fascination with trucks as a kid.
I grew up at the northern end of the Gold Coast at Labrador.
I worked at the old Esso Garage in Labrador back when there was driveway service for cars.
This is where my story begins with the legendary drag truck called The Mean Machine, a B61 Mack truck owned by Bill Gordon, who also lived at Labrador.
I saw The Mean Machine and Frank Gaffereo race at Surfers Paradise International Raceway in the late 1970s.
One hell of a race. The Mean Machine ended up snapping an axle and lost that night (but lived to fight another day).
With the new age of social media, I have been looking for that trucking heritage, for example Waltzing Matilda, The Mean Machine and all types of old trucks you don’t see anymore.
All of these trucks and their drivers back in the day were my heroes.
You would see them roll up to the track with fully loaded trailers, drop the legs in the car park and head in for a hard night of racing.
Then they would come out of the races, hook their trailers up and head off to do an interstate run.
That was the last time I saw The Mean Machine ... up until Easter this year, that was.
I was out for a drive with my wife. We went to Cabbage Tree Point and on our way home went out through JacobsWell.



I glanced to my left and there she was, The Mean Machine, sitting in a cane field beside a house.
So I turned the car around and headed for the house.
I got out of the car and was walking up the drive when I was greeted by a couple of guard dogs and a guy who I recognised straight away.
I said to this gentlemen, “You must be Billy Gordon” and with that he said “I am” and put his hand out to shake mine.
I told Bill a short story about myself and how I grew up watching that legendary truck of his race down the coast, which was now sitting there in the cane fields beside his house looking very sad, but in my mind still a right old racing machine.
Bill, being the gentleman, said, “Come on in and have a look at her.”
That day I met one of my heroes and his lovely wife Sharon.
Bill couldn’t have been a nicer guy. At 70-odd years of age he is still driving heavy vehicles.
We sat on his porch and looked through all of Billy’s photo albums, at pictures and all the old quarter-mile time cards (from every racetrack in Australia) and paper cuttings he had kept from years gone by.
It was like I just jumped back 35 years of my life.
Bill told me stories of when he first started to race her. She was his only truck.
He used to race, then hook up a trailer and head for Townsville to unload, get back home for the weekend and race her again.
Bill bought the 1961 B61 Mack from Brooklyn in Victoria in the late 1960s.
He ran the paddock in the early days where there was more than 1000km of dirt.
The boys did it tough in those days – no sleeper or AC or even cruise control.
Bill did express out of Melbourne to Sydney for years. He did a lot of running up to north Queensland – he was well known up there on those roads back in the day.
In fact, well known right throughout Australia.
Bill said to me with a little chuckle that the boys would see the roof lights on the old girl coming in their rearview mirrors and around she would go.
She was a fast truck in her day (no speed limiters in those days).
When Bill first bought her she was Mack green, had a Mack END 711 motor, a quad box and 5.7 diff in her.
After running her for many years, Bill decided to put a 8V71 Detroit motor in her coupled to a 13-speed Roadranger and kept the 5.7 diffs.
I asked Bill why a Detroit in a Mack (unheard of in those days).
He laughed and said, “I just love the sound that the Detroit motor makes.” A man after my own heart.
Mack didn’t sponsor his truck. Bill thinks it’s because back in that era, if it had a Mack badge on the front of the truck, everything behind it had to be Mack.
Bill’s truck must have been just a little bit in front of itself because 10 years later, Mack was putting Detroits, Cummins and anything else the customer wanted in its trucks.
Racing in the day
In the late 1970s on the Gold Coast at Surfers Paradise International Raceway, Billy Gordon, Frank Gaffiero, Charlie O’Brien (just to name a few) and a lot of, let’s say, very competitive interstate and local drivers decided they would like to run their everyday rides up the quarter mile (just to see who had the bragging rights at the end of the night).
It was a great spectacle to see all of those trucks that you see every day up the road racing like there was no tomorrow.
Something you will never see again.
I asked Bill how many times he raced The Mean Machine and he said on the quarter mile about 25 times and at the speedway about five times for exhibitions.
While I was at Bill’s he took me in and showed me all the trophies The Mean Machine had won through the years, and let’s say there were a lot of trophies.
In 1983 his sponsors decided they wanted bigger and better things out of The Mean Machine.
They asked Bill to get another truck for his interstate work so they could do a whole lot to her.
They rebuilt the 8V71, added modified race heads, bigger injectors, bigger cam, timing gear and a bigger blower and nitrous injection system.
Just remember, this truck never had a turbo in it.
She was one serious race machine from that day on. I asked Bill who the most competitive person he raced against was.
He had a bit of a chuckle and said “Frank Gaffiero was the most competitive” and is still out there today with the Bandag Bullet.
When I asked Bill why he stopped racing, he said they closed Surfers Paradise Raceway and the money was not there to justify racing.
He said it was a sad day to stop racing but that’s the way it goes. He ended up parking her up and that is where she has been for more than 25 years – that was about the last time he fired her up.
Guys like Bill trained myself and others in how to restrain a load and to tarp, not like now.
You have to do a course on load restraint and have a Cert III in driving and wear fluorescent shirts (haven’t times changed).
Gone are the days of the Jackie Howe singlet, shorts and thongs. Is it for the better? Only time will tell.
I asked Bill what he would like to see done with her. He said he would never sell that truck, and a few other colourful words.
He would like to see her rebuilt and restored, after all, this truck is iconic to the transport industry’s history and it is sad to see her in this condition.
Maybe she could even end up in the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.
Bill said it was bloody sad to see her in this condition. I totally agree – time has that effect on us all.
Bill is now semi-retired. He drives a transporter carting drift cars around the race circuits and does a bit of local float work.
It was a pleasure meeting you Bill and Sharon.
I saw The Mean Machine and Frank Gaffereo race in the late 1970s.


cya