Dick Beith 1961 36hp Landspeed record

Dick Beith, a high school teacher from Concord, California. Last year Beith spent 55 cents preparing his '56 VW for the Nationals; this covered the cost of a used, second carburetor and of the tubing with which to attach it to the engine. He set the just-mentioned ETS record at 77.107. This year he went all out, investing in a 69.5 mm EMPI strokeI kit and camshaft and a Pepco Rootstype blower. He ported the cylinder heads generously and installed oversize Studebaker valves. To drive the blower he went to a bicycle shop and bought a few dimes' worth of chain and the smallest big sprocket and the largest small sprocket that he could find. This happened to give him a ratio of 2.2 to one which turned out to be just right even though it whirled the blower rotors at 12,000 rpm when the engine was turning 5000. Beith drove the VW to the Salt with the blower chain removed, just letting the rotors windmill in the air stream. Then he snapped the master link in place and clocked 93.97 mph on his first run. Further tuning during the week enabled him to set a new ETS record of 101.69 mph www.eircooled.com