It was a King of the Hill race day today. Very strong head wind with 40kph gusts all day and the barometric pressure was steadily dropping all day. Everyone was all over the place with their dial ins and everyone was running slower.

I did some changes and reconnected the crank trigger to see if I could get it working. First time trial pass, the ignition was popping and banging again so I lifted by the 60' mark, upshifted and idled down the track. Returned to the pits, reconnected the distributor pickup, reset the timing and got ready for the second time trial run.

Second time trial was a good strong pass. Everything worked well. Car ran 9.589@140.38 into the head wind.

First call for third time trial and the car wouldn't start. Wouldn't even crank over. Battery was fine but the positive wire was hot even at the starter. I use a remote solenoid so there's no power to the starter until I hit the start button. I discovered that the power post on the starter was touching a header tube. Put the charger on the battery, jacked the car up and started working on it in the pits.

I pulled the exhaust pipe off, pulled the collector, removed one header tube and took the bolts out of 2 others just to get access to the starter. It's an XS torque starter with an infinite clocking ring. The clocking ring bolts came loose and the body of the starter body rotated down to touch the header tube. I reclocked the starter, tightened everything up and put the header and exhaust stuff back on. Missed the time trial run so I one have one good time trial.

First round elimination. Checked the air and my laptop said I should run a 9.60 based on my one good pass. Just to play it safe, I dialed 9.58. My opponent and I had equally bad lights with a .091 and .092. I caught up to him just as I crossed the finish line and couldn't tell who won. I was sure I lost. My car ran a 9.616 and I won the round with a MOV of .0026 (just over 5 inches!). No wonder I couldn't tell who won.

Second round. My opponent is 3 seconds slower. His top yellow comes on then goes red. My top yellow comes on, I let go of the transbrake button and wait for the delay box to let me go. Felt like a nice run but the timeslip was completely garbage. Because the tree and timing system screwed up again, we had to do a rerun. I had to refuel and cool down slightly before I could make another pass. I think we did the rerun about 20 minutes later. Same lanes and we can't change the dial in although the timeslip information was no help.

I nailed the tree with a .003 light against a .025 light. When I passed the car just after the 1000' mark, I hammered the brakes just before the finish line. Double breakout and I still lost. The head wind must have died right off. I ran a 9.50 on a 9.60 dial and my opponent ran .060 faster than before. I only scrubbed about 3 MPH off at the finish. Even if hammering the brakes caused the nose to dip, there's no way I would have tripped the beams to run that much quicker. Entering the data in my spreadsheet, I could see the car was picking up speed all the way down the track from the incremental times. Based on 1000' time, the car probably would have run a 9.486

Went up for a T&T pass and only managed a 9.655 so the car decided to slow down again. Times were all over the place today. I ran 9.589, 9.616, 9.505 and finally a 9.655. It was all because of traction which could be seen in the 60' times of each run. MPH was very consistent. 140.38, 140.60, 137.90 (on the brakes), 140.25

I brought the car home for the night because I had to weld up the shifter mount on the floor and I wanted to make sure the battery is fully charged. I get to go play again tomorrow with a $1000 to win per class. I'm guessing today's race had 50-60 cars show up.

 

A few photographers were out today. Here's a good launch shot. I can see why the crowd loves my car. Even one of the photographers came up to me and commented on it.

 

that pic rocks!

 

i never get tired of seeing pics of your car.

 

I may get a whole bunch more from that weekend. Another photographer showed me an 8x10 picture yesterday shot from the top of the tower while I was doing a burnout. Unbelievable picture. I'm hoping before the end of the week, he'll sent me a bunch of pics and video. He doesn't charge for them. I got 4 more in car videos yesterday but there's nothing different about them from the last ones I shot.

I really screwed up on the Sunday racing. First round of eliminations, as soon as my green light came on, I knew I lost. I cut a .120 light to my opponents .026. We both ran .012 off our dial in. Paid my $20 to get into the buy back round then flinched at the tree. I let the transbrake button go before the top yellow came on and realized my mistake when the engine went to WOT. All I had to do was push the button again then release it with the top light came on to reset the timer. I launched before the third amber came on. My opponent broke out by .002 so even if I had reset and got a slow light, I might have won the round.

I managed about 10 passes over the weekend. Car wasn't that consistent but neither was anyone elses with the gusting head wind. Still managed to run 9.5's all day long.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evolize...7622261282780/
Here's a bunch more vehicle pictures from the Saturday race. Check out how much that Mustang torques over on launch. I went over and talked to the guy on Sunday. He has SFC, rear anti roll bar, full cage, wheelie bars and a stiffer right rear spring and it still twists the body enough that the passenger door is now out of alignment. It only runs mid 10's. Lots of Camaros at the track but I wasn't the only third gen. Most were first and second gens.

 

I was looking at that wheels up photo again. Pulling the wheels off the ground is one thing but I also have 4-6" of downward suspension travel. When at rest, the top of the tire is just under the fender lip. There's at least a 6" gap at the top of the tire and probably at least 8" under the tire. The front tire is 27.5" tall. The rear tires are 32" tall. The bottom of the spoiler sits 5" off the ground at rest. That photo shows 2-3' of air under the spoiler

Pulling the car or pulling the wheels? Which matters more? Either way, it comes down very soft.

I don't even have a jack at home that can lift the front end that high