WINTER WORK
Since I don't have a finished picture of the
"slickified" car at this time, I'll give you
the thousand words. As a glimpse at history, this car was
originally purchased in May of 94. It was portrayed as
"race ready". It was in reality
"grenade" ready. The engine was not as promised
(it was a 427 not a 468, with junk crank, 7:1
compression, etc.), the rear end was about to explode,
the fuel pump had to be replaced, the mag was half dead,
etc. Within a week, EVERY part had been disassembled and
sent to the appropriate manufacturer for reconditioning,
and the frame was stripped and powder-coated.
Now, 2+ years after the initial rebuilding process, with
almost all major innovations and changes in place, it's
time to do it all again, beautify the components as much
as possible, re-powder coat the frame (this time in dark
gray), and render the wiring, etc. as slick as possible.
Mind you, it WAS already pretty trick, but we're just
upping the ante and going for REAL slick.
These are elements that for the most part are not seen by
the average viewer. But for displays, car shows, and the
inquisitive pit viewer, these elements can make for an
exciting and intriguing view. For those of us who
actually see these things every day, it's VERY rewarding
(but expensive and time-consuming to create). THE TAIL
The tail of the frame takes a bit more loading than
normal because of the lift system and the dual Optima
batteries, and we're beefing that area up with four
additional struts. In addition, I've redesigned the
mounting and pivots for the body, and we're going to
incorporate some serious bearings in that area to get the
up and down motion more precise and with lower friction.
These two improvements should make the system more
reliable and avoid the pesky scratching of the frame
rails, etc.
Remember, we're going for major slick here.
CHASSIS ITEMS
The magneto kill switch has been relocated to the right
side and mounted on the shifter body, allowing further
removal of useless frame tabs.
The dual 10-pound CO2 bottles are being polished, and
liners installed in the holders to prevent scratching of
these soon-to-be very pretty bottles. I've added a
restraining tab at the bottom of each holder for added
safety.
The fire system is being augmented with 2 more nozzles,
one for the driver, and a 4th one at the engine. The
aluminum brackets for the bottles are being highly
buffed. There is a new regulation requiring the fire
bottles to be mounted inboard. While many fuel cars are
not even complying, and above 7.50 ET we're not required
to even have a fire system, we're investigating effecting
that relocation. Watching Dale Van Gundy's fire bottle
squirting and spinning down the track at Pomona was ample
testimony to the intelligence of this thinking.
The body tin had been rebuilt after the wind-destruction
at LACR last New Years Eve (no lift system restraining
pins were in place on the return road, the body blew up,
and fell down with the rams being sucked under the
tires-UGLY). One area of the tin mounting at the front
needed some additional beefing (nothing like some 183 MPH
passes to show loose spots), and that's being done as
well.
We've been running 34.5" alcohol tires until now. I
purchased two sets of near-new 36" tires (one set
from Darryl Gwynne and the other from Chuck Etchells),
and we're going to trial-fit these larger tires next week
before we do the final body prep.
THE BODY
At this point it looks like I'm going to go with taxi-cab
yellow. The color is correct for a fire vehicle, plus it
is VERY eye-catching. Mike Birdsell is still poised
and ready to do the flames and graphics. We're holding
off to the last moment pending obtaining a sponsor, to
allow for any special logo requirements. Absent a title
sponsor, we'll go with the flames and a list of associate
sponsors on the rear quarter panel.
We're incorporating some air line and wire raceways into
the fiberglass.
THE ENGINES
After nuking the 431" back-up motor (which ran
GREAT), I purchased a new Bowtie tall-deck block. We're
going to basically duplicate the primary 542" motor,
using the rebuilt COLA crank, a new set of Brooks rods,
Venolia pistons, C/A tool steel rings, and lead indium
bearings. We'll of course run Prolong in this motor.
The primary motor is waiting only for the Brooks rods.
The heads have been welded, filled, and are being
D-ported.
New extra bolt holes are being drilled in both sets of
heads and both blocks to make the heads interchangeable.
The rods and pistons will NOT be a perfect swap, as the
primary motor is an unusual .360 tall, not .400 as is the
norm.
The injector and pump will go to Enderle for checking,
the Mag to Don Zig. We're also investigating whether we
may even run a mag at all this season. There are some
very workable rev limiters available in HEI ignitions
that may prove more effective.
THE TRANSMISSIONS
After the surprising input shaft breakage in August that
ultimately cost us our back-up motor, I've consulted with
Mike Stewart of Mike's Transmissions about his new
ULTRA-duty trans. He's made some changes that promise to
eliminate the input shaft breakage problem (a 4 times
stronger shaft). This trans is scheduled to become a
reality in early January, says Mike. If so, we'll off our
two existing units and ante-up for the monster trans.
REAR END
We're addressing an annoying problem with the axle seals
on our Dana 60 unit: someone (before us) placed a hammer
cut directly in the seal area, causing a small but
persistent fluid leak on the left axle. While not
normally a problem, there's no reason to have it this
way. We're working on either machining or epoxy-welding
the surface to correct this.
SPONSOR PRESENTATIONS
I've decided to do the computer layering for the sponsor
pictures in-house. So I've plunged into PhotoShop 3.0,
and been tracing, coloring, moving logos, etc. I'll
hopefully be sending out sponsor packets in mid-January
with individual logos and colors.
CIFCA
The California Independent Funnycar Association has
altered some officer positions to conform to its goals
and needs, and I'll be back in the marketing area in two
positions again this year.
FINALLY
This will be the last letter until after CIFCA's first
race in April, pending some wholesale alteration of our
plan between now and then. Have a safe and happy holiday
season, stay out of small Italian sports cars and off
motorcycles (just ask Whit Bazemore), and feel free to
send any surplus holidays funds our way!
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