Well, I hope your motors breaks the block and your suddenly forced in to a aluminum block.... Not really.

I hear you on that, just curious what is on your mind for less weight and what not. Your surely gettin there.

 

possibly a lexan windshield. that's 19lbs. mine is cracked and is the only reason i'm considering it at all. the new drop-in black-outs available from optic armor look like stock

this winter may include some interior updates, but probably nothing major or super lightweight.

 

last weekend we went to the East Coast Stick Shift Nationals at MDIR. The weekend started off showing promise. The air was in the 2000' range and i had clicked off a 10.35, 10.27, and a 10.30, all at 131-132 mph in testing. the 10.35 was at 5500 rpm and the 2nd two passes were at 6000'. 60 was in the 1.41-1.43 range. My folks were there and they streamed the event on MotorManiaTV. My mom managed to get out of the motorhome long enough to take a couple pictures. Here's a good picture of the car on the 10.27 pass.



First round comes up and i put a 10.29 on the window. 6000 rpm 2 step and launch the car. everything was there except the torque arm. yes, the jegster torque arm that i've had for 15 years now finally caved. interestingly enough, even with all the noise, the car was on a decent pass. because the car bit, the torque arm soaked the hit up, and the nose stayed down, i had a season best 60 and career best 1/8 mile, lol. it ran a 1.39 and a 6.544. it made a LOT of noise. i should have gotten out of it, but the taste of a possible round win kept the loud pedal planted. i couldn't find my opponent and lifted, letting him around me where he took the striped by .0103. blah....ok back to the trailer to find out what i broke. i thought it was a pinion gear or something with the noises. nope, folded the torque arm. the noise was the rear u-joint getting out of wack. how i didn't spit the driveshaft out i'll never know. speaks volumes of the guys at PST for building a quality shaft

carnage pics















I have a new arm ordered with PA Racing and hope to get it soon. It is a little longer than this one, probably by 6" or better and will be on it's own dedicated crossmember. i'll have install pics up as soon as i can get it in the car. the hope is to go out one more time before the end of the season, we are shooting for October 31st.

 

Torque arm down!! Thing has taking a lot of hits!

 

Damn, I wonder if it would have kept going if it had a plate welded in there somewhere for support? Hope the new torque arm doesn't effect anything as far as launching.

 

I'm sure if there was a gusset that plated the whole triangle it would have lasted longer, but looking at the bolt holes I think it still would have went but with a different outcome.

 

Daaaaaaaamn!!! Now that would definitely ruin your day. WoW

 

sneak peak at the new one. it should be much stronger.

 

Oh yea, that looks like it is ready for war.

 

new torque arm showed up friday! it came in 2 boxes. the box that had the torque arm and hardware in it, then the box that the crossmember tube was shipped in...except the crossmember tube wasn't there turns out UPS lost it somewhere between baltimore and my place. thankfully i was able to track down a local shop that was willing to open the doors up saturday morning and sell me a piece of 1 3/4" tubing to get me going.

new torque arm is 9" longer than the old one. this should really help out a bunch.



and all installed. of course the driveshaft loop was in the way, so i had to redo that too. i'll blow it apart tomorrow for paint. final assembly and angle adjustments this week, then we go racing on the 31st. should be a good time.

 

Looks good Matt

 

i took the car for a ride yesterday. i think we're ready been thinking of putting the baby radiator in too since it's probably not going to get above 70* for the remainder of the season...would be an easy 20lbs off the very front of the car. might cut the doors up next weekend too. still debating.

 

This weekend?

 

well....might go racing this weekend instead of cutting up doors, lol. who knows. playing these next 2 weeks by ear, lol.

 

Cutting wieght can become an addition. I had a 64 Buick Special before this 65 and that car was ate up with hole saw, drilled spot welds and sawzall work. Without a full cage it would have fallen in half. LOL

 

yup, but heavy stick shift cars are hard on parts, especially the way i'm doing it (no adjustable clutch). gotta pick your evil, lol.

 

Yesterday was a huge success considering it was the first time out with the new torque arm. DA hovered right at sea level. the car did exactly as i hypothesized and really liked the longer IC. The first 2 passes were light. first one was a heavy clutch slip, no 2-step and the car went 1.43 60, and overall felt amazing. 2nd pass i did a 5200 rpm 2-step with a clutch dump. car picked the tires up but bogged and went 1.44. ran it out the back door to a new best at 10.22 @ 134.

3rd pass i knew it was on. upped launch rpm to 6000 and let it rip. i was rewarded with a 1.37 60, and it picked the tires up (barely) on the 1-2 shift. a new best again at 10.03 @ 134.28! SO CLOSE! the next pass we went up and almost put it on the bumper and had an amazing 1.33 60, but i missed 3rd gear.

After the 4th pass, there was an oil down. I took the opportunity to swap the rear tires side to side. it took about an hour to get it cleaned up and by that point the track had cooled down enough that there was no getting it to stick again. all in all, a very good day. i'm still contemplating what i'm going to do to get that last .04 to go 9.99. for now, here some video.




results from the air pan are still inconclusive. i put it on for the last 2 passes, but spun both passes pretty bad, so i'm not sure if it did anything or not. the MPH stayed basically the same with and without it, so it may have been a waste.

 

Great outing I feel for yeah though.

 

Damn Matt... .O so close

 

Holy hell. That is close enough to kill you until you get back out there! Great work man. That's knocking on the moment you and all of us watching have been waiting for. Hope the next outing nails it. Glad the hard work is paying off bud.