“Internet Barn Find”: Dry Lakes Racers Australia

The latest Internet Barn Find is for those land speed racing Salt (or dust) Fever infected bunch.  I bring you DLRA.org.au, the Dry Lakes Racers Australia site. 

The Dry Lakes Racers Australia held it’s first Speed Trials meet in March 1990 and has been doing so (weather permitting) ever since. It has attracted competitors from all over Australia, the United States of America, New Zealand and the UK.  Currently they only race once per year, but that could change in 2011.

The racing happens on Lake Gairdner (well, it used to be a lake).  It’s an 8 mile track including the shut down area.  The bummer part is it takes 80 miles driving on dirt roads to get to the race track (compared to Bonneville’s 1 mile from “Lands End”).  Just like at Bonneville, the site admin told me that if you stand around too long, you’ll likely get put to work. 

Here’s a fendered (smart move with 80 miles of dust) hot rod roadster heading out to Lake Gairdner for Salt Flats Racing.  80 miles of dirt roads is no joke and not for the faint of hot rod heart.

There is some cool history of how racing on this Lake came to be.  It took a couple dead end roads before finding this great racing location.  What they’ve found is a salt lake that is as good if not better than any other salt lake in the world.

From the DLRA site, “Since 1990 , a lot of purpose-built dry lakes racecars and bikes have been built and raced with speeds ranging from 90 mph to well over 200 mph. and with this year’s some approaching 300 mph. In this form of racing there is virtually a class for anything and in fact the D.L.R.A decided very early in the peace to run by the rule book of the S.C.T.A.”

We hope you’ll check out DLRA.org.au NOW and see what the hot rodders from down under are up to on their own Salt Flats.

Hechtspeed

Screamin’ Demon: BMI Racing’s Epic 4 Rotor Wankel Video

Yes, I did say Epic.  Trust me, just listen to this video from BMI Racing!

We wanted to show you BMI Racing, a Racing Team/Company who moved to the USA from Australia to pursue their racing dreams.  Their plan is to build 2 Mazda RX-8 sport coupes each with a naturally aspirated 4 rotor engine (stock they come with 2 rotor engines and make 240hp), 1 car to compete in drifting and a 2nd car to race in Time Attack events.  They have finished the first one and began testing this past summer.

Isn’t it nuts that a crowd will cheer like that over an engine? 

It’s the first RX-8 Renesis 4 rotor engine in the world right now.   It sounds like an F1 engine, it just SCREAMS!!!  What’s a 4 rotor Wankel?  Well, simply put, each RX8 engine has 2 rotors mounted in series.  This 4 rotor is sort of a “big block” rotary with 4 rotors mounted in series, or 2 RX8 engines mounted in series.  Cool right!?  We don’t have many details about the 4 rotor engine setup just yet.  We hope to fill you in with the juicy rotary details in another post soon. 

Here’s a quick snap of the RX-8 4 Rotor machine at SevenStock 12.  I’m diggin’ that grey paint with matching roll cage, extra wide fenders, and GT wing.  I wonder if this is the drift or time attack machine? 

Check out BMI Racing’s Website for more videos and pictures!

What did you think of that video?  Wanna see more of that 4 rotor Mazda? Let us know below! 

Hechtspeed

Pictures from Australia’s First Lowrider Show

My new friend Justin filled us in on a car show in Australia. Thanks Justin!

I arrived at the meet up for the Australian lowrider scene which was ogranised by one of australias newest lowrider club Loyalty IV Life. The event was held at Sydney’s Homebush Bay . I arrived at 10 am to find great weather and about 10 or so Cars which ended up around 30 cars by the end of the day.

There was various makes an models of cars at the show from Cadillac’s to Buicks to even Pontiacs and Holdens.

I walked around had a chat to few of the owners whilst walking around snapping a few images and there was various clubs representing which are LOYALTY IV LIFE, OTHERSIDE, SYDNEY STYLE, OLDSKOOLRYDZ, HEART & SOUL, ETERNAL ROLLERZ and FRESH STYLZ .

They had a barbque and a hop off at the end of the day an I was glad to have made this event which will go down in history as Australias first lowrider event.

Photos courteous of Bliss Photography & Designs