Project X71, reheating Stampie's leftovers(FCFC)

Thanks all, again. Things are starting to sink in, but my head is still in the clouds and that ain't just the 3hrs sleep last night talking.

Nothing can replace Brad.
 

In reply to gumby :

Huge congrats to you and your team!  I was rooting for you guys all the way.  The car was just wonderful.  And savage.  And scrapey.

I was really happy to get to meet and talk to you some on Saturday.  I hope to see you again at future events!

I cant believe that this build went totally un-noticed by me, the world's biggest build-thread addict, until I saw the post where it has won The Challenge and followed the lint to the build.

I saw the tittle many a time, but assumed that we were talking literal "leftovers" so never clicked.

Pete

In reply to gumby :

We loved brad.

Awesome build!!!!! Wish I could have seen it in person. So much hard work and dedication, you guys should be proud. Also please bring it back next year with spiny bits in the exhaust! Also what was the best drag time btw?

In reply to OneSickGNX :

13.0@100 NA. Some issues with bravery and not having had the car run a drag run before arriving in Gainesville. With the A7's up front with all the toe out for autox and the bias/radial mismatch it was squirrelly on they big end shutting down. 
 

the math told us we didn't need to push it or ourselves so we counted that as a win and it lives on to another day when we can actually test it. 

Can't find it. What did yall wind up running for springs and shocks?

Front were the old 700lb coilovers springs I ran on the forte (super kia) abs sone cheap qa1 shocks. Rear were some rancho adjustable exploder shocks, forgot where the springs were sourced from and Gumby made collar type spacers to get the shimming correct for corner balancing. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Awesome. Thanks! 

Do you have a link to the front shocks? Im not finding anything listed beyond stock no name replacement for the 03 up crown vic suspension. Considering this as a full upgrade to a project....

The fronts are universal QA1's. We adapted the mounting points for the 1/2" spherical type ends. I don't recall the length specs, but your ride height and intended amount of travel will determine shock length more than anything else.

In reply to gumby :

Ok. Thanks! I was hoping for an easy button there, but definitely get the process to make it fit.

Thanks yall!

Honestly for a stock 2v motor and a first shake down that's still quite respectable. Don't blame you about not pushing your luck either.

Followed this build start to finish line.  Congratulations on a job well done.  Pretty cool that you turned "left overs" into a "gourmet" presentation.

barefootskater (Shaun) said:

That dinosaur on the cage is berking brilliant. 
If there's a return event for this car, may I suggest something mounted on those skirts specifically to throw sparks? Because I think it'd be neat. 

Ti blocks like a tail dragger?

Absolutely amazing build! Fabrication skills I only dream of. Winning the challenge is the well deserved icing on the cake. Congratulations!! Maybe I can make it there next year.

This might be rough with only a few pics pulled from around the internet. Bob is editing some videos, and CB is stuck in IT jail trying to join the forum, but it is time for a wrap up post.

So yeah, we painted the body! And by we, I mean a friend who paints and assembles Factory Five cars locally. He offered to come by and spray while we were finishing assembly. With exactly zero chance I was gonna get it done any other way, I accepted his offer. The Sunday prior to Challenge, we set the body on sawhorses in the yard, I looked at it while holding a piece of scotch-brite, and then let the pro work his magic. When I stepped back outside, it was black; done and done.

We loaded up Tuesday night and rolled out Wednesday morning. We left early enough to get to another friend's dyno shop in Owensboro, KY before he got into any real work for the day. We mostly just needed to make sure the n2o wasn't going to get melty as the rest of the engine was majority untouched. He did add a little timing to the N/A tune. With the short ram intake and free exhaust we were able to match advertised crank HP numbers at the tire. Not hateful @ 215rwhp. On the juice, this poor 189k mile stock engine put down over 400lbft of torque!

Dyno stop, plus lunch, took an expectedly long time; about 2hrs longer than we would have liked. We drove thru. "We" again being not me. Bob and CB drove while I worked on the budget in the back seat. In the final push to get the car done, I hadn't updated much. Just a folder of receipts and an album of pics on my phone. 10/10 do not recommend this method. We got into the BWGG at 3:30a Thursday morning.

Up before breakfast closed down, and out in the parking lot to tie up loose ends. We shoo'd someone from the parking spot behind the rear door of the trailer, and unloaded into the FL sun.

Bleed brakes one last time, apply livery(racer's tape), work on budget and build book, wait for others to start rolling in. The parking lot seemed more subdued vs 2019, but things did liven up as night fell. We had the BDT all parked together in one corner and there are always places to lend hands once your own junk is "ready."

We clearly brought a mullet to a knife fight.

We got ourselves pitted at the track, and that just happened to be where our struggle bus pulled in as well. With second shift work assignments, we took our time getting unloaded. We didn't feel rushed to make any early runs, then be forced to stop and work. There was plenty of time after our shift to get runs in.
Bob makes the first shakedown run, engine is cutting out under load. Lower front tires 2psi, add some fuel to the tank and send CB on the second run. Still cutting out, but he has a thought and also wants a front shock adjustment. Some idiot left the tuner at the hotel, so we scramble the jets: CB back to retrieve the tuner, me hitching a ride for more fuel, and Bob set about moving one of our headlights to a position better suited for night drags.
When we reconvened, I told CB he got the third run because he requested the shock change. No cutting out, and loosening the shocks returned a positive result. On the less positive hand, we had cones or a spin on every run and were sitting 10th with no clean times. Give it to a pro, at least the tires were warm.

Unfortunately, the engine was also warm and our cooling system did not appreciate having cones jammed up under the body by the RF tire, as evidenced by kitty litter in our grid spot and the body spending more time off the chassis than on.

Two more dirty runs as Mike Casino learned how to interface with our creation, and then pay dirt! Mike's third run was clean, coasting thru the final turn to ensure he got the job done, and quick enough for FTD!

Then I took a fun run....and we popped another hose in grid.....pack it in boys. Time to prep for drags which meant making the 28" slicks fit. We didn't cut the body beforehand due to the amount of gap that would have been left while running the autoX tires. Somewhere there are pics of us with a sawzall in the pits removing more of the rear wheel openings, but I don't have any. We also adjusted hoses and refilled the cooling system using water from multiple coolers.

BBQ. Breathe. Relax.

I made the first drag pass. I didn't do a big enough burnout to make the highlight reel, for which I am truly sorry. But, the car hooked well enough for a 1.6sec 60ft and ran out to a 13flat on a safety pass without n2o. Shut down was ALL the pucker factor. We didn't dial back any of the autoX toe-out, we forgot to air the fronts up, radial front vs bias rear, etc etc. Basically a perfect storm of errors making the car quite unstable in the shut down area. I decided I wasn't brave enough to spray it and potentially make shutting it down even more difficult. Debriefed with CB, and he opted to take another N/A pass before making a call on any n2o passes.

After CB's pass, and some maths, we parked the car in one piece and called it a successful day. Ecstatic. My goal, knowing our rushed schedule and lack of testing, was to pull a podium spot in dynamic. I never imagined we could FTD the autoX and lead dynamic scoring without using the n2o in the drags.
People started talking about how we were going to win the overall....nah, no way. I thought we brought a top 5 car at best. Still, I could hardly sleep Friday night.

Concours is too subjective for me. I spend too much time mansplaining details, in boring language that would put the judges to sleep. We got to the track and unloaded. CB and I cleaned on Brad a bit, and we organized with the BDT on parking under the pavilion. I noticed a distinct lack of Bob. We moved in and got settled. I watched other cars move in and where the judges were starting their rounds. Still no Bob. I check my phone: text from Bob! I reply, "5 cars, then us. 15 mins."
Then, Bob shows up. I'm not sure where he had been, but I can tell you he spent that time preparing for battle. I wish we had set up a camera to record his presentation. He. berkeleying. Nailed it. We had spit-balled a bunch of ideas that we all thought were important, and he complied them into a clear, well delivered 3mins. The judges asked questions after time was up; they liked Brad! I was in awe. That was THE moment where I first thought maybe everyone was right.

1st in autoX, 6th in drags, 2nd in concours, RADwood, and First Overall! My teammates brought complementary skills to the table. We worked together using our strongest points to bring each other up and achieve a goal. The result absolutely obliterated my expectations.

Now, what's next?

Well, that is for CB to know and the rest of us to find out. He has assumed majority ownership of the car and we left Brad in GRM foster care. CB will be moving to Florida soon and it made sense to not bring the car back north just to turn around and move it south in a few months.

Great wrap up post! Congrats!

gumby said:

Now, what's next?

Well, that is for CB to know and the rest of us to find out. He has taken over majority ownership of the car and Brad is in GRM foster care down in FL. CB will be moving there soon and it made sense not to bring the car back north just to move it south in a few months.

 

I love that the car left Stampie and now it is back, temporarily, with Stampie. 

I find that leaving the car in FL has a much better chance of it surviving to compete another day. 
Great job guys! Since first glimpsing the car on a zoom chat, then sleeping next to it last October, I've been eager to see how it would turn out. "Exceeded expectations" is about right. And who knows, maybe it'll convert Bob into a domestic V8 guy. Success speaks for itself, or so I hear. 

In reply to gumby :

Wow. In the infamous words of Paul Harvey, "now you know the rest of the story."

Having a sense of your fab skills, I figured you arrived with a sorted car and put the smack down on the fleet.

The deeper story is unsorted at the autox and only one clean run.  Also, unsorted at the strip and never even touched the NOS button!!!

I still stand in awe of your fab skills but I also now know we haven't even seen the tip of the iceburg of hurt you'll be bringing to next year's event!

It's a little deflating to hear the car was a "rough runner" but it's also more exillerating to anticipate what next year will be with some tuning!!! 

I will add this one thing: in the 11 months we worked in this never once was there a melt down, heated argument or a time where we were angry at one another. This felt like the dream team of awesome sauce. With all the struggles Friday, not once did anyone hesitate, we all just seemed to know what needed done and it happened. 
 

im still in awe of how this happened and extremely grateful for the opportunity to spend this time with these guys. 

In reply to bobzilla :

I wish someone had videoed your concours presentation. I'm really sad I missed it!

You have done well, grasshoppers.  I am a proud teacher.  I'll bring my fire jacket next year so you don't need to overcome size of testes to open the bottle