R5 Experiment!

[mfg]

It's too bad the Granatellis did not consider backing the R5 engine with a HD Borg Warner T-85 'long tail' overdrive transmission. (as used in the '58 GH)

I would think the Due Cento would have topped 200 MPH with ease if set up that way!.... and it would have been a 'bolt in'!

[Gunslinger]

The Due Cento supposedly did top 200 mpg at Bonneville but not officially.  Due to the rules of a 2-way average and the soupy conditions of the salt flats the car was more than capable of breaking that barrier and probably did but not enough to average out to 200mph.  The ground conditions cost traction and slowed the car down during the two way run.

We'll never really know what the Due Cento and its engine as raced was truly capable of.  

[Nelson]

I don’t know where I read it, maybe “They Call Me Mr 500” but I remember hearing the tach read over 200 mph but the car was only going 196 mph. In other words the rear tires were spinning faster than the car was moving. More power or gearing would not have helped. Drier salt would have been in order.

[Geoff]

3 hours ago, Nelson said:

I don’t know where I read it, maybe “They Call Me Mr 500” but I remember hearing the tach read over 200 mph but the car was only going 196 mph. In other words the rear tires were spinning faster than the car was moving. More power or gearing would not have helped. Drier salt would have been in order.

I know of one source for that tachometer quote. It's on the studebaker-info.org website and I quoted that in the Pub's Aerodynamics thread.
http://www.studebaker-info.org/AVDB3/Duecento/dcind2d.html

I get a chuckle every time I read that. The damned thing [Due Cento] was doing a circa 200 MPH rolling burnout on the wet salt. Talk about a rooster tail.

More power would not have helped.
Drier salt most definitely would have helped.
Or my favorite: suck the air out of the engine bay! Hood louvers, a "waterfall air extractor" hood element, fender louvers … anything! But the car would have needed to be designed with those from the get-go. Otherwise performing those modifications would have bumped the car to SU [super unlimited] or some such class.