Monday, May 07, 2012

From Chic Silber #1

ZACHX15 by bucklesw1
ZACHX15, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

Semi Cannons

Posted by Buckles at 5/07/2012 05:30:00 AM

4 comments:

Bruce the Clown said...

For Chic--
Do you have photos of the "cannon" you built for Elvin? I seem to remember a late nite trip across the street from the arena to G&G metals with Harvey Copeland to paint stars on the hubcaps and some blue pinstriping . . .
Would love to see photos of that machine . . .
Thanks in advance . . .

07 May, 2012 11:44
Chic Silber said...

I didn't build any of Elvin's

cannons but worked on all 3 units

The 1st (that you recall) was on

a school bus chasis built in Gene

Vercheski's G&G shop that I added

some lighting & special effects to

The 2nd (BigBoy) as shown next

was built in South Africa & sent

to Hong Kong where the accident

occurred at it's 1st engagement

(more on that 1 later) then the

3rd 1 (smaller aluminum) was done

in Weeks shop in Venice & I added

several elements & assisted in the

installation in Circus Circus Reno

Not sure whatever happened to the

1st & 3rd but the big 1 is still

on tour with Cole Bros

I'll send Buckles photos of the

little 1 but someone else must

have shots of the 1st (shuttle)

07 May, 2012 13:19
JC Hall said...

I always liked the looks of this cannon the best. We toured with Emanual on the Circus Maximus show in 1968. Above the (X15) was a co2 vent that blew down the barrel toward the rear fins then red and blue beacon lights behind the cab were lit up, then the two big bangs. Quite an impressive showing.On the down side of this rig is maneuvering a semi inside arenas.I also wondered about the
C-A stats on Elvin's cannon not being a asset.

08 May, 2012 11:56
Chic Silber said...

I certainly agree with you Jimmy

I liked the look of the X15 better

than any of the other Zacchini rigs

Absolutely correct on alignment

If there wasn't an easy entry to

it's position it was time consuming

I was told the accident was due to

slightly too short a time between

Which of Elvin's is in question

When the big 1 was trailer mounted

the wheelbase was immense (pardon

the expression but it was a bear)

The 1st 1 (RB) had a hydraulic

front center wheel that raised the

front axle & drove left or right

Elvin has great engineering skills

08 May, 2012 12:43

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