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was spotted driving it
or because he parked
the thing in the
headmaster's parking
spot.
Leaving school very
young, he served his
time on automatic
transmission repairs
and servicing, which
led to his building a
clutch-flite
transmission for a
Queensland drag
racing team. When the driver failed to arrive
for a meeting at Surfers Paradise Raceway,
Rosco was co-opted to drive the racer, which
he did very successfully for some time up and
down the eastern seaboard.
When the team owner decided to pull out,
Rosco and the boys asked if they could have
the Chevy V8 out of the car. They then
inserted it into a two-wheeler frame, making
one of the first V8 motorcycles
─
a terrifying
beast of a thing. They demonstrated the big
bike up and down the east coast and in New
Zealand and had a lot of fun with it. It had no
clutch, so they started the engine with the
back
wheel off
the ground, then sent the bike on its way by, effectively,
kicking the stand out from under the back wheel with
the revs nice and high. It was spectacular but very hairy.
Various mishaps including a number of broken drive
chains saw Rosco refining his technique for sliding
along the dragstrip on his belly at high speed in his
leathers, rocking his body from side to side to prevent
too much heat buildup from the friction.
Rosco went on to tell us of his adventures with other
terrifying machinery including a rocket-powered
go-kart! After that a 1600 km/h rocket car must seem
almost tame.
He explained that he felt that many Land Speed Record
cars are far too complex and described the internal
workings of Aussie Invader 5, which is built using the
well known but often ignored KISS principle. It has cost
a fraction of the money spent so far on Richard Noble's
Bloodhound SSC, an extremely complex machine that
The front wheels
Rear view showing the hydraulic rams holding
the air brakes open, the position of the rocket
nozzle and the rear alloy wheel with the disc
brake to be used at lower speeds
The cockpit showing the built-in roll-cage, the
complex steering wheel and display screen
Rosco thanks Ron Fabry for his
presentation and the group for coming