Speed Week 2009, bring on the salt

what motor is in the alfa?

Home build is very much a misnomer, here.

This is NOT our Challege car- we based our car off of it. The original engine was a basic NORD Alfa motor, boosted to about 25in- when it was running well, it was good to 400hp, barely. At altitude, the turbos ran out of steam, and that was down to just over 300hp, we estimate. But in 2004, it had a very, very spectacular kaboom.

The current motor is a TS motor out of a 164, probably 93 or 94 engine. Here's where it gets very un-grassroots- the engine has a custom CNC mono-sleeve that holds the 4 liners together. Something like 100 hours of CNC machining in it. And then this year, it's got a head gasket that's about $300- a CNC aluminum plate and 4 $75 high pressure rings. With all that, it's probably good to 500hp, safe. We'd like to see if 700hp is possible, for a possible Lakester, but that will be a lot later.

Yes, all of the work was out of a personal shop, but honestly, only about 1-2 cars a year come out of some factory shop, the rest are home or friend shop built. It's really hard to make a NHRA+++ cage cheap. And if you ever see the bottom of our car, you'll see some serious hours put into making it smooth and very flat.

None the less, being mostly home built cars, this is one of the best of the best events that you all have to go to. ANY speed event- ECTA, SCTA- doesn't matter- the cars are quite incredible.

(and I know for sure, Andy's efforts are more grassroots. And IMHO, that makes them even that much more impressive. Seriously, what he and his family can do is pretty amazing).

E-

Here's an article I wrote in 2004- (so I was wrong the year the engine grendaded). http://www.autocomponenti.com/projects/two_new_records.htm

The first picture is the CNC monosleeve. Next is the custom bellhousing to adapt to a rock crusher trans.

I'll have to post the under car pictures somewhere so you can see them.

E-

David S. Wallens wrote: And, in theory, stickers should arrive today.

Indeed, they did. They will look good out there.

Thanks, David!

Eric

Update- My second day out here on the salt. Things have gotten much,much better.

On Monday night, got a call to try to find a new clutch in Detroit, since they fried the one they had- best we could do was overnight one to Utah. Under ideal conditions, I would have spent the night in SLC, picked it up, and headed out first thing to install. But, instead, they overnighted it to Wendover, for early delivery. 3:30pm.

So Wed, we basically spent the day intalling the new clutch, and re-attaching the belly pan. Very much like a real car, it took all of 5 hours to do it.... That's just installation + all the body work.

But, it was good.

Today, we ran, and ended up in impound. 228.982mph in mile 3, exit speed of 230.368. We are hoping for 231.02 so that our average is 230....

And got the rest of the day off.

Very cool

Eric

Great, good luck on your next round!

The car my boss was sponsoring wasn't so lucky this year, got in a 248 mph run and then had an oil pressure failure make it grenade one of the turbos trying to back it up. If you happen to find a stray turbine wheel, let me know.

It was a good day. Short, too.

Since it's the last day, not many people are around, and the record re-runs were pretty few. After a pretty short wait, Bonnie got out there and did her thing- back up run was 231.732, for an average of 230.353! Gotta love the nice round numbers!!!

Time to come home and relax for the weekend.

Eric

congratulations! 230 is really gettin' it done!

AngryCorvair wrote: congratulations! 230 is really gettin' it done!

It's one of those things I wish you could see- a photograph really doesn't do it justice, since you can't see it very well. But the car starts to kick up a nice salt rooster tail at 200. At 230, the tail is higher than the car- it was how we could tell he was gettin' it done.

E-

At 230, the tail is higher than the car- it was how we could tell he was gettin' it done. E-

Sweet

Congratulations on a real accomplishment! I have been a Bonneville fan since I was a little kid (and that's a LONG time ago, back in the Mickey Thompson days), I've got to get over there to spectate one of these years.