My 2005 Season

Test and Tune #1

Yes, that's right.  We finally had our long awaited first test and tune session.  We knew right off the bat that this was going to be a very easy day (as far as abuse on the car) and there wouldn't be any records breaking.  It was mostly just a test run for the car and crew.  We wanted to make sure that we knew what we were doing and that the car was going to do what it was supposed to.

Well of course, as expected, we ran into some speed bumps.  Nothing major, just the normal stuff that happens to people that have never done anything like this before.  There was a slight low voltage problem that prevented the starter from engaging which was cured by a battery charger.  Go figure.  That was really the only mishap of the day.  The engine wasn't quite being itself though and to this day we're still not sure why.  Things are in the works however, so it will be sorted out by this coming weekend.

So it was getting later in the day and we wanted to make a shakedown pass just to feel things out.  We got through the burnout and made about a 330' pass on just the motor and let out of it.  Nothing earth shattering, just enough to get a feel for things.  The car ended up running a 12.23 @ 75 in the quarter, but of course that was lifting at 330'. 

We decided it would be best not to run it anymore for the day and cut our losses.  It was time to pack it up and get things sorted out.  We will be back this weekend for some more tuning with a little help from some more experienced people.  Stay Tuned!

Test and Tune #2

We had another successful outing at the track this past weekend.  We took what little info we got from our last test session and applied it to this days race.  We had made a couple of minor adjustments such as adjusting the valves and setting the air gap on the crank trigger, but nothing major.  We were still having a problem with the engine not running right though.  Well you know what they say, if you can't figure it out, get someone who can.  For this we called upon Dan Page.  Dan is the owner and operator of Dan Page Race Cars.  He is a very talented guy and builds some of the sickest dragsters in the northeast.  He found our problem, while it was a simple thing, he still found it.  It ended up being a small vacuum leak on the upper intake.  So we fixed that and we were good to go.

So for our 1 and only run of the day, things were looking good.  We laid down a nice 60' burnout to start things off and actually made a full quarter mile pass under power.  This run was just a motor run again so we could feel the chassis out and make sure everything was going to do what it was supposed to.  We ended up with a 9.32 @ 148 when everything was said and done.  Both chutes were deployed just to get the hang of it and they came out just fine.  So it was a success as far as we were concerned and now we have another notch in the belt.  Keep your eyes peeled for more testing runs coming very soon.