The "Treit & Davenport Streamliner"
"PROJECT 550"
Don't Miss the Photo Album Links at the Bottom of This
Page
To Follow the Building of This "Classic" Updated
1-24-04
THE TREIT & DAVENPORT STREAMLINER
This fantastic piece of workmanship is owned
Marlo Triet and being built by Jim Hume to attempt to set a new piston
driven land speed record. It will
be driven by Les Davenport, an alcohol funny car racer, master tuner and
machinist who has already set numerous speed records in Marlo’s Lakester over
the past 10-12 years at speeds up to 333.5 mph.
When the Lakester became ill-handling at speeds above
320 the decision was made to build a new car and go for the piston-driven
record. When first approached about
it, Jim showed no interest in building the car but later decided to get involved
and the accompanying photos will show how the car evolved from a chalk outline
on the floor to one of, if not the most innovative cars ever built.
The car has been under construction for about four
years now and while there is no completion schedule it may be run late in 2005.
You can bet that when it does make its debut that everything will be
perfect, as Jim Hume knows no other way.
This masterpiece of craftsmanship started out as a
wooden model built by Jim and after testing the model in the wind tunnel at
Western Washington University and with the help of Dr. Seals, it was determined
that the design and the engines that will power it was very capable of setting a
new record so the construction began.
The car is about 42 feet long and 34 inches wide and
took a lot of tubing to build the chassis that has too many “trick” features
to list. It will be powered by two
blown Keith Black “Hemis” one in front of the other, hooked together by a common shaft
so it can be run in many different configurations to attempt records in many
classes. It has two B & J
4-speed air-shifted transmissions with two homemade rear- ends with a ration of
1.5 and quick- change gears that can go from .75 to 2.5 final ratios.
The car has two complete systems consisting of 30-gallon fuel tanks,
6-gallon oil tanks and 18-gallon water tanks.
It also has an overboard air system for the driver, halon fire systems,
hydraulic steering and more innovations that one can list.
When the car hits the salt it will be crewed by Steve Hutcheson, Korey Bligh and Dick Milne along with a couple more that it will take to prep the car for the required one- hour turn around for a record run. This will however be made much easier by Jim Hume’s design that incorporate quick release body panels and removable chassis members that allow total access to the drive train.
So set back and look at the accompanying photo albums
made possible by Jim Hume, Steve Hutcheson and craftsmanship like this is truly
a thing of beauty.
Drawings of the actual car as it is being built (Drawing by J.E. May)
As with all the Photo Albums,
"Click On photos to enlarge
View Photo Album # 1
View Photo Album # 2
"UPDATED" Photos 1-25-04
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