Happy New Year, and something to think about...

A very Happy New Year to all my friends, and Drag Pak #24 followers out there!

As for something to think about, as you all know, I lost my son Christopher this past year. And his mother and I agreed to split his ashes to each do with them as we saw fit.

I won't tell you what I did with my half of the ashes, because it might not be legal, ...but.....

At the finish line for all the races we completed after he was gone, Maple Grove in PA, Thunder Valley in OK, Las Vegas Speedway, and Pomona, as you pass the stripe, and see a small swirl of "dust" spiralling up into the air in celebration of your success, think of Chris!

He would have wanted it that way!

God Bless, and a most Blessed and Happy New Year!

David

A new look for the Mega Maniac

Yes, and no...

The current wrap on the Mega Maniac was primarily the work of Rod and the crew at Gator Wraps in California. My son, Chris managed the project, and his decisions along with the fine work of Gator Wraps, won us Best Appearing Car at the Denver Nationals. And for those who didn't see the video of it, the car was actually wrapped in the DIYAutotune garage in Atlanta. Gator wrap can find a local shop to do the actually application if you aren't located close to their facility in California. Our sponsor at the time was DIYAutoTune.com and they had a video online of the wrap being done, in stop action. It was awesome. I think it may still be available as link from their website. Take a look at it if you wonder how they apply a wrap. My continued thanks to Jerry and the DIY team, they are good friends, and were a terrific partner, and the car Proudly wore their name all of this year.

In Las Vegas, as some of you know, we lost our hood, which was severely damaged, and the wrap was torn all over the hood. We compensated for the tears showing the white car underneath, by applying black duct tape to cover the white, and it actually wasn't too bad from a little distance. Don't you just love the many uses of duct tape in drag racing?

But the hood was severely damaged and needs to be replaced, and as I pursue the new hood, the idea of a new wrap has become all the more consuming.

So, I called Rod at Gator Wraps today. And I shared with him a thought I have been harboring about a new wrap for the Mega Maniac.

This one won't be easy, as most wraps for most cars are pretty abstract, and somewhat arbitrary, but this is one is quite transforming and extremely specific, bringing "life" to the car. One of my criteria is to keep the same basic color scheme. So Rod and I discussed the idea for a little while.

So using the same basic color scheme is the "yes" part of "yes, and no" which I said at the beginning. The "no" part of "yes and no", is that while the car will look at first glance, and from a bit of a distance, to be similar to the current design, up close it is a whole different and pretty radically different design.

One of the things I really like about Rod and Gator Wraps is that they are visionaries. You describe what you want, and they hear you, and can interpret and carry it out. So I am pretty sure that he "Got It!" And the ball is back in my court.

As I leave him to think further about the new design, I must get some close up pictures of the car as is, showing where a couple of dimensions were just a little bit off. And we want to provide the exact dimensions so this wrap, and the wraps for any other Challengers who decide as we did, that a wrap is a better alternative to a complex design than a paint job would be, is right on.

I won't tell you about the new "theme" for the Mega Maniac. That will have to wait until we (the collective "we" who currently includes me, and Rod) decide if it will actually be able to be done in the way I envision it. I think it will. And I am extremely excited about it. So for now, let's just say that it is pretty darned aggressive.

I don't see any races on the schedule that make sense for us until somewhere in April, unless we find a sponsor or two. And I guess it would be a good idea to get sponsors before the new wrap goes on. But we have a kick butt car, and if we can't find sponsors who want to share the winner's circle with us, I guess that we just have to go it alone.

Hey, by the way..... Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Holidays!

David

Idle hands are the devil's tools...so...

Sitting around waiting for the Holidays to be over so we can all get back to doing what needs done, I decided to post about something that makes sense, but not until someone tells you about it.

So, for all of you who currently do, or plan to do some of the electronic tuning on your car, here are some thoughts and a tip or two.

All of the ECU vendors supply software that will allow you to tune, and also to log the events on your car. That software works just great when sitting in the shop, or garage. And the software also works well when you are at the strip, but it is usually your computer that lets you down then.

The (some) vendors give you a usb to serial converter, since they haven't quit4e caught up with the fact that computers don't come with serial ports any more. So you take your laptop out to the car, plug it in, and.............

Imagine being in the bright sun with your laptop and trying to read the screen...

That isn't the exception, it is the rule. Most of the time when you are at the track, and even when you only want to do something trivial, like download a log, you will often find yourself twisting the screen, and yourself, trying to find enough shade to actually read the screen and give the proper commands. In fact, in those circumstances I usually have trouble just locating the mouse cursor, so I can get to the right command.

If you were to have any of the ECU vendors assist you at the track, you will learn something interesting. You should learn a bit about what they do to tune your car, but they also usually carry a 50 foot serial cable to allow them to connect to the computer in the car, from the trailer where it is usually shady and screens can be read more easily.

Now you might assume that those 25 or 50 ft serial cables are special, or hard to find. But that isn't entirely true. They aren't common, and your local radio shack might not have them, but they can be found. Spend a few minutes looking online, and you might find the 25 foot 9 pin serial cables for less than $20 each. I got mine at http://www.geeks.com/ and picked up two.

As with anything else, it has to occur to you that something can be fixed, before you stop dealing with it, and fix it. This is one annoyance that can be fixed, inexpensively, and easily.

Don't wait until you have to suffer through a deadline trying to look at your logs, so you know what to dial in the next race they just called to the staging lanes....

Fix it now. Tis the season (winter) to fix the little things that bother you about the car. I know I have a few more to get done this year..

David

Update on Rocker Arm specs

Thanks to another Drag Pak owner, I just learned (and verified on the NHRA site) that the 2009 and 2010 blueprint specs for rocker arm ratio on the 5.7, and 6.1 are now finally correct at 1.65 And the dome height on the 6.1 is now .142 and deck clearance is now .135AB, while the 5.7 dome height is still at .204, and deck clearance is still .000, and both the 5.7 and 6.1 now show cam lift as 602/569

Curiously, in the 2010 spec, at this point the 392 still shows the rocker arm ratio as 1.60 in the spec, and to my understanding they are the same rocker arms. So, what's up with that? We need to get this fixed too, since we will probably see a few more of these on the track.

Fortunately, Peter got me the information today, since I had already put it on my calendar to call Chrysler tomorrow. Good timing my friend!

It really does help us all to communicate about we learn. Don't assume that everyone knows, just pass it on, and we will all be better informed.

My personal thanks to Peter, and to all of the other Drag Pak owners who so kindly share information with each other. And as always, if you ask that I not share the info with others, I will respect that.

The Secret Squirrel Club is now open and operating, (it has been for some time..) and only members who contribute have access to the massive stores of info inside. muwahhhhaaaa or some other form of an insidious evil laugh......

David

This was Maple Grove , where we won B/SA

The image to the left is the memorial decal so graciously designed by Michael Beard, and Printed at no cost by Bill Howell, both from the ClassRacer.com forums. Decals are still available for a small donation, and the proceeds go to Chris' three Children. David -13, Max - 6 , and Isabella -5 years old. Many thanks for Michael and Bill for their kind efforts. And special thanks to all who have given or will.



One angle of the car at Maple Grove.
Where we won Class B/SA. There were three Challengers there and when we arrived, one was in A/SA, and one was in C/SA where we would have preferred to run. And even though the car in C had already shown he was fast and had beaten us heads up in Columbus, he didn't want to move from C.

So, as much as I would have liked to return the favor, and take class away from him as he did us, when he came in late and registered in the same class as us, I decided to go to B/SA.


Why? For the good of the Challenger Drag Pak program. It would be much better if Challengers won A/SA, B/SA. and C/SA than if we only won two of the three. So that was my choice.

I knew we would run fast enough for B, since we had made our previous runs on only 7 cylinders and still been competitive. We found a compromised coil pack, which we replaced and got everything out of the car that we knew it should do.

Our first run was 9.85 seconds, making us top qualifier in stock. The first of a streak of four such occurrences in Stock, covering two Nationals and two Divisionals. And with the exception of Maple Grove, where we did get horsepower, we got the other three top qualifiers without getting any horsepower added.

The next run, was much later and our weather calculations and everyone we spoke with was in agreement that the air was not as good, and the track was not as fast. Most cars showed that to be true as they ran down the track, one after another slower than their previous run.

Well, apparently not everyone was in agreement with that, and obviously it was the Megamaniac. The car just went out and ran a 9.80 Can you say Wow? I sure did!

That was the start of our trip, and you can see why I was more than a little excited to see the car finally run up to our expectations.

BTW: The pictures were taken by AutoImagery. Good job guys!

David

Video of the Noble Finals - Hint... We won.

Switch for windows

The switch information that I promised a while back, is now here...Hurray!!!!

Lots of snow around here in Ohio, so in case you were wondering if I took the throttle cable back to Summit today, well nooooooooooooooo......... I didn't even go out today. But I am getting some needed things done around the house...I used to do so much travleing and spending time at a certain lady's house, that I never got got some things done since I moved into my house last year. And Chris was going to help me with a lot of it, but that is what it is.. And I would rather have him here just to talk.......And now, sadly that I don't see that particular lady any longer, I now have lots more time to finish my house. OK, no more drama here on the blog.

Back to the switch:

Manufacturer: LKG Industries
Brand: Philmore
Reversing Toggle Switch
DPDT (ON) OFF (ON)
.250" Quick connect Terminal
21A - 14V

The switch connections are simple enough.

There are six connectors on each switch. The two outside connectors on one end go to the window motor. And the other two connectors on the other end, also go to the window motor.

The magic happens when you connect the positive (12 or 16 volts) to the one center lug, and the ground to the other center lug.

So, when you push the switch one way, you send positive on one side (let's call it the left side) , and ground to the other side, but when the switch goes the other way, it send ground to the left side, and positive voltage to the right side, therefore reversing the motor. And the best part is that when you let go of the sqitch, it goes back to a neutral position and doesn't burn out the motor if you forget to reset it manually.

A wiring diagram isn't really needed, all you need to userstand, is that if pushing the switch forward puts the window down, then you need to reverse the two centerlugs. That will revese both sides of the switch.










Then as you can see the switches fit right into the stock locations, and all you have to do is take out the circuit board with the original switches, and put the new switches into the holes.

If you really would like a wiring diagram, just let me know.

Have a good day!

David

Throttle Cable, throttle body, and the hood

Somethings, I had almost forgotten about....

Our throttle cable had, since we first got the car, begun to unravel at the ends. At first, it just one or two little wires broke out of the bunch that make up the cable. But each time it was attached/detached it seemed to suffer a bit more damage at one or both ends.

Finally, it was down to a couple of tiny wires at the gas pedal, and frankly I was a bit worried about how to replace it.

But it turned out to be no big deal. The cable is a Lokar part. So I went to Summit Racing and picked up two different length cables, since the car is/was currently being housed about 180 miles away, I wasn't sure of the actual length needed. But it seemed like 36" or 48" was about right, and as it turned out, the 36" cable worked great. It has been a couple of months, and I still need to take the 48" cable, package unopened, back to Summit.... But these days, I don't have much a life, so maybe tomorrow....

But back to the actual throttle body replacement. All we had to do was to replace the fraying inner cable, and not the securely mounted outer sheath. Nothing more than a 20 minute replacement, and all is good again. Be sure to check the ends on yours.

We had considered, turning the throttle body around so it looked like it was correct. I don't know if you have looked at yours, but the primaries and secondaries, are reversed over what you would expect. But considering that the runners on manifold are all the same, it really doesn't matter. And, the throttle body is on the way it is, to avoid interfering with the rear hood cross brace. So turning it around, not only won't make any difference, other than possibly benefit of making the throttle cable routing shorter and straighter, it won't work without a change to the the rear hood bracket.

On still another topic, Is anybody else really tired of messing messing with 12 Dzus fasteners to open the hood, and then messing with them all over again to close and secure the hood? This is especially frustrating when you go for a fuel check, and need to get it off in a hurry, and then back on and at least a couple of fasteners secured to get back to the pits. And each time you close or open one of the Dzus fasteners, you risk either bending the flimsy brackets, or the actual fastener base.

Well, coming up a little later, maybe in a couple of weeks, will be an approach to attaching your hood, so that it won't fly off as ours did in Las Vegas. Once we get our new hood, I will outline the "better way", to secure it, and allow much for both easier latching and removal. And although we hope that our new hood will come without any holes, so that we put our own where we want them, I will make sure that I give instructions that can be used on an existing hood where the dozen fasteners already exist, and for a uncut hood.

David

Thankful....

Oh, where to start......

I am thankful for:

Life!

Having a loving, encouraging mother.

For a loving son, Christopher.

For three beautiful GrandChildren.

For laughter and smiles, and kind words.

For the Sun and the Moon , and clouds, and the air....

That when I got cancer, God saw to it, that it was a cancer that paid me, (Mesothelioma) allowing me to give to others, making their lives better.

And although I am now broke, I am still thankful that I could do what I have done! I wouldn't take any of it back.

And I am expecially thankful that I had more than a year of dedicated time with Christopher as we built Drag Pak #24.

That even when we disagreed vehemently, we both alwys knew that the other loved him dearly.

That the plans and dreams we shared about the car, into which we put so much of both of us, have finally begun to be realized.

That I now am finally edging towards closure on his loss. And while some people would say, get over it, they just don't get the need to finish things... It is my way of keeping him closer to me, for this time. And part of my grieving process.

The freedoms that we had in this country, and hope to regain sooner, rather than later.

And most of all, that God has Graced me with Salvation, and Eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

David

Doesn't anyone trust anyone any more?

After doing pretty good, and winning a little bit, on our cross country tour, I returned home looking forward to receiving a few checks as reward for our efforts......

To be fair, a couple of checks have come in... Nothing much, but a few folks did as they said, and the checks came in. Comp Cams, and Mopar are among those who sent the checks before I even got back.

But in as many cases, rather than a check, I got a request for a receipt to prove my purchase, or a questionnaire to fill out before any money flows my way.

It would be easy to say that I understand... And just go quietly into the night...

But not so fast Batman!

I am a bit tired and pretty cranky today, so I will pitch a bit of attitude.

For internal engine parts; I won't say which ones, but they are things that go into the block, they don't know if I bought them or not? Wait a minute! I bought them directly from the company! And if their record keeping isn't sufficient, they expect mine to be??? You got to be kidding. I couldn't find my backside with two hands around here after being away for nearly two months. And for other parts, they wouldn't let me buy direct, I bought through an authorized sales agent. And they don't seem to have figured that out yet, although we had at least four phone calls over it, and they even ended up drop shipping to me.

And then, there are those parts bought as part of the service performed. For example, I had the head work done by a very reputable shop, and the parts were all lumped into the total price. Now I must go back to them, and ask for a breakdown of costs specifically delineating the "parts".

And then there are those who haven't done anything. No check, no "atta boy", no questionnaire or advertising release. Nothing!

Maybe I have to wait until the end of another month. Or maybe, as I have been told, I will have to call some of them, and ask "What's up?"

Racing is hard enough if you lose. And we have had our share of losses, and other disappointment, like broken parts, etc.

But when you win, it should be all peaches and cream. A rainbow should show, and the sun shine brightly. And you ought to get paid in a timely basis, for winning.

Oh, an exception: When we won class at Noble Oklahoma, they immediately gave us a check!

So I guess it isn't the whole world conspiring against us. It is just some lazy vendors who need to get their act together, and put their money where mouth is.

And for you building cars with any expectation of winning and getting paid. Be sure to save every scrap of paper and receipt, you are going to need them. And insist that any vendors who do work, specifically include the parts receipts, or some facsimile on the bill.

So, why isn't life easy anymore?

It never really was!

And it won't be. So I guess I just gotta get over it.

And why don't people trust people anymore?

Because people aren't trustworthy!

And although I would like to think that I am a very special case, and that they should know who I am, know that I am trustworthy, and just trust me.

Well, it appears that just ain't happening either...

Now, where are those stacks of piles of papers, that I need to start sorting through for receipts?

David

More ramblings and odd thoughts....

I recently spent a bit of time rereading the blogs that Chris had created and found myself loving him more and missing him even more than I thought possible. It has been a quiet and sad weekend, but Monday will bring a new week and a whole new chance get busy enough to be less sad.

Another thought, less personal and probably of wider interest, is that it has just occurred to me why the Dodge Challenger Drag Paks are badged R/T when R/Ts don't even come with 6.1 engine, but the SRT does. And the RT is not the top of the line car in the line, the SRT is. So why isn't the Drag Pak badged SRT?

But while wearing my SRT hat for the first time in a while, (it is a black baseball style hat that has a shiny silver emblem across the top front that says SRT) the meaning of it came to me. SRT is and has always meant Street/Road/Track. And guess what that means? It goes to cars that can run on the street. RT means Road/Track. And since the Drag Paks can not be driven on the street, no VIN number and I had to sign an agreement that said I would not try to license it for the street, you can forget the SRT, the Drag Pak is clearly RT only.

Not exactly a life altering observation, and probably not even a question for most, but it was a curiosity for me every time I looked at the front a Drag Pak Challenger and saw the RT badging. So now I have an acceptable answer and can puzzle over other issues.

Another question that some may have asked... Why do so many on Classracer.com hate Dodge Drag Pak cars? Simple. It is jealousy. If they could have gotten one they would have, and then they would be lovers and not haters.

Not much today, but stop back tomorrow, I may have other thoughts that are even more worth reading. I am working on a new hood attaching scheme that will be easier to operate and far more secure than the dozen Dsuz fasteners of the past.

David

Finally home from the Westward Journey

It has a been a while since my last blog, but traveling a round trip of more than 5000 miles and participating in five different events (Two NHRA Nationals and three NHRA Divisional events) has been pretty hectic and frankly, I have chosen to sleep rather than post.

But I am now home, and after a several hour nap this afternoon will catch things up here.

We start the adventure at Maple Grove Raceway, in Reading PA. This was our first race with the new engine and with our electronics working properly. I may have blogged about this event previously, so I won't belabor it here. We were top qualifier with a 9.85 in C/SA. We got a horsepower hit, but frankly we had no idea the car was going to be that fast. We broke out in the eliminations, thinking we would run slower due to the air, time of day, etc, having dialed a 9.88 we ran a 9.80 flat.. Ooops. Once again, we had no idea what this car/motor combination was capable of doing.

We stopped home for a few days, about long enough to do the laundry, and set off on the west coast portion of the trip.

Our first stop was Noble Oklahoma where it rained a lot. We ran our qualifier run, and then got pushed out to Monday, and were once again Top Qualifier. On Monday, we finish things up by winning Stock Eliminator.

On to the Las Vegas Nationals. We ran in Super Stock JA (SS/JA) since they were not running class for stock and we thought a record might be available. We qualified 12th out of 117 cars. But we were eliminated in the first round by a car much faster who we couldn't see coming and got around us. It was close, but not a win. So back to Stock.

The next week was the Las Vegas Divisional race, and we were back in Stock. We ran in B/SA and were once again Top Qualifier (If you are keeping count, we have been top qualifier in the last three races where we ran in Stock.) at 1.422 under (Las Vegas is an elevated track so we didn't get horsepower for this run). We went four rounds deep in eliminations, and were only a couple of races away form winning it all. But it is a combination of a good car, good driver and good luck, and although we had the first two, we ran out of the third.

Then on to Pomona for the World Nationals where we again ran Stock (B/SA) and once again were Top Qualifier at 1.241 under our index of 11.25. If we had run 1.25 under the index, we would have gotten additional horsepower for our combination, but once again we avoided the dreaded instant horsepower penalty. We ran good, and Keith was having a real good time putting on some great reaction times, moving us up through the eliminations. We ran good in round 1 and 2. Then,in the third round, we ran against one of the blown mustangs. It too had a world champion driver, four timer Jeff Taylor, and we knew it was a fast car. We got the start first as we dialed under the mustangs dial. Keith cut a .0016 light and won on a double break out, meaning that we both ran fast than our dial, but we ran closer to ours than he did to his. So we won. Fourth round was a bye, so on to the first round. Our next race was another close one, but we won on another double breakout where we were .020 under our dial, and the other car was .050 under. Our next run was the semi finals against Dallas Glenn. We knew Dallas was good on the tree, and we just hoped we would get to the line first. Both cars were in the staging lanes under the tower and ready to run on Sunday, when the race was called for the day due to curfew, and moved to Monday. Had we run Sunday night, I think the result would have been different, but on Monday, Dallas had a very nice .004 light, and Keith hit an -.002 RED. We knew we needed a good light, and Keith was pretty close to .000, unfortunately on the red side of it, but it was good race, and we probably would have lost even if Keith had smoked the tree.

So we come home with a third place at the World Nationals. Top qualifier at four Stock events in a row, a Class win at Maple Grove, and Stock Eliminator win at Noble Oklahoma. Not too bad for a car that only a couple of months ago, couldn't run the index at Denver!

Now we are finally home again, and Drag Racing is currently on the back burner.

David

Vegas still, and still in the hunt....

We got little sleep last night as we agonized about what to do....... Our broken hood needs to be repaired or replaced.... And it needs to be done today.

Part of my lack of sleep was a lingering upset over the design of the hood attaching system, which we ultimately found has plastic rivets holding the four brackets on the front... to the plastic nose piece... Come on... the leading edge of the hood where it is most critical, anchored into plastic with plastic anchors?????? My 13 year old grandson could have engineered it better.

It was one of the front fastener's that left first, then the harmonics of the front of the hood flapping, popped a number of the other fasteners, and then ultimately enough wind got under it to rip off several more fasteners until none were holding the hood on, and it went flying as it ripped off the last fastener and bracket.

But it was morning finally, and we took off. With a stop at West Coast Rod Shop in Vegas, where the sign says they open at 9:00 am, We pulled up a little after 8:00 am, and when they saw us pull in, they unlocked the door. Talk about Service!! So we picked up new Dsuz fasteners, and a bunch of other stuff. Cost $100 so far....

Then it was across the street to the paint/finish shop where we got monster Epoxy to try to repair the hood. Another $80 and we need more stuff.

So off to Lowes, didn't have have the pop rivets we needed, or the heavy duty caulking gun to do the adhesive, so down the road to Home Depot... And another $100 and we are on our way back to the track.

At the track at around 10.00 am. Several other racers came around to offer encouragement, and help... Jim Marshall who had blown his engine previously, jumped right in and with his experience in fiberglass repair, was invaluable.

We worked for eight hours.... And it was done... Sort of...
The hood went back on the car and we spent the next hours getting all of the fasteners aligned and actually securing the hood. Done !!!! Finally!!!!! My back is killing me, But we got it done in time for our next and final qualifying...

Thank goodness we didn't have to run until late in the day.

One of the Mustangs who had previously moved us out of first place qualifying, ran before us. He didn't run as good as previously. So we were pretty safe, but the other Mustang had waited to be last, and I expected him to pour it on...

We ran our run, and ran our best time yet here, 10.10 Sop we now are qualified at 1.41 under our index (this is an altitude track so we wont get HP for that... ) and we waited for the mustang..... I stayed at the starting line to see what he would do,

After several minutes and four or six more cars, it started to rain, and the wind really kicked up....Racing stopped for a few minutes....

Then they announced that Stock qualifying was complete! That meant that the last few cars,. the ones who wanted to go last after they saw what everyone else did, would not get a third qualifying run...

That meant that we did it again., Three NHRA Divisional races, and three time, we were top qualifier!!

That was all yesterday, and I was too tired to report it all.

Today, we ran our first elimination run, and won. It was a heads-up run against another car in B/SA. We barely beat him. But we won. Our second run was a bye because we were Number One Qualifier! So we ran alone, and now await our next round. We have a few tough opponents possible ahead if we manage to keep winning. We are short of fuel, and have about enough for 5-6 more runs... We are asking around but nobody seems to have it, and the VP Fuel guy who handles the District races here. left early today. And I had expected that like the National events the VP Fuel would be available till the end of the races... So much for expectations.. We may, or may not have the fuel to finish... But we will see what happens...

We are waiting for the next round of eliminations....more later..

David

Vegas again, and it gets very interesting...

Here we are at the Las Vegas Divisonal race. Stock, (our class) was not sheduled first as usual. In fact, we finally got our first run in today (Friday) somewhere around 5 pm ish, and we ran pretty good. We were top qualifier for the first round, with two Mustangs right behind us. Then we waited and waited for our second run.

If our top qualifing position held up, this would be three consecutuve races where we ran "Stock" where we were also top qualifier. But before we become too overconfident, we still have to survive two more qualifying runs.

OK, second qualifying run is finally here. The three cars right behind us in qualifying came up before we did. The Orange truck who had qualified fourth ran good, but dint better his time a lot.
A lot of other folks then ran, and their times were all over the board, as many were between .006 and .010 faster than thier first run. Another group of cars ran about the same times as before, and a few did actually better their earlier times. There were a couple of cars who had not run the earlier qualifying run, and they put down some respectable numbers, but were all still behind us.

Then came the first of the two Mustangs, (this was the one directly behind us). He ran a 10.00 which moved him into the number one qualifying spot, moving us to number two. Then the second Mustang ran, and it ran a 9.99 taking over the number one spot, while dropping us still more into number three.

Then it was our turn. Our previous run was 10.3x I forget exactly what it was, and that really doesn't matter now, since before we even ran again, we had already been dropped from first, down into the number three spot.

We had a good start, and ran good all the way to the finish line where we posted a 10.18 which was good enough to move us back past the two mustangs and back into the number one qualifier spot.

But as we crossed the finish line, we had quite an interesting development. Our $1000 carbon fiber hood, held on by twelve to fourteen dzus fasteners, somehow broke loose and went went flying up about 18 feet into the air, flipped several times and came down in multiple pieces over the wall, away from the track.

I was filming from the starting line, and was already moving the camera since we had crossed the finish, but I did manage to catch albeit a bit blurry, the hood flying into the air. I didn't see it happen until I much later replayed the run.

The first I knew that anything had happened, I heard the track announcer say "we have a hood over the wall". I thought, and probably said out loud, "that can't be our hood, we have more than a dozen fasteners, and I had just checked them all right before we ran". But you never know.. So we buzzed down the return road to encounter Jim and Pam Marshall coming towards us, who said the hood came off your car!

What a sinking feeling. Something I never imagined could happen, had just happened. I was told that the hood was in two pieces, and the safety crew had the pieces on their truck. We met up with the truck, and sure enough, the hood was in two pieces. The main flat hood was one piece, and although it had some damage, it was basically complete,but broken behind the scoop location.. The other peice was the scoop itself. And although it showed that it had been poorly bonded to the hood, it was also reasonably undamaged.

I grabbed hold of the large flat piece, and hopped on our pit vehicle, and Jim Marshall grabbed the scoop and hopped on his pit vehicle, and we sped back to our pit area. Where the car had already arrived.

Several of many dzus fasteners, all of which always seemed like a bad idea to me, tore holes through the carbon fiber hood, and almost all of the brackets were badly bent, with one so badly bent, that it bent the metal on the edge of the fender. This one appeared to be the last fastener to let loose, and apparently it didn't want to let go. All of these brackets were made of a pretty light gauge of metal and had always concerned me, as even bumping them as you put the hood in place often bent them, making the challenging hood alignment an ever bigger problem.

Based on the poor construction of the hood, and the overall bad design of the entire attaching system, I think someone surely owes me a new hood!!

And I would also anticipate that although we were the first, we will not be the last Challenger Drag Pak to lose a hood. Regardless, we were extremely lucky on at least two fronts: First, Keith, the driver was unhurt, secondly, the car was mostly unhurt as the hood flew over car instead of possibly hitting the windshield, putting the driver and car in jeopardy, hitting the roof, etc..

Now, we have one more qualifying run tomorrow, and one run of eliminations. So, we need to get a functional hood in place on the car, before we run again. These hoods are not in stock at your local auto parts store, and who knows where we might ever find one. We could have ordered an extra hood when we ordered the car, but quite frankly, the idea of a hood coming loose and flying through the air to its own destruction, just never occurred to me. And since my local Chrysler/Dodge dealer had already ripped me for an extra $8000 over sticker price on this car, I was hardly in the mood to stock up on replacement parts to his profit.

And now, I certainly can't afford to buy one even if one were available, but I also don't think I should have to buy another one. So what can we do now? Could this be the end of our West coast adventure? What next?

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of the "Hood-less Challenger"....

David

Super Stock was fun..

Our foray into the world of Super Stock racing was fun, and we learned a lot.

We learned that we are not very far off of being very competitive in Super Stock. But running a Stocker in Super Stock without doing all of the things you can do in Super Stock was fun, but that is all.

In Super Stock, we could have modified our Cylinder heads, used a bigger cam, and used bigger tires. And in spite of not doing any of this, we were still pretty competitive.

We qualified 12th among almost a hundred Super Stockers. That wasn't too bad.

Then, in the first round of Class running against other Super Stockers in our our class (SS/JA) decided to run against the fastest car in our class, and the only one in our class to go faster than we did in qualifying. You might ask why we would, by choice, face the fastest car in our car? The reason is simple: It made no sense to us to run other cars and maybe beat them all, only to run up against this car in the finals and lose then, if we are going to lose to him at all. As it turns out, our little Stocker couldn't beat that particular SS/JA Super Stocker. So we were eliminated from Class.

So, Saturday morning we run in Super Stock Eliminator where we get to dial what we think we can run, and then we runa handicap race against other Super Stockers, we also need to run their "dial". Our first round we won by having the other driver break out or run faster than his dial. That was car a bit slower than ours. And because he got the head start, and couldn't see us coming after him, he kept pushing all the way to the light and went too fast.

Our next run later in the day was against a car far faster than our. He was a high 8 second or low 9 second car, whereas, our best runs have been high 9s and low tens. That meant that we got a head start. And on the previous run, we ran all out and recorded a 10.30 time. So we decided that with the weather change; warmer air, higher humidity, etc, we dialed a 10.33. We got a good start, and were off down the track, the other car then started, got a slightly worse reaction time, but came on like gang busters, and was catching us near the finish line, but this time our car ran faster than we thought it would. We ran a 10.25 which being lower than our dial, means that we were disqualified. Close, but no cigar.

So our next race is next weekend right here in Las Vegas at a Divisional race. We are still deciding whether we will run Stock or Super Stock in that race. But we have a week to think over the pros and cons.

Probably no reports for most of this week since we won't be racing and car is still in the trailer at Las Vegas Speedway. Also, just a note, I will be incommunicado for a while as my cell phone is dead until later in the week when I change hotels and pick up a new charger.

David

In Las Vegas... ready to run Super Stock...

We got into the holding area at the track last night, and came back this AM at 7:30 to get in the gate. We teched in and put our new numbers on the car. I also did something else. Since the car is now showing it's teeth in performance, it seemed like a good idea to give it some actual visible teeth. So I cut vinyl teeth from the edges of our vinyl letter collection, and made stick-on teeth for the lower grill of the car. Now when it does a wheelie, it will really show it's teeth.


I don't think I mentioned it before since I wanted to wait until we actually did something on the track.. And now that we have been #1 Qualifyier at two events in a row, and actually won Stock Eliminator at one of them, but we need a Sponsor. We have a car that is capable of great things, and already done sweet things. So, if you are looking for a winning car to invest your promotional dollars, we need to talk. You can contact me at david@newhemiracing.com And I get back to you with options.

As readers know, we have run in every stock class from A/SA down to F/SA.

But back to Las Vegas where we will run in SS/JA (Super Stock J Automatic).

We have a reason and a plan for this change. I won't share the plan here yet, but if things go as we plan, I will make it all known.

Met another Drag Pak owner today. He hasn't done anything to his Drag Pak yet as he intends to do it this winter, and has his hands full with a 68 Barracuda Hemi in SS/AH right now. And I met a lot of other racers today too.

We run two qualifying runs tomorrow, and we a small adjustment that I am anxious to see if has any effect.

Well, that is about all for today.

Hope to have good news tomorrow, but as you all know by now, good new or not, you can read about it here.

David

Noble Oklahoma, and no rain... lets go racing....

I didn't post yesterday since we didn't run yesterday. The sun actually came out and the ran all of the big money professional classes yesterday. We slept in and ran errands, and finally went to the track since it was rumored that when the pros left their pit spaces on the concrete, sportsman cars (which includes stock) could move up from the mud pits we were in.

We actually were in a pretty good spot at the beginning, before the rain. And even then we were still in pretty good shape. But then.... trucks started swinging wider and wider to make their turns on the road near us, and chewed up our pit something awful. Luckily the car was in the trailer, so once a couple of spots opened up, we were able to move up to park on concrete. We left the car in the trailer, knowing when we came back the next day, we would be in good shape right near the staging area.

So this morning, we got all ready. And then the call came for our one and only qualifying round due to the rain shortened program. Normally, we would two or three opportunities to qualify, so it was do or move along.. And we did it. We ran a time that qualified us number one. That meant that we ran further under our index than anyone else did. And that is the second time that we have done that because we also did it al Maple Grove. So this latest run really proves that Maple Grove was no fluke, and this car runs good.

Oh, and we have now manged to do something that no other Drag Pak has done, (and now that we cant run in anything below C/SA, it cant happen unless Chysler comes wup with new engine combinations) Drag Pak #24 has now entered and run, or at least teched in, to every NHRA stock class from A/SA down to F/SA. Pretty cool accomplishment, I think.

But back to the race at Thunder Valley Raceway.

There was no class race run. Not all races off the opportunity to go heads up against other cars that are in you class. So that meant that our only racing option, oce we qualifyied, was to run in Stock eliminations. In this situation, you put a number on your window and then you try to run a time equal to that number.

We dialed (wrote) a 10.23 on the window. And we ran against an M Stock kcar, that dialed a 12.44. We ran and did just what we hoped, we ran a few 10ths of a second slower than 10.23, and the other ran a number that was not as close to his number as ours was to our number. So, we moved to the second round where we, due to being low qualifier, gave us a bye or uncontested run. So we won that one.... lol

On to the third round. We won. A good close race against topugh competitors, but we won.

On to the fourth round, We won again. How cool is that. We were racing fast cars, and our car was predictable enough and our driver reliable enough to win us into the money. This is a divisional race, and not a National race, so the money isn't much. But winning is sure fun.

And we are in the semi finals against our good friend Jim Marshall in his Corvette. Jim is rock solid driver, and he knows his car really well. He dialed an 11.18 and ran a 11.18 so he won... not so fast... These runs are staggered starts so Jim left first, and was way out there, and Keith reeled him in, and beat him to the finish line, and did run under our dial, so we win...

Now we have a race against a guy who is one win away from a World championship, so he is certainly no slouch. He is a very good driver with a very good car. We definitely had our work cut out for us.

We had a nice burnout. We lined up with a 10.28 dial. He lined with a 10.64 dial (I think) but his was higher than ours. Keith cut a .001 light. And ran right on his dial, 10.28 dial, 10.28 run... That is as close as you get to perfection while not being quite perfect. But you have to agree with me that tha tis some bit of driving. And Keith's experience and accomlisments as a two time World Champion really showed. It was truly a wolrd class performance.

The car perfromed perfectly, doing everything it was was asked to do. And Keith performed even better, taking on some tough competition and showing what he can do with a good car.

We won it all. Thunder Valley Raceway, Lucas Oil Race, and I have the pictures to prove it!

Or if you get the NHRA publication, National Dragster, in a couple of weeks you will see it there.

Well it is getting late,a nd although I am really excited, I will sign off as we are now treking towards Las Vegas for the Nationals.. Wil keep you posted.

David

Noble Oklahoma in the rain...

It rained all day yesterday....

And it is raing all day today so far...

Well, actually we got to the track and there had been no rain for hours... But the access roads through the pit are mired in mud, and some folks apprarently felt that our pit was part of the road, and so they chewed up the area behind our trailer by swinging around too wide to get into the pits there.

Oh well, we met a couple of nice friends, and met someold old ones too. Jim Marshall got in late last night wsa was parked on the return road until things got dried out. Then they put him pitted in spectator parking area since no spectators are expected.

We also met and were invited over to join the Bukners in their motor home, but we chose to go back to the hotel room...It is about 11:30 am and it looks like we are going to have rain for the rest of the day...

But we will see.

David

Now at Thunder Valley Raceway Park

Before I get to our efforts here at Thunder Valley, I thought I would finally share the pictures of the switches I put in to provide more absolute control over the windows. Here are two views of them, and as you can see, they fit in pretty well. And they work great too.

But now for the news folks... here we are at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble Oklahoma..

The weather report for tomorrow is an 80% chance of rain, and we got a few sprinkles late today. As a result of the forecasts, todays Test N Tune runs were all the more important.

We probably could have gotten more runs in, but we really only wanted to know a little bit about the track and weathers, and there is no sense just running and running and beating up the car. So we didn't push real hard.We did get two runs, one pretty good one, considering the air was not good for racing today and another one that was revealing, but did not go as we expected. We made just one change, to replace our exhaust collectors with another set that we thought might add some low end torque... And it took a bit longer than expected, so we were hurrying to get done before the Test N Tune ended.

So , we got the new collectors installed, got in line, and by then had decided that we would run in C/SA here, so while we were waiting in the staging area for our run, we got our car teched in for the race tomorrow. When you tech in, you have to declare your class, and we could have teched it earlier in the day, but we were still deciding what class to run.

After finishing tech, we went up for our run. We had a nice burnout, and I was recording the run. The car staged, and started out, and then, in racing terms, it blew the tires off. In other words, we spun the rear tires big time...

So the question now is what caused us to spin like that when our previous run hooked pretty good? Could our collector change had added so much low end torque that it caused the problem? Or, could it be that we had too much air in our rear tires? We had increased it since our last race as on that track, we felt we needed more air. Or, was it just because we ran in the right lane this time, and had run in the left last time? Who knows? We cant fix the track, so we it doesnt really matter. That is part of racing. And if we have more torque, we find that out tomorrow if we lower the rear tire pressure.

It certainly is possible that it was combination of a slick track, the increased torque, and tire pressure. And it is likely that we too much air pressure since at our last track we were too low so had added some air pressure, and it could be too much. So we will drop a couple pounds of pressure, and then we will just see what happens tomorrow.

David

Some thoughts on some things........

As we prepare for our trip out West, I was looking at our steering wheel, and had a few thoughts...





First, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the stock Challenger/Drag Pak steering wheel. It steers the car, and has a nice feel to it. And there is no air bag in it, so it won't accidentally go off at some inconvenient time. Then, why did we replace ours? Mostly, because of our quest for weight reduction, (which I will talk about shortly), we felt the need to change it, and we could do it, so we did it. Having made the decision which usually consisted of me looking at the wheel, looking at Chris, him nodding his head, and me nodding back in agreement, I went on a mission and found the Longstreet 15 inch aluminum steering wheel.

In addition to the wheel, I also opted for the quick connect/disconnect which, interestingly cost about $50, which was also about the same price as the wheel (or pretty close, I forget now..)

But like everything else, putting on the new steering wheel was a bigger project than it looked like it would be. The wheel connector needed to be welded onto the steering column. So, we could pull the steering column and weld the adapter/connector to it outside of the car, which probably would have been the "right" way to do it. But we had a colorful way of doing things, so we wrapped a welding blanket around the column, also protecting the dash, and Chris welded it right in the car.

Benefits: It looks cool, and it is easily removed for the driver, or the kids we invite to try it out at the track, to get in and out of the car. The kids (and more than a few adults) do love the opportunity to sit in the car for pictures, and I love to see people smile. But when your driver needs to get in and out of the car, especially when the car is in the trailer, removing the wheel sure seems to make it easier.

Now for more of the thoughts, on other things:

Weight reduction.

Some things are obvious, like the stock carpeting. It really doesn't fit anyway, but it is obvious heavy, and should be replaced with lighter material (We used ozite, which weighs little and with scissors, major labor fitting, and cutting, and a lot of carpet tape, it works great)

But there are lots of other items where weight reduction may, or may not be as important as you might think.

If you car is already around 3100 pounds when you get engine, cage, tranny, rear end, (almost done), you probably aren't going to find many more pounds to discard. And, if you do, each pound you lose costs you more in effort or replacement costs. And the truth is that a few pounds aren't all that critical when you have a car with an engine like the new hemis.

In retrospect, we probably obsessed about weight reduction. We discussed it constantly, we made almost every decision with weight reduction in mind. We spent hours and hours, pulling 40+ pounds of sound deadening out of the car. We went with a 904 instead of a 727, partly because we couldn't get a Pro Trans 727 in time, and because the 904 is lighter overall. Same for the rear end, a Mopar 8 3/4 instead of a Dana 60. Gun drilled axles in it too. Nothing but the lightest...

But I recently had a bit of an epiphany about all of this. Although I still believe that we are the lightest Drag Pak out there, I don't think it is by all that much. And I also don't think it is all that big of a deal. I think some of the other Drag paks, have lighter weight cages than we do, or their chassis mods are lighter than ours. (Not that I would change that at all, because I like the safety and security of our cage, and I like our chassis.) But seeing them cross the scales, leads me to believe we are pretty close on weight.

What I am saying here is, do the right things, take out or replace obvious overweight items, and weigh the car ocassionally, but don't obsess over it. Unfortunately, there is no award for the lightest Drag Pak car, or I would still be pulling things out. But we just added some weight, so we don't get more horsepower added to our combo.

With the power these engines can make, "close enough" on the weight, is generally close enough, for now.....

David

16 Volt Battery Questions and Answers

Talking to another Drag Pak owner yesterday, reminded me of one change that we had made to our car, but had not really explained. That change was our change to a 16 Volt battery, system.

Here are some questions that could be asked, and some have been asked, and my responses to why we did what we did:

Why did you replace the 12 Volt system?

We had an occasional issue where the car simply seemed as if it did not have enough juice to turn over the engine. This cost us a couple of races, so we thought 16 Volts might help.

In addition, we have been told that at high rpm, we might flame out, or lose spark due to not enough voltage with a 12 volt system. We never experienced this issue, but it was always in the back of my mind as a possibility. And heaven knows, we didn't need any additional problems..

What did you need to change besides the battery?

We changed the battery and the alternator, and obviously got a new battery charger. Total cost, about $600. You might be able to do it cheaper. We were in a hurry and didn't really shop for price.

What other issues concerned you about the change?

The ECU, (engine computer, starter motor, gauges, lights, electric windows, and anything else electric was a concern. Everything electrical was a concern.

OK then, what about all of those things?

We had 3 different ECU's in the car and they all ran fine with 16 volts. The starter was fine, and spins quicker. No step down circuitry was required for anything, including the lights, gauges, and even the E-Shift computer from Turbo Action. Windows, etc, everything seems to tolerate the 16 Volt system just fine.

Is there any caution you would offer when making this change?

YES! Don't have anything electrical turned on, while you are charging the 16 volt battery. The 16 volt charger actually puts out more than 16 volts, somewhere near 18 volts is the normal charging rate. So, although everything seems to tolerate 16 volts, a surge of 18 volts might not be met with a smile by anything electronic. So make sure your main power is off at the rear bumper, when charging the battery, and it wouldn't hurt to trip the breaker in the trunk while charging, as long as you also remember to reset it before you try to start the car.

Any other things about battery etc?

Yes. This isn't so much advice as it is an awareness comment. Your battery is located in the stock battery location. So, according to NHRA rules, if you run in Stock classes, you don't need a battery box. Most folks will want to put one in because you do have to hold it down,and a box is as good as any way to do it, we installed a battery box. But don't use the lid. Because if you do use one, it is an inconvenience, (taking it off to charge or check, putting it back on, etc.) which, if required by rules would be endured. However, since the box isn't required, neither is the lid. And having a box, doesn't mean you need the lid. So you can leave it off if you want. We do.

So that is pretty much the issue with 16 Volt Battery and charger. A little caution when charging to make sure you don't cook anything, and you are probably good. We use a powermaster 16 volt battery and powermaster 12/16 volt charger.

David

Next is Las Vegas....

Earlier today, just before my bi-weekly chemotherapy, where I again reflected on the fact that life is too short to stand around and watch it go by, I decided that we will continue to "grab life by the horns", and will go to Las Vegas to compete in the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals. It wasn't only my decision as I need Keith Lynch and Tonya to also be on board with the decision, and I respect the fact that my schedule is more flexible than theirs. But they agreed that we can, and should do it. So here we go!

It appears that only one other Challenger Drag Pak is registered for the race. And that is too bad, as the challenger Drag Pak cars make for some really interested racing.

They will not be Class racing at the Las Vegas Nationals, so I initially had mixed emotions about it. But I do want to see the car start going deep into the eliminations, and I think we have the car and the driver to do that.

So, we are making a couple of minor tweaks to the car, and will hit the road in time to make it to Las Vegas for what may, or may not be our last race of the year. Getting there on time will be much better than our last attempt to get Las Vegas, where my Son Christopher, and crew mate Mandie Abraham got there a few hours late, after doing all they could to get there on time, but running into all sorts of delays.

Some reflections..

Drag Pak #24 is the most widely known Drag Pak car in existence. This blog, has helped to introduce many drag race fans, and other Drag Pak owners to the issues involved in Building and campaigning a car like the Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car. And although we have not won much yet, (we did get best appearing in Denver, and Qualified first in Maple Grove, and won B/SA class there), our history is unmatched. We were one of the first 8 Drag Pak cars on the track in spite of having number 24, and having not having picked up our car until November of 2009. At that time we were running a 6.1 Hemi. We ran a couple of races in Atlanta Raceway. Then we changed to a 5.7 Hemi engine, and were the first Drag Pak car to run that combination in a Divisional or national event, and we did both before there were any other 5.7's running. We actually ran a World record time of 10.58 in F/SA, but were disqualified when out weight came up a few (I think it was 3) pounds light. In our most recent event at maple Grove Raceway, we were the first 5.7 Drag Pak to make two runs in the 9.8 second range.

My son Christopher, was instrumental is the completion of Drag Pak #24. Together we made the decisions, rarely with disagreements as he always did the homework to be well informed, and was almost always ready to prove. In a few cases we did disagree, and ended up with the most rational choice, and looking back, I see nothing where I could say we blew it. Most of important decisions were "spot on". That doesn't mean that we haven't since changed some things though. It only means that at the time, the decisions we made were not bad decisions.

Chris did all of the painting on the car. The only thing that didn't need painting was the exterior body panels. He painted the trunk interior and engine compartment Stone White to match the exterior. He painted the underside of the car which had 4 different colors of paint in various places, a single medium gray color. That was hard, as we didn't have a life, and Chris did the work on his back with the car on Jack Stands. But the real work went into the interior. We had to mask the roll cage, dash, roof panels, door panels, etc. to paint the floor white. Then we had unmask a lot of that, and mask the floor to paint the roll cage a dark gray color.

It was all a great deal of work, but as the blog shows during those early times, we still had a lot of fun.

We have run in Atlanta, Denver, Norwalk, Indianapolis, National Trailways, and Maple Grove, some of those two, and even three times.

We have already run in more NHRA classes than any other Drag Pak, F/SA, E/SA, D/SA, B/SA, and A/SA. It is entirely possible that before the end of the year, we will add C/SA to take our already impressive collection of classes and complete it A though F.

We have a wide following on Classracer, and this blog, and have established the Drag Pak Registry http://www/dragpakregistry.com to promote the Drag Pak Program, help other Drag Pak owners, and to share our experiences with Drag Pak #24.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with interesting, useful, and sometimes amusing information about our experiences with Drag Pak #24.

If you wish more specific information or have questions about our car, or the Drag Pak Program, feel free to contact me directly: mailto:david@newhemiracing.com

Thanks for your encouragement and interest in this blog!

David Wertman

Top Qualifier at Maple Grove

Well, we have finally done it. We got our car running like we thought it should run.

I would have updated before this, but my wireless Internet system wouldn't charge. Sorry..

We were top qualifier and had top speed at Maple Grove.

But it wasn't without the kind of drama, that we have experienced in the past.

As the car was moving up in the staging lane, and we were next to go into the water pit, the car started acting strange. It choked and coughed and stopped. Keith Start it again, and it stopped. And again it started and immediately stopped. We pushed it over to the side, out of the way of the others running. Keith got out of the car and we removed the hood, (about 14 dzus fasteners later, man are they a pain in the butt, the hood was off) and we were in panic mode. Would this be like so many other times, when we had a chance to do something good, and "something bad" happened? My heart sank, as I helped push the car out of the way as I had done so many times before.

Previously we had been running a certain fuel. But on the advice of our tuner, we changed to a higher octane fuel. Fortunately, when we checked our fuel with NHRA before the run, just to be sure, our concerns were realized as the fuel did not check properly. So that morning we had gone back to the pits, drained the tank, dried it as well as possible, and put in new fuel. But apparently somehwere in that process we had knocked something loose in the line, it got through two 100 micron filers and was clogging the fuel regulator. The fuel pump was off but the gauge on the regulator showed pressure.

With the large screwdriver (used for the hood fasteners) wielded like a club. Keith calmly smacked the regulator a couple of times, and the gauge went to "0". He jumped back into the car, started it, and it ran as before sounding, Whew, Sweet! I then calmly walked over to the NHRA guy putting the cars into the run lanes, and said "We are good to go now, where do you want us?" He pointed to the left lane. Keith pulled up into the left lane, another car was ushered into the right lane and all was good. The race was on!

The car burned out very nicely. And Keith moved it up to the staging lights. He bumped the first light, and the other car bumped his, the other car set the lower staging light, and Keith began to rev and bumped up into the second light. As soon as he hit the staging light, the tree started, one, two three yellows, and Keith was off. The front wheels lifted like I had never seen a Drag Pak lift, and off he went. He red lighted, but since this was a qualifying run, that didn't matter.

And he ran 9.85 run. at Nearly 135 mph. Chris had run our previous best time of 10.58 with a completely different motor at Norwalk.

WOW! We had a good feeling as we knew we had the horsepower to run fast, but this a very special feeling. Finally seeing the car run respectably, and problem free (at least during the run) was truly priceless! And the car really did exceed our expectations.

And also, this run meant was that we won our Class! And it wasn't in F/SA where we first ran early in the the year. Nor was it in E/SA where we ran, when others blew up the index and got horsepower for our combo. It wasn't in D/SA where we ran in Indianapolis and Columbus, and could have won a Class trophy if another Challenger Drag Pak had not also registered in D, when he could have just as easily won class in C. And by beating us so badly, when he could have just nosed past us, he got more horsepower added.

This same Challenger Drag Pak wanted to run in C/SA at Maple Grove, and although he was tested and could have won B/SA, he didn't want to move to B. He wanted to stay in C. So we skipped C/SA, and moved up two more classes to B/SA, where we won Class, and got our second Wally.

Frankly, part of me wanted to go ahead and run in C/SA anyway, as he done to us in Columbus. I took their registering in a class where we were already registered, as personal, and with no regard for the Drag Pak Program. But now, we din't think he could push us around again, and that we would be competitive and maybe get some payback. We certainly aren't afraid of his car now. But rather than take personal revenge, I decided that for the good of the Drag Pak program, we would take B/SA. By taking B/SA, I allowed for the possibility, which became a reality, where Dodge Challenger Drag Pak cars took the Class wins in A/SA, B/SA, and C/SA. Hooray Mopar!

We would not run again until the next morning, so we left the track early, did some shopping, including buying a small portable radio, since tracks broadcasts the announcements over the radio, and most of the time, there is too much noise in the pits to hear what is broadcast over the track speakers, the radio will be very helpful, and relieve a lot of strained listening and stress.

We got to the track early, checked the battery level, and fuel level. We charged the battery a bit, and added some fuel, and then waited for the call to the lanes. Pretty soon, the call came. But we still had a few things to check, and we were cleaning the car which had gotten a bit dirty. When we were finally ready, we went to the staging lanes and waited for our opponent. He was late getting there, as most folks don't like running early, and we certainly understand that. You want the track to be dry, and the first few runs get a track that is bit damper than later on.

People were all saying that the track was between 2 and 6 hundredths slower today. And our own weather equipment showed at least 2 slower. So we dialed 9.88.

Anyway, we got in line with the car we had been matched against, and we waited to be brought up to run.

Finally we were up. We again got the left lane where we had run so well the previous day. And because of yesterday's red light, Keith was ready to wait a bit longer on the last yellow before launching. Staging light one on, staging light two waiting, bump, bum, Keith brought it forward till lit. The other guy was a K/SA which means he would go first while we waited for the tree on our side to come down. One yellow, two yellow three yellows, wait an fraction and then HIT IT!

Darn! Red light again. This time, there was less delay even than yesterday, and although we waited longer this time, we hit the red again. This car is tight and responsive now. It actually laid down the best 60 foot time that I have even seen for a Drag Pak. And since Keith saw the red, he knew we were out, so he went ahead and ran it all out to give us more information about the car. The can ran 8.80, which was even faster than yesterday. Well, so much for slower air, etc. .. We have a real monster on our hands.

What was dissapointing is that based on our oponents reation time, we would have won in a walk, under index, if we hadn't red lighted. But as previously said, we still don't really know the car yet.

We are looking at all of our settings and logs, and see a couple of things that should be useful in the future.

Believe it or not, we actually know that we have more performance to extract from this car with only minor changes.

I can't tell you how nice it is, to finally be in a position to simply get better. As opposed to being in a situation where we spend all of out time changing things to fix problems.

Prior to this race, after putting the motor back into the car, we only made one small chassis/suspension change. Forty minutes of work, and then we put the car into the trailer and headed east towards reading. We did stop at National Trailways, (which was right along the way) where they had a bracket race, we paid $15 to get the car in. We changed out our fuel, from a lower octane fuel to a higher octane fuel, and went out to the track. The starting line was awful, but we weren't so much worried about starting out as seeing what we had on top end, so we ran down the track once, hit the lower 10's, put the car back in to the trailer and continued East towards Reading.

All of our hard work, some obvious and public, and some secret squirrel things, not so obvious, and not at all public, were finally vindicated at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading Pa.

David

Here we go again.....

After being somewhat encouraged in Columbus, (The encouragement came from the fact that we got a little better in each of our runs.) on Wednesday, we took our engine to the Dyno to find out whether our problems (not running as fast as we thought we should) were related to the car in some other way; like the converter, or our transmission gear ratios, rear end, or the engine.

The drive took more than three hours, and we arrived around 8:30 in the morning. This obviously meant that we all got up pretty early. So we started out pretty tired. But we were still pretty excited that we were going to finally get good info about the car.

We got all hooked up on the Dyno, ran the engine and found out that we were simply just not generating the horsepower that we thought we should be generating. We have done the math, and have a pretty good idea of the horsepower being generated by some other drag pak cars. It takes a certain amount of horsepower to move a certain amount of weight. Pretty basic stuff.. And based on our calculations, we knew that we were quite low on horsepower.

Naturally the question now becomes; Why are we low on horsepower? The day ended with no good answer. We tried a coupleof things on the Dyno, including swapping our cam out for a more conservative cam. Still, nothing good.

So, we left the Dyno and went home. We surely were not feeling very good about things. We were physically tired and very dissapointed. Our dreams of a competitive car appeared to be dashed. So the drive back to the shop was pretty quiet.

Back in the shop the next day, the next day, we kept looking for something... anything that might explain our low output. With a weak Dyno report in hand, we imagined some pretty drastic issues. We considered that our heads may not be up to the other cars, or might have an issue that caused crossflow from the intake to exhaust due to the angle cut of the valves. The suggestion was that we try a couple of different heads. And fortunately we do have another set on our spare engine.

After a couple of hours more effort on Thursday, we did find a couple of things that we think might help a little. But we will have to wait until Maple Grove on October 7-10, 2010, to see if we made any difference.

There will be four DP Challengers at Maple Grove, and if things work out as they should, the four Challengers stand a chance of winning class in AA/SA, A/SA, B/SA and C/SA.

Based on the horsepower now factored on our car, we are now a natural "B", so we can run A/B/C. But, unfortunately we can no longer run D, E, or F, where we started with this car/engine combination.

We are now a bit more encouraged as we think that we can now be consistent with the car. How fast we can go is still a wide open question, but at least we think that we can now get down the track.

Keith Lynch, our driver, is also a pretty good mechanic and has put our last two engines together. Working with him has been great, as he knows the right way to put things together. But the engine is only as good as the sum of the parts, and we still really don't know if the combination is as good as what others have. Regardless, as a driver, Keith is a two time World Champion, so we are confident that whatever the car gives him, he will get the most out of it.

David

Down the track again and again......

Finally.... The Mega Maniac (aka The Drooze Mobile) got going in the right direction..

Not that we didn't have things going in the right direction at times in the past, but this time we came away with a lot more confidence, and a pretty good feeling.

It didn't start out great though..... We ran our first qualifying round, and the car wouldn't shift.... This was a "not so good" feeling on the first day. We began to wonder of the gremlins were still following us or not. It is an electronic shift transmission. First we checked the wiring, and it all seemed good as we used a metal and a continuity tester and everything seemed good in the wiring. .... So we started checking other things, and even got under the car and removed the pan on the transmission, so we could remove the first to second, and second to third shift solenoids.... Everything there looked good. So, back under the car to put them back. And we began to check all of the wiring again, and found a semi-broken wire. We fixed that and we were no longer..... shiftless!

Oh, did I mention that we weren't burning out coil packs? We weren't! And that was a happy state of mind when we realized that the coiling burning problem was gone.

So, we skipped the second round of qualifying while we solved the tranny issues, and planned to run in the later qualifying run for those who hadn't yet had two runs... A good plan, but the rains came and the third round of Stock Qualifying was cancelled.

No problem, since we were already qualified. But it would have been nice to get a good run and get logs from it.

Rain stopped, so we talked about our concerns over the soft starts we were having, since a good hard start is better/quicker. We had some questions about our torque converter, and ATI was there, so we went over and bought a new converter. And we came back, put the car up in air on jack stands, and climbed under to remove the transmission completely and take out the torque converter. After about a half hour the rains came back, not too hard, so we tried to keep working under the car. But then the skies opened, so we had to get out from under, and wait for the rain to stop. After a few minutes, it stopped and we got out some dry pads to get back under the car. Then while putting the transmission back in place, after putting the new torque converter in, the rains came again and they we really hard, and lasted a lot longer. We talked about waiting for morning, but ultimately decided that we were already wet and cold, and the forecast for the next morning was even colder, plus we would run pretty early, so we got back under the car to finish.

We were short six bolts because we made a small, but necessary, change. So we went to Walmart (after all, that was the only place open at 11:30 at night) and looked for bolts that were big enough. In one bolt assortment, that cost $5.95, we found four of the bolts that we needed. These were the most important, and we figured that we might get the other bolts from one of the other racers. So first thing in the morning, we finished bolting things up, and were ready to run Class.

First round of class, we were up against a pretty nice car, a Corvette who had actually run a bit faster than we expected to run. Keith Lynch, our driver and Crew Cheif, got a very nice start and held on to win the first round of Class. Cooooool! We actually beat another car! The second round of Class, we had a bye due to a coin toss we won. Luck, it seemed had come our way. So the finals of class was our car again another new Challenger. We knew he was fast, and we haven't gotten four runs on this engine and electronics, so we didn't expect to win. Keith once again got a great start, and we were ahead for a bit, but then the faster car passed up. He could have let up on the accelerator, still beaten us handily, and not have affected the horsepower for the 5.7 Challenger, but he didn't.

He ran full out and as a result, for the third time, this car has shown no respect for the other Drag Pak owners and without a good reason, gotten added horspower to our combo.. And THIS comes after this particular owner had called when we ran a good time previously (the only good run we had ever had) and begged us NOT to do what he has now done three times.... Too bad, pretty soon we will only be able race against supercharged Mustangs, and Crate Motor Mustangs who know how win and still keep the indexes safe. But apparently, he just doesn't care, and only wanted us to protect the index, so he could blow it up...

But enough moaning.

We then waited for Sunday morning to run in eliminator class, where you dial a number and try to run closer to it, than your opponent does to his number. We had no clue what to dial, so we picked a time 10.60, which was faster than we had run yet with these new electronics. And guess what? We ran quicker than 10.60, and so did the other guy, but we ran further under our number, so he got the win.

OK, no big deal. We just don't know what the car will do yet. But now, for the first time, we are building on the weekend, and will be at another race in two weeks where we will have a lot better idea of what our car will do. We know for sure that we should be much faster than we currently are. So now, all we have to do is to figure our what is slowing us, and fix it.

But, we got more good runs down the track, with logs, in the this weeked, than in a total of all our previous efforts. We got a number of previous runs, but never complete runs with logs.. So it was good, and go forward from here.

David

Not so fast Batman....

Here we go again..

Our ECU Vendor had done his thing, and tested things good. This was after a seveal hundred mile jaunt to take the car to him, and then return home.

Encouraged, we took the car to a local track to see what it was going to do.

But, what it did, was it toasted another coil pack.
It is now going back into the box from which it came, and going back to the vendor who has tried his best, but has no idea why our car is doing this, since no other car that has his system is installed in it, is doing it. So after thousands of dollars in expenses to get into the Nationals at Indy, travel, and housing for the event, and then frying a total of 8 coil packs at $40 each, and not even be able to compete even though we qualified 15th out of over a hundred entrants, we
will get our money back for the unit, and move along.

So, on to the next ECU. We ordered it, and expect it within a day or so. After looking over the software for this newest ECU, I am encouraged that it looks very logical and quite flexible. So after a weekend off to attend a clambake at the Old Firehouse Winery in Geneva on the Lake, we will hit it hard again next week.

If you have noticed, or wondered why I don't call out the ECU vendors by name, it is only because I believe that everyone is trying their best. And I can't really fault them for that. So I won't trash any of them. But once we are running good with a new system, I definitely will make that system known.

David

Car is good again...

The car was taken to our ECU vendor today, and he made it well. Not sure what the problem was, but whatever it was, it is good now.

We will be trying something new now. We are taking the car to a "local" track Wednesday and make some test runs. Then if all goes well we will actually go to a National race with a tested good car.

We know there are a couple of things we still want to do to car, including putting our new fuel rails on the car. We had been using a very used pair sent by the rails vendor last year, and now nearly a year later, we got the rails we had ordered and paid for back then. As fuel rails go, they are no more functional that the used rails, so it really was only a matter of being persistent and getting what we had paid for. But now the new rails look like they have a couple of fitting locations that my make our plan to relocate our fuel access line to further in front and make it so that you can do fuel checks without removing the hood. We also have decided to move the fuel pressure gauge to between both fuel rails rather than behind the driver side rail, at the beginning of the fuel return line. Not a really big deal, just something that can't hurt and may make our fuel pressure reading more accurate.

So, we are really excited about actually making some runs cheap, and making sure we know what our car can do.

One other secret squirrel change, and we should be finally ready to make some noise, in a good way with the Mega maniac when we get to the next race.

David

Back from Indy... Tired and disappointed again

We got back from Indy on Monday evening.

Keith and Tonya Lynch and Linda McIntosh and I all made it home safe.. So, that is good news..

We are taking a brief time off today doing laundry and catching up with mail and paying bills, while we consider our coil pack problem... I will travel down to the Dayton area tomorrow (about 3.5 hour drive) and we will go over the process that we think will show us exactly what is causing the problem... Then maybe we can get a couple of runs done at a local track.

I am convinced that the problem is something very simple. So tomorrow will tell.

David Wertman

Friday Night Report

Nothing but bad news and people who should know something, scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders....

We are still trying to figure out why we are burning up coil packs...

More grounds should fix it,we were told... We put in more grounds --- we even put grounds on grounds, and that didn't work...

Maybe it is the 16 volt battery causing the problem... We put in a 12 volt battery and although it took a few seconds more, we got the same result...

So although we qualified number 15 out of over a hundred cars, we are unlikely to get more than one run tomorrow before we toast coil packs again, and we are out of spare coil packs..and Indianapolis is out of the too... we took the last 3 out of O'Reilly's warehouse today.

So what is the problem? Nobody has a clue...(And the problem is ABSOLUTELY NOT the fault of DIY Autotune, or the Mega Squirt as we switched to another ECU last week. Jerry at DIY always gave us good advice that we didn't/couldn't follow as we always chasing a schedule that too tight to allow testing before hauling the car off to a National event. Had we had more testing time,the Mega Squirt would have worked out just fine. But I felt it was better now to try something that others were all having great success with... So much for that decision...)

We will run tomorrow, for at least one run.

And then the next question is what is the future for Mega Maniac???? Is this the time to throw in the towel on the project? How long can I keep borrowing money to keep the car running? Do I even have the heart to keep going??

It is late, and I am more than just tired, I am so tired mentally and physically that I just know that I am not thinking clearly. And my emotions are on razor's edge. I really, really wanted to make this thing finally work to vindicate Chris' and my efforts..... So I won;t even try to answer any of those questions tonight. I will just go to sleep for 5-6 hours and we will go to the track, and try to make that one run

Goodnight all..

David

Qualified in Indy

Well, we have good news, and not so good news....

We made two runs today. On the first run, we were only about .650 under, which wasn't enough to qualify, and we toasted two coil packs, and blew up the computer, due to an undetermined "probably" electrical problem...

But being as how we are too dumb to quit, we got a loaner computer, bought all new coil packs at $30 each X 8, and did a few other things to isolate the possibility of something causing the coil packs to fry, like maybe our alternator was putting out too much juice.... and consequently blow up the computer... So, then we ran a second run (and we managed to turn "logging on" in the computer, so we could see what was happening, after we ran.)

We even minimized the amount of time we ran the car in the staging lanes, and we did a lot of pushing of the car. But we didn't want to take a chance on burning something out before the run. And we expected that if we started the car fewer times, we reduced the the electrical load on the coil packs.

Our time in the second run was a lot better than the first run, and we qualified 15th at over one second under the index.

But on the return road, the car started acting up, and we toasted the same two coil packs (new ones in the same position as ones that cooked before.) So we put all of our spare coil packs on the engine, and were checking things without even starting the car, and suddenly one coil pack started cooking and smoking...

So now we are waiting for someone to check the coil pack wiring and then we have to find another computer, and ..... who knows what... But because we are already qualified, we really don't have to do anything until Saturday... And who knows, (didn't I just say that...), we may get things moving back in a good direction....

In the meantime, I managed to get more sun today, without any sun screen, than I really should have, so I am pretty well toasted myself... But on the good side, a company here, Goodridge Fittings, had a great barbecue with chicken, ribs, and baked beans and it was free... Way to go Goodridge....Thanks!

And I probably should also make note that these days when I speak of "WE", I am making reference to Keith, and Tonya Lynch me, and my lady friend Linda McIntosh as the New Hemi Racing Team.

Others have contributed in the past, certainly above all, it was my son Chris, who did the most to make our car successful, and it is in his memory and a hope and desire that I can see the car achieve the kind of success that Chris and I dreamed and schemed of having that I continue. But also my deepest thanks to Jay and Mandie, for their past help with the Drag pak #24 project. Without them, the road would have been even harder and loaner.

In Indy, and waiting to get into the track...

Well here we are... In Indy ...

Yesterday we addressed a problem noticed in our run at the Denver Nationals, in that the car had a wobble/shake at high speeds.. So, since we fully expect to go very fast, we needed to get the front end aligned....And, the right wheel castor was significantly off... so after making a mod to the front end to allow the alignment, the car should be good now.

Today, after making some final wiring changes and tying in our new window circuit, (which unfortunately meant removing most of the carpet, finishing the wiring changes..... and then putting the carpet back took about 4 hours, several special tools, some common ones, and carpet tape.... today was in the 90's and felt like 100% humidity... ) and then sorting out the tools and supplies we needed for Indy, we brought the trailer around and first had to clean it out...But once we got the trash and miscellaneous stuff from Denver out, we got it loaded up... And I am one tired puppy...

Oh, I forgot to mention that we also picked up a golf cart. It cost almost $700 to rent one in Denver for a week. So rather than keep paying those kinds of rates, I decided we needed to buy one. It is Black, with blue trim. And it is now nicely adorned with Mopar stickers. We picked up a couple of ramps at Tractor Supply Company. We are using Keith Lynch's truck to tow the trailer and it is a big Diesel Dodge which sits pretty high so we were getting ready to push the cart up the ramps, and I thought Keith was pushing when I just drove it up the ramps and right onto the bed of the truck. No pushing required. Pretty nice power for the little cart, and we got a really good deal on it... So we will be styling around the pits in our new cart already named the Drooze Mobile, in white letters across the back of the cart.

But back to Indy.. We got in line behind about 100 other rigs, and have to wait until tomorrow to allowed to enter the track and get into the pits. We just got word that they will start letting people in to the pits at around 8:00 am, so we think it will be arounf 10:00 when we get in... And we are still pretty close to the front of the line, considering how many cars will coming. So, it is all good.

Then we went to our Hotel, and and after freshening up a bit made a short jaunt to a Steak and Shake, (we actually tried a couple other places, but they closed at 9:00 pm on Sundays) but after eating, I am now chilling out watching a bit of TV, and about to hit the sack.

We will get in tomorrow which is Monday and that is all that happens tomorrow. We do need to hook up with a couple of other folks, and we need some C11 fuel. We Tech in on Tuesday, run qualifying runs on Wednesday so that is when the fun begins... I will report our performance here on Wednesday.. But I will also try to keep you posted throughout the week..

David

New engine for Indy

As Chris often said, "so much to do, so little time to do it all..."

The new engine is ready to go into the car today. This engine is an upgrade to the car for several reasons which I won't go into at this time. But it does have a different cam, and a few other secret squirrel tricks that will remain a secret until we find out how it runs.

Having a complete second engine offers us a lot more flexibility in the case of catastophic failure, or some other unforseen happenstance.. If something bad happens, we can pop the whole engine out and drop a complete replacement in place within a few hours.

Making some changes at the front of the engine necessitated the replacement of our custom water pump and alternator bracket. So we installed a Meziere electric water pump. I went online to Summit Racing who said they would ship in September, so I went to Jegs who seems to stock more than Summit Racing these days, and I ordered it for next day delivery. It arrived and sure was pretty. But nobody told me when I ordered it, that the back plate didnt come with it. You need to order that separately. So after spending another $300, the backing plate was on the way.

Meziere apparently doesn't include the backing plate that is quite specific to the engine, in the kit that is that is identified as fitting a 5.7/6.1 hemi, in spite of that "kit" not having any specific part that fits a 5.7/6.1 hemi engine. So you have to order it separately. I am not sure, but it may just be that way to look lower priced.... but that is only until you determine that you do need both parts totaling nearly a thousand dollars.

And we still need to finish a few wiring changes we are making after our window rewire and a few other little tricks, including a new much larger tach

I will start posting some additional pictures soon, reflecting the window switch locations, and more details about that change.

In the meantime, just keep moving forward. You have already seen everything behind you, and if it was all that great, you wouldn't have left it back there. So keep moving forward.

David
The New Hemi Guy