The Rig: Number 37
Matt designed the body by eye. First he built a cardboard model, then used the
model to form a fiberglas body "by Darth Vader out of Miss Piggy." "We'll go fast in
the straights and let the corners take care of themselves," he said. The rig's
body design uses the air flowing around and through it to literally suck itself
against the racetrack.
The driver
is separated from the monster 130-horsepwer, 1000 cc Suzuki engine by an aluminum shield a
sixteenth of an inch thick and a foot wide. The driver straddles the engine nearly
prone, legs nestled into metal/shields alongside the engine. The inch-thick tubular
steel frame is British-made, like most sidecar frames, but it has been heavily
modified by Matt and Jim.
Most of the other sidecars are front-exit: the passenger crouches on a little platform
in front of the side wheel, with a framework and cowling in front of him. Matt's
machine is a rear-exit: the platform is behind the side wheel, so when the bike
brakes heavily Matt can press himself against the fender and let it absorb the
decelleration, rather than Matt having to crouch in front of the wheel and cling to
the framework.
"At least I can jump off if I have to," says Matt. The doctor is cocooned in steel,
encapsuled like a Mercury astronaut, wearing the machine, not riding it.
|
|
