Not to call Pat out but I saw him and a set of others schemeING this morning before departure. I belive he/they can do it.
Look out for Pat next year!
Not to call Pat out but I saw him and a set of others schemeING this morning before departure. I belive he/they can do it.
Look out for Pat next year!
I wish my car was as "slow" as yours.
Some updates to bring us closer to present
In reply to Patrick :
I have a set of centerline billet wheels in 16x8 with datsun z car fitment...
just installed new valve springs on the 799 heads. Essentially ls6 heads minus the sodium filled valves. Flow is the same. 
So the heads are ready, gaskets and bolts here, intake and throttle body ready. Going to do a compression test before i pull the old heads. In 2016 i was making a calculated 487hp at the crank on the bottle based on 122.6mph trap speed and race weight. In 2017 i had a bit of a brain fart and nitroused before foot was on floor after getting wiggly and hoping a valve burned or something in the top end. After that oops it’s making about 392hp or 95 less based on 114mph and popping back through the intake on deceleration.
If the bottom end is healthy the end goal is 550 crank hp on the bottle. That should be good to hit 127.5mph and be in the very low 10’s provided everything else holds together.
Very excited to see how you do with the new heads.
Me too, it’s already a violent angry little monster. So naturally more power is the only logical progression.
I have about 4 hours tomorrow before going to michigan for a funeral. I’m bouncing back and forth between 4 cars as stuff is available. I’m thinking about bringing the Datsun over friday and going to town on it.
Is this Team Avalanche from Bullrun Rally?
I was wondering what happened to her Saab.
JaxRhapsody said:Is this Team Avalanche from Bullrun Rally?
No, this is Team Alavanche from the mythical and legendary shores of Lake Erie. We’re spelled differently because we were named by a 2 year old. We do things before roadkill does them, then they do them and get famous. We bask in the anonymity of the GRM message board and get weird feelings by being recognized for the stuff that’s come out of our shop. We were nascarlo before nascarlo was a thing. Only goal is get a car on the GRM magazine cover so i can frame it and hang it above my dresser.
Stampie said:I was wondering what happened to her Saab.
Well. Funny story. I pulled the 5.3 when it started tapping. I dropped in a supposed super low mile 4.8 which looked more like a possible low mile questionable reman because it had one 243 head and one 799 head, then she traded it in on the Charger because the transfer case started clunking. By pulled and dropped in i mean it took 18 hours.
Update: i had a violent shake at the shutdown area of the track in Gainesville. I assumed crappy track and thought nothing of it. Got the car out in June and took a ride only to find death wobble above 35, then shoved it back in the trailer to concentrate on challenge build.
jump to us deciding not to go this year we got it back out. I had colin turn the wheel back and forth so i could look for issues. Steering rack bushings disintegrated and the rack moving 1/2” before acting on the wheels. $19 later for new poly ones from summit racing and about 25 minutes of my time, rack is held fast. Next up is tie rod ends, they are absolutely shot and new ones are coming tomorrow.
Decided to hold off on heads/cam for now, run the rest of this season locally
after deciding to run the car locally as much as possible until the tracks close for winter, i got under it to do the tie rods. Moog problem solvers from amazon warehouse deals for $12 for the pair shipped. Just because it’s not a challenge car anymore doesn’t mean i am not looking for a deal.
easiest tie rod job ever. But i found that the stresses of cornering needed to make a top contending autocross car find things you otherwise wouldn’t even give second thought to. The strut rod crossmember is ripped off the chassis about 95% on the right and about 40% on the left. It was perfect before the challenge then i added a larger sway bar and switched from a 205 nt01 to a 245 hoosier. So in a little bit i’ll be pulling the car across the street to the garage. It lives in the trailer at my neighbors house because he has a farm and i have too narrow a driveway to get the trailer into between the ditches and trees.
Plan is to clamp it back, weld it, plate it then throw gussets in 2-3 directions.
The carnage appears to be from the bad bushings and tie rods letting stuff move enough that hammering strains happened on the strut rods, and with the “frame rail” being pretty darn thin it beat the mount enough to tear the metal and pounded it back and forth. Looks like the only thing saving me from possible 115mph death was the big rectangle plates i used to reinforce my sway bar through bolt. The strut rod crossmember couldn’t move up because the rectangle was hung over the edge of the rail and tear. It would have been game over at that point.
Pried it back to place off the sway bar and welded the front cracks up, and also welded that rectangle plate to the frame and to the top of the crossmember.
Made gussets for both sides and welded the crap out of everything. Not my prettiest welds, but i’m having a shaky day and being attacked by sweat bees so they’ll do. Welded them top and bottom too, for extra measures of not dying
Holy E36 M3 that's terrifying! Glad that didn't let loose, someone is trying to keep you around.
It's alive and better than ever. It made it here we'll see if it makes it home. Thanks for stopping by Patrick!
Can confirm, made it home. Car is loaded up for Friday night at dragway 42. Just have to tie it down, get a jug of premium and renew my trailer tags.
Pulling this little car into the trailer is the proverbial hotdog down a hallway, i’m going to want an escape hatch door when i need to pull something wider.
Holy crap! Glad you were able to get ahead of that before it all came apart!!!!
I’ve been promising Colin for over a year that we would put a passenger seat in after the car was retired from Challenge duty. It’s happening today
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