Hey All,
I don't know if you guys heard this....
We had extensively rebuilt our lakester last spring to include a covered cockpit and full body extension at roll cage height to the rear of the car... and also included the installation of a Dodge Nascar R5P7 engine. well, did not perform correctly at Bonneville Speedweek this past summer. It seems that the car was not handling correctly- specifically, the car seemed to be jumping sideways in either direction pretty much at random. Calvin Dirks, who has been driving for the last few years, was saying that he was afraid to go any faster than he was going- about 180 MPH. We tried several things to straighten it out- all to no avail. As much checking as we could do at the salt seemed to indicate that we had a bent rear axle housing, making the rear tires toe out by perhaps 3/16".... This was a recent built, 6" wider axle than we had run in the past. And we had built it ourselves .... so I guess we messed it up on the housing jig somehow. To say the least, we too left Bonneville feeling a little dismayed.
So, a couple of weeks later, Steve, Calvin and I had a meeting about the car (and we had beers too, of course). The discussion centred around what exactly was wrong. We decided to build yet another new rear axle housing, using all new Currie components. (Currie is a Bonneville person incidentally).... This time, the housing checked out perfectly for alignment. After installing it in the car, we also decided that our transmission needed to be looked at as it seemed to be "clicking" too loudly as it was turning. We discovered that we had two identical gear pairs (ratio and appearance wise anyway) that we somehow mixed up one main-shaft gear from one pair with the cluster shaft gear from the other pair. We have a mesh checking jig on which we test these gears and discovered that there was no gear backlash on the "pair" in stock and that "pair" also clicked loudly when turned together on the jig. Upon disassemble of the transmission, the gears were swapped around, and on the jig, they worked correctly- now with backlash and no more clicking. The transmission was reassembled and put in to the car along with the rear axle re-installation.
This was about mid September when all this took place... as the work progressed a thought of one of us was spoken out loud.... "It sure would be great if we could take the car down to the Wold Finals and check it out to make sure we fixed the problem".... Funny part of that was- We were all thinking it!
So, we emailed in an entry, and credit card info to pay for it of course, and then the next week, we got ready to go. The weather was looking to be a bit on the inclement side and we kept our collective fingers crossed, so to speak. We made it there late Wednesday morning- discovering that there had been rain overnight. However, the meet had already started by then and cars were running..... The area back toward the highway was under some water and the cars had to be pushed through some sloppy stuff to get to the starting line but the starting line and the course WERE in otherwise good shape!. We got through tech that afternoon just in time for another squall to roll through, so we made no run(s) the first day.... this was not such a bad thing really as we were all tired and I was still having ticker trouble.... after a nonstop drive to Wendover and being at the salt all day, an early to bed evening was definitely in order.
The weather more or less co-operated overnight with little rain and none hitting the course. After fuelling and sealing the tank we made our first run on Thursday afternoon. Calvin got the car up to 245 MPH and was ecstatic that the car was going straight! We made a second run and the car went 264 MPH! We called it an early day again on Thursday and went back to town by 5:00PM. After a few beers, we were talking (in hushed tones, of course- the Gods of speed seem to frown on presumptuousness) about making the car go faster. We made our third run on Friday, early in the afternoon..... The car went 275.65+ MPH which qualified it for the record! The old record was 273.400 MPH...... at the end of the course, when we got to Calvin and the car, though, something was amiss..... two things actually.... one of our front tires had gone flat and the parachute had gotten all torn up during deployment, although it had brought the car to a stop. We have a draw bar that we plug into a trailer hitch receiver welded into the front of the car (covered by the removable nose of course). So, several of us grunted the car up on to the truck trailer hitch and we towed the car to impound. Several of the boys did everything they could to ensure that we were good to go the next morning while I disassembled the spindle mount Cragar Supertrick wheel to change the tube (and yes I had spare tubes!)..... Record runs the next morning saw us there well before daybreak (the meet WAS in October and the daylight hours are fewer than during Speeweek).... Under a lot of vehicle headlights we, as well as everyone else, got ready for the big event. The oil was heated and the pressure was primed, the engine was started and brought up to operating temperature and we were ready to push down to the starting line. As our turn came up, the driver was suited and put in the car, the engine was fired again, seven bags of ice were added to the cooling system (we use 10 or more during the hot weather) and we were ready to push off.... As the car was pushed to 65 MPH, and Calvin saw the 1/2 mile mark coming up, he engaged the clutch and took off.... all we could do is get to the other end and listen to the radio.... 251+ MPH in the 1/4 mile- WOW!... 259 MPH, 271 MPH, 275.7+ MPH and out the back door at 282 MPH!!!!!!!! A NEW RECORD!!!!! AND A NEW 200 MPH CLUB MEMBER FROM CANADA!!!!!!! FROM OUR TEAM!!!! THAT MAKES FOUR OF US NOW!!!!! RECORD SPEED WAS 275.674 MPH!!!!
......and all we had started out wanting to do was test the car to see if the handling problem had been rectified..... Well, we came home floating- feeling like it anyway.... and talking about how much more we can possibly have in this setup..... We know that we will need several hundred pounds of extra ballast for traction as the car was getting a little loose as it went into the higher speeds. We also know that we can get about 50 more HP by going to a dominator carburetor from the Holley 830 CFM Nascar carburetor. The engine will also rev higher with the bigger induction and will need better valve springs.... Can we go 300 MPH?.... It remains to be seen.
Anyway, how are things with the Goldenhawk?..... Are you getting the fire damage repaired?
Talk to you soon,
Dave
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