Subaru Racer

This is a video that Russell Sherwood made of his run in the Big Country Air Fest Race at Abilene, Texas last weekend (4-30-11). His installation with a P-51 like scoop and radiator(s?) is a consistent winner in the sprint class. He flies as Race #84.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeLj1Jn2FtA

Bob Axsom

Yes, Russell is doing very well in class and shoots some great video. Hopefully vids like this will encourage more people to get into racing.

We are hoping to get the new Turbo Subie RV7 into some races later in the year if we can get the test hours flown off soon. This thing is fast too!

Wow! They hit a big ol bump!! Rough ride...how fast they running?

See Speed in red below

the speed is the average for the race so on this straight part of the run I would guess he was over 230 mph.

Bob Axsom

Results By Time:

Name Aircraft Class Elapsed Time Speed (MPH) Speed (KTS)
Mike Smith SX300 Sport 0:24:23 294.12 255.58
Alan Crawford Lancair legacy Sport 0:25:51 277.58 241.21
Chip Lamb T-28 Unlimited 0:30:34 234.71 203.96
Joe Dickerson T-28 Unlimited 0:30:52 232.46 202.00
Russell & Rhea Sherwood Glasair I RG Sprint 0:31:20 229.02 199.01
Jerry Hajek RV-8 RV Gold 0:35:35 201.57 175.16
Bobby Bennett Bonanza S35 FAC1RG DNF
Mike Thompson RV-6 RV Blue 0:37:48 189.80 164.94
Terry Hines Mooney 231 FAC3RG-T 0:49:57 143.64 124.82
Mike Hardin Piper Apache PA-23 Twin3 0:51:31 139.24 120.99

Ross
Why not plan a trip to Ontario with the Turbo 7 for the second annual Great Canadian Air Rally on August 27th. We had a good field last year with many first time participants. Mark it on your calendar!

that's a nice video to promote SARL, Thanks Bob


Ross, The Big Sky Air Race is only 330nm from Calgary...you have 2 months to tidy up the loose ends and get here.

Here is the Sport Air Racing League calender. Calendar of Events

The -7 is not my plane unfortunately. We hope to coerce Shane into letting either Ralph or Ted enter at least the AV race but we'd love to see it in some SARL races as well. Brian, hmmm that's close, we might be able to make that work.

My RV-8 is currently sitting beside the new turbo RV-7, in Calgary. I am planning to make the Big Sky Air Race and I am hoping some of the turbo 7 speed will "rub" off on the -8.

You know.. just like sleeping with a text book under your pillow...

Paul

RV-8
100 hours

Alternative Engine Inspiration

Resurrecting this old thread started by Bob Axsom. I've mentioned Russell Sherwood and his Subaru EG33 powered Glasair here from time to time because I've been more impressed by his installation than any other alternative engine installation out there. He has an enviable SARL record and a good number of flight hours over many years proving the reliability and power of his conversion.

I stole many of Russel's good ideas from his ventral radiator installation before I did mine. He is a retired ME from the automotive OEM world so had a good background to make this work. I was fortunate to meet him and his charming wife at Reno 2017, putting a face to all the emails we've traded over the years.

Russell recently published this on the Subaru forums:

"We have flown our Glasair 1RG in 22 air races. Throttle is firewalled during the entire race and gets a bit over 29 inches. RPM is now run around 5300. At these settings we burn just over 16 gallons (hr.). Water temps are adjusted to run at 195F. Gear box temp is about 198F. We found several drag reducing items that have helped boost our speed.

Races are usually about 150 nautical miles and take 35 to 40 minutes to run. There are usually 4 to 10 turns with the finish back at the start line. Often the turns are energy eaters of greater than 90 degrees. The race that we set the class record of 261 MPH had three turns of about 150 degrees.

The Sport Air Racing League keeps searchable records ? you can compare how your plane might match up. I throw out records from Air Venture Cup because they are mostly in a straight line and often west to east where you get a tailwind boost."

Russell has multiple class SARL wins to his credit and recently posted this nicely done video which might help inspire someone to use an EG33 or other Subaru engine in an RV or Rocket (think SARL or Reno): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGnkvkguRE

Russell has over 600 flight hours now on this engine and to my knowledge, it's never been touched and was used when he bought it.