turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Here are some photos from day 1.
Dragweek 2021
- Thread starter turbodart68
- Start date
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turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Some more from day 1 photo #8 is the bent wheelie bars from the violent wheelie on the first pass.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Photos from the drive after day 1 at the track at US131 in Michigan. 300 miles to the next track. Lots of gas stops, it got 9 mpg on 87 octane. It overheated 13 miles into the trip. We took the hood off and strapped it to the roof of the trailer, added 20 degrees of timing and Richended up the cruise portion of the tune and it ran cool and no problem for the rest of the day. The green dart had a r5P7 motor in it and a Jericofour speed. Wicked 9k rpm shifts. It ran mid 9’s and I dubbed it the nascar dart.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Some last photos of the Monday night drive. We got to the hotel at 2:30 am.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Day 2 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk Ohio. Not much to report here but the car managed to run much better with a shock adjustment and further tuning. I richened the fuel map 30% on this pass.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
The drive from Day 2. Ohio has some beautiful back country wow!
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Then disaster struck. 270 miles into the 290 mile drive it started raining HARD. The car started sliding all over the freeway. I was certain that I was going to stick it into the wall. I rode it out just steering and counter steering until the car slowed down enough to stop hydroplaning. I got lucky and went under an overpass and it was dry enough to correct it and get it slowed A LOT. Then we hid under an overpass until the rain slowed down enough to crawl the last 20 miles. Indy is going to be interesting.
vitamindart
Well-Known Member
so cool! love the back story, was watching the live streams at work everyday. wanted to check it out at Byron, just didnt have the time off to make it happen.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Day 3 at Indy was exciting. We stopped at a few auto parts stores to see if we can find some resistor plugs (was running non resistor, a no-no for fuel injected motors) and didn’t find any. My neighbor gave me some weird plugs he swears by and I reluctantly put them in. Boy was he right. The first run I forgot to turn on the C02 bottle for the boost controller. So it went 10.40/137 on 1.4 psi of boost. We then turned it around quick and made a second run where it made the best pass yet 8.94/152 which we discovered that the converter was slipping 18% and it rode the rev limiter for 1.2 seconds total during the run.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
After 2 runs (which took LLC day) we switched the tires and packed up for Byron Illinois. What an honor to run at such an iconic track such as Indy. My co pilot has a bad habit of eating gas station pizza in the car! Every stop turned into a fresh Diet Coke and a slice of cheese pizza
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Things went so well on the 287 mile drive that we got to the hotel early. 10 pm bedtime! Except when we got to the hotel and exited the car we could hear a hiss. Sounded like a cooling system leak. Upon further inspection we found the tire going flat right before our eyes. Dang it. The valve stem core vibrated loose and it was letting air out. So another drag weeker helped us out with a valve core tool and gave me and the tire a ride to a gas station for some air. After shooting the breeze and fixing the dang tire we went to bed. 12:30 instead of 10. Any sleep is good sleep!
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Once at Byron we made the switch to slicks. I also raised the rev limit to 8k for two reasons. One the increase in rpm might help the torque converter couple better. Two is it will give me more time to get across the finish line before it cuts me off. It ran 8.74/155! New personal best, but that happened with every pass
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Ok! Final drive to the final day. Two things I have trouble believing. One, the car has driven close to 1,000 miles with no real issues. Two, that its almost over! At first you are so nervous to get it over with to see if you can make it but then you realize your nerves have dominated your trip. Next time I will be more at easy. Remember, I haven’t driven this car more than 70 miles in one trip in the 33 years! What a great drive. We drove through Chicago on our way back to Michigan and when we decided to leave it would have landed us in the middle of rush hour traffic. So we decided to do some maintenance (even though it didn’t need it) and leave around 5pm. The drive went well and we arrived at the hotel at 1:30. We traveled with the overall winner that night in the blue Corvette parked behind us.
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I bet you have had a damn good time too.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
It truly was the trip of a lifetime. So much dreaming, working, and perseverance to get there. It lived up to the hype.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Oh I know. Such a sad story. He bought that car when he was 16. His first car.
TT5.9mag
Two atmospheres are better than one
Was terrible. When they interviewed him after he was on the brink of tears and had no words. I felt (and feel) really bad for him.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
I looked at it closely and I would bet that they will be able to salvage more of it than they initially thought. Hopefully.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
I forgot to finish the story! I’m sure you guys have been waiting on pins and needles. So day 5 was kind of a disaster as the track went. Multiple oil downs and three crashes back to back made for a long day and only 1 pass. I was hoping to make more than one pass and get that 8 second average. So close with a 9.07 average after running an 8.77 at 100 mph shutting it off early after it smoked the tires in high gear. Over all it felt amazing to finish but what an exhausting trip to get there.
turbodart68
Well-Known Member
And lastly I didn’t even know it but I won an award. Icing on the cake.
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