It was before my time here, but I heard that Mazda tested the
3rd generation RX-7 model in our old (ten-foot) wind tunnel.  The
language barrier caused some miscommunication in the requirements for
mounting the model to the ground plane.  The mounts weren't strong
enough, the model had positive lift, broke free of the ground plane
and took off down the tunnel...  I don't think they'll be testing any
future RX-7 variants here.

--
Dr. J. Christopher Krok
John Lucas Adaptive Wind Tunnel
Caltech MS 205-45, Pasadena, CA 91125

Interesting tidbit!

Marc Wiese

Do you have Mr. Krok's email address Marc.
Back in the late 60's I knew the director of the Cal Tech 10 foot
tunnel Bill Betts. I wonder what happened to him? If he is still
alive?

Speaking of lift I flew the C182 up to Bonneville the first year that
Jim Mederer attempted to capture the E class land speed record
with a three rotor, three turbo 3rd gen RX7 with ice water intercoolers. 
When I saw the car for the first time at the salt I asked Jim what the 
lift distribution on the car was and he told me it had two hundred pounds of
down force on the nose and nothing on the tail. In my characteristic best
diplomat mode I said "WHAT THE HELL....that's not going to work Jim!!!"
I then said: "At least tape up the slot under the spoiler with duct tape."

He got a bit mad at me for being so blunt and told me he was not allowed
to modify the shape of the body. He later told me I did not know it all :-)

After I made a few calculations on the back of an envelope I told him this 
thing is going out of control right around 250 MPH. Don Sherman and Csaba 
Csere where standing right there and heard every word.

Sure enough Jim got it up to 250 MPH and got sideways. The angular acceleration
and consequent and subsequent angular velocity was a site to behold. The car 
lifted off the salt to an altitude of ten or fifteen feet and did a Lomchavalk(s?).
The RX7 wound up spinning down the salt on its roof at over 200 MPH. 
A Japanese film crew just happened to be near where this event took place 
and got excellent movies of the whole thing. Jim was not seriously hurt.
The car was repaired, the aerodynamics fixed and it later went
on to capture the E class land speed record at 268 MPH as I recall.

Paul Lamar
 
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