Racing Engine Sounds

[Original Looper 1]

Hi All,

For all of you gear heads that have a passion for great racing engine sounds, I found a web site that I think you will enjoy.

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Sounds.htm


Some of the engine sounds are so spectacular they give me goose bumps, but I still think the all time sweetest sounding engine ever is a 6 cylinder Quincy Looper.

thanks,

Paul A Christner

[Gene East]

Paul,
You're absolutely correct.
Nothing sounds sweeter than a 6 cyl. Looper. Even the most dyed in the wool Konig lover will admit that.
The Mod guys were testing at Twin Oaks last spring.
During a lull in the action I opened the doors to my pickup, turned the volume up to maximum and played a CD with Wayne Walgrave and Bruce Summers doing combat with a pair of 6 Loopers.
You should have seen the heads turn!















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[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Gene:

You need to see if you can get that on BRF. Chances are some of the newer members have never heard one. I would gladly take a chance on what little hearing I have left to be able to wake the animals up around here late at nite.

Bill Van

[Mark75H]

If Gene can send me a copy I can do something with it here.

[Skoontz]

Paul:

You need to get that one on tape that you played for me that one night....As soon as it started, I knew EXACTLY what it was!

[Gstillwill]

Cool site Paul those were the golden years of the factory wars in the 60,s between Honda and Yamaha. Honda with four strokes and Yamaha with two strokes. Honda found the only way to compette was more pistons, more valves and 17,000 to 18,000 rpms. 50cc- 2, 125-4, 250-6, 300-6 and 500-6
and at one point I think they tried a 500 -8 all with 3 or 4 valves. Back then all the GP circuts were laid out on back roads and streets. Mike Hailwood was the man for Honda and won alot of Championships.

[David Mason]

There is no better tune than the sweet sounding 6 Looper. I have yet to hear a band that can rival this sound, and never will.

And yes Gene, you fire up a True 6 Cyl Looper at any Mod race and just about every head will turn. It still gets the hair on the back of my neck to stand up when I think about how sweet sounding those are.

[Gene East]

I have purchased the last 2 remaining CD's that my supplier had. As soon as I receive them I will mail one to Sam to share with all of you. I won't part with the copy I now have.

Why didn't I just make a copy of that one? Simple, I don't believe in pirating other people's work.

I played this at 3:00AM once and didn't realize I had the volume up so high.

Wives do not appreciate this kind of music at 3:00AM.

You have been warned!

[Gene East]

Sam,

Your CD is in the mail

Enjoy!

[Gene East]

I guess Sam hasn't received the CD yet. Now I understand why they call it "snail mail".
Hang in there. It's worth the wait.
Might be a good idea to wait until the "Little Lady" has gone to Wal-Mart and you've put the dog outside before turning up the volume.

[Mark75H]

Well, we'll be waiting a little longer ... that CD was a dud :( it won't play. :eek:

[Jeff Lytle]

Awwwwwwwwwww crap!

[Allen J. Lang]

OK. lets get the people who still have loopers in their collections, especially the 6s, get them together with some sound equipment and turn them loose.
Let's wake up the neighborhoods. :D They were awsome in their day.
Ye Olde Desert Geezer :cool:

[Gene East]

Sorry guys, but like I said, I bought the last TWO copies, I just played the second one.

IT WORKS!!

I will send this one priority mail in the morning.

Hang in there a little while longer!

The Summers vs Walgrave Symphony is on the way!

[Gene East]

Hey Sam,

"Where's the beef", I mean where's the music??

[Mark75H]

Gene, sorry its taking so long. Still having lots of problems with the disks.

The audio player quality is acceptable, but there are issues with the digital recording; they can't be downloaded due to errors on the disk about half way thru (not copy protection for those who are thinking in the more advanced mode, just plain digital errors; the stick on labels came off in the players and messed up among other things, stopped them from even being loaded into a slot type player). We will have to make real old fashioned analog audio recordings to new digital ... the sound quality will be off quite a bit.

I'll send the CD's back to you.

[porterj]

There is no better tune than the sweet sounding 6 Looper. I have yet to hear a band that can rival this sound, and never will.

And yes Gene, you fire up a True 6 Cyl Looper at any Mod race and just about every head will turn. It still gets the hair on the back of my neck to stand up when I think about how sweet sounding those are.

When I was a boy, back in the late 50's I used to go to the races with a friend of mine whose father (Luke Boykin) raced in the old Southeastern Boating Association. At that time he held the kilo speed records in C & D classes at 65 and 75 MPH respectively. What I remember most is the incredible noise these engines made! There were no stacks or megaphones like we have today, seems like the exhaust came right out of very short stubby exhaust housings. I remember that from the side when he launched the boat you could see the pistons going back and forth through the exhaust ports. The fuel was alky, nitro, and castor oil. They must have used a lot more castor back then because the smell was almost overpowering and the engine sounds could be heard for miles! Does anyone remember those days (maybe Lyle) and are my memories essentially correct?

[Miss BK]

The sound of an Allison (Unlimited hydro)

http://www.lesliefield.com/audio_video/Allison.ra

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Your memories are right on the money....

I believe the exhaust system you are remembering is called the "syncratone" or some such. I don't know whether I have the spelling correct or not, but I had one that I replaced the stock exhaust on a 30H with in the mid to late 50's. I lived in one side of a duplex in an ordinary neighborhood at the time and used to put the motor in a 55 gal drum with a test prop on it and adjust the carbs. I can still remember the echo through the neighborhood. Strangely enough I never had a complaint. Either everyone liked the sound or people were a lot more tolerant then. I had the drum under a carport closed in on two sides, and it really echoed back and forth. Probably one of the many reasons I can't hear any more. The pistons were visable just an inch or so back in the individual ports for each cylinder, that were open to atmosphere.

As to the smell, I think that was more something that was used to keep the castor and alky mixed than anything. Smelled kind of like shoe polish. I used to be able to remember the name of it, but can't recall it now. It was an "emulsifier" so as to keep the castor and fuel from separating. When I quit using castor and went to "Blendzall" it used something that smelled different to accomplish the same thing.

[Jeff Lytle]

It was an "emulsifier" so as to keep the castor and fuel from separating.

I used to use Benzine in my nitro mixes, acetone and tolueyne was also used by some to keep the mix from seperating.

The nitro mix smelled really unique.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Benzine is what I was trying to think of. I think "Baldy" Baldwin was a user of toluline to keep MX-237 in solution with his regular fuel mix. I don't really remember whether it had a distinctive odor or not, but the benzine definately does.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We used toluene only with the "black fuel" mix which contained MX-237 The Master Oil. Bobby Wilson was the one that came up with the formula. 8 ounces of Master Oil mixed with 8 ounces of toluene were topped off with 24 ounces of Bakers AA Castor Oil and the mixture poured into a glass gallon jug. Add 3/4 gallon of tech grade methanol and shake vigorously. Pour that mix into a black (has to be black) five gallon can and top off with enough methanol to make five gallons (about half an inch below the spout). Tip black can upside down and back about a dozen times and set aside overnight. It is a milky color at this time. Next morning unscrew cap and pull up shiny spout. If the fuel is clear and a very thin brown ring circles the metal spout, the mix was successful and is ready to use. You cannot use standard Konig seals though. We used neoprene or another synthetic, the name of which I can't remember. The Konig seals would go soft very quickly.

Floyd Hopkins used to use a little bit of amyl acetate in a fuel mix. It was supposed to be of some benefit, but I don't remember what. Amyl acetate is some kind of banana derivitive and is like a concentrated laquer thinner. Toluene and amyl acetate both had distinctive smells. Toluene was also a bad news chemical if you didn't handle it correctly. Amyl acetate smells like banana flavoring.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

I am VERY dissapointed in your telling of this method of fuel mixing with MX. If you were really your fathers son, you would have expounded on the reason for the "brown ring" on the spout (that would have made a really good post all by itself) and also when checking the fuel to see if the mix was successful, the story would have been better if the examination of the fuel mix for correctness would have taken place the day before the quarter moon at 4:35AM, or some such. I hope all Baldy's BS genes didn't leave with him. We shall see if that talent was passed on in further posts on this subject.

Come to think of it, this might be a good subject for the BS thread, along with background on the "Konig Killer" and Denny and Craig's invention of the "Gremitfaulzer" I probably didn't spell that right, as Denny corrected me one time before about that.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill Van....I don't know why the brown ring was there.:confused: I only know that if the fuel cleared up, the ring was there. If no brown ring, the fuel was still slightly milky. It may have had to to with moisture in the fuel....either the last remains of a drum of methanol, or very high humidity. I honestly figured there would be questions about why the black can.:D

[Dave_E71]

Gene, sorry its taking so long. Still having lots of problems with the disks.

The audio player quality is acceptable, but there are issues with the digital recording; they can't be downloaded due to errors on the disk about half way thru (not copy protection for those who are thinking in the more advanced mode, just plain digital errors; the stick on labels came off in the players and messed up among other things, stopped them from even being loaded into a slot type player). We will have to make real old fashioned analog audio recordings to new digital ... the sound quality will be off quite a bit.

I'll send the CD's back to you.

Sam,

The labels came off the disks you currently have/had or the masters that Genes disks were made from?

*****TEST THIS ON AN OLD DISK FIRST*****
I believe alcohol (not the drinking kind :D ) will clean the glue/sticker parts off of the disk and you can use a Sharpie to label the CD.
*****TEST THIS ON AN OLD DISK FIRST*****

I like Nero for copying/ripping CD's to the hard disk in the computer and creating audio CD's that will work in your home/car CD player. I'm also looking for inexpensive (or free)software that will do the same thing...

Check out http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/9/13/11498/3759 and Exact Audio Copy http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ . The audio qualities of the analog recording of a cassette I'm doing right now don't seem to suffer to badly.


Have pocket protector, will travel
Dave

[Dave_E71]

Bill Van....I don't know why the brown ring was there.:confused:

I know, I know, I tried some experiments and I found the reason for the brown ring. I blew over twice in a 250 and stuffed a 500 once, in each case I noticed a brown ring in my.... oh wait, I just reread Waynes post and he was talking about a brown ring on the fuel spout.... nevermind


Dave

[F-12]

You're a real comodian................

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

For easy mixing of fuels did the advent of Klotz Technoplate caster and then UC Jack Rabbit make things one whole lot easier with less hit and miss?

As for racing engine sounds some one should develop a site for "open pipes" two strokes all by itself for everything from a KG7, or 20H Popper to the Flatheads. :)

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

Why the black can?


This is probably going to get me in the same kind of situation as when I saw the drag mark in the sand where your trailer was parked in San Antonio and asked what that was, and where was your trailer.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

No, No Bill Van. I guess you have been bitten (or have taken the bait) so many times by myself and my Dad that you perceive a set up at any little thing that seems a bit odd. I was shooting you straight on all this fuel business.:eek::D You have heard of stuck engines because each of two guys thought the other put the oil in the fuel. It happened with Chad Hill last year I believe. We didn't want to get the Master Oil mixture mixed up with the regular 20:1 methanol/castor oil mix.

In those days my Dad bought black five gallon metal cans to ship Master Oil in. So we only put the Master Oil blend in black metal five gallon cans and standard mix in blue plastic cans. That's why you see on some of the test sheets I have posted whether the fuel was blue or black.;):D

Now back to the original idea behind this post. I have transferred from an old silent 8mm film reel to DVD some old boat racing films. They are 3 minutes each. One of them is from Pro Nationals at DePue and I am almost positive it is from 1970. On one of the reels you can see Bill Fales in FRR with a screaming looper. There is a possibility that this was the race he had his deck rider carrying a gallon jug of fuel to top off the tank during the race. Bill won and I can't remember offhand who else he was battling. Sam or Jeff, I am wondering if I can successfully burn a copy and send it to you, would it be possible to mate some of those looper sounds to it on a DVD?

P.S. Dave...You can also get those other brown rings after you've been hanging out in Mexico for a few days, then have to run a couple of rough water heats in a laydown boat.

[Mark75H]

The labels came off the disks you currently have/had or the masters that Genes disks were made from?

Dave, the labels came off Gene's disks. They were not on straight either.

With the labels cleaned up ... the disks have digital flaws that do not allow them to be copied digitally ... analog only. They play fine on a CD player.

[Dave_E71]

Dave, the labels came off Gene's disks. They were not on straight either.

With the labels cleaned up ... the disks have digital flaws that do not allow them to be copied digitally ... analog only. They play fine on a CD player.

That's strange, are you trying to do it, or is the boss doing it? :D:D

Not sure about in the Mac world but there is some pretty good software on the PC side with on the fly error correction.