Thursday, August 03, 2006

Everyone is a little tense around here; it’s been that way for the past two weeks. The car is running! We whipped our computer problems and now we are down to small refinements that can make a big difference in performance. The tension is all good however. While we are concerned about what we have forgotten or missed we know we are ready to take a serious shot at the record There are a million details and, as we’ve learned over the past three years, it only take one to send you home. Again, the car is running and it sounds like thunder!

Cliff called last night, “we have to make a decision” he says. It took a while for me to respond; another setback I thought. We were all set to go have the car “dynamically tuned” today and we planned to leave the first thing this morning. Yesterday we learned that Henry, the dyno guy, was in a racing accident last weekend and has been in the hospital. Seems like a water hose blew up and Henry was seriously burned. So, I thought to myself, “we are not going to be able to have the car on the dynamometer before the race after all”? That has been the story of this car. We whip one problem to see two more jump up. Oh well, we’ve whipped them all so far and we’ll continue to do so.

Nope, that was not it. We are still on to get to the dyno Friday. Seems after I left the shop yesterday afternoon, on my way home from work, Cliff and Russ decided to fire her up just to see how she’s doing. It’s just too much temptation to walk past her not to just hear how she sounds-one more time! “Too much fuel” Cliff says, “we need to decide about those injectors”. Needless to say, this issue has a lot of history but in short we were working with modified injectors (Toyota Supra) to get more fuel flow. That was before we learned that we had a clogged fuel filter. Now we have fixed the filter issue and we are getting too much fuel and the engine is fowling plugs. By the way, the other solution is hotter plugs (more fuel, more horsepower) but that is for another day’s discussion.

We will not be going to Sacramento today but Cliff and Russ will pull the top of the engine and replace the injectors instead. We go to Sacramento Friday morning. Time is running out!

The game plan is simple; our car is running. We will not need to fabricate much at the raceway this year. In 2004, we built much of the car on the Salt Flats because we ran out of time. Last year we spent most of our time trying to get our computer system set up. We have made several small modifications to the car structurally and added some new instruments to give us a better picture of what is happening with the engine. Of special concern is the NOX-fuel mixture. To lean or to rich can cause serious problems so we’ve added some new monitoring gauges. As for the stereo system, I’m afraid I’ve lost on that one; “the sound of the engine is all the music you need Bob” according to the boys. Overall, the car is ready to run so this year we get to race, not build.

We have reserved three RV spaces and a camping spot at the KOA (all hotel rooms are booked because of two golf tournaments and a car show scheduled around the first weekend of Speed Week) and we have rented two RVs to live in for the week; Sterling is bringing the his trailer to complete the team accommodations. We leave first thing Thursday morning.

That will be the beginning of the circus. First thing in the morning to me is about 7:00 AM, I’m typically up at 5:00; some folks in our organization do not arrive at the new day until 10:00 AM and then there is the morning wake-up ritual. Ahh, it’s all good though! We will be on the road when we ALL of us are ready! I’ll wait.

We pick up the RV’s in Reno and caravan over to Windover arriving Friday morning. We have Friday to set up camp at the KOA and set up our pit area at the Salt Flats. The very first thing though, is to unpack the car and get it into the inspection line. Saturday is driver orientation and then its race time!

At Bonneville, there is a system that everyone must follow. Cars need to meet all BNI safety standards and both the car and the driver(s) must go through a series of speed tests before they can make the big run for a record. So far, Cliff is the only one who has made it onto the salt and he and the car have been certified at the 140 mph level.

The fuel record (our car runs NOX) is around 160 mph for our class. There is one more element; Bonneville raceway has two tracks. The short-course and the long-course. Big records, over 200 mph are set on the long-course and that is where we hope to put our names in the Big Book. We have to do better than 175 mph on the short-course before we can qualify to run the long course. We need to be on the long course to get our car to its full potential but that means that we will break the world record for our class and that triggers a back up record run-the car goes into the impound area until Sunday and we all get to sit around and watch the cars go by on Saturday after our run! Then, Sunday we back up our record, and we will be qualified to get “on the porch with the big dogs”!

As if this is not enough drama, there is the NOX system. We have never had an opportunity to “light it up” because we have never got past other problems (our on-board computer system communicating with the engine-our set up computer communicating with our on-board computer). The objective of our Friday session with the dynamometer is to establish the peak performance range for the engine, tune the engine and determine what the tuning needs to be for our NOX system. Our engine can turn 8K rpm but we suspect it makes its best power at 6.5K or 7K rpm.

Nitrous Oxide adds more oxygen to the fuel-air mixture and simply makes a bigger bang. In our case, it should add about 100 horsepower to our little 3 liter engine putting in the 500 hp range. That is enough to put us in the 200-230 mph range on the raceway.

A NOX system is “lit up” at the very top of the power-speed range; it is a little extra boost near the end of the timed run. NOX, however, changes the engine dynamics significantly and so the computer resets the engine settings (timing, dwell, etc.,) on the run to accommodate the new fuel mixture. Needless to say, the NOX puts a major strain on the engine and everything has to be just right or we get a little bigger bang that we expected or need.

Our NOX system is what is referred to as a two stage system or a “wet system” and a “dry system”. Nitrous can be added at either the “wet” level, at the “dry” level or both can be turned on at the same time. Each level adds a significant boost to horsepower. Each adds a little different dimension to the tuning of the engine. All of this is done through the on-board computer. It’s very complicated and now you know why we’ve had so many problems the past two years.

As I’ve said, we have the computer working and with the tune-up Friday, our life will be good on the Salt this year. Yes, we are all very excited and, as I’ve said, things are very tense. We think we have it all figured out but, after the past two years, we can’t take anything for granted.

With all this working perfectly, the NOX system, the computer, our modified air intake, the fuel system, our new tires and modified rims, the newly designed tail, differential set up, etc., there is still a great unknown out there. Will the car be stable at high speed?
Most cars want to become airborne at a certain speed. All our horsepower is of no use if we cannot keep it on the ground. Like most small town mechanics (many of the folks at Bonneville are small town mechanics) we don’t have access to wind tunnel data for our car. We have tried to estimate the effect of air movement around the car and how that will impact the car at high speed. We have some modifications that we might employ based on test runs but there will be a steep learning curve out there on the Salt. The point though is that this year, our learning curve will take place on the “Salt” instead of the pit area!

Last night, after Cliff’s call, there was another though that came back to me. There are a lot of people who spend countless hours working on their cars (trucks, motorcycles, streamliners, etc.) and going to Bonneville with the expectation of setting a world record. Most of them do not succeed and they spend more time on the Salt trying (sometimes for many years), than we have, and still never make the record books. This is a goal we are shooting at and maybe we can pull it off; maybe everything will work perfectly and maybe we will have the best conditions on the salt and maybe we have a good plan.

We are small town mechanics (and a city planner) and this might not be the year or maybe our plan has a hole in it or maybe we have forgotten something but what a trip it has been so far! You have to be out there to see the innovation, hear the engines, watch the cars flying by operating at the very edge; see the disappointment and the excitement of the winners and losers to really understand the magnitude to this adventure. I’ve tried to capture some of that in the pictures I’ve taken but they cannot really reflect what this is all about. It is truly a grand scale of activity.

With that said, win or lose, this will most likely be my last year of this racing adventure. I might go visit from time to time but after this year I don’t think it will be the same for me. I’ve given my interest in the car to three of Cliff’s children who have helped us get to this point. Perhaps they will carry on and move this project to another level, maybe is will sit in a garage someplace. Again, last night the thought came back to me that this is a world class adventure but win or lose, from here on out it can’t be the same. Both Cliff and I are tired; exhausted but excited. After the 18th, the excitement will just fade to exhaustion. That was what it was like last year except for the major disappointment of not being able to run.

In closing, we will be in Windover/Bonneville from Friday August 11 to Friday August 18, 2006. If any of you want to see what goes on out here, you are invited to visit. Our accommodations at the KOA are a little primitive but the company and the overall environment is great. Later on in the week (14th through the 18th ) there will be some rooms in the local hotels. That is after all the Speed Week groupies go home and the work of racing gets focused. We can get you a visitor pass to the pits and you can join us on the “line” during a launch-assuming everything is working well.

For those of you who know the background of this great adventure, my partner Cliff is doing well. He, of course, has ups and downs with his therapy and this year we have the added struggle of oxygen. He’s moving a little slow but for the past week, since we got the computer working and the engine running, he has been a ball of fire.

As for the driving arrangements, we have determined that everyone on the team should get a run at the salt this year. As long as we don’t push the NOX buttons to many times, this engine should carry the load. There are two records in this car, the NOX record and the gas record. I hope to take a run at the gas record after we’ve reach 200+ with Cliff on NOX.

Oh yea, I almost forgot. I have my own race suit this year. I won’t have to borrow one. I got a red suit with “Spirit of Bootjack”, on the back. You, of course, know that Bootjack is a small crossroad community in Mariposa. The “Sprit” part plays on Craig Breedlove and the “Spirit of America” race car that set the jet record back in the 50’s or was it the 60’s? The “Spirit” in the name has started some small debate among the team and the fact that the suite is red (team color is supposed to be blue) will fuel the fires a little more out in the salt. From my perspective, the conflicts and debates are part of the team camaraderie and all about tension relief. We do a lot of that as it gets more intense on the Salt.

We also will be conducting tours of some of our favorite spots in Windover; the Speedway Café-Truck Stop with the owner who does not write down your order because he has total recall (not!), the little Mexican restaurant at the edge of town and, the new city swimming pool a block away from the KOA. The pit area is huge, over a mile long, with some of the world’s fastest cars setting out there to see and hear. These tours are available to those of you who are up for the trek across Nevada in the middle of the heat wave. Remember, however, “it’s a dry heat” and you will be so distracted by everything going on that you won’t even notice? Let me know if you’re interested. I hope to stay connected via e-mail and, of course, my cell works. If I don’t see or hear from you before this is over, I will be sending a wrap-up report after the 18th. Bob