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

[Casper2000]

I looked this up for something and figure while I was here I'd bump for any new guys/gals that haven't seen it yet. :D

 

What !! Wait there's girls on here :waving: No one told me this i would have been a bit more refined on some of my comments.

Sorry girl's :doh:

[ob1jeeper]

Wonder why they changed the number? Pic 3 is #40 and all the rest are #140. Also I wonder why it is LSR-2. Was there an LSR-1 previous to this one?

Been enjoying the trip down memory lane, reading about this Truck and the new LSR-3 project by WFC, and the interest this site and enthusiats has generated... Cool Stuff...;)

 

In response to the number... 140 mph was the goal... The veh number was 40, and the 1 was added after it made it's goal speed...;)

 

In response to the model year of the original truck... The truck was actually an '85, upgraded with the LSR stuff for this project...;)

 

Keep the faith and enthusiam guys... Great fun...;)

[ob1jeeper]

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 Schlueter (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. Moe Wright, who was actually the shop foreman @ the Yuma SWTC at the time... (retired from Yuma County Vehicle services 2008)

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

Last on far right - Ron Dean - Steve's best friend from Yuma (deceased - 2004)

 

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

 

Filling in a few of the blanks for Scott...;)

[Reedtech]

This truck is inspiring.

[jimoshel]

History was one of the few subjects I always got straight 'A'S in in school. I loved reading history. I was totally fascinated reading that. Thank you Pete, very much for posting it, Again. Jim

[Reedtech]

this sold for under 9 grand in auction in 2010.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njclxgu3-dE

[Pete M]

that's my vid :D  never did here back from the new owner :(

[BeardedGinga]

that's my vid :D  never did here back from the new owner :(

Did you ever hear back from the new owner?

[Ωhm]

Never knew this post existed. Ride down memory lane. LSR2

 

http://www.allpar.com/racing/land-speed-record/jeep-comanche.html

[Pete M]

 

that's my vid :D  never did here back from the new owner :(

Did you ever hear back from the new owner?

 

 

 

still nope. :(

[gogmorgo]

I just did some digging into the land speed record Comanche, and it looks to me like it’s actually still sitting on top of four FIA records. It’s hard to say for sure though because they shuffled the records classes. At the time the LSR MJ was class A-II-9 (automobiles, n/a Otto cycle, displacement 3-5L) but they’ve  broken out the displacements into a few narrower ranges since and haven’t published new records after doing so.

But on the previous list as of 2014 or so the MJ still held the record for

1/4 mile standing start at 53.016 mph / 85.321 km/h

1/2 km standing start at 58.987 mph / 94.930 km/h

1 km standing start at 74.542 mph / 119.964 km/h

10 km standing start at 125.003 mph / 201.173km/h

 

Getting records FIA certified is a big process, which is likely why the MJ wasn’t unseated as I’m pretty sure there’s a wide range of production cars that could achieve the same if not better numbers today. No one is doing standing start land speed records either because you get a higher speed with a flying start and everyone’s chasing the big numbers. So the Comanche is likely only still there because no one bothered unseating them. There’s a bunch of official records dating a long way back for the same reason, just impractical or undersirable to achieve, like the Citroen that averaged 104km/h across 100,000km back in 1932. (Six drivers working in shifts doing laps around an oval track for 40 days straight!)

Frankly the 1/4 mile speed is kinda low because it only works out to a 17-second pass, but considering it was a standing start on salt, not a prepped drag strip, with a truck geared for top end speed and not acceleration, that’s still impressive.

 

Source: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/basicpage/file/Category A_2.pdf

[Pete M]