I took the car down the street and it wouldn't pull past 4000 rpm. I decided to try and iron it out at Speed Week in August. We arrived on Saturday morning and I figured out that I had forgotten my log book at home. I was able to contact a friend that was leaving that day and he was able to pick it up. With not being able to go through tech and my wife showing an interest in driving we decided to go through rookie orientation and get her ready if she decided to run.
Here she is doing her bail out test.
My log book made it Saturday afternoon and we made it through tech at the end of the day. Sunday morning we went to the rookie course and made a pass. The car went to about 4k and started to nose over. I shifted to second and it did the same thing. It was just overly rich and not building boost. Finally in 3rd it built 5 lbs of boost and the same in 4th. We made it through mile 2 at 83.331 mph. With knowing my wife wanted to run and this was an open record in H/CBGC we decided to go to impound.
I changed the main jets from 200's to 180's (the smallest I had) in hopes that it would lean it out enough for the engine to rev a little and get the turbo to spin up. I also adjusted the boost controller up just in case it was starting to let the wastegate open.
The next morning we went to impound early and got the engine warmed up. The engine ran better and pulled to 7,000 rpm and the turbo built 7 lbs of boost this time. We ran 105.337 mph and called it good as this turbo is just too big to spool up on this little engine. This was Record #6 in H/CBGC at 94.33 MPH.
With the turbo not building much boost it was time to let the wife try her hand at driving. I pulled the turbo off and converted the car to normally aspirated.
We went back through tech and got in line. She did her first run at 96.029 mph. This qualified her for an open record in H/CPRO and we went back to impound.
The next morning she backed it up. The car wouldn't shift into 2nd gear so she skipped it and went to third for a bit then back to second. She was able to still pull off 90.737 mph and set the 7th record for the car in H/CPRO at 93.38 MPH.
We went back after lunch because she wanted to make a clean pass. She made another good pass. She said it was more fun without the stress! I went to make another pass and we got put on wind hold, so we decided to pack it up and head home. Overall it was a great Speed Week.
World of Speed 2018. I had changed the turbo out for a smaller unit that I had for a diferent project. We arrived Friday morning and went through tech. After the drivers meeting we fueled up with ERC 110k and got in line. We made the first pass on the short course. The car ran decent, but only 7 lbs of boost. I showed 129 mph on the GPS and went by the timing tower. They had no timing slip for the car and said it crashed the computer and to go to the front of the line and try again. On the second run it was a little richer and GPS only showed 125 mph. We went to the timing tower and the same thing. No timing ticket and they said it crashed the computer again and then they entered all of my information manually. We went back to the front of the line again. By this time it was getting hot outside and the engine was starting to get a little hot. I noticed that oil pressure was a little lower and the AFR was even richer. On the 3rd run we finally got a timing slip and it showed 114.431 MPH. We took it and went to impound. The next morning the car ran great with the cooler air and we managed a 126.751 mph pass with the same tune. We went back to impound for Dan Warner to certify the record and #8 for the car was set at 120.591 MPH in H/CBGALT. I did a class change to the fuel class and got back in line around 12:00. The winds came up and we were put on wind hold for the remainder of the day. The next morning we were #2 to run on the short course. I had been turning the boost controller up a little at a time each pass and it was just starting to raise the boost off of spring pressure. The pulled hard and ran pretty good at about 8 lbs of boost. We ran 128.45 mph and went back to impound. They announced that we could do backup runs at 1:00 pm, 5:00 pm, or the next morning. We din't know how the wind or weather would be so we decided to go at 1:00 pm. The thin air killed the car. It was so rich that it wouldn't pull over 3,000 rpm in 1st and second gear. Finally in 3rd and 4th it started to build boost. I showed 129 on the GPS so I figured it made up for it at the end of the run. When we went to the timing tower and looked at the slip it showed 14 mph average from the 2-3. We complained, but they said that there were no problems with any other cars so it must be right. We had to use the 1-2 miles times which were terrible due to the rich conditions and no boost, but we were tired and ready to head back home so we took it back to impound where the 9th record was certified at 101.282 MPH in H/CBFALT. It was a fun year on the salt. I'm already thinking about next year and which direction to go. Lots to think about and work on this winter.
