My Next Slug

[JoyOf6]

Where do people buy these roller setups like this??? Are they pretty expensive?

Hey, it's only 4 months to reply :redface:. This was built by local car builder Mike Carpenter. Other than small operators like that, the big chassis builders include McAmis, Bickel, Ness, and so on, and they'll run 1.5-2 times the cost. PM me for real numbers, don't want to fuel an argument here.

Update:

Gotta tell the bad with the good.

Yak:

Ugh:

Mike cuts out the bad stuff. Relieved a lot of strain. Will sandblast chassis, repair it, repowdercoat, and reinstall all the parts and a new body.

 

[LV GN]

dam art! are you ok? dam. fill us in.

 

[John Wilde]

Art,

What the heck happened?

 

[JoyOf6]

My plan was to again creep off the line, ramp into WOT, play with shift point, deploy chutes. No lie, the track is a crapshoot for this much power even being careful, but I rolled the dice.

Left lane: tires broke loose ~ 300' out (from behind, looked like engine let loose). Engine zinged to 8100 rpm & 25 psi on datalog. Car made a hard move to the right. I almost saved it correcting a couple times but a tire dug in and snap-barrel-rolled the car 1.5 turns in the air (EMS guy said it was higher than his truck). Landed fairly gently on right front roof and slid on the roof to somewhere beyond the 1000' ft cone. I was hoping I wouldn't hit the wall and luckily did not.

Engine was still running when I stopped sliding so I shut it off. The driver's door was damaged and wouldn't open. When help (Mike. C) first arrived, he opened the passenger door (glad it opened) and I crawled "under" the shifter and IC and popped out, not a scratch on me (thanks for asking). EMS checked me out and I was fine other than sky-high blood pressure and heart rate. It took a while to flip the car upright, then I slithered back in (everything covered in tranny oil) and was towed to the pits.

Cage repairs look like they'll be as minimal as could be hoped for. Just a lot of work tearing it down to bare chassis. I decided to get a new body kit instead of messing with this one and McAmis gave me 10% off as a courtesy. As of today, the chassis is completely stripped of harness, electronics, and remaining tin so things are looking up.

Here's a pic of Mike Jones and Mike Carpenter adjusting a newly fabbed engine hoist for this monster. The blower assembly, engine and tranny came out in one big lump. Jones drives the blown alcohol short-wheelbase Voodoo Child dragster in the Southwest Superchargers regional series and is a heck of a good guy. Carpenter is the fabricator/car builder. I would still be racing a stock-chassised GN if I didn't have him as a resource/friend. Hmmmm :biggrin:

Art

 

[John Wilde]

Wow Art that sounds super scary.
I am glad you are ok and that this set back did not end your racing
endeavors.

 

[ttypewhite]

Sorry to hear. I am extremely pleased that you came out without a scratch. Hopefully you can get back in the driver seat soon.

 

[Bent6]

OUCH!!! Glad to hear you're OK Art - also glad to hear your going to get back on the horse.

 

[JoyOf6]

Thank you all for the kind words. This did set me back in a few ways.

Spill plates installed:

Body work. This piece was extremely rough. McAmis now sells mainly the newer narrower (3.5") '68 Camaro bodies/chassis so they didn't repair the damaged old mold for the regular size one that I have.

Primered. It fit well with only minor chassis adjustment. Now the doors and front end can be trimmed to fit before they are taken to the body shop.

Repowdercoated chassis with wiring harness ready.

Wiring repaired and everything put back to the way it was. Delay box mount was moved to make tunnel removal easier.

Late yesterday, beginning to trim the front end a small bit at a time. The piece comes about 8" longer than needed. We want a more naturally shaped curved approach (instead of flat on the orange one which was a pain to install) from the sides to the cowl. Dzus spring brackets will have to be raised for this. This will set the cowl higher on the windshield, which I don't really like... but it'll look and fit better overall when it's done.

Rear gear change should be done this week. Lexan should arrive this week.

 

[LV GN]

looking good! glad its coming back together.

 

[JoyOf6]

All body parts are back from body shop. I'm leaving it in primer until later this year. Now we're readapting the door hardware for the newer thinner-depth doors, and making window frames and side windows this week. Pretty amazing (the nausea is fading) how much work it took to get back to this point.

Installed working tail lights and '68 lenses instead of the wing light.

Powdercoated pipes look a little better.

Blower inlet adaptor.

 

[JoyOf6]

The doors took a lot of work to get just right, then we made the windows. Instead of a windowframe with exposed weld tabs for window screws, the frame was made from flat stock and drilled/tapped. This hid the frames completely behind the border paint. A secondary direct latch release mechanism was added to the back of each door (with small knob) for outside opening ease and safety backup.

New 34.5x17x16 tires were mounted.

Compared to turbos, boost control is limited on a blower but launch boost control is possible. A second blowoff valve just installed (near firewall) serves this purpose. In this case though, it opens passively under boost until a manifold signal is allowed to reach the valve through a solenoid and ramp it closed. The idea is to tame it a bit at the hit depending on the track. So, stage the car at desired rpm (bleeding boost off). A delay box timer is set to open the solenoid (and thus close the valve) starting 1 second after the tranny brake releases allowing boost to then build for the rest of the run. Down-track venting of boost would put a drag on the blower drive unit and is not done.

We plan to test the car in San Antonio on June 7. There will be many fast doorslammers there that day. Thanks for allowing me to post this saga.

 

[LV GN]

bad a$$ art! looking really good!

 

[Bent6]

That is one smooth ride Art :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[John Wilde]

Wow, that thing looks even better the second time!!!

 

[JoyOf6]

I agree! Badass, smooth, and better than before. Car went over well in San Antonio (surprise, hot and humid, made me want to pass out) but really wasn't ready to compete. Too bad, because the track was really good and could have held anything. Good to see old Buick friends Todd King and Gilbert (dang, forget his last name, sorry dude), meet a few new blower/turbo guys, and see some interesting very fast cars.

Engine is super rich down low, killing it on burnouts and staging. The most fun was after the engine cleared up after a stumbling 3-sec 60', shifting a little short (7000 rpm) and running through the traps @ 185 mph. That helped purge the memory of wrecking it last Fall. Played with launch rpm on the other passes - better (still horrible) 60' but didn't get past the stumbling stage before I lifted.

Eureka: the XFI file had some PA (power adder) closed loop functions enabled that seem to be the culprit for killing power. That and it needs some VE map work (duh). Ironing this out should make a world of improvement. So much potential here but it'll have to wait a little longer especially since the local track's new concrete still has very little rubber.

 

[LV GN]

congrats art! glad your back in it. good luck to you this year!

 

[JoyOf6]

Thank you for the on-going encouragement, it's appreciated. I need to get this straightened out, then hit the road where I can test with confidence again.

 

[John Wilde]

Art,

I am glad you just got back on the horse!
Maybe you should do some dyno time on the tune up
while you are waiting for the track to open up!

 

[JoyOf6]

Thanks John. I believe that disabling some of the crap commanded in the file will clear it up. It should be routine low-end map editing after that. Local track is open, but still slick. Also, the concrete was finished with too smooth of a surface in most people's opinions, which may not bode well for holding rubber for long even after it is laid down.

 

[JoyOf6]

Ran 1/8th mile in San Antonio this weekend and made good progress. Leaving soft @ 4000 rpm gave consistent 1.20 60'. I'm looking to get under 1.10 sec with more aggressive launches but this was a good start. Not really geared for 1/8th mile but still had plenty of giddy-up:

Best run of the fours passes was 4.74 @ 157.6 mph.

Things are looking up