Smokey Yunick was a legend among racing mechanics, and he took the art out of rule-bending to new heights. One of his greatest mysteries was that of his adiabatic engine. Originally conceived after slipping off the toilet and hitting his head back in the 50s, Smokey claimed the engine achieved unheard of levels of performance and efficiency (up to 60% energy usage!) through the use of super pre-heating the fuel. The methods to prevent pre-detonation and the engine becoming a glowing-red mass of proto-metals was claimed to be Smokey’s secret.
Sadly, despite claims of interest from manufacturers both major and minor, as well as the military, development was shelved back in the early ’90s, and Yunick took that secret of what supposedly made it work along with him when he went to that great pit stop in the sky back in 2001. Find out more here.
Image source:[schou.dk]
That sure is an intricate maze of intake and exhaust piping…. I wonder if there's a magic number for the heat and pressure to be at for this to be effective, or if it's a linear scale, where some little amount of heat and pressure give a little extra benefit in energy usage.
I clicked on the links in the article, it's a shame that most of them are broken. (not your article, but within the article you linked to)
I think it was the 1980's tech episode of Modern Marvels that stated that many of the things that are part of our daily lives originated during that decade. I guess the same could be said about all decades, but it seems as of late, we are more improving current technologies, and not really creating anything radically different.
I wonder if this has been examined by anyone as of late. It would seem that someone would be able to find the missing "secret" and either prove it out or debunk it. Mythbusters??
PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n=number of moles, R=gas constant, and T=temperature. As long as T remains below the ignition point of the air/fuel mixture, you're good.
Smokey's autobiography should be mandatory reading for any Hoon. http://www.smokeyyunick.com/ Don't get the "pocket" edition, get the full three volume R-rated set.
Agreed. Here's a sample, where Smokey recalls his experience with Marshall Teague and the Carrera Panamericana.
http://www.smokeyyunick.com/SampleChapters/LaCarr...
Holy hell, that's going on the read list.
Here's your best bet on getting the set under $100: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0971146934...
Holy German Schematic Batman!!
Yeah, I remember the first time I tried to replace a Kolv. I got my fingers caught between it and the Vatten-Kanaler! Luckily, I was wearing my Lederhosen, or else I would have been in much more trouble. Yup, those were some crazy, crazy times!
How about this pöpli?
Mom, no! Everyone at school picks on the pöpli kids —
even I do. [under breath] Just hate them so much.
Are you from St. Olaf? Do you know Rose Nyland?
A mööse önce bit my sister.
….and for no particular reason, here's the mighty Thor.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa190/12shark/...
Dude, you musta had a loooooong night last night…
Looking at this, it looks like the whole engine is a pressure cooker, recycling heat over and over. I thought that a cool fuel/air mixture was denser, and therefore more powerful. This thing looks like it would explode.
It maybe denser, but fuel atomizes better with heat. So, it's all insane.
So what you really need is some super-heated very cold air?
Man, my head hurts and it isn't even Friday!
Somkey didn't DIE, he was ASSASSINATED by the INTERCOOLER LOBBY!
/drank
It's a cosprinacy… cosnipra… conspiracy by the oil conblogem… comgloberate… conglom… by the oil people!
/maybe a little drank too
There are no conspiracies, just chains of stupidity.
That's what they want you to think.
Smokey-Unick Truthers, unite!
Cheers! We're having a little Guiness. You?
I always wondered what a Mr. Fusion looked like on the inside.
Smokey is absolutely, without question Hoon Hall of Fame material. I mean, how can you not revere someone who builds an exact 7/8-scale replica of a '66 Chevelle?
<img src="http://cyberwombat.com/images/nascar/chevrolet/chevelle/1967/13_1967chevelle.jpg" width="613" height="331" />
Or an Indy car where the driver sits in a sidecar?
<img src="http://retroscenemag.com/image.axd?picture=Smokey-Image4.jpg" width="500" height="332" />
Is that an Offy engine? With huge-ass velocity stacks? Damn!
Yep-a-doodle.
http://retroscenemag.com/post/Smokey-Yunick-and-t...
What. The. Hell?
and ran fuel through the roll cage of a car to hide the additional gas he was putting into the car…
The restored Chevelle he wasn't allowed to race in '68 (?, I think) has been for sale for quite some time now. If ever there was a given for the ol' Dream Garage…
And then "borrowed (and modified)" the NASCAR templates to make sure they matched his car.
It'd make more sense to me if the water/air intercooler were after the
turbochargerhomogenizer. As it is, it's sacrificing charge air density for charge air pressure/heat, and I'm not convinced that's a good tradeoff. Though, it's been years since I had to do any thermodynamics that went past "why don't you put this [heat exchanger] in this [unusually small volume]".I'd be fascinated to know this engine's NOx emissions. With temperatures that high I bet the NOx is off the charts.
He wasn't so smart – he didn't even know how to spell "tHermostat"!
Keep in mind that the labels in this particular schematic are in Swedish.
According to the link, it's "Sweedish".
"No! Not turbo! A homogenizer it should be."
-Smokey Yodnick
(I'm still giggling)
That isn't a engine design, those are plans for a true Winston Cup race track, but the France family had Smokey "taken care of" and it never came to be.
They have plenty of good wrecks in Napcar without tracks like that, so I think they're doing OK.
I really thought it was until I realized there were pistons attached.
An audio book copy of Smokey's "Sex, Lies, and Super Speedways" has kept me entertained for a few of the MI-NY/NY-MI trips I made this year…
Interesting read.. Would like to see more of this.. Awesome blog btw! Subscribed
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