April 6, 2008
I decided to take the car out and run it at the Musclecar Heaven race at Speedworld. In the past, I had never run better then a 13.10 on normal street tires. It's just hard to get the car off of the line in 1st gear without the tires going up in smoke! All I wanted was a 12 second time slip. The first run was a 13.44 followed by an oh so close 13.00! I made a few more runs playing with the launch. My 60's times were lethargic at 2.2 and 2.3 seconds. After my second run, the car wasn't feeling right on the burnout. It was kind of stuttering. I thought maybe it was loading up. I was running Tony's 850 Holley off of his boat. My new carb was sent back to Larry's to see why it wouldn't run. So I just tossed Tony's carb on with only a jet change. The car wouldn't rev over 4500 rpm's in any gear. It was pathetic, running a mid 14. Now I'm bummed, it's 85 degrees and I don't feel like playing troubleshooter. Pop the hood and the first picture is what I saw. The new hood insulation over the carb had a 5 inch center cut out of it for some reason. It sucked that boy right into the carb. Boy I love easy fixes! Back in line for some more testing. I tried easing it out a little slower before mashing on the throttle. That seemed to work, it seemed like it pulled pretty good with out too much spinning. I was shocked when I saw a 12.86 @ 106.94 mph with a 2.04 60' time. That's getting there. I decided to try it again to see if I could repeat the time. Well the run started about the same, feeling pretty good even though you're really babying it off the line. The time slip read 12.74 @ 107.31 with a 2.02 60'. Man, that was great, I got my 12 big time! Now I need some slicks!
We ran into an old boating buddy, Mike Ciralo. He was running this Pontiac Grand Prix. Pontiac powered, the beast runs mid 13's. He has nitrous for a little extra fun!
May 18, 2008
Trying to get ready for some races in June, I decided to install a complete HRParts rear suspension. This consists of boxed poly bushed lower control arms, adjustable upper control arms and a new rear sway bar.
The adjustable uppers allowed me to set the pinion angle at about 2 degrees down. This is optimum for the launch. Mine was at zero degrees with the old set up. The lower control arms are boxed with poly bushings and a grease fitting. The rear sway bar I had was bigger than stock, but only attached to the lower control arms.
May 25, 2008
Well,
I got the TA cover installed as well as pulling the front sway bar and putting
90/10 shocks up front. Then I bolted on both slicks and was going to take it
down the road to make sure they don't rub when I turn. They rub just sitting
there! How can this be? I bought the same size slicks I've always run (29.5" X
10.5" MT's) and
they're mounted on the same Centerline wheels. After looking at everything, I
realized the rear I was running with the 3.55's was from a 66-67 Chevelle which
is an inch narrower than the 68-72 rear that's in it right now. So I
decided to fix the 3.55 rear so I can run the 10.5 slicks. I ordered a set of
Strange Engineering axles and a new c-clip eliminator kit. Now I just have to
get this installed before the 7th of June!
June 6, 2008
My new 30 spline axles and c-clip eliminator kit showed up from Strange Engineering. There was quite a difference between the stock GM axles and the Strange units. I had to pull the 4.10 rear, and then get rid of the old c-clip eliminator kit on the 3.55 rear. Then install the new axles that now had the new style c-clip eliminator set up pressed on the axle. Backing plates and rear differential cover was also swapped between rears. I got everything back together in time to make our Palo Verde Hot Rods race on June 7th. It was hot out that night, over a 100 during the day and getting down into the 90's at night. Track conditions were pretty good that night. The new slicks hooked up! First run out of the box was a 12.58 @ 107 mph. The car was leaving hard. The second run yielded a 12.55. The motor seemed like it didn't want to rev past 5200 rpm for some reason. I couldn't see the fuel gauge and the carb was jetted pretty lean. But, I didn't want to make any big changes before eliminations. I just played with shift points, clicking the gears a little early. The final time trial was a 12.49! I was happy now. Eliminations started and I dialed a 12.47.My first round opponent got the head start on me and turned on the big red eye! So I just ran it out the back door, stopping the clocks with a 12.38 with a 60' time of 1.69 seconds. This was the second best the GS had ever run. (1.68 stands as the best to date) The 12.38 is the best run the cars made since I moved to Arizona, and that was on a hot night with a corrected altitude of 4400 ft! I did go two more rounds before I lit the red-light in the semi-finals. A pretty good debut on the slicks. I'll hopefully have my original carb back from Larry's soon. I can give Tony back his boat carb and start dialing the jetting on the original Holley in to see if I can knock a little more time off of the time slip.
