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Guess where I went today... to see the fastest MJ (so far)..


Pete M
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Dash was still there too. As I understand it, weight is sorta an afterthought for land speed records. Apparently wind resistance is the big obstacle. W.F.C. says he'll likely be adding weight to the backend of the truck to help maintain traction.

 

We know almost nothing about the runs out on the salt flats. But we hold hope that we can track down one of the original guys that worked on the project and he can fill in some details. :thumbsup:

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so no reply from Scott Schramm? I guess he may be busy with this bailout thing. He still has some of the FIA records from 1986. I have to post the press release, just have to find a server to park it on.

 

If anybody is working for JTE ( if it still exists) maybe they could ask around if anybody rembers another member of the crew. I would really liketo know if there was a LSR1

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK Here is what he said:

 

 

 

 

Hi Peter,

 

My apologies for this belated reply to your subject message. Last week I was preoccupied along with my office colleagues supporting the Chrysler efforts on Capitol Hill.

 

I was the driver, team manager, primary facilitator and all other assignments as needed person for the project.

 

On the picture that accompanied the message you sent the other team members left to right are:

 

Owen Viergutz (retired - 2006)

Steve Schluetter (retired - 2005)

Adrian Donorio (???) - I'm unsure if Adrian accepted a separation package during the most recent round that was effective on 30 Nov. Otherwise my last contact with Adrian was during 1Q08 when he was working in E/E Engineering at the Plymouth Road Complex in Detroit

Me (my last day with Chrysler is scheduled to be Fri 19 Dec 08 when I officially retire)

"Moe" (???) - He was a Steve's friend who volunteered to support the project. I don't recall ever hearing Moe's last name.

Larry Godin (retired - 2007)

Gil Portalatin Last I heard (circa Oct 08) about Gil he was working at Ford in its advanced propulsion program on hybrids

 

At the time of the Comanche LSR Project: Owen was the Chief Engineer of the AMC Scientific Labs, Steve was Manager of the AMC Yuma, AZ Test Facility, Adrian was Manager of AMC Engine Electronics, I was Manager of the AMC Stress/Mechanical Test Lab, Larry was a Senior Technician reporting to me and Gil was a Senior Engineer reporting to Adrian. The project was completed before the announcement that AMC was being acquired by Chrysler Corporation; so there's very little other than the vehicle in the Chrysler archives. I probably have the most information and artifacts from the project. Most knowledge of the project is folklore passed on by those of us who worked at AMC. There was one feature article published about the project albeit as I write this message I cannot recall the name of the publication. I'll check and get back with you about it.

 

If you're new to Bonneville, it's a difficult venue for many reasons. If you're experienced you already know and I won't detail the litany of issues we encountered. But be advised, the Comanche LSR is not a 'stock' as it may appear to be in the pictures. Larry and I did a lot of developmental 'tweaking' on the vehicle. We spent many hours of testing at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) which at the time was leased by AMC as an emissions test and general development facility. MIS was much closer to Detroit than hauling the vehicle to the AMC Proving Ground in Burlington, WI. Larry was an experienced drag car builder/tuner and I have extensive experience in designing, developing and driving road course vehicles. We put much of that experience into the Comanche LSR which was a requisite because we had only five weeks to convert the vehicle from a pre-production prototype that completed a 50k emissions durability test before being handed over to us. The LSR started life in ugly medium blue livery where the interior and exterior were monochromatic. Actually the LSR's first appearance was at El Mirage (CA) dry lake where we suffered an engine failure. That was in July 1986 after which we had approximately three weeks to identify/resolve the engine issue before the rechristened "LSR-2" was loaded onto the transporter and driven by Yuma facility volunteers out to Salt Lake City where the primary crew caught up with the vehicle.

 

Scott W. Schramm

Manager - Regulatory & Technical Affairs

Chrysler LLC - Washington, DC Office

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what makes this exceptionally cool (though not pertaining directly to this truck) is that I hail from Burlington, WI and have driven the proving grounds in the past...potential is there for a job at the proving grounds as well, and it looks like at some point I'll get to see some of the original test run laserdiscs from the original performance testing for the jeep comanche (which WAS done at the proving grounds, for production models though not the wfc).

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Probably kept it because it wouldn't be under all that much shock load stress (since the race isn't abusive in the same way a drag race is). They take off nice and smooth and build up speed fairly gradually.

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