Research Archive
Derby Tech archive
Read what Derby Tech actually published: the May 1984 issue, article by article, with its named authors, its survey data, and its own back-issue bibliography.
THE ISSUE IN HAND
Derby Tech, May 1984.
This page used to say the 1980s issues could not be found. That is no longer true. A complete photographed page set of Derby Tech, May 1984, subtitled "Newsletter for the Technical Enthusiast", is now in the Soapbox Speed Lab source file, and the technical pages on this site cite it directly.
Derby Tech was edited and published by Ollie Brower from 4039 Mayfield Street, Newbury Park, California. The masthead states it ran ten times a year in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, November, and December, at eight or more pages an issue, for fifteen dollars a year or two dollars a copy. The editor's note in this issue sets the tone the archive is built on: "The wise feed on investigation, not speculation."
What follows is a finding aid and a factual report: contents, authorship, measurements, and survey results, with short attributed quotations. The issue remains under its own copyright and is not republished here in full.
WHAT THIS ISSUE PUBLISHED
Four technical features and a reader survey.
| Page | Item | By | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Color Me Fast | Tony Carlini Sr. | Surface temperature, skin friction, and the laminar boundary layer; then colour as a psychological tool. Now summarised at Thermal dynamics. |
| 5 | Energy | Ollie Brower | The four-factor energy model, Akron hill geometry, potential energy arithmetic, wheelbase and centre-of-gravity effects, and the driving-line rule now at Driver routes. |
| 9 | Theory of Wing Sections | Editorial review | Names Abbott and Von Doenhoff as the reference every serious derby designer should own, and introduces the airfoil sheet. |
| 10 | Airfoil Data Sheet, 40% | Paul Gale | Fifteen former stations plus tail for an 84.00 inch body, maximum width at 40% of length, ordinates derived from NACA 65A012 and 65A017. |
| 13 | Wheel Aerodynamics | Ollie Brower | Why a rolling wheel is an aerodynamic problem in its own right, and where axle trees and wheel pins can legally recover drag. |
| 11, 12 | Questionnaire and puzzles | Insert | The instrument behind the survey results below. |
| 15 | Rallie updates | Events | The 1984 Gravity Drags rally calendar with host contacts in more than fifty cities. |
| 18 to 21 | Questionnaire results and comments | Expert panel and readers | Named, attributable setup opinion from working racers. |
THE APRIL QUESTIONNAIRE
Real answers from named racers, averaged to April 14, 1984.
Derby Tech ran the same four questions past an expert panel and its general readership, then printed both averages side by side. This is the most directly useful survey data in the issue because it shows where experienced builders agreed, where they split, and by how much.
| Question | Expert panel | Readers |
|---|---|---|
| Best ground clearance | 3 1/2 inches | 3 1/4 inches |
| Does polishing make a car faster | 100% say yes, by about 3 inches | 97% say yes, by about 1 1/2 inches |
| Test new ideas well in advance of race date | 75% | 89% |
| Best spindle setting at full race weight | About 1 1/2 thousandths down and forward | About 2 thousandths down and forward |
Read these as 1984 opinion, not as a setting for your car. They were collected under the rule books, wheels, tracks, and division structure of that season. Ground clearance, spindle treatment, and finish are all governed today by your current ISBD or NDR plan and by the official who inspects the car.
WHO ANSWERED
The names behind the numbers.
Derby Tech printed each respondent with their town, which is why this survey still carries weight forty years later. The expert panel in this issue was Tex Finsterwald of Grand Blanc, Michigan; Earle Blair of Elk Grove, California; Tony Carlini of Newport Beach, California; Durward Higgins of Chattanooga, Tennessee; and the Brower Brothers of southern California.
Readers printed in the same issue included Paul Gale of Nashville, Bruce Finwall of Palos Verdes, Nick Fischer of Louisburg, Nevin Leichliter of Cedar Rapids, Gary McNall of Salem, Robert Wise of Lima, Roger Van Waart of Papillion, Ken Frisbey of Independence, Dan Doupe of Penfield, and Jim Clemente of Akron.
The disagreements are the useful part. On testing, Gary McNall was blunt: "You don't build your car at a race. You are there to race, so best be ready." Jim Clemente, racing at Akron, took the opposite line and tested on the track itself, adjusting after heat one if it was rough. Both are defensible; they describe different amounts of track access, not different physics.
The 1984 rally calendar on page 15 lists host names, cities, and home telephone numbers. The cities and hosts are preserved as historical record in this archive; the personal telephone numbers are not republished.
WHAT DERBY TECH TOLD READERS TO READ NEXT
Its own back-issue bibliography, printed as Sherlock's Suggestions.
The back page carried a reading list the editor described as "some of the best derby information ever written", sold at a dollar an article. It is the single best map we have of what the derby technical press covered before 1984, and it is the shopping list for the rest of this archive.
LANE TWO
1973 to 1974
Four Point Suspension, Jim Marzano, May 1973. Aerodynamics, Leeon Davis, June 1973. Best Brake Award, James Knapik, November 1973, and Keith Stoller, April 1974. Super Cars at Carnegie-Mellon University, May 1974.
DERBY NEWS
1975 to 1983
Proper Weight and Balance, March 1975. Steering Fabrication, June 1975. Align Those Axles, January 1976. Fiberglass Roller, John Watts, March 1976. Properties of Wood, Ollie Brower, May 1976. Axles, the Heart of the Derby Car, August 1976. Weight Distribution, Ollie Brower, March 1977. The Tuned Racer, Ken Rogers, December 1977. Kite Steering, John Hess, January 1980. The Taming of Fiberglass, Victor Perez, January 1980. Springboard Suspension, March 1980. Weight Distribution, Don Huminsky, April 1981. Derby Racing on a Computer, Jack Murphy, August 1981. Car Design, On the Ramp, Paul Gale, Summer 1983.
PROVENANCE AND WHAT IS STILL MISSING
One issue is a start, not a collection.
Provenance for the set in hand: photographed pages of a single physical copy of the May 1984 issue, complete enough to read the masthead, contents, all four features, the questionnaire results, the comment pages, and the back cover. Page images are held as source material and are not published; every claim drawn from them on this site names the article and its author so a reader with their own copy can check the work.
Still wanted, in priority order: any other Derby Tech issue in any condition; the Derby News and Lane Two articles listed above; George Brower's later Derby Tech articles; and Bruce Finwall's aerodynamics writing. The most useful contribution remains a clear cover and masthead photo, the issue date, the contents page, and a note on who owns the copy.
- Photograph or scan the cover, masthead, and contents page first, before any interior article.
- Record the issue date and the owner of the physical copy.
- Obtain written permission before republishing a full article rather than reporting from it.
- Keep the unedited image beside any transcript.
- Annotate every technical claim against the current ISBD and NDR rules before a racer acts on it.
The ISBD Hall of Fame Museum and long-serving local directors remain the best institutional route to the rest of the run.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the primary material.
- Derby Tech, May 1984 - Newsletter for the Technical Enthusiast Primary source held as a photographed page set. Editor and publisher Ollie Brower, Newbury Park, California. Facts, measurements, and survey results are reported here with short attributed quotations; the issue itself remains under its own copyright and is not republished in full.
- Abbott and Von Doenhoff, Theory of Wing Sections The aerodynamics reference Derby Tech treated as standard reading. Cited in the May 1984 issue for skin friction and for the NACA 6-series profiles behind its airfoil data sheet.
- Schlichting, Boundary Layer Theory Cited by Tony Carlini Sr. in Derby Tech May 1984 for how surface-to-air heat transfer shifts laminar-to-turbulent transition.
- ISBD contact and Hall of Fame Museum Best lead for locating original Derby Tech issues or obtaining reproduction permission.
- Derby Tech bibliographic leads Secondary bibliography for issues still missing. Retained for the runs that have not yet been located.
- David Seitzinger Senior Construction Manual Historical construction reference recommended by the Legacy plan; its dimensions are not current rules.
- Zero Error forum archive: Ultimate Speed machines Historical participant archive. Images and claims are racer history, not current technical authority.