early 80`s jet hydroplane, Coniston.

[1660bob]

Hi All, first post. Might be a howler this one!!!-About 1981/2? I remember going to Coniston to watch a guy speed testing a jet hydroplane. I remember it was gold or copper coloured, had "ROEVIN" on the side (a sponsor?) and a lot of orange flames coming out of the jetpipe as the engine was run up. I remember it was not going so well on the day I went as it would not rise up and "plane" Anyone remember this guy?, was he successful at all, did he exist??- or had I eaten far too many Gummy Bears that day:shock: !!!!!!, Cheers, Bob, Preston.

[jonwrightk7]

forgive me steve holter for plagurism, this was a T FAHEY in a rolls royce viper jet engined craft called "british pursuit" intn racing no K8. it seemed to be a joint venture between "blue fin/ roevin" dont think it was very successful if memory serves me right.

[ace_chris]

Was this the one that Noel Edmunds was allededgly involved with? Chris

[jonwrightk7]

yeah, could be. id forgotten about that til your post.

[DMCK7 Fan]

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k8_02.JPG

k8_03.jpg

[f1steveuk]

Oh, I feel plagerized! No problem!!

Fahey's project wasn't the same as Noel's Excalibur. If you want to see Noel Edmunds go red and have steam come out of his ears, ask him about Excalibur! I did, and he left the room for nearly an hour. A full size wooden mock up was made but it would never have worked, cavitation would have kept the speed well down.

British Pursuit K8 is rumoured to exist somewhere...................

[1660bob]

That must be it then, er, not as gold as i remember.... maybe just a few gummy bears then..... Thanks for the info all,Bob.

[polo]

Nice to see a photo of me on this site even though I have my back to the camera.
Tony Fahey did break 2 world and one National speed records in 1975 with Vladivar [ 128, 130 and 132 mph] as a precluder to driving Miss Alton Towers[ known as British Pursuit to the team members after Tony's company for the record attempt] to a new wwsr.
The boat was designed by Raj Nangia and the air tunnel test showed she could do well into the upper 400mph bracket safetly[Bristol Uni tests] but as is usual with these type of events everyone forgot she had to get there first!. She was still a hull when Tony lost his company and went bankrupt. He later gained backing from Alton Towers- hence her new name, and was transferred to Roevin, Manchester for completion. Here she went some very significant changes, such as the adding of what may only be discribed as 'railway lines' to strengthen her and best of all a STEEL safety capsule that was to be ejected by pneumatic rams at a decelleration of 10g. Oh never mind what the safety team said, the designer of this capsule said divers could recover Tony alive after ejection. Do the math yourself, the capsule had to be lifted by crane and it took at least 6 people to drag it about the workshop. Where was it going after ejection, with no floatation devices? How deep is Coniston? what the visability like on the bottom? Tony only had a small air breathing bottle [ still full and in my garage!] if it went wrong. I still have all the photos and drawings of BP in the loft.
Any way the addition of the extra weight stopped her getting on the plane and the project floundered through lack of cash.
Tony now lives in Dubai and is well.
As for the Excaliber saga, well that was a laugh, I went to the photo debut of the mock up and actually spoke to Noel Edmonds. I asked who his hydrodynamicist was and he asked what was one of those! I told him that to drive 30ft of boat through the water at the speed he was talking about he would need a power plant the size of windscale, he replied that they had a 'new' type of propeller that was 100% efficient. When he had scraped me off the floor through laughing I explained cavitation to him. He went a funny grey colour. I watched the top gear programme a couple of weeks later when he confronted Basil Wainright the boat engine designer re the car 'papillon' and it all came out that when this car was tested it didn't have his engine in, it was a Ford instead and it was all a big con. Noel didn't bother to phone me to say thanks. I

[f1steveuk]

Every time I see Noel on the telly I hear the word "cavitation" in my head. Like I said, when I asked him about Excalibur years after, he really did go very red, and had to be persauded back into the room! Bless.

Good to hear Tony is well, but where is K8???? Drawings and photo's in a loft, I sense a book coming on!!!

[James Von Jetpump]

You mean this one ....



Wouldn't that be a great picture to ask for him to autograph ... and get a swift smack in the gob to follow ....

AndyG