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I'm with you Nick, when it comes to the sound of a radial engine. I love to hear that staggered idle. It reminds me of a top fuel engine, when it cackels on nitro. LOVE IT!!I had a friend who owned a house just off the "Valley of Speed" here in Reno/Stead. We'd BBQ and monitor the radio. When the race was to begin we'd walk down the street and watch them go past. Rare Bear (Yeah, I know it's a Bearcat but I like the sound of Radials.), Voodoo, Dago Red, Strega.... Tons of fun.
I've mentioned it before (at least 100 times) but my shift knob on my V6 is a grip from a P51 Mustang.
Ya'll come by to visit now, ya' hear?
The hydroplanes are neat. I believe they have gone to turbines putting out crazy amounts of power.
The tractor pulls I used to see when I was a kid using merlins and allisons sucking in huge amounts of dirt made me cry. I just could not see why anyone would put such beautiful engines through such abuse. Sad, I suppose they thought there was a unlimited supply of them. At that time they probably paid a hundred dollars each for them. Now a hundred dollars might buy a rotor for the magneto. My Dad owned many airplanes and several at once, I kept telling him to buy a Mustang or P-40 and he would reply "who the hell wants one of those things they burn to much fuel" Now he says he wished he'd listened to me. Mustangs were selling all day long for 20K. They were a better investment than MicroSoft stock was in the early 90's even stored like Uncle Sam did at Kingman AZ stand em up on their snoot and let em rot in the weather they would still appreciate ten times faster than they corrode.