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I feel like I owe this thread an update. The dragstrip accident in 2016 set me back pretty hard. I spent the rest of 2016 on body repairs, which rolled into 2017 doing a mini tub and installing the new Quick Performance 9" rear differential. Finally in the spring / early summer of 2018 I got a friend to finish up the body work and spray a new coat of Viper Yellow. I took it to LS Fest 2018 in Bowling Green and just struggled with traction and what turned out to be poor chassis grounding. I was able to win the 9 second class in True Street, but less than stellar ETs in 9.2 and 9.3 range. Ran a couple more local North Alabama events in 2018 but never could get it to leave the line.
For 2019 I was able to secure one of the 400 slots in Hot Rod Magazine's Dragweek, so the Nova became a priority again. Side note - I have gotten very busy with ECM tuning after my day job & it has consumed my time.
I recently competed in our local Radial Fest race at Huntsville Dragway. A friend of mine Jason Brown, owner of the Mod Shop, took one look at my first time trial pass with tire spin and wheel shake. He got under the rear and made adjustments to my Viking Crusader DA rear shocks. This was the one and only time we touched the rear shocks. From that point on it never spun again. So naturally we started adding boost and ramp rate in the Boost Leash controller. My first qualifying pass on Saturday morning resulted in a 3' wheel stand - first time ever to be higher than 6". One click tighter on the front shocks and removed a 50lb sand bag in the trunk resulted in more manageable knee-high launches. I struggled with boost limited to 13 psi, and finally figured out my cheap Amazon CO2 regulator was limiting the boost controller. So on the first elimination pass in the 5.50 index everything finally came together (launch and 21 psi boost). I broke out badly with a 5.34 at 130 mph, but I didn't even care. New personal best of 1.23 sixty foot on the back wheel, along with .4 second better ET and 5 mph increase. Never thought this collection of parts would have run a 5.34.
The changes from running 5.7s in 2015 to 2019 are 9" rear with 3.25 ratio Pro gears; DSE mini tubs; Billet Specialty wheels; 275 Pro drag radials; Hooker C6 shorty headers; & a carbon fiber drive shaft. The car now weighs around 3,550 with me in it. I dropped by for a dyno day at a new shop just 5 min from my house and made one pull to 1,013 rwhp and called it good enough. I'll need more than FIC 127 lb/hr injectors and 1 methanol nozzle before I can push any more power on E85. But the chassis is only rated for 8.50 in 1/4 mile so more HP isn't really needed at this point. Trying to make it dependable now.
Let's see if I can link a couple videos from the race:
So Now it's time to get ready for Drag Week 2019. I have to add a parachute, oil cooler, get an NHRA driver's license, line up a tow-behind trailer, collect spare parts, etc. My son will be riding shotgun, and it will be a blast.
Drag Week 2019 - for a car guy or gal that likes to both street drive and drag race their car, Drag Week is the Ultimate car experience. The racing is epic. Making passes this year at Virginia Motorsports Park, Cecil County, Atco NJ, and Maryland International Raceway was a great opportunity to visit these well known tracks. The street driving is even more strenuous than I had anticipated. This year involved more densely populated areas, skirting around DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, etc so the mileage was down around 800 total. But each day involved 5 to 6 hours of driving to the next venue. Very cool to cross the Deleware Memorial Bridge and Chesapeake Bay - in a '69 Nova pulling a trailer. Getting on the 2-step in Philadelphia rush hour traffic got some extra attention. Boost noises in a tunnel are AWESOME. But it was HOT - I heard Thursday set new temp records in MD and VA. Doing Drag Week with my Son was no doubt the best part of the experience. We had a blast together and really got in sync as the week progressed.
Days 0 and 1: My week started off well, breezing through Sunday tech inspection in the Super Street Small Block Power Adder class (aftermarket front subframe bumped me out of Street Race). I had just received my NHRA license around Noon on Friday so that was a little close. Test pass on Sunday had some wheel spin so I added another 40lbs in the trunk (total of 90 lbs ballast). On Monday my Day 1 pass was a 8.8 so I called it good. Heading out of VMP we made it 5 minutes and then lost 3rd gear in the TH-400. Shift linkage was good and fluid level was good so back to the track we go. My son encouraged me to try to fix it. The track had a number for Robbie Langford of L&W Racing Transmission. By the time Robbie got to VMP I was taking the last 2 bell housing bolts out. In 3 hours he had the trans rebuilt (a pinched seal from a recent rebuild had ruptured and direct drive clutches were toast). As I was installing the trans I somehow stripped the pan drain, so Robbie had to bring me another pan... We wrapped up around 11:45 pm and started the 5 hour drive to Cecil, MD.
Day 2: with 2 hours of sleep we were a little late for the morning track session so we had to wait until around noon for our first pass. An 8.7 was good enough so we loaded up and started a long drive to Atco, NJ. Sometime around 6 pm we realized it had been 48 hours since we had a sit-down meal. It's amazing how some decent food will re-invigorate the mind.
Day 3: another 1-and-done pass at Atco with a 8.8. I met up with another LS1Tech member and had a great conversation on car builds and family. Took his young son for a trailer burn-out ride & almost lost the trailer. That visit really made our day in New Jersey.
Day 4: Slowed down a tenth at MIR to 8.9. Thought that I could hear a misfire under power. It would have been 2 more hours until the next opportunity for a pass, so we loaded up and left for VMP. Thursday had one of the best drives through Delaware but it was super hot. Great to pull into the hotel surrounded by others that had completed the drive. Lot's of celebrating in the parking lot that night.
Day 5: Just need 1 more pass. Dumped the pump 93 from the tank and added 5 gallons of Rocket 112 octane E85 (first time to try this awesome fuel). Finally changed spark plugs (first time I touched the engine all week) and found #4 plug had a little bit of strap missing. There was my misfire at MIR. With the additional octane rating I decided to not worry about the 200°F intake air temps and added another 1 or 2 psi of boost for at total of 22 psi. After 5+ hours of rain delay we made a 8.6 pass but still only 1.4 sixty foot. I added 300 more RPM in 2-step for a final pass - still a 1.41 sixty foot and 8.7 ET at 161 mph (best MPH of the week). So my 5-day average was 8.82 which placed me 6th out of 24 in SSSBPA. By my count that was the 21st place 5-day average for HRDW 2019. One memory from Day 5 was pulling up to the burnout box - there are 3 cars in each line under the bridge; 6 hot rods with engines running; I can't even hear my car from the noise. It is difficult to describe the sound and vibration and anticipation I felt at that moment.
I achieved #1 goal to finish and #2 goal to run 8s each day. However I didn't hit my 8.5 ET goal (and chassis limit). After studying the data logs I could see the Lingenfelter LNC-003 2-step isn't holding RPM at the setpoint. I was leaving around 3,700 rpm instead of my intended 4,300 rpm. There was my .15 second slower sixty foot times. So there is room for improvement.
VMP parking lot transmission rebuild on Day 1 Check point on Day 4 in Delaware Bad hair day for sure.
Video of the burnout with the trailer or it didn’t happen! Lol
There were a few people taking pictures and videos at every stop, but I haven't seen any pop up online. To be honest, a Nova with a turbo LS engine is dime-a-dozen and did not attract any attention at a venue like Drag Week. In fact I haven't even gotten any pictures from toll booths in the mail.
Great to hear from you again Ron. Life has continued to move at a fast pace.
Couple weekends ago I raced at our local event called Radial Fest (Huntsville, AL). I was able to win the 5.50 index in King of the Street. Finally got one of those big checks to display in the garage.
Getting time to start thinking about winter upgrades. If I build a 430+ cubic inch engine that would bump me to big block classes in Drag Week (much lower car counts). But I also want to upgrade to an aftermarket ECM.
Video of the burnout with the trailer or it didn’t happen! Lol
I'll check with my son Jake(the kid in the car with Clyde) to see if he has video from the cockpit. They were too far away for any descent video from myperspective. All you would have seen was smoke rolling of the back of a trailer.
On a different note, for those of you who do not know Clyde, he exemplifies what makes this hobby great. He readily shares his wealth of knowledge and he is just a damn good guy. We had purposely went to ATCO that day to hopefully meet him and ask a few questions about his build. As many of you have acknowledged this thread is practically a technical bulletin. Also, meeting his son and hearing him describe his fathers accomplishment gave me hope that some day after his teen years pass, maybe my son will think i'm cool too. Garrick.
Garrick, you and I have so much in common. Within just a couple minutes we were talking like we had grown up together. Over the years my son wasn't very involved with hot rodding. When he asked to join me on Drag Week I was thrilled, yet apprehensive that it would be a miserable, hot way to spend 40 hours of vacation from his job. But it ended up being a great experience for us both. He told me on the last pass to turn it up - "if it blows up I'll help you build another engine". Well, we might just get started on that new engine even while this old 408 is still pumping.
If I can ever help to convince any Father / Son (or Daughter) team to tackle Drag Week, Power Tour, One Lap of America - whatever your flavor - absolutely make that happen. It might be expensive and a huge time investment, but sometimes that's OK.
Originally Posted by gsk95
.... meeting his son and hearing him describe his fathers accomplishment gave me hope that some day after his teen years pass, maybe my son will think i'm cool too. Garrick.
You just summarized a lot of the Father experience so nicely in one sentence. It's so rewarding when you reach new levels in the relationship. Thanks for making our visit to Atco, NJ so memorable.
Garrick, you and I have so much in common. Within just a couple minutes we were talking like we had grown up together. Over the years my son wasn't very involved with hot rodding. When he asked to join me on Drag Week I was thrilled, yet apprehensive that it would be a miserable, hot way to spend 40 hours of vacation from his job. But it ended up being a great experience for us both. He told me on the last pass to turn it up - "if it blows up I'll help you build another engine". Well, we might just get started on that new engine even while this old 408 is still pumping.
If I can ever help to convince any Father / Son (or Daughter) team to tackle Drag Week, Power Tour, One Lap of America - whatever your flavor - absolutely make that happen. It might be expensive and a huge time investment, but sometimes that's OK.
You just summarized a lot of the Father experience so nicely in one sentence. It's so rewarding when you reach new levels in the relationship. Thanks for making our visit to Atco, NJ so memorable.
Clyde I just read through your build - its awesome! thats a sweet all around car- awesome power #s & ET's and I agree with your statement above my son has been on several HRPT with me and while the routes have become stale over the years staying in central US - no more coast to coast trips I started in 1999 and have pretty well stopped now- looking to do cruise the coast or drive the pacific coast highway - something other than cornfields!
Beautiful Nova!
I was searching Google images for twin turbo Nova ideas to route tubing for a water-to-air intercooler inside a Hi-Ram style manifold and I found pictures from my old build thread.
11 years later I still have the same 408 engine and same pair of Turbonetic GTK 650 turbos. Last month my son and I completed Rocky Mountain Race Week 1.0, enduring grueling 100°+ temperatures and some head gasket issues. The car was 1/2 second slower in the higher altitudes & hot air and ended up the week with a 9.2 second average. But we finished.
Biggest change in the last 2 years is switching from the 2000 Corvette ECM & harness, in favor of Holley Dominator EFI. The Holley did a fantastic job compensating for altitude changes and fuel blends (added a flex sensor). I'm planning to change out the air-to-air intercooler with a water-to-air setup since my IATs are over 200° with the current setup. I think these GTK-650 are about tap'd out at 21 psi and 1k rwhp and that's contributing to the high air temps. I'll start off upgrading the cooler and then upgrade turbos next.
2020 fall race at Huntsville when sticky track combined with loose front shock setting. Fortunately no damage on the landing. Scored this trailer on FB, added yellow vinyl wrap, and drove 1,300+ miles on Rocky Mountain Race Week 2021 Upgraded to Holley EFI during winter 2020/21.
05-28-2019, 10:25 AM
I started in 1999 and have pretty well stopped now- looking to do cruise the coast or drive the pacific coast highway - something other than cornfields! 
