Greetings Motorheads, Wallio here. I know I don't post nearly enough, but this past week was beyond rough, and I've been quite sick for seemingly ever. Anyway, hopefully I can start posting more often. And this past weekend I finally got out to the track. So tonight's post is the first of a hopefully large amount of race debriefs.
It was pretty decent weather overall, although a bit chilly. There was little wind. The entire team was present, the old man and Rags, providing the tuning, Neal providing me with driving advice and cheerleading, and Mr. S. Playing Roger Penske. Anne, nervous of me shaking down what was basically an entirely new car, stayed home.
The old man made the first pass, in order to test everything and see if there was a fire (we did overhaul the entire fuel system). It was a slow shakedown, he didn't really do a burnout, or a proper launch, or well anything, really. It was a sad effort and a pansy 11.34 was the E.T. However, the 125mph speed told the tale. Clearly, there was massive wheelspin.
After a long cooldown period to make sure there were no leaks, rattles, etc. (Remember, that was the first pass we had made on the new powerplant) I was taken off the leash and told to make a balls-out pass. After a proper burnout, I took the revs up to the convertor and let her fly. Amazingly, the Nova decided she actually wanted to fly, and pulled a massive 6-ft wheelie. Salome carried her wheels an incredible 70-75ft, but I kept my foot in it and ran out to a blistering 10.50 at 122mph. Despite only having two wheels on the ground, the 60ft time was only 1.42
I returned to the pits to find the boys, instead of being pleased, were actually quite angry. They demanded to know why I had turned on the nitrous system. When I explained that I hadn't, that the insanely low time was pure motor, they too began to be excited. After several spectators came to our pits to tell me how insane I was to keep my foot down during the wheelie, Mr. S. Became worried. The car really wasn't leaving properly. Huge wheelies are all great fun and all, but a smaller, more controlled wheelies are quicker and of course better.
After much arguing and cigar smoking, I was ordered to go back out, and try a much lower rpm launch. 3500 revs versus the 4300 I had used the first pass. However, the trans-brake didn't quite lock-up and the car rolled through the lights. I caught it and tried to foot brake her off the line, but it was too far gone, so I aborted the run.
No biggie, being only a Test and Tune, I got back in line, embarrassed and angry.
In the staging lanes before the run, the old man changed my launch point to 4000 revs, and I went for it. However, the track had rubbered in, and Salome pulled her front end a massive 8-ft off the tarmac. However, I was under orders from Mr. S. To abort the run in this case and despite my personal objections, I obeyed. On my way back to the pits, three old guys gave me a standing ovation. However, I now had a wicked vibration. In the pits it all became clear, as one of the mounting points for the ladder bars was bent nearly at the 90 degree angle. The suspension had moved so much, my one slick was rubbing in the fender well. Realizing we needed solid ladder bar mounts, we loaded up and went home.
Yes, we only had one real pass, but it was stupid fun and it was cool listening to people talk about "that blue and white nova pulling insane wheelies". Once we reset/rebuild the suspension and maybe change the gears (yea, 4.88s aren't low enough now!) I think single digit timeslips are possible without the spray. Of course they're possible now with the spray, but I doubt I'll be allowed to use it, not anytime soon anyway.
So that's it. No pictures sadly, as none of us thought to bring a camera. More tomorrow hopefully.
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