Damn, had no idea those window pieces would work so well. Gonna have to do that to the 86 TA!

 

new strut showed up just before lunch Friday. I decided it would be a good idea to take my lunch break and run home to put it inside so i didn't have a high dollar strut sitting outside. on my way home, i realized just how nice the weather was, and how bad the forecast looked for the rest of the weekend, so i did something i almost never do; called into work and said i wouldn't be back. i thrashed for the next 5 hours and got the car together and on the trailer



my first pass was soft, but shows killer potential. i mph'd 136.77 mph, which is over 1 mph faster than any recorded mph so far. the launch was so low of rpm that i bogged, and short shifted 1-2 as well. the car felt solid so i decided to turn it up and launch off the 2-step.

2-step didn't activate. engine went straight to 7800. when the clutch was released, the torque arm saddle mount for the rear axle decided to take the rest of the night off. thankfully it looks like the mount itself is the only carnage. Of course, Jason at PA Racing is already on a solution, so we should be racing this weekend





new mount will be pro-mod strong

 

Damn that could have been bad. i bet that felt a little weird on the launch

 

it made a bunch of wrong noises, lol.

 

Yep, that design is lacking for sure. Time for the overkill mod.

 

in other news, little radiator didn't do well. also, i'm pretty much over the small fuel cell up front, lol. i'm putting the stock sumped tank and the stock radiator back in. just less at track maintenance this way :p

 

Never know until you try

 

yeah just tooooo much race car for this street car dude, lol!!!

 

Was hoping for an update. Glad it didn't hurt anything else form the looks of it. Hope she is solid as ever with whatever the replacement is. You deserve it after so much hard work man.

 

this week's thrash list before first points race:
-put full size radiator back in (check!)
-put full size sumped fuel tank back in (check!)
-run new fuel lines (have one more fitting to pick up from speed shop and that's done)
-balance driveshaft and install new rear u-joint (check!)
-mount "pro-mod" torque arm saddle mount (should receive today)
-move 2-step switch (how this is done will be determined by when my new switch will be here)
-possibly install new valve springs, retainers, and locks. if not this week, definitely next week. (this is strictly pro-active maintenance, engine ran flawlessly all year last year and on first test hit last friday, this is looking to be out of reach for this week, lol!)

 

Screw the maintence! Way more fun breaking a spring and dropping a valve so it collides with the piston and chews up the chamber. I want to see the TA mount!

 

now why would you put words to that notion

i'll see about finding time.

 

Let it eat!

 

well beaver springs was a tough track for me. lots of idiosyncrasies i'm not used to, however we did like the drive up and enjoyed the track overall. what i thought was a spin issue, actually turned out to be a bog issue, and i didn't realize that till after 1st round. i redlit, like several of our competitors did first round. i had the quick latches on the hatch fail to hold on any more and the lift supports opened the rear hatch in the burnout box. the guy working the track tried to close the hatch, but only smashed it down harder which i believe may have hurt the latches. either way, once they got it latched, i was so anxious that i redlit. of course the hatch came up as soon as i launched, which was a big bog anyway, lol. no big news of personal bests, though i wasn't expecting it anyway, lol.

other than the hatch, i have no failures to report so onto the next one, this time with more RPM!

 

Was hoping you would get some testing in before hand, but no mechanical failure is great!

 

forgot to mention, the driveshaft rebalance made a HUGE difference. when i push the clutch in at 130+ now, it's as smooth as butter! so happy about that, lol!

also i stayed up late last night and got the valve springs swapped out. also put some Ti retainers on and fresh locks to replace the steel ones. i'm going to run and get some fresh plugs and get it all back together tonight. all in all, i think i'm ready for this weekend

 

Bad ***. Hope the weather chills out here. Would like to see if I can beat a 8.0 in the 1/8 with the new wheels I got for my SS. 10 rear 3.5 from and MT DRs. Still only 18* timing for now.

 

Saturday was a much better outing than the previous 2. I made a rebound adjustment on the rear shocks, put tire pressure up to 13.5psi and 2-step back to 5500 and it really seemed to like the changes. I made 3 good passes. A 10.19, 10.21, and 10.24. I'm still fighting red lights for some reason so we went home early again, but I think I realized at least one issue there. For some reason I put 5 psi more air in front tires than I normally would, so I'll be reducing that before next outing. DA was right at 2200'. Looking at the data from last year, I picked up .15 ET and 1.5 mph in similar air conditions. It's worth noting that this track (Capitol) has always been a bit of a nemesis for me. With the adjustments, all of a sudden my car works well here, so we are looking forward to coming back now Additionally, the front struts are packed up and headed to Afco to get loosened up. As you can tell in the video here, the rear suspension looks like it's doing it's job, but I just can't get the weight to transfer, so hopefully by next weekend we should be good.


So a little more work to do and I think we'll be really close. I had a buddy come by yesterday with a set of scales as well. 2948 with me in the car. Right now the car is sitting at a 53/47 split. Not sure if that's ideal or not, but I'm really happy about the total weight. We are off this coming weekend and the following weekend we will be at Carlisle, PA for a little racing on Friday, and the GM Nationals car show on Saturday.

Oh, I seemed to have had something "click" over the winter and am now completing flat foot shifts with no issues

 

That sure does look good Matt.

 

Looks to me like the pass side tire is bouncing up into the wheel well immediately after the hit.
Maybe add some preload to that side.
Also doesn't seem to hit the tire quite enough...id think about loosening the rear rebound another click or 2.
Overall car is working pretty decent Matt.