The Liquidator 2

[JRC ETD]

The Liquidator for the 1977 season was concieved but never launched for a number of reasons. The primary reason was the Deere culture of not letting your customers down with products that they had purchased and were not performing to the expectation of the customer or Deere....with multiple product improvements launched during the year to improve reliability and durabilty of the Liquidator, it was decided to make sure the customer was shown Deere's commitment by rebuilding the sled the customer purchased rather than asking him to ignor the obvious major issues with the first sled and double down and buy another! If you follow the value of Deere and Co. this is why the stock is at $104.00 and CNH is trading at a all time high since the sale to Fiat at $36.00! Deere also knew that a reliable rebuilt Liquidator still had a pretty good margin of beating even new TXL's.The new sled was in planning, defense of the I-500 win was important, the t-handle bars, alumimun skid frame, light hood, ect. were all componets, 340 individual barreled Kawasaki prototype engines were being tested, but were not deemed reliable yet....another reason for not launching, and finally the thought that race prepared Liquifires as a option to rebuilt Liquidators offered a 1-2 punch made sense as you looked at the individual races and their terrian. The final thought was that a entire new chassis with industry leading weight reduction was a must to lead the industry, and resourses applied to that and a long term single sourse engine supplier was sound strategy! Best JRC

[JDXspec]

So Jon,
Any thopughts why the LF eng was much more dependable the the dator? Both are mono block liquids why is one mort apt to score than another?

Great stuff BTW


B)

[JDGuy]

Jon: And yet another THANKS for that info. Great to have you posting on this site!!!

[Mean Green]

JDXSpec,
The engines were of the same basic design. The HP of the Dator was substantially more, realizing a much greater load on all the wear surfaces in the engine including bearings/cylinders/pistons/etc. Therefore, as in all applications, you are not a "genius" by extracting more HP from a certain engine, whether it's automotive or whatnot. The engineers are well aware of the potential of the engine, but they are detuned for longevity. These sleds were purpose built, and longevity was sacrificed for the almighty HP output. Think of it like this, a 426 Hemi engine in a production car will survive 100,000 miles, but in a top fuel car they last about 1/4 mile, sometimes less. The old motto "HP costs money, how much can you spend?" is a direct result of this. Therefore, the tortoise vs the hare story does apply. Your old LF might not go 500km as fast as the Dator, but in a 1000km race, your sled would do well as the life expectancy of the dator would be realized, and you would pass him as his mechanics were tearing it down for a rebuild. Enough said.

Tracy

[basketdators]

So, when a person wants to rebuild one of these ,what are some do's and don'ts.
Thanks Bill