New Hemi Racing Day to Day

Today... As Chris would would said, It was like Herding Cats...

2012-01-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today was an interesting day.
Chris' oldest son David was with me, and we went to see Chris' younger son Max play basketball in a local Church league.

Max is now eight years old, and is an aggressive (in a good way) and competetive little guy.

His little sister Bella, now 6 1/2 is a cheerleader for Max's team, so it was like a double header.

At one time, there two short basket ball courts with two opposing teams competing on each. Additionally the stands were full on both sides, and the cheerleaders were cheering.

Max and Belle actually got the Church after David and I had arrived, and she informed her mother that Grandpa is here, there is his car. She knows my Hemi Orange Challenger and often to refers to me as Grandpa with the car.

Well, when the courts were filled with kids with absolutely no basketball skills, and the crowds were cheering, and little brothers and little sisters running amuck around the court and in the stands...

I loved Max's energy and competiveness, he actually scored twice. And Bella was terrific as she waved the Pom Poms and jumped and cheered....

But the whole experience, which Chris would have loved to see, because he loved his kids so much, would have quickly been labled by him, as Herding Cats...... a term he often used when the kids being ........kids.

David and I are spending the evening playing around wth the same computers, that Chris and I played around with back in the late 70s, a old S100 computer called an IMSAI, with a Lear Seigler ADM - 3A connected to it. And just like when Chris was young, and I was younger, it is not at all without adventure...

I just wanted to share that picture with you, and my son would have used to characterize the situation...and I always enjoyed his colorful descriptions of situations...maybe because he got a lot of that from me.

It is new year.. and who knows what it holds?

But I thank God for life, and for time with my grandchildren. And today was a particularly rich experience.

Good Bless, and Race Safely

David

New Year's Eve... Happy New Year

2011-12-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say Happy New Year to you all.
And to say THANKS for all of your encouragement and support.

A couple of the other contingency sponsors have stepped up.. I had previously forgotten to acknowledge VP, and I have also received payment from Moser for the National Performer award.

There still are a lot of folks who owe for Columbus, and and even more who stiffed me for wins last year, when Class was supposed to be paid.

Once again, Happy New Year to all!

David

Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

In my last post, full of anticipation, I said I would report on the Indianapolis Banquet and our awards.

Initially, when the award was annouced, and we all started chasing it, there were several things that we were told.

So we spent a lot of money and won a lot of races, and ultimately won the award.

But guess what, the really big championship sized trophy, wasn't all that big. In fact it was a standard Class winning sized trophy. But I have it now. I was also told that I would get our Class trophy from Vegas at teh Banquet, but nobody there had a clue about that.

Initially, we heard that a Gold Card came with the win, but later heard it would be a Jacket, and that was apparently later to changed to .....absolutely nothing.

There were other promises and to date, they are still unrealized. But who knows...

Well at least we would get the Program card for the Banquet to keep as a souvenir. The only problem with that, is there is no mention of our award in the Program. I don't t think this was the fault of the Division people, as they just didn't get the news in time.

So it was all of the Junior dragster winners that got their awards, and spoke their thanks, and a bunch of other awards as well, and then... they called the three winners, Super Stock Automatic, Stock Stick, and Stock Automatic, handed them their trophies, and that was that.. Wham bam, thank you maam.

At least we got a free dinner. We had two tickets, one from Division, one from NHRA, and the kind folks at Milan Drag Strip gave me one too. Thanks friends.

The food was quite a bit below average, and they ran out of the chicken, and and other stuff too... we stopped at a restaurant afterwards, to get some real food.

So, all in all, the whole thing was pretty much disappointing all the way around.

The only good part was seeing a couple of old friends, and meeting a couple of new ones.

I would have posted a picture of the trophy, but it same as the others, and if you have seen one, you seen them all.

As you can tell, I was more than a bit disappointed about the way the whole program was handled. That last trip West cost as much as we won from the Contingency Sponsors, so now I can only hope that the Contingency Sponsors actually pay up. Mopar, and Comp Cams are the only one to pay so far, and quite frankly I am still owed by many for the Columbus Sports Nationals win. It is sad that when you support a product, and win, these contingency sponsors are either very slow pay, or no pay at all, except for a couple.

Next year, my car will have a lot fewer stickers on it. No, I will leave them on but put a big red NO in a circle over them so folks know they don't pay.

To everyone who follows the blog, even the competitors, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas, and happy New Year.

God Bless, and Safe Racing.

David

Innovations list...

2011-12-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have repeatedly said that Drag Pak #24, the Mega Maniac has more innovations than any other Drag Pak. Well, the list is pretty well complete now, although I am sure that when I talk to Keith again, he will be able to add one or two more, but the number is well over 40.

I had previously said that I would post the list here, after redacting (a political term for hiding things I don't want anyone else to know) the Secret Squirrel items.

But frankly, I am finding so many things on the list, that really are Secret Squirrel items, and so many others that simply are the things that give us our edge. So, I just can't do it. At this time.

If this list were public, and people realized how different my car is from all of the others, I am sure that we would be awarded the "Best Engineered" award.

Even members of the Drag Pak #24 Secret Squirrel Club are not able to implement all of these innovations. However they are able to benefit from quite a few of these of them.

You might ask why they can't implement all of these changes. And that would be a pretty good question. I am impressed that you are so insightful!

Drag Pak cars are built by several different chassis builders. The is the original one, Mike Pustelney at MPR Race Cars did the prototypes for Chysler (and for Ford with Mustangs, and also now for GM with the COPO Camaro) and there are other less well known chassis builders.

So the Drag Pak cars, although they all have to "fit the mold" of a Drag Pak as approved by the NHRA are not all the same.

So, some of our innovations simply won't fit on some Drag Pak cars. Does that mean they don't need them, you ask? No. It just means that someone who has a 727 transmission can not do exactly what we have done in my 904. And if someone's chassis is not set up exactly the same as mine, those innovations would not necessarily apply.

So, you ask, is there something Secret Squirrel about your 904, and your chassis?

Yes, I answer emphatically! But I am not telling you.

More later after the Division 3 Banquet/awards ceremony.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Innovations.....

2011-11-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Just a quick thought about innovations:

I have, on a couple of ocassions, said that Drag Pak #24 has more innovations than any other Drag Pak car. And I stand by that statement. But I thought it only fair to expalin what I mean.

Innovations are ways of doing something, that are different from the way others do them. And they provide some kind of convenience, performance, or appearance advantage. Or, at least that is my definition of it.

What motivates innovation? Innovation is often the answer to a gnawing problem, or it is simply something that nobody else has yet seen the need to do.

So, some of our innovations are the result of addressing problems, and some are simply a better way to do something, which we think gives us some kind of advantage.

Better, is only "better" if there is some kind of an advantage provided by it. Doing something just to be different, while it might stroke your ego, is no better if it doenst present an advantage.

After my last posting, I opened a spreadsheet and started tabulating (counting) the number of things that we did, either before anyone else, in spite of everyone else, or that others have not yet done.
My list of innovations totals around 40 individual items.

A few of these items are the result of decisions that we made to save weight, or because we couldn't get something within our timeframe, so we went a different direction. And some others have now made some of those same decisions, so they are no longer unique to us. But that doesn't mean that they still aren't innovations by us. And there are some items where our decisions solved a problem. And then, there are the Secret Squirrel innovations. And it seems that we have at least 10 of those.

Once I reorganize the innovation list, I will also redact the Secret Squirrel entries, and then publish the entire list here.

God Bless and Race Safely
David

Happy Thanksgiving..

2011-11-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

Today, I am going to hoodwink you...just kidding....

Actually, I am just going to go back into the past and explain our hood issues, and solutions..

First the problem with the dzus fasteners was obvious from the beginning. They were difficult to attach, tough to release, and you often slid the tool off of the fastener and scratched the hood. So they were a pain in the tail, from day one. When you needed a fuel check, or had other reason to pull the hood after a race, you had to make sure that the driver had help. Lining the hood back up after taking it off, often led to just attaching 3 o4 of the fasteners until you got the car back to the pit area. So Chris and I both hated those fasteners right from the start.

But sometimes you have enough to do, that you don't fix a problem, until you have no choice. And that was last year in Las Vegas. It is hard to believe that it has already been more than a year. But we were going through the traps at 135 mph, and it happened. Our hood left the car, went up into the air about 40 feet, fluttered around, and fell to the side of the track. I caught it on video, but unless you know what it was, it would be hard to know that is was our hood. And it was lucky indeed that the hood lifted clear of the windshield and really didn't strike the car.

Yes, it did tear out the Dzus fasteners that didn't release, and broke a couple of brackets. And when it hit the ground, the scoop separated from the rest of the hood. But all in all, it could have been a lot worse. The only damage to the car came when we tried to push the inner fender back down, and dented the fender on top.

And we caught another break too. Because we had time, since we had the lousy Division 7 stock schedule of starting our first run at around 6:00 in the evening, but this time, we could use the extra time to try to get the hood back reattached.

First thing in the morning, we made a couple of stops. One was was at a body shop supply house to get epoxy to re glue the lousy glue job Rousch had done on the scoop. Their bead didn't even go all of the way around. So it is no wonder that another Drag Pak also lost his scoop. that day. Chrysler committed that we would get a new hood. But for now, we needed this one to work. We were in Vegas, still racing, and had Pomona the next week.And we went to Lowes for Pop rivets.

Then, we hustled, drilled, epoxied, and pop riveted the scoop in place, and we repaired the torn out Dzus fastener locations and pop riveted washers over all of the holes to reinforce them, and we installed traditional hood pins to replace the dzus fasteners. Here are Keith and Jim Marshall installing the washers.

And the hood went back on, and looked like this:

Not too bad. It was funtional, and for a little while, it was fun pulling pins, lifting the hood. Sitting it back down, and having it center easily on the pins.

But then it became an issue. Where are the pins? Do we have them all? What do you do with them while the hood is off?

In Indianapolis, a guy came though the pits, and showed me the Qwik-Latch connectors. I was impressed, but we had just put the hood pins in, so I thought we had a good solution. But in time, the Qwik -Latch pins looked better and better.

So I called them, got all of the info needed, springs for pins, 10 mini latches. So I ordered them, and they sat in the tool box.

Until, we had to rebuild the engine on the car. And I drove down to Dayton to help on the engine. Once we got the engine back together, I turned to the hood. I only had to remake a couple of brackets, and before we knew it, we had the new latches in, and they worked like a charm. We didn't need to leave the large washers in place, but it was just easier that way.

Just push the buttons, and the springs under them push the hood up, and off comes the hood. It can even be done by just one person.

But then, what do you do with the hood?

We added dense foam blocks to the underside of the hood, so you can sit it on the top of the car, and it sits nicely without scratching the top...

Innovations upon innovations. Once again, I will say it unapologetically. Drag Pak #24 is the most innovative Drag Pak in existence. We have done more things to make this car faster, easier to drive, and more convenient to race than anyone else has done. And we have won awards to prove it, from the Best Appearing Car, to Class wins, to Stock Eliminator Winner, to Stock Automatic Champion, to holding the National A/SA record.

Do I have a lot to be thankful for? Yes, I do. I got tospend more quality time with Chris because of this car, than I would ever have been able to spend previously. And we have accomplished everything we set out to accomplish.

So I thank God for absolutely everything!

OK, now back to turkey day football....

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

A bit more about the teardown...

2011-11-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

I just happened across some pictures from our teardown in Chicago that added some things that I didn't capture in Las Vegas..

I talked about the fact that they cc'ed the heads, etc. But unless you see it done, it is a little abstract. So here are pictures and some explanations.

To measure the combustion chamber, they put a piece of plexiglas, with a small opening in it, over the combustion chamber in the head. They put some substance around the opening (not sure what to call it it) to be sure the plexiglas seals.

Then they take a graduated tube filled with alcohol, and with a spigot to dispense it, mounted on a metal stand, and open the spigot until they fill the combustion chamber with liquid through the aforementioned hole in the plastic, measuring how much liquid leaves the tube.

And they also do a similar procedure on both the intake runner, (that is the part between the intake valve and intake manifold),

and the exhaust runner........

And that is how they measure these things.....

As mentioned before, they also check how big our piston is, total bore, and how high it goes from the bottom of stroke to top of stroke, for total stroke. But that is pretty easy, and done with a simple dial caliper.

The real interesting, and often most problematic, measurement is the cam lift on both the intake valve and exhaust valve.

First, you need to install a solid lifter in the intake side of a cylinder, and one in the exhaust side of that same cylinder. Oh, you don't have any solid lifters? Of course not! Our car uses hydraulic lifters. So how are we expected to come up with a solid lifter, when they aren't even made for our car?

Simple, take one of your spare hydraulic lifters, dissasemble it, and fill it with washers, that bring it up to height you need, put the top back on, and you have it. So make sure you carry a variety of different thickness washers to use for this purpose. If you don't have spares, you can use on of your running lifters, and then return it a hydraulic when done. But these lifters aren't expensive, and once you get one lifter together, you won't want to take it apart again. So pick up some spares, and have two ready for use in teardown.

As an alternative, you can cop an attitude, and tell the techs that don't have onem and there is nothing you can do. But in my opinion, throwing down a gauntlet is not a good idea. These guys have no agenda, and just want to make sure that you are legal. But if you get snarky with them, or they think you do, at best, they will be just a little more thorough in all of their tests. And one time through is quite enough, thank you.

What makes this measurement interesting is the necessity to get everything exactly perpendiular to valve, and to do this a steel plate (small) is bolted to the head. Then a magnetic mount for a dial indicator is secured on the steel plate. Then the dial pointer is placed on the top of the spring retainer. And this is all done while the head is on the block, and bolted down.

But, this is place where if the dial indicator is not perpendicualr to the valve, an error in the reading can be introduced. And frankly, it is hard to get it all lined up properly. If you have been cooperative and haven't upset the techs, you can gently help them see if they aren't lined up right.

As you can, there is an awful lot to getting torn down, and there are specifications for all of these things, and more. Like the wheelbase of the car. And the height of the front end of the car, and making sure that the drive shaft is steel, and the center section of the rear end is steel. (except in the case of the 2011 V10 Challenger which can be aluminum.)

And I never mentioned that when we are getting "teched in" at any track, they check the brand, the SFI rating, and the expiration date on the seat belt harness, and the racing suit (pants, and jacket) and the helmut.

Rules, rules, and more rules. All intended to promote safety, and to assure a level playing field.

God Bless, and Race Safely

And mostly, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and tell everyone you love, that you love them!

David

After the transmission...

2011-11-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Well, actually, before the transimission...here is a copy of the Record for A/SA that we won in Las Vegas..

That was for all of those out there ,who have never seen one, and don't own one.

Now, back to the car. What comes after the transmission? The drive shaft. But ours is nothing special.

When we got the transmission, the rear end was already in the car. So to connect the two, we needed a drive shaft. So we called Mike P, and said "Help!!!" Mike told us how to measure for the drive shaft, and we measured it about 11 times, each time wondering if we had gotten it right. So then, we pretty much just averaged the numbers. And that is how long our drive shaft is!

But next to the rear end, or differential. Once again, conventional wisdom said Dana 60. Tough as nails, and downright bulletproof.

But by now, we were pretty sure that bulletproof wasn't necessary at the cost, in terms of dollars, and weight, and inconvenience of the Dana 60. So once again, we go against conventional wisdom, and instead of the Dana 60, we went for a Mopar 8 3/4" rear end.

And so far, we have not regretted that decision one bit.

The 8 3/4 is a Moser aftermarket assembly approved by the NHRA, and yes, there is one small issue that exists with it, rather than the Dana 60.

The rear end ratios available for the 8 3/4 is not as broad as for the Dana 60. For example, the steepest gear we have found so far for the 8 3/4 is 4.86 while there is a 4.88, and even a 5.00 available.

I know of at least one other Drag Pak that has run the 5.00, but it isn't necessary for us, because we already have a better 60 ft time than most other Drag Paks..

And, on the same note, changing a rear end ratio on a 8 3/4 is much easier than a Dana 60. So, if we ever need to change it, we can change it quickly.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Recognition...

2011-11-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

It is always nice to be recognized for your performance, and it is no different with our accomplishments with Drag Pak #24.

I have recently received a number of congratulations from many Drag Pak owners, and other friends of our racing endeavors. To all of you who have been so kind and gracious and such good friends through all our efforts, I say, from the bottom of my heart; THANK YOU!

A recent article about our latest accomplishments just appeared at http:.www.mopar.com/speed

And when we accept our rewards in Indianapolis on December 10 at the Division 3 Banquet, I expect that there will even more public recognition.

But the best recognition, is to me, the vindication I feel in my heart for Christopher "Drooze" Wertman, and me. We knew that we could do it. And we knew that it wouldn't be easy. And while we had the encouragement of some, (we appreciate every bit of it) we also had the condemnation of many others. And for that, I also, say "thanks".

Nothing drives me, and nothing could drive Chris more than having someone tell us that we can't do it.

Well, it certainly wasn't easy, but as you can now see, we sure as heck did it.

I have been asked by a number of people, what is the difference between us, our performance, and the other Drag Paks?

First, let me say that they are some Drag Pak yet to hit the track, that will indeed be very successful. So our performance so far, is just that, it is only up until now.

But there definitely are quite a few differences between a lot of Drag Paks, and Number 24.

As I said previously, I will talk about a lot of the things that we have done to make Drag Pak #24 a consistent and exceptional performer. Once again, I caution you though, there are some things that Chris and I considered to "Secret Squirrel Information". And that information is available only to members of the Drag Pak #24 Secret Squirrel Association which boasts a limited, but enthusiastic membership.

Going back to the beginning. Our goal was to have the lightest Drag Pak. And we largely accomplished that even though some cars that were not put together by Mike Pustelney at MPR Race Cars, used lighter weight frame and cage components, giving them a distinct over most other Drag Paks.

But not ours. No decision that was made early in the process, ignored the weight component of that decision. Chris and I spent a lot of time just brainstorming about where we lose some weight. I remember them like it was yesterday, even though it was now over two years ago.

Transmission: Everyone we knew was recommending, and installing a 727 Pro Trans in their Drag Pak.

We knew two things that helped make this decision easier. First we knew that we couldn't get a 727 Pro Trans by the time that we thought that we needed have one. And we knew that a 727 was 40-60 heavier than a 904.

So, even though I was already familiar with the 727, and had one apart in the shop, we went to Paul at Turbo Action, and told him what we wanted, and when we wanted it. When he got done telling us he couldn't do all of that, he did tell us what he could do, and it was still very good, and he did it.

And whenever we called, Paul was always patient and ready to answer questions of any kind, even stupid ones. That 904 which was built on a 904 Truck case that has extra ribbing to strengthen the case where 904 are believed to be weak. So our decision to use the 904 was a good one. And our case is as strong is as good as we need it to be be. We have replaced clutches, and added a lightweight sun shell, having rebuilt the transmission twice. But when you have hundreds (approximately 190 by our count) of runs on it, and are pulling 1.28 sixty ft times, some maintenance is indeed necessary from time to ttime. And this transmission, before being rebuilt, was run behind six different engines. There were two 6.1's, and a total of four 5.7's. We are now on 5.7 engine number five. This engine is still in the car, and still sealed from our record run, and unless we discover something requiring it, will remain sealed until after we run a few more times.

More to talk about next time.

God Bless and Race Safely

David

What happens in a tear down...

2011-11-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

Here, I will try to give you a sense of what happens in an NHRA tear down. We have now been "torn down" three times in total, and it appears pretty obvious that there is no typical tear down.

First off, the name implies that someone tears you down. That couldn't be any more wrong, as they tell what they want, and you tear it down. So, you either take teh car to them, along with your tools, or they come to you. This depends on the Race Schedule, the Division, and the Event itself.

In Charlotte, they selected the Class winners, and told us to bring our cars to the tech area, and the only thing that we had to take off of the car, was the Throttle Body. They also measured our wheelbase, and body height.

In Chicago, they came to our pit area, had us pull a head, measured bore, stoke, piston dome height, combustion chamber size, cam lift, valve sizes, intake and exhaust plenum sizes, wheelbase, and car height.

In Las Vegas, it was very similar to Chicago, excpt for two things; One, they invited us to to bring the car to the Tech area for tear down. And, it ws our decision to go to tear down, as we had done nothing yet to warrant a tear down. But we did want to go for a Record, and that would result in a tear down, if we were sussessful. But the schedule was not all conducive to normal orderof things, make a record run, tear down, then run again and back up the run. We were to run late evening, and would have only a few hours in dimming light at best, and probably in the dark, to tear down , and get it all back together for the next run. So we went to the Division Tech Director and asked how he saw it happening. He said, would you like to tear it down now before the first round? We had about 6-7 hours before the run, so we said :yes". It really wasn't a matter of whether or not we could set a record. We knew we could so, we went back to our pit area, loaded up all tools that we thought we would need, and put them into the back of the Ram 3500 we use to tow the car. Then Keith drove the truck, and I drove the car, and took it to the Tech area. Then I started the car, (yes, I do know how to drive the car) and moved it into position for the tear down.

This first picture is what the motor looks like before tear down.

The first thing to come off the car, is obviously the hood.

Next is the black bar that you see at the top rear of engine on body (4 bolts).

Two things happen at once next. The exhaust header on driver's side is removed (5 bolts)

But did I mention that you also need to jack up the car, and set set jack stands for safety?

The next thing was to drain the water out of the block, so it doent fill teh cylinders when teh head is removed. We put a petcock in the block so opening that, and opening the drain at the radiator, pretty much empties it all out. The header comes off first, so they we don't have to lay in the drained water while removing it.

And then, the "hat" the seals the throttle body to the hood comes off (4 bolts)

Since the car is jacked up, I stand on my tool box so that I can reach the bolts.

The throttle body is removed for measurement. (4 bolts)

Next are the fuel rails fule line connections (2 fittings)

Throttle cable is disconnected, along with two return springs. (3 connection and 1 bolt.)

Intake manifold is removed, (6 additional bolts)

Coil Packs are removed on driver side headand passenger side head. (16 bolts)

Valve cover removed on Driver side. (10 bolts)

Although we used a folding table from the trailer to hold working tools and parts,

We used the bed of the truck to hold parts when they were neither involved in tear down or assumbly.

Rocker arm assemblies are removed from driver side head. (8 bolts)

Next the head bolts are removed (5 small ones,, 10 big ones) and Head is removed.

You can see the pistons, and the coil packs form the passenger side. The reason that the passenger coils packs are out, is that we need to remove one spark plug from each odd cylinder so that the engine is easier to turn over manually when checking stroke, and valve lifts. (4 spark plugs removed)

Her you see the head with valve springs and gasket on work table.

Next the head goes into the trailer to have things checked.

The gasket is measured on the table.

In the tech trailer we were told to remove one intake and one exhaust valve from the head.

This turned out to be the biggest pain in the whole process. The valve compressor, which squeezes the valve spring, so the retainers can be removed is almost right, but not perfect.

The tech guys said their valve compressor was even worse. So we struggled on, and finally,

after a good 30 minutes of hard work, the valves were both out, and measured.

Getting the valves back in and getting retainers and clips back in place took about the same time as removing them (ouch, and I say that quite literally as Keith smashed his thumb doing it). Compressing two springs, removing two retainer and four valve stem half clips sounds easy enough,

but trust me and Keith, it really isn't!

The head is replaced on the motor, solid lifters installed in place of hydraulic lifters which would require engine to actually run while being measured, and that isn't at all practical. So here are the Divisional Tech Director, and Tech measuring things. You dont see us in this picture, but considering how difficult it is to properly measure the lift, getting measurement tools properly horizontal and vertical at time, we watched intently to make sure the measurements were right. And they were.

So, once again, all measures OK, and we hear the magic words. Looks good, put it back together.

The first thing to do, is to remove the head and remove the solid lifters, replacing the hydraulic lifters.

We heard the call for stock to the lanes as we were putting it together again, and we were pretty confident that we could have it back together in time to make the run.We also heard that it was possible that there would be a make up run available in case we didnt finish it.

To consider how long it took to get things back together, factor in time to find the right bolts, and right tools. Also include the extra time to get at some bolts, that were not tighened, as Keith did the big head bolts, tightening and torquing, and I assumed that he had done the small head bolts too. He had not, so once the intake manifold was on, we realized it, and worked around teh intake to tighten the five small head bolts. Then, we also realized that we misplaced, one bolt. It was a common metric bolt and we knew we could pick one up at Lowes, and if necessary run without it. And for teh total time, you can also factor in the extra time required in about 6 trips back to the trailer for "something" we forget or simply didn't anticapte being needed. Tonya, Keith's wife, made several trips, and I made a few more. In some cases it was simple, like a few more rags and carb/brake cleaner for cleaning up the heads for measurement. And in other cases it was in a desparate search of an elusive socket, or a wrench that had somehow been missed.

So, here we were almost back together, and I felt a drop of rain. Then another.. and another...and we decided to just put the hood back on theh car without the brace at the back, and get back to the pits before the rain really comes. So Tonya drove the truck, Keith drove the race car, and I drove the gold cart/pit vehicle and we all scurried back to the our pit.

The rain was starting to really come down now, so I jumped off of the golf cart, and I directed Keith into the trailer with the car. The rains really started now, and it was immedially obvious that there wouldnt be any more racing tonight. So we went to Lowes, got our exhaust manifold bolt, went back to the Hotel, got a bite to eat, and waited for the morning racing. We didnt know what time we would race, but it made sense that it would be early, and it was. Our first run was around 8:30 am, and our second run went at around 11:30 am.

We ran a relatively slow, but "safe" time on the first run, And for the second run, we needed to run within a 10th of second over it, to back it up, or a 10th under it to be the new record with the slower run backing it up. But any other number under it, would back up the slower number. So we ran a 10.02 which was much faster and backed up the record run of 10.23+ in Las Vegas, which when converted to sea level came out to be 10.05.

So that is what tear down looks like...

God Bless and Safe Racing my Friends.

David

Finally Home...

2011-11-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

Just arrived home from Las Vegas...

Time to look at all of the trophies (not exactly all of them as we have one class trophy and one really Big trophy yet to be received, and to grace my mantle) and reflect......

After all of the anticipation, hard work, blood (Yes, real blood, from Chris, from me, and some from Keith), and the ultimate resulting victory, it is all finally ours...

We won the NHRA Class Stock Automatic Performance Championship. And we have a NHRA National record in A/SA..

Drag Pak #24

Driving home from Las Vegas at a roadside stop...

Inside Drag Pak #24,

Special Aluminum Steering wheel,

one of many enhancements that make this car a winner.

Not only is the Wheel lightweight,

It comes off for easy driver entry and exit.

In time, I will recap the changes that we made to Drag Pak #24 that either made the car lighter, easier to race, or gave us some other benefit that allowed us to win all that we have won. Still won't give away a few secret squirrel secrets though, as they are saved for those special people who really deserve them.

God Bless and Race Safely

David

Well, we did it!!!

2011-11-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Just as Chris and I had planned, predicted and expected, the Mega Maniac now holds a National Hot Rod Assocation record.

We are now the A/SA National record holder at 10.05 seconds, and 130.55 MPH.

We could have run faster, but were somewhat cautious about running too fast, and getting horsepower.

More later, right now I am just happy that I have been able to continue and reach all of Chris' and my goals for the car that we both worked so hard to build and all of what he ever said about it has now come true.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

What a day at the Divisional in Las Vegas

2011-11-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

We took a couple of test and tune runs on Thursday, and the car ran OK. Not great, but the air here in Vegas is not really conducive to running great. So we were only a little dissapointed with the run.

Today, Friday, we were scheduled for a run about 5-6 PM.

Then the schedule changed to about 4 PM, and we met the Divisional Tech Director, who said we should tear down this morning. Tear downs are usually reserved for cars who go really fast, and either win a big National Race, or those who go for a record... We have not even gotten in a run yet, so what is the deal?

I guess word had gotten out that we might run for a record. And the way the schedule exists for the next couple of days, getting a tear down accomplished would be next to impossible. There was just no good time to do one, except for this morning.

So, we started around 11:00AM and off came the throttle body and intake manifold. Next were the headers, then the coil packs, valve cover, rocker assemblies, and the head.

Then we got the head tested to make sure our combustion chamber was the right size. Next the intake runner was measured, and then the exhaust runner measured, then we had to remove an intake valve which means removing valve spring keeps, retainer, and spring. Next was the exhaust valve. All was measured, and all was found to be well within required limits. The head casting number was also checked and found to be good.

The throttle body bores were measured, and the intake manifold number checked. Again, all good.

Then cylinder bore checked, and piston dome checked, and stroke checked, and all were good.

The we had to put solid lifters in one intake and one exhaust and check cam lift. That meant putting the head back on the engine, and measuring the lift on intake and exhaust, and then taking he head back off, putting our hydraulic lifters back in to replace the solid lifters used for testing, and putting the head back on. All measured, and as we knew was the case, all measured to be completely legal.

Just as we were starting to put things back to gether, we got word that Stock would run earlier than the modified schedule. We would now run at 3:00PM which was less than two hours from now. It will be close, but Keith and I have put this engine together, and ones like it, enough times to know that we could do it.

We started to put it all back together, and there are plenty of things that two people can work on at the same time that we went after it big time.

Stock was called to the staging lanes. We were still a ways from finished, but Super stock has about 80 cars, and they were before Stock and hadn't started yet, so we had a cushion. And we just continued, no need for panic, it wouldn't help, and might cause a problem. So we just kept at it.

Close now, still need to put the header back on, but everything on top is good, so the motor was sealed. We got the header on, and it began to sprinkle. We didn't put the cowl support on the car yet, and the rain started coming down, so we tossed the support in the truck, and all of the tools, threw the hood back on the car, and drove back to our pit space.

We only lost one one exhaust header bolt, and if necessary could have run without it. We did pick up one later at Lowe's. And it will only take a few minutes in he morning to get it tighten up.

What I didn't mention was the number of trips we made from the Tech teardown area back to our pit, for a variety of items from, tools, to water, to a funnel. I would guess there were about seven of these trips total in the golf cart, the our Drooze Mobile pit vehicle by either Tonya, Keith's wife, or me.

The rains came hard now, and the whole day of racing was canceled. So, although we would have been ready, we now race tomorrow.

Our first run tomorrow will be about 8:00 am and next run will be about 12 noon.

More information on our runs tomorrow, tomorrow.

Anything we do tomorrow, and no matter how fast we go, we won't have to tear down, because the motor is legal, and sealed.

God Bless and Race Safely!

David

Nationals in Vegas all over, now waiting for the Divisional race

2011-10-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

The big deal is all over.

We came, we saw, and we got lucky enough to complete our goal of becoming National Stock Automatic Class Champions.

We won A/SA Class. We beat a couple of cars, got a bye run based on our qualifying position (this is why running a good time when qualifying is important, it can get you a bye run somewhere in the race), and then our opponent in the finals broke.

And in Stock Eliminator, we won our first round, but lost in the second round by only a few hundredths of a thousandth of a second. Approximate 3 inches, after running a quarter mile, or 1320 feet. And, the reality, is that we got to the finish line first, in a double breakout. And as usually is the case, in a double breakout, the first one to the line loses, because they are usually further under their expected time (called a dial).

So nothing is left now but to wait until Thursday and get ready for the Division race where there is virtually nothing at stake, but it would be nice to do well there too.

And then we come home.

We have absolutely no idea when we get out Trophy for winning Class in Vegas, nor the Trophy and other items won for the Stock Automatic World championship. Apparently the sanctioning body, is not real big on planning and communication.

I was told that when we ran in Class here, that nobody had a program to run the Ladder sheets, where it takes the competitors and assigns them to whoever they are supposed to race. So they had to do it by hand. This is really clear evidence of confusion and a lack of communication, at best. This ladder sheet has been printed out at every race we have run from East Coast to Pomona, but here in Las Vegas, it is a problem. Go figure. You really do like to know ahead of time who you race against, and the delay in getting the ladders out is just another indication of the condition of the NHRA.

But for us, right now, it is the only game in town.

Will update you after we finish up the divisional.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Friday, and Stock Eliminations start today..

2011-10-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

Seemed like a very short night as we had to get up at 5:30 AM to get breakfast and get to the track knowing that we will called to the staging lanes before 7:30 AM.

After a nice but quick breakfast here at the hotel, we hit the road. We got to the track, and started undoing some things we had done yesterday getting ready to go battle in the classic David vs Goliath battle that never happened.

By the way, I really do feel bad for the Teutons who needed a couple of things to go right for them for the National Class Champion, and beating us was the first one. But due to a starter failure, we won without the bloody battle that surely would have ensued. With so much on the line, both of us were willing to do what was necessary, within the rules of course, to take down the prize. So, I honestly feel bad for them. But on the other hand, winning it, is what we wanted. And it isn't like we cheated, or sabotagued them. This time, is their bad luck, and not ours...And that folks, is racing.

But back to today. We had put weight in the car, add some oil, charge the battery, and a few other things to get ready. But we got it all done just as they called Stock Eliminator to the staging lanes.

Our first round run, and only run today, was scheduled against an E/SA car. The driver cut a pretty good light (.006) to our light (.022) and got more than a second head start. But we ran him down, took the stripe, and we didn't break out. We had dialed 10.08 and won with a 10.13. So the first round of Stock Eliminator is over, and we are still racing.

Tomorrow, again starting at 7:30 AM, I think we run a C/SA car, so he wont get such a big head start. But we still need to get a good light (reaction time) and and run close to our dial. We think we have the car figured pretty well out, and will try hard to pick a good number that we can run. So tomorrow we again go racing and will see what is in store for us.

And it has been interesting as the many of Keith's children came down Salt Lake, and even in from Hawaii to visit and root us on. It was great to see many of the them again, and to meet those that I had not yet met. Talk about a contingent of builtin fans! We have ours for a couple more days, and it is fun being around so many fine young people. The Lynch Mob is alive and currently inhabiting the Las Vegas Drag Strip!

God Bless, and Safe Racing!

David

Class Winner A/SA in Las Vegas

2011-10-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

We have now won Class in two consecutive NHRA events in which we have been entered. Two weeks ago, we won A/SA Phoenix in admitting that it was a pretty limited field, but that was divisional race. And this week was a National race with a much larger field, and faster cars .But we had one of those rare and unique combinations of good racing and good luck.

This week in Las Vegas, there were 11 cars in A/SA and as I have previously noted, every one them has a bigger engine than the one in the Mega Maniac.

Our first round was against a Camaro, and we won that race.

Next round we were pitted against an old Hemi and we fortunately won that round.

The Semifinal round, we had a bye.

The finals was poised to be a pretty interesting race. The other car in the finals is also a 2009 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. It had previously been campaigned with a 6.1 Hemi and a stick shift transmission. But now it had a 6.4 Hemi in it, and an automatic transmission.

In fact as we readied to run the final round, many of the other racers were intently watching to see what promised to be a really good all-out race. There was a lot riding on this race because both drivers were locked in a tie (along with a few other folks) for first place in the National Stock Automatic Class Champions. And the one who won Class here, would clinch the first tie Breaker.

And a Class finals with two Dodge Challenger Drag Paks, both with different engines, but very much the same attitude, of race to the line, and may the best car/driver win attitude would mean that at least one, and quite possibly both cars would likely run fast enough to get horsepower.

As we approached the starting line, I could see that the other car, was still back in the staging lanes and had the hood off.

We pulled over at the starting line, to wait for the other car. I told the NHRA tech who was sending the cars to the starting line, that we would hold for the other car. At that point, another NHRA tech came from where the other car was in the Staging lanes, and said, "they cant start it. Run a single."

So everyone was cheated from seeing one heck of a race. But the good news is that nobody got hurt, and we won Class, giving us also the National Stock Automatic Championship too.

Tomorrow or sometime soon, I hope to have regained my balance. I am truly feeling beyond just being blessed. God has given me a great gift, of being able to accomplish a most impossible dream that Chris and I shared.

God Bless and Race Safely.

David

On the way to Las Vegas

2011-10-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Well, actually I leave tomorrow morning, so I thought I would post tonight. I actually don't think I will be posting again until I am in Las Vegas in a couple of days.

I stopped by the Summit Racing store nearby yesterday, and found something interesting.

I found a metal, beautifully Chromed pair of valve covers. I think they will look great on the Mega Maniac. But it is possible that they wont fit those Drag Pak heads. And if that is true, so be it.

I am in the process of putting a 5.7 Hemi engine together for a project that Chris, his son David, and I started before we even got the Drag Pak.

The car is 1968 Pontiac Lemans convertible. Chris and I had built a supercharged 454 Chevy engine for the car, but we sold that when we knew we wouldn't be getting back to this car for a while...

So why not put a 5.7 Hemi in the 1968 Lemans? Chris was going to put one in his 72 Challenger, and put dual turbo chargers on it. I always thought that was a good idea, and so that may be the way I go on the GTO clone Lemans.

So, if the chrome valve covers don't fit the Drag Pak, they will look just fine... well actually real fine on the 5.7 in that car.

Las Vegas, here I come... again.. Can't wait to get down to Fremont Street for the light show on the ceiling and Queen tribute.... Always a good time hearing several thousand people singing "We will, We will...Rock You!" at the top of their lungs.

And I can hardly wait to accomplish what we need to accomplish at the track. We currently are tied for first in the National Stock Automatic Class Championship race. And the way I calculate things, we hold a whole lot of the tie breakers, and if we can nail down one last one, that should clinch it, and then we are the Kings.

Like all things in racing, it isn't done, until it is done. So please root for us.

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

Lost in first round of Stock Eliminator, and more news ....

2011-10-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

We lost in the first round of Stock Eliminator to a very good car/driver combination, in a double breakout.

We dialed 9.89, and ran 9.88. He dialed 11.23 and ran 11.228, so although we both ran under our number, he was closer to his number than we were to ours. If we had run above our number, and he had run under, we would have won, because only he would have broken out, or gone too fast.

And that is racing in Stock Eliminator, some of these driver/car combinations have been together for years, and hit their numbers, or come awfully close as this one did, time after time. We are still getting a handle on our car, and every time we think we have it figured out, it runs a bit faster than we thought it would. And this is racing too!

Another interesting thing happened this past weekend too. There is a certain 5.7 Hemi Drag Pak (not ours...) who is known for doing stupid things, because his driver is a kid who doesn't understand racing, and doesn't have any investment in the car or the class, and is just out showing off.

In Columbus last year, when we were not running very well (before we found our coil pack problem) we ran him in the class finals. And in that race, he blew past us like we were standing still. In fact he passed us at about 800 feet out of 1320, and could have then just kept ahead of us, and won the race. But because he is an idiot, he ran the car all out through the traps, went too fast and got a horsepower hit.

When we get assigned more horsepower, that means that we have to add more weight to compensate for the additional horsepower. But this lug nut, has gotten more horsepower hits for the 5.7 than everyone else combined.

In Indianapolis, a month ago, and in a couple of previous races, his car was driven by a professional driver who knows that if he gets more horsepower, it affects HIS CAR TOO! So he drives to win, not to try to embarrass anyone and/or just show off. Unfortunately for him, In Indianapolis, he had engine trouble like we did. And he doesn't do his own engine work, as we do, so we got our engine back together, and competed in Indianapolis, and he was unable to. Frankly, I was rooting for him to be in a race with us, as I think we owe him one. And I like our chances against him heads up any day of the week. But as it turned out in Indianapolis, we had problem upon problem, and he didn't get his engine back together in time, so that is that. Not this time.

Well, his car showed up in Columbus again this past weekend, and he had the same joke of a driver as last year, who promptly went out and ran too fast, again getting horse power for the 5.7 combination. This time, it is 14 horsepower, and we are in a class where we have to carry nearly 8 pounds per horsepower, so that would mean that we need to add about 100 pounds, actually 8*14 = 112 pounds.... And frankly, that would pretty much force us out of A/SA, forcing us to run in AA/SA against supercharged Mustangs.

Now we can be competitive against most naturally aspirate (not supercharged..) cars. But just how is that fair?

So it really would take someone who doesn't care if the ever car runs competitively to do something like that. Or he is simply flat out ignorant of racing the NHRA. Because it isn't just my car that is affected, it is his car too! Man, talk about a death wish. That just isn't smart.

However, in the end, there is also good news.

If you go too fast and get horsepower for your combination, you get torn down(they ask you take your engine apart to show that everything matches teh specifications and tolerances) to see if you are legal or not. It happened to us in Chicago, (And in case you are thinking that we are the pot calling the kettle black because we have also gone too fast and gotten a couple of horsepower hits, when we did it, it was done during races, or in situations when we didn't have any idea that the car would go that fast. And if you total all of our horsepower hits which I think were 3, they all don't add up to his single last one.)

But my point is that we went too fast, got torn down, and we were legal by large margins.

So, they tore him down. And guess what? He was illegal! His piston dome height was too high. If protocol holds true, he will get a six month suspension, and frankly he really does deserve it. Not because he built an illegal engine, since I don't know whether he even knows which end of a connecting rod goes on a crack, but because he wasn't smart enough to drive sensibly enough to win without getting torn down. But it is normal that if you get caught cheating, as he was, you get a six month suspension from racing. And the result of him being declared illegal is that the horse additional power is not in effect.

OK, my rant is over... He is a moron, who got caught while doing something stupid. There is justice, and I will let it go at that.

Our next race will be the Nationals at Las Vegas, and I just looked at the current entry list, and saw something that I find interesting.. Can you see it?

25	A/SA	Kevin Helms	Schriever LA	10 Challenger	Dodg 392	SOUTHLAND DODGE, M/T, VP
71	A/SA	Rusty Hall	Chandler AZ	67 Shelby	Ford 428	HALL BROS RACING
383	A/SA	Larry Hill	Hickory KY	71 Plymouth	Plym 440	AARP CUDA
575	A/SA	Les Norton	South Jordan UT	10 Dodge	Dodg 392	NORTON RACING
1044	A/SA	John Shaul	Fultonham NY	64 Fury	Plym 426	MR. 426 RACING
213A	A/SA	Anthony Bertozzi	Ashland VA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	NITROPLATE
3610	A/SA	Leonard Mattingly Jr	Coxs Creek KY	00 Firebird	Pont 346	LEONARD MATTINGLY
5035	A/SA	Keith Lynch	Greenville OH	10 Dodge	Dodg 345	NEW HEMI RACING
6413	A/SA	Jon Percy	Pocatello ID	64 Plymouth	MOPR 426	BLACKFOOT RACING
6633	A/SA	Joe Sorensen	Woodburn OR	69 Camaro	Chev 427	JIM SIGEL B.A.M, II.
703D	A/SA	Kyle Rizzoli	San Luis Obispo CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT
7063	A/SA	Brian Sanderson	South Jordan UT	63 Plymouth	Chry 426	SANDERSON RACING
7446	A/SA	Chuck Rayburn	Castro Valley CA	64 Belvedere	Plym 426	CHUCK RAYBURN RACING
7911	A/SA	Clark Holroyd	Chino CA	69 Nova	Chev 396	FIRE ESCAPE RACING
T700	A/SA	Paul Cannan	Devore Heights CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT

My car has the smallest engine of any of the cars running currently registered in A/SA. And in some cases it smaller by nearly 80 cubic inches. So, considering that each cubic inch equates to more horsepower, it would seem that we are significantly over matched in Las Vegas.

But I guess that how things look on paper isn't really all that important. You still have to go out and run the races. So we all will just have to wait and see.

See you in Las Vegas.

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

First round of qualifying is done...

2011-10-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

The first round of qualifying in Phoenix is done. And the weather is hot, hot hot...

So it doesn't look like we will even run the second round of qualifying. I explain that in a second.

But later in the day, some time around 11:30 to noon Phoenix time, with the temperature even hotter, we will run the first round of Class.

The reason we won't run the second round of qualifying is actually pretty simple. We really don't need to make another run. Our first run was at 9.88 seconds, and 133.5 mph.

There are no results posted anywhere yet, but I have to expect that we are Very, Very close to being most under index at 1.112 under. So there is no need to beat up the car with another qualifying run. We can just go back to the pits, relax, charge the battery, refuel the car and get mentally ready for the Class competition. And we are far enough under, that if someone wants to get further under index, they will be flirting with horsepower on Monday. Top qualifier is good becuase it offers a possible bye somewhere along the race. And we really want to win Class.

This is a really big deal my friends. If we can take down just one more Class win, then we are sitting pretty for National Class Champions. And because I am not at the track with Keith and the car, it is like waiting for a baby to be born.

HERE IS NEWS: 1:22 Ohio time.

They finally posted the first round, and we are not first as I had hoped. Drew Skillman wheeled his AA/SA Mustang to 1.119 under.

So we are currently qualified at number two, sandwiched between two AA/SA Mustangs.

MORE NEWS: 3:30 PM Ohio Time

The second round of Stock Qualifying has been posted and nothing changed at the top.

In our Class A/SA , there are only three cars. Seven were "signed up" or at least they were listed on the NHRA Entry List for Phoenix, but at least one changed to B/SA, and I don't see a couple of them including Big Daddy Don Garlits, who I thought would be there, but do hope is in Las Vegas.

But here is how we stand. So now, all we need to do is go race and win.

A/SA 5035 Keith Lynch, Greenville OH, '10 Challenger      9.888 11.00 -1.112
A/SA   71 Rusty Hall, Chandler AZ, '67 Mustang           10.356 11.00 -0.644
A/SA 726 Dave Gertschen, Glendale AZ, '01 Firebird      10.562 11.00 -0.438

MORE NEWS: 4:05 Ohio Time

First round of Class is over and we are still alive.

We had a single run (BYE) as a result of being a higher qualifier than the other two. Keith took it easy on the car and ran 14 something. So we run Rusty Hall who beat Dave Gertshcen. The Finals will be run in about an hour.

Once again, we just need to go race and win.

MORE NEWS: 5:00 PM Ohio Time

We did it!   We ran Rusty Hall, and we won the race. We won A/SA Class in Phoneix and have another Wally for my Mantle. And we are now in the points lead for National Stock Champion. So now, we just need to go some rounds in Stock in Las Vegas, and we clinch all of the tie breakers too.

God Bless, and Race Safely.

David

Parked in Phoenix

2011-10-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Some distance from Phoenix, in small town Arizona, we broke a trailer axle. I told you this in my last post. So that part isn't a surprise.

On Wednesday, after talking to a lot of people, and making a lot of phone calls, Keith managed to locate a replacement axle about 100 miles away.

So off he went, and about four and a half hours later, he returned to that small town in AZ with the axle. The spring perches were different than the existing axle, so a bit of welding done by a local trailer shop, and Keith was back on the road with the trailer around 8:00PM AZ time.

Life is just an endless string of hurdles. Jumping them is only way to get to your destination. And even when you knock one down, and need to set it back up. But once again, the hurdles between us and our next adventure are completed.

The car, trailer, and Keith are currently safely pitted at Firebird International Raceway.

Stock runs at 8:00 AM AZ time, and I will be watching and rooting via 1320go.com.

Definitely not like "being there", but it better than not knowing. This is only the second time this car has run that I was not present. The first was a few months ago, when we tried out our backup motor at Stanton MI, Keith and Tonya went alone as it was a last minute decision, and I couldn't make it. This one was also kind of last minute, or at least it sneaked up on me. I already had a Cat Scan scheduled, and an appointment to hear what it shows. So I needed to miss this first phase of the trip.

More tomorrow after qualifying.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Another Broken Trailer Axle.....

2011-10-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

Last year, we managed to break a trailer axle in Wytheville, Virginia, and got totally ripped off by Complete Truck and Trailer.

They did a crappy job, charged too much, and didn't even hook the trailer brakes up on the new axle. And I hate getting ripped off.

So now, as the car is on it's way to the Phoenix National races, in Arizona, the other axle broke.

I got the trailer at a good price just before we took delivery of the car. Around $4000, and I have spent an amount equal to what I paid for the trailer, in getting it refurbed and the new axle in Va.

I feel badly that I didn't make this part of the trip with Keith. But I have confidence that he will get it back on the road, before the race this coming weekend. He is probably only a few hours from the track. So he has a couple of days to get something done. We talked today, and have a couple of options, some good, some not, but still have a little time, so we can only hope.

So the real question is, can we get an axle that fits well enough, that will get the car to Phoenix, and on to Las Vegas..

I will keep you posted about what is happening.

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

More Drag Pak information that you won't find anywhere else...

2011-10-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

There is still a lot of Secret Squirrel Information about the Drag Pak in general, and our car in particular, that will be withheld, until I decide that we are either done racing, or just don't care anymore.

So don't expect to see that very special stuff here soon. But there are a lot of other things that we know/have done, that I will happily share as a contribution to the Drag Pak Community.

Did you know?

Did you know that you can change your Cam without pulling your heads? You Can!

Chris and I first discovered this when our second cam arrived. We had originally had LSM do us pretty aggressive Cam, but they couldn't do the grind that we wanted as they didn't have a proper core available. So we put that cam on back order, and it was finally done. Gun Drilled core, and more duration than seemed possible. We were ecstatic about receiving, but didn't have a spare set of head gaskets, so we started trying to figure out how to change the cam without pulling the heads.

To solve a problem, And Chris and I were both pretty good at that, you need to break the problem down, and question all assumptions.

First assumption: You need to remove the heads.
Question: Why do you need to remove the heads?
Answer: To get at valve lifters, and remove them.

Next Assumption: You have to remove valve lifters to remove Cam.
Question: Why do they need to be removed?
Answer: Because if not removed, they will drop down and interfere with Cam removal.

Next Assumption: The lifters will fall down and interfere with Cam removal.
Question: What makes them fall down?
Answer: Angle of lifter, and gravity.

Next Assumption: The angle is such that gravity will cause lifter to fall.
Question: Is that true in this engine?
Answer: Nope, these lifters are almost horizontal.

So, you do remove the rocker arm assemblies, and push rods, so that nothing is pushing the lifters down to the Cam.
Then you take the cam removal tool, screw it into the end of the Cam, and turn it slowly, 360 degrees. This causes the lifters to be pushed back into the block at the highest point on the cam lobes.
Then you slide the Cam out, and slide new cam in.

What happens if one or more of the lifters slides back down in the block, and interferes with Cam removal or installation?

You can buy small telescoping magnetic tools at Harbor Freight, and a lot of other inexpensive suppliers. You insert this magnetic tool into the lifter bore, through the push rod hole in the head, and because the heads are aluminum and don't mess with the magnetics, you put the magnet on the lifter and pull it back. It probably will stay, now that you have actually pulled it back further than the Cam lobe. Then you can do the same to any others, two is the most we have have had, and you are good to go.

We have changed Cams without removing heads no less than four times. You might ask why so many times? But the truth is that what seems like the best today, may not be the best tomorrow. And in one case, we sheared the Cam alignment pin, and replaced the Cam for that reason. So, there are reasons to do it. And it isn't as bad as it is on a lot of other engines.

God Bless, an Race Safely!

David

Temporarily All Quiet on the Racing Front...............

2011-10-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Lots happening, but just not much on the racing side of things.

An idle thought: After the Class Win in Columbus, we stopped the Jegs team trailer, to chat with Jeg about his car. He is one terrific nice guy, humble and just plain a good guy. I am glad I finally got to meet him.

The car will be going to Phoenix for the Nationals on October 14-16. Keith will be alone for that race, except obviously for all the racing friends he has. But I have some health related things that will keep me in Akron for that week.

After the race, Keith will take car to Las Vegas for the Nationals there on the 27th thru the 30th. After dropping the car and trailer in Vegas, Keith will attend his youngest daughter's wedding in Salt lake City. And I wish the young couple all of the best.

Once the wedding celebrations are complete, Keith will return to Las Vegas, and I will fly in to join him for the races there.

I say races, because there is a National one week, and the a divisional the next week. And we will likely attend both.

For those who wonder what has been going on with the car, we are currently ranked number five in Stock Eliminator rankings. And interesting enough.... at least for me... we are positioned to take the who thing down... If we have one more Class Win, we are Number One and hold all of the tie breakers...

Obviously, we still have to "git er dun", but we have a couple of chances... So, I think we have a shot at it. Stock Automatic National Champion is pretty cool.

Then, at the Divisional, we will try to do something, that Chris and I believed we could do, and had as a goal from the very beginning. We will run in Super Stock (running in Super Stock isn't the goal), and get a World Record in some NHRA Class. That, a World Record, always has been the goal! Chris and I talked about it, at great length. We dreamed, and we laughed, and we knew we could do it.. So now is the time to do it.

Because of the way the NHRA punishes you for going fast, we will not try it in Stock where our Horsepower rating is over 400, and will go for it in Super Stock where our Horsepower rating is still 305. So in Super Stock, even though we will break the index, and be penalized with more horsepower requiring us to carry more weight in Super Stock, we can afford that hit.

Chris said it originally, and when he said it, the lights went on, and I immediately agreed with him. The New Hemi, the 5.7, the 6.1 and now the 6.4, all the same basic engine, is the LAST GREAT PUSHROD ENGINE that will ever be produced.

And it is about time that the Mega Maniac, the most successful and best known Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car running that engine, takes it proper place at the top of the list, amongst the greatest race cars in the NHRA with a Stock Championship, and a Super Stock World Record.

Even if we dont get either or both of these accomplishments, the Mega Maniac is a winner.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Columbus - Just another adventure.....

2011-09-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

We arrived at National Trailways on Thursday morning. The plan was to take advantage of the Thrsday Test N Tune, and find out what kind of times the car will really do. But, there was a program running early in the day, as a rain make up. Well, that program ran into teh night, and so there was no Test N Tune.

OK, so we missed the Test N Tune, on Friday, the Sports Nationals starts!

Except, it rained most of the day, and ultimately, the three day event was turned into a two day event. So, we ran a 9.85 time, and were qualified #1 for about half an hour. Then Charley Bob Downing in his Mustang went for a record run, took the number one qualifier position, and also will get some horsepower on Monday. But we went into Class Eliminations, and after running our 5.7 Hemi against some pretty fast A/SA cars, including a 6.4 Hemi Dodge Challenger, and a 6.1 Hemi Challenger DragPak, won the A/SA Class. The winning run came at around 11 PM. Our Class win came against the 6.4 Hemi, and it was late. The temperature was dropping fast and there was dew on the race track. Needless to say we, and the other car spun our tires on the wet track. But we recovered, and won. Yeah! Another Wally! A very good day.

After the scale check to make sure our weight was legal, and the fuel check to be sure our fuel was legal, we were told that the photographer had already left, so we drove back to the pits, and we could get the pics take Sunday Morning... But wait, a tech rep came and got us, and we drove the car back down to the photography backdrop for pictures. I will explain in the next paragraph why I even tell you this.

Keith started the car to drive back to the pit area, and the car made noises that we didn't like. He immediately shut it down. We started it again for moment, to try to identify the noise, and after a moment of only concluding it was bad, shut it down again. We drove the our pit cart back to the trailer and got our tow strap, hooked up the car, and towed it back, up a pretty big hill, and to our pit. Our little cart, like the car, may not look big, but it does a nice job.

We pulled the oil filter out of the car, and began to tear it apart. It was now about 11:30PM and after struggling with it got the filter apart. If it shows us bearing material, then we have a big problem. Almost anything else, is still a big problem, but other things aren't as destructive as spinning a bearing like we did in Indianapolis. The pit area is well lighted, and we are trying to figure out exactly what might be wrong.

We start pulling plugs to see if there are any symptoms there. Cylinder number spark plugs, are clean whereas all other plugs are black for running too rich. So what does that mean? Black, running rich is the norm for us. So why are the plugs from number 3 clean. Maybe a bent valve. Maybe a broken rocker arm. Lots of maybes. It now midnight, and suddenly the lights go out, and it is as dark as a cave at night. Apparently the track shuts the light off at midnight. Rats! What now.

A Super Street guy pitted next to us, came over with a flashlight, and I found my flashlight. We messed around for another half hour, and decided that we couldn't see things well enough. So with the help of our neighbor, we pushed the car into the trailer, fired up the generator and turned on the fluorescent lights in the trailer. But the lights flickered too much, and was driving us crazy, so we got our two trouble lights and had a little light. We did a compression check and decided that cylinder 3 had too much compression. That could be caused by several bad things. But our best guess was a bent or broken valve. It was about 2 in the morning by then, and we decided the problem was probably beyond us right then. So we went back to the hotel. At the time we left the track, we were sure that we had a really big problem, and that we would be leaving early Sunday morning

We got back to the track at about 7:30 AM. So there we were, with four hours of sleep, back trying to figure out what was wrong.

After taking about the symptoms, and possibilities, being short of sleep, and pretty testy from that lack of sleep, we kept asking each other: What could it be. Now it was getting late and soon Stock would be called. There is no way, we can get things fixed, and get reading for Stock Eliminator in a little more than an hour. But one way or another , at the track, or back in the shop, things need to be taken apart, so even if we cant get it all back together in time, we can find out what caused the problem.

One possible thing that could cause the problem might be a collapsed lifter. To find out, we need to pull coil packs, intake manifold, calve cover, rocker arm assemblies, push rods, exhaust headers, and the driver side head. That is a couple of hours work, so although we knew it was absolutely assured that we couldn't get it apart, fixed, and back together in time to run, we still needed to get it apart to find out if that is our problem. And if we find almost anything else, we couldn't get it done anyway.

So apart it all came. The car was still in the trailer, and that made it hard for more than one person to do a lot of things. But since it is now daylight, we pushed the car mostly out of the trailer, drained the water, and shortly had the manifold off. Then came the coil packs, the valve covers, the rocker arm assemblies, and we decided to try pulling the head without removing the exhaust headers. As I recall, Chris and I pulled that driver side head with header still attached. So to save time, and effort, decided to try it again. It worked, we moved the head just enough, with header still attached, to remove the lifter cradle, and the lifters. And guess what we found? A collapsed lifter. We have spare lifters, so we could replace it. They had just called the left side of the Stock Elimination Ladder to the Staging lane. No way we could get it all together in time before we are called, and cant make it.

But wait, we have come this far, and I hate giving up. I will not quit!!!!!!!!!!!

And there was no resistance. Both Keith, and Ed, who joined us for this trip and was extremely helpful, were in synch with me. Lets just try! And we did. The new lifter went in, the head went back on. The rocker arm assembly went in, the rocker cover went back on, intake manifold went back on, spark plugs in, coil packs on, everything was connected, we put water in, and hoped for the best. The car was started, and it sounded great. We backed it out, drove to staging lanes, and got there right in time.

We actually won our first two rounds of eliminations, and in our third round, we ran a 9.91 on a 9.3 dial. That is bad. You cant run faster than your dial in, so we lost that one, and were done. But in my mind, we won just by getting the engine diagnosed and fixed in time to compete.

God Bless, and Race Safely!
David

Found the problem....

2011-09-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Some things are every bit as obvious as they appear to be..

My good friend Mack Reeves in Florida (another Drag Pak owner, and member of the New Hemi Secret Squirrel Club) suggested it from the symptoms, and he was spot on...

The cam pin had sheared, and allowed the cam to shift about a quarter of a turn.

Simple enough, with the cam out of position, the valves hit the pistons, we lost compression, the car wouldn't run. We were very, very lucky that there was no real damage other than losing the cam pin, and putting us out of the Nationals

But that is racing....................

We also had a problem as our alternator burned up, refusing to charge, and actually providing a load on the engine. In addition, our low voltage wouldn't give us enough cranking power to really begin diagnosing the problem.

The new alternator arrived today, and the new cam went into the engine yesterday. So, one way or another, we are getting the car ready to run again. When, where, and even if, we will run next, is an open question, to be answered here at some point in the future..

We also changed some of the graphics on the car..... It was about time to give credit where credit is due, and the front fenders of the car now, now say; Engine by Keith Lynch!

I made a couple of more changes to the graphics, and will post a picture here soon. The overall look of the car is unchanged, and the car is still emblazened with the name of MEGA MANIAC.

One more thing relative to the car's appearance, the teeth in the front air dam of the car, have become quite an imposing picture. So I am adding even more teeth when I get a chance...but it will probably happen before we run again.

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

Indianapolis Nationals

2011-09-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy week and week end for the New Hemi Racing Team.

We had just put a new engine in the car before Bowling Green, and it just didnt seem right. We were number two qualifier, but each run was slower than the last.

We got ready for Indianpolis, did a few things, changed to racing oil put in new spark plugs, different air pressure in tires, etc. Drove to the track, and there we were, early and ready for the Big Show.

We ran a 9.86 to initially give us the number three qualifying spot, and were later dropped to number four. The car ran very well that first run. We ran two more qualifying runs, and again the car got slower and slower. Some loss in performance could be attributed to the rotten weather of temps in the mid to high 90's, and high humidity. But it just didnt seem like it should be that bad.

Our first run of class was on Thursday. We got a win over Dennis Breeden's Challenger. But at the end of the run, Keith heard a noise in the engine he didnt like, and shut it down. We got it pushed back to the pits, and confirmed we probably had spun a bearing. We couldnt run anymore in Class, so our dreams of a class win at this race were gone. Our next action at the track wouldnt be until Saturday, and Keith's shop in Ohio was only a couple of hours away. Maybe we could it repaired, and be back in time for the Stock Eliminations. So we packed up and hit the road back to the shop.

We got to Keith's shop at about 3:00 in afternoon and tore right in the car. A couple of hours later we confirmed the spun bearing, on pistons 5 and 6 and a crank that was toasted. So, we needed two rods, and a new crank. We tried a couple of sources for the crank, and finally located one at Gary Stanton's in Kentucky. We also determined that the spare rods were in the main New Hemi Shop in Akron, and I was the only one with the key to the shop. So I took off for the 4 hour drive to Akron, and Keith was going to get up at 4:00 AM and head off to pick up the crank in KY, four hours in the other direction. I would back in Keith's shop the next day around 11:00 AM with the rods, Keith should be back at around noon. Sounds like a good plan, doesnt it? We should be putting it all back together at noon Friday.

I got to the shop at 11:00 as planned, and Keith had already taken our rods to Ohio Crank Shaft to be checked for round on the big end. They were way, way out of round, and we sent the spare new rods to also be checked. In the meantime, a good friend, Paul Dilcher, was passing through the area and conveniently could pick up the crank for us. He should be back at Keith's shop around 1 PM. We had also ordered bearings, and a single head bolt that had been lost somehow. We had two sets, but couldn't complete two engines, being one bolt short. Thank you, Gary Stanton!

I picked up the rods at Ohio Crankshaft, they checked and rounded all ten of them for us. (We only needed 8 done, but we had ten, so we may as well get them all checked and have a couple of good spares.) Thnak you, Ohio Crankshaft!

There were some problems on the road back from Stanton's in KY, but the crank finally arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon, and we snapped right into action. Crank, cam, rods and pistons go in first. Degree Cam, and get timing right. Then heads, rocker arms, and valve covers back on. Another friend, Ed showed up at the shop, as he had done the night before, and we had another set of hands. Next, the engine went in. The clock had been ticking and it was about 8:00 PM when the engine started to go back into car. At 10:30 PM, the engine was in, and we were ready to start it.

It started!!! We drove it straight back into the trailer, all jumped into the truck, we were on our way back to the Race Track in Indy. We got in late, about midnight. And our previous pit space, was jammed with RV of a guy who wsant even racing. The fellow next to us had moved his car over to hold it for us, but that was ignored. Oh well!!! We found an open space, and pulled the car out. We saw the McCormack's on their cart, and some other folks, including Jimmi Bowling came by. Around 3:00 AM the Lynch's slept in the truck, and I slept on the floor of the trailer. Morning sure came early.

We also had a problem with our alternator, and I had stopped on the way over to get one at Jegs, but they didnt have one.. So we ran with our bad alternator not charging anything.

We had no idea what to dial. So we just put 10.0 on the window. We ran against a car who dialed 10.48. So he got a head start, and we caught him at around 1000 feet, and our car shut down for a moment, and the other car passed us. After the car engine shut down, it came back alive, but too late. Keith drove to the return road, and the car died completely. Once again we were pushed back to our pit space.

We dont know what caused the engine to cut off on the track, or the subsequent failure to start. We suspect the battery didnt have enough juice to keep the engine running, but it could have beeen any one of hundred other things too.

We packed up, took the car back to Keith's shop. And I drove back to Akron. In the mail that wsa piling up in my mailbox, I got a notice from the city that I need to cut my grass, or they will do it, charge for cuttingit, and still fine me. Four feet high, it was kind of pretty. The thing that probably got me busted was that I have a 3 1/2 foot fence, and the grass was higher than that. Oh well, I cant afford to have someone else cut it, and I didnt feel like it. I did finnally cut it this morning...Tomorrow I need to get over to the house Chris was refurbing, and cut eh grass there too, before that city gets upset with me too.

I did order a new alternator, and the overall costs, new crank and parts,rooms food, fuel,entry fees, alternator, etc, this weekend was about $3500. Man, we really do need to find a sponsor!

We did manage to pick up some extra copies of the National Dragster magaine with the feature article on New Hemi Racing and our trials, and challenges. It was a very nice tribute to Christopher, Drooze, Wertman. It was one year ago, on July 31, that we lost him. But he will never be forgotten, and I never stop missing him.

God Bless, and race safely!

David

Some goals met, and a little dissapoinment

2011-08-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the Divisional at Bowling Green Kentucky.

We put the new engine in the car, and needed to get some runs on it before Indianapolis this coming week.

With a new engine, you have several questions including the obvious one, will it run? Other questions include, how fast will it run? Is it as fast as we expected,or do we still need to do "things" to make it faster? And what kind of settings are normal for this engine. Oil pressure reading, and even water temperature vary from engine to engine. So it is neccesary to know what is "normal" for this engine.

Well the good news is that we ended up as the number 2 qualifier, and if we hadnt been a little careful to avoid running too fast and getting horspower the week before Indy, we easily could have been #1.

We were, however #1 among all of the Dodge Challengers (6 total including us) running at this race.

We got the track early to run the Test 'N Tune, again hoping to see how fast we could go, and getting some runs on the engine. But our last run in the test session (Test session runs dont count against you in the NHRA no matter how fast you go...) when we were going to let it all out, we ran down the track with nice start. But when the car shifted into third gear, the engine rpm went high as if there there wasnt any load on it, and then went down fast.

Keith shut it down and coasted to the end of the track. I immeiately knew something was wrong during the run, by the fact that the time was slow, and the speed was way down. So I hurried in golf cart to turn off from teh track to see if we needed to tow the car back.

Before I got there, the MegaManiac was already apparenlty easily, motoring towards me, past me, and back into our pit.

Keith confirmed what had happened, and we put the car up on jackstands, drained teh transmission fluid, expecting to see all kinds of nasty things in the fluid. The fluid was clear..

We then pulled the pan off of the transmission, and saw that the filter was completly clogged with some black ugly looking material. The fuid was clear, and the black stuff was not anywhere else in the transmission.

We replaced the filter, and put the same fluid back into it, with another quart of new ATF.

Our first qualifying run was going to tell us whether the clogged filter, or something else. Keith took it easy and after the car shifted correctly into third gear, we knew it good. A strange issue, and one that concerned us, but turned out OK.

We had a first roung against a good driver and car, and in an attempt to make sure we got a quick start, we got a little too quick, and red lighted.

We were all dissapointed, because we though we had a pretty good chance to go some rounds, bu that is racing; red by .006 is pretty close to 0....

But, we did the runs on the car, and confirmed to ourselves and others, that we are a force to be reckoned with.
So, the car is in the trailer, and the trailer is sitting #42 in line to get into Indianapolis, and will be pitted tomorrow morning.

We have a couple more tweeks to make, and think we have a pretty good chance to run very well there.

God Bless and Race Safely

David

Thoughts of last year....Pomona, CA

2011-08-22T22:03:00.000-07:00

Pomona Ca... Strange situation...

Something just came to mind about our experience last year in Pomona.

One morning, we were driving to the track, we stopped at a loal shop to pick up some incidentals...

Suddenly, a mortorcye policeman, who just happened to look a lot like Don Imus, a previously Cleveland radio personality, and now famous for making a comment about "nappy headed whores", in reference to an east coast college womens basketball team, came up to us, and asked for identification.

Before we knew what was happening, we were handcuffed and sitting on a curb. Apparently, the dealer plates on Keith's truck caused him some kind of concern. He insulted us, and accused us of all kinds of criminal acticities, and searched the truck. Well, as a devout Christian, and Keith and his wife being the safe, we really weren't all that concerned. We had done nothing wrong, and have nothing to worry about.

After at least forty five minutes of insults, and stupid questions from the Imus look alike, , and another couple of officers showed up. One of them happened to be a Drag Race fan. And fortunately, he apparently outranked Don Imus, and was a reasonable person. He put at ease immediately, assuring us that it wouldn't be long, and we would be on our way.

A few minutes later, and we were uncuffed, lectured by Imus for not having the tag permanently attached, and we were on our way back to the track at Pomona.

Kind of funny in retrospect, and as far as I can remember, we never spoke about it again.

But Keith did permanently attach the license plate. But next time we get together, I will remind them, Keith and Tonya, and we can laugh about it all over again.

Some of the most interesting and strange things that happen when you travel coast to coast to race, get dropped between the cracks. This just came to mind, and I wanted to share it with you...

Stay tuned for more. God, life is good!

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David
The New Hemi Guy

My, how time flies...

2011-08-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Pretty soon, it will be time to race again.

And we go over the peices and parts from our broken engine, and look at putting together our new engine, we continue to wonder how we ever ran as well as we did before.

From valve seats that weren't seating, losing compression... And not from just one valve either, but from quite a few of them......

....to fuel injectors that were not doing their job of properly injecting the fuel..

Previously, we ran an awful lot of races, and ran very fast for many of them. But then we started losing power. But it wasn't until we ran our backup engine, that we began to suspect that the killermotor had issues. How else can we account for a plain vanilla engine running as well as it did, when our killer motor wasn't much faster.

But now, we know why the Killer motor was down on power.. And that knowledge is going into the new killer motor.

So, by the time Indy rolls around, our new killer motor should be back together, and wrung out a couple of times at a local track.

So look out Indy! New Hemi Racing is coming to a track near you. And we are again ready to race.

New Hood hold downs by Quick-Latch

2011-08-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that Drag Pak #24 has more unique innovations, and changes from the way the car comes, than any other Challenger Drag Pak. I won't go into the entire list of them, because some of them are "Secret Squirrel" Information. And that information is held quite close to the vest. But this is only one of many, many things that are different on this car, and one of the reasons why we run more consistently and faster than any other Challenger Drag Pak with the same number of cylinders, and within 50 cubic inches. But we also do it with less stress, and grief.

If you want to get the whole list of what we have done, the book "The Definitive Drag Pak" is available on disk, in PDF form for only $500. And this book is the Secret Squirrel version, with absolutely nothing held back.

This post is about just one innovation that we have been slowly evolving. Our hood attachments.

As reported previously, we lost the original hood in Las Vegas last year. The Dzus fasteners just were not reliable enough. As demonstarted in thr fact that we lost the hood at 135 MPH as we crossed the finish line. In addition, from the time we got the car, the fasteners were, at best, inconvenient. And mostly they were a means to scratch the hood, and battle to get get them latch, and open. Ask any Drag Pak owner, and they will tell this is one of the most inconvenient things about this car.

Evolution One: When we got the new hood, I requested that it not be drilled or have fasters install. We had decided to use conventional hood pins. So we made new brackets, and the hood pins did their job. The hood was easier to get open when necessary, and stayed down when it should.
But when you took the pins out, you had to keep track of the 10 loose hood pins. We would set them in pile, or drop them in a cup. But I was always aware that if we lost one Not a really big deal, but just an inconvenience. And although this sure beat the Dzus fasteners, I am all for making racing as convenient than it absolutely can be. That doesn't mean I think I can make racing easy, I can't. racing is hard work. But I sure can make it easier than it has been.

Evolution Two: At one of the races, a representative of Quick-Latch came by and I got to see some samples. Immediately, I could see that we could remove our concerns over losing pins, and get a much better, smoother appearance. And they wouldn't take much modification to what we already had done, and they are NHRA approved.

And here it is. While we waiting to get our new engine together, we finally had a chance to make some minor changes to the custom brackets we made for the hood pins, and install the new latches; So, here is a better way. What you see is a bit more than the Quick-Latch Polished Mini Latch. We installed a washer under the pin bucket, and above it on the hood. There are four rivets holding the top washer in place. This washer, and rivets and probably not needed. But the Quick-Latch Min in not terribly big, so we felt comfortable leaving the large washer with rivets in place. We had used them for the hood pins, and some day we remove the rivets, and put pretty chrome washer in place under the latches. But that is not a real high priority at this point in the evolution.

What do we like about the Quick-Latch? Well, you press a button in the center of the latch, and it releases. We opted for the optional springs, so that the hood pops up away from the latch, when the button is released. And it works great. It isn't without its' own little quicks. The order that you pop the latches, is based somewhat on how they are installed, and you have to determine it yourself.

This is a look at one of the installed latches.

The center part, about 1 inch, with a small button

in the center of it, is the actual latch.

You press that center button to release the latch.

This is what they all look like when istalled.

Neat, clean, smooth, and easy!!!

They look nice and work good. Although they cost a little more than hood pins, but they still are better than any other solution that I have seen yet. You can do a whole hood for less than $300. And after you scratch your paint a few times, or lose your hood once, or just go through the rat race of unlatching, and then relatching them after fuel check a few times, and $300 isn't too much after all.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

The New Hemi Guy

Want to see some broken parts?

2011-08-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Not everyone who watches this blog is a racer. Most racers have already seen too many broken parts to take any interest in what I am showing you. But for the rest, you may find it interesting.

First, let me explain what we ultimately determined was our problem. We had about 160 runs on the motor, and the rods are made in China. What this means is simple: First, it is hard to find much of anyhting that isnt made in China, and two the quality isn't what it used to be when it was mad ein America. But this would/could be true of any rods. The big end of the rods, tend to get out round, and when they do, they put unusual pressure on the bearings, which then tend to fail, and then the rod breaks, and then the crank gets hammered by the broken rod, and the block gets cracked.

The top two pictures are the rods.

The one below is obviously the one that totally broke.

The pictures below are the cracks in cylinder walls.

This cylinder, you can see, is more than cracked.

I didn't show the crankshaft, but it was beat up pretty badly, and was totally unusable.

So there you have it. That's what broken parts look like. And we now have broken a total of 4 motors, two 6.1s and two 5.7s, so what is next?

Hopefully, there will be no more broken engines. But if there is, we will build another engine and race it! Never give up! And it will take a lot more than broken engine to make us give up now.

God Bless, and Safe Racing.

David

Stanton Michigan

2011-08-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

Surprise, Surprise. Our backup motor pushes the car down the track pretty well.

We qualified number 8 in stock, out of 58 cars.

Unfortunaly, in our first round of eliminations, the car did something to us that it done before..

It ran way too good. We ran a 10.11 on the brakes, with a top speed of 100 mph.

So we lost a double breakout.

Now we have some time, and some parts will be in to shop this week, and other work is already underway, for our new engine. I won't say which engine we will run in Indy, 5.7, 6.1 or 6.4... We can run any one of these engine in A/SA and we will run A/SA in Indy.

And naturally, we want to win at Indy, so you can be sure that we will run whatever engine gives us the best chance of winning.

And as much as I like the idea of David vs the Goliath, the 5.7 doesn't have the kind of torque you get with a 6.4. The 6.1 isn't so bad either, if built right. And we know how to build these engines.

So wait for Indy August 31-September 5, 2011 and see what happens next.

God Bless, and Race Safely out there.

David

Back up plan in effect.. Stanton Michigan

2011-07-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well, with a largely shattered engine, that will take some time to get the required machine work and parts together.. When you lose a block, pistons, rods, and a crank, you need to do a lot just to get something together to put heads on. And oh yes, we bent some valves too, so that has to be done.
But we do have a sponsor paying for the engine, so that is good...

However in the meantime, we need points, and we have had a spare motor in the trailer for quite a while, so that is now back in the car. The engine is no slug, but it isn't as trick as the one we just totaled. However this engine will get the car down the track respectably.

So the car is in Stanton Michigan at the Mid Michigan Motorplex for the 2 day divisional. And Stock goes out pretty early Saturday morning, so we can see how the car runs with the spare motor.

God Bless and safe racing to you all.

David

Columbus Ohio, Divisional Event

2011-07-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Got to the track early on Thursday, and had our choice of a couple nice pit spots.

We took one on the corner with a clear look of the Staging lanes.

It got hot early. But then it got even hotter...

We considered running in the Test 'N Tune. But it was really hot, and we were concered that that the track may not be prepped well enough for us to hook up, and run a meaning time.

We saw a friend in another Dodge Challenger Drag Pak who tested, ran a very nice time, and apparently went home. I missed being able to say hello and shake hands. God Bless my friend. I hope all is well.

We went back to the room knowing that all we needed to do on Friday was to fuel up the car. The car had been fully charged prior to the trip. And it felt good to get out of the heat.

We also met another Drag pak owner #53, Jeff Hull of West Virgina. He and wife are sweet people. And we enjoyed meeting and spending time with them. Unfortunately, Jeff was disqualified on his runs. I don't know whether it was fuel DQ, or whatever, but also left on Friday. I look forward to talking to them again soon.

All together, there quite a few Drag Paks; Us in a 5.7 Hemi, and I thought I saw Merryweather's 5.7 but he never ran, and there was Jeff Hull, Larry Smith, Dennis Breeden running 6.1 hemis, and irving Johns running a 6.4 Hemi. Irv, by the way, ended up #1 Qualifier in his 6.4. If it can;t be us, at least it was another Drag Pak.

Our first run, the logs showed that the car sensed the temperature at 95 degrees. And there is no way to second guess that, except it could be possible that it was even hotter than that.

We ran a 10.27 while everything we had said we should have been very close to Norwalk times, and we were .30 slow.

We chose not to run the second qualifying round that came in the heat of the day. There was a makeup run later, and we were hoping for a cool down. No such luck. We ran another 10.27 and were settled in at around the #8 qualifier.

We went back to our hotel room, and cooled off with popsicles, and lemonade. On the way back to the room, about 25 minutes away, it rained some serious amounts of rain. By the time we got back to the hotel, the rain had ended. Then came dinner, and

Saturday

The day started off cooler, and we were hopeful that the car would get back to form in the cooler temps..

But, just as we were called to the staging lanes, the sun came out from behind the clouds and haze, and the temperatures began to skyrocket all over again.

Oh well, that is racing. We all run in the same air, with the possible exception of the blown mustangs which make their own air..

OK, last qualifying run. Everyone was looking pretty good as they hooked pretty well, and were improving their times.

We did a nice burnout. Then we staged, and took off. We didn't have a monster launch, but it was respectable, and we lifted the front end a bit.

The first thing I noticed, was an 11.08 time... WHAT???? 10.0 would be nice. But 11.08, What went wrong???? Then I heard the announcer comment on a problem. And I could see that the car had rolled to a stop just past the finish line. I heard from another racer, that word was that we had hit the wall. But that was not the case. Something in the motor broke. We didn't spew fluids, but the car just shut down.

At this point, we have no idea what went wrong, but something definitely broke. The car is now back in the shop, and we will know within a day or so, what actually broke.

We have broken our share of motors. This is number four. But this motor had over 150 runs, and a lot of #1 qualifiers, a couple of class wins, and a stock elimininator win. So it has been a good motor. And we can't be too upset about it finally giving up the ghost.

When and where we race next is an open question. It will all depend on the motor, and what has to be done. some of the work on this motor took a fair bit of time, and if we have to start over, it will be both expensive and time consuming. Sponsor, Sponsor, who has a Sponsor? Not us. Yet!

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Sorry for the delay in posting...

2011-07-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

We are waiting for a couple of more races before we put the car back on the track.

In the meantime, I am working on the house that Chris was remodeling in Barberton, Ohio. He had removed all of the walls, and plaster, and new walls went up. The stairs got moved to make more usable room. Now I need to finish the Kitchen and bathroom, and tie in all of the new electric.

I have way too many projects going, so it is nice to finally see this getting closer to being finished.

So look for us in Columbus and/or Indianapolis in a short while.

Just helped my lady friend with her son's high school graduation party. Very busy Saturday! It sure is fun to be around young people, she is a lot younger than me, and nice to around the high school kids too. Life is good!

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Rain, Rain, go away.......

2011-06-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

And stay away.. Pleeease, Just give us a break!

After waiting all day while the weather teased us time after time, by having the rain stop, and just for effect, a few times the sun even actually came out, giving us hope......

So then filled with hope that we would be racing soon upon each of these many blessed moments; announcements were made, the vacuum trucks hit the track to suck up the wet, and a few times, the jet dryers were actually out there, trying to evaporate the water on the track... And then.... And then...

And then.... it would just start raining all over again. Sometimes a steady spritz or drizzle, and other times a full fledged rainstorm would present itself for our approval or disapproval... Needless to say, very few 10's were awarded to the weather today. A bright sunny day, with fluffy white clouds floating aimlessly on deep blue sky, could have been an easy winner in today's weather contest, but alas, today was no such day.

Eventually the track announcer, educated us (and everyone else at the track) to the reality that there is a point, where the temperature, and dew point coincide and the air wont take any more water, and that is where we are, and there will be no racing today!.

This was about 4:30 or 5:00 PM. So we waited all of the ding dong day. Some good folks, when finally told that we would not run today, and we still expected some of the big name cars to run (Not Stock, or frankly any Sportsman classes) began to consume adult beverages.

So, we will run at about 8:00 AM and then Heaven only knows when or if we will get more runs tomorrow, since there are a lot of cars, Fuel Dragsters, etc, that people pay big money to see, that need to get qualifying runs completed, that it will be a busy day for them, and not so busy for us.

And the ladder distributed for Stock Eliminator has us with a bye run in the first round...

So, for now, that is all the news...

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!
David

Norwalk Qualifying today

2011-06-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Our first run today was respectable. We ran 9.929 And we had the #1 qualifying position for the moment. But we have two more rounds of qualfying scheduled for today. And anything can happen

Then the rains came.. Nothing new here. Every race we have been to this year, it has rained at some point during the qualifying rounds or the racing. So here it came again.

We left car out of the trailer since it was a bit dusty, and the rain would address that issue. Then after about an hour and a half, the rain ended. I dried the car completely off, and we started charging the battery.

Then the rain came again..... And the car got wet again..... Darn! I am running our of dry towells....

Finally, about five Oclock we got the call for Stock to report to the staging lanes.

We made our second, and now final qualifying run, due to the rain. And again we ran a repsectable time below 10 seconds. We ran a 9.98.

But, at the end of the day, we were still #1 Stock Qualifier! Again! Yeay!

Now on to Stock Eliminations tomorrow.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

I am remiss, didn't post anything from Bristol... Now in Norwalk..

2011-06-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last week was not much fun for me. Don't really know what was happening, but we qualified pretty good, just not number one.. Actually we w ere number 5 behind two blown mustangs which should be in a class of their own... And two 512 cubic inch Challenger Drag Paks.. So, not so bad for a little 345 cubic inch Drag Pak.

We took second place in class, having gotten beat by one of the 512 cubic inch Drag Paks. Then we were eliminated in the the third round of Stock Eliminator, by a pickup truck that we had to give a full four second head start, and we would have beaten him, but the Darg pak just didn't like the air, and we could only muster a 10.09 when we thought we would run 10.05, so he ran closer to his dial, and we went home.

Now we are here in Norwalk. Trailer parked and car unloaded and passed technical check. We do need to move the air sensor off of the motor and to somewhere else....No problem... But just something else to do, because somebody complained ... Guess if you run good, somebody will complain... Imagine that... Nobody complained about anything, when we could run the index...

Well more tomorrow. We get three Qualifying runs Thursday, and run Eliminations of Friday.

On sort of a personal note, we have a new crew member, a young woman (younger than ones I usually date, but a few more years than Mandy. And I do miss the kind of humor Mandy and Chris together added to our racing. But with Chris gone, Mandy has no reason to be with us. And now Marty, a former model, is part of the team, and is a young lady of intelligence and class, who cares for me for more than my money, And that is something I am not used to having around... She will be with us later in the weekend, and I am looking forward seeing her again. With my travel it has been a couple of days......

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Chicago Results

2011-06-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

Not so good..

The car ran great, but we had a few issues that when combined together, helped us make a bad decision.

As we were getting ready for our third round run, we noticed one of our rear tires had a cut in it. Not a big cut, but just into the cords. First we spent some time trying to figure out what had caused the cut. Maybe a rock or something else on the track? Maybe something in the wheel well?

Yep, we found it. Hiding behind the plastic fender liner is a piece of body seam that appears to hit the tire when we pull our wheelies, and the plastic is pushed out of the way, and the metal pokes through.. A small adjustment with pliers, and a hammer, and that silly metal will no longer cut tires.

I knew that we would need new tires next week, so that wasn't a big surprise that it costs another $450 for a pair of new rear shoes. But having a pair of brand new tires, begs the question, will they grip as well as the others? In other words, it raises uncertainty.

And then there was the new weather machine. The previous machine, which was already a bit old, finally died. So we got a new one. Another $400 into the effort. But when it says, or rather, when it predicts that you will run a 10.06, can you trust it? We didn't. We thought it would be more like 10.08 so that is what we dialed in the third round. And guess what we ran? 10.06, so I guess we can trust our new weather machine. And especially after we get a few more runs into it, so it has more data to analyze. Also we ordered, although it hasn't shown up yet, a data cable to connect the weather machine to a computer so we can store the data and further analyze and predict.

So, in the future we are running out of excuses... We are currently scheduled for two more National events; Bristol Tennessee, and Norwalk, Ohio. And I fully expect to win one of those...

From this point forward, we will be running in A/SA. So we can take out some weight, and let the car rip. We have to be careful not go too fast, because we really don't want any more horsepower.... But we can run 9.801 and avoid horsepower. And the car is certainly capable of. doing that all day long. In fact the car is capable of a whole lot more. But for now, we will stay there or slower...

Here is one of our Qualfying runs.

Oh, and here is a video of our Bye Run.
Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

In case you wondered about a teardown....

2011-06-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

They are not a whole lot of fun.

You get out all of your tools, and then you realize what tools, you forgot to bring. Usually they are the ones that you used last on the car, just before you loaded it into the trailer....

But once you think you have them all, or before you realize that you don't, the tear down begins with an invitation to a party! Yep, a tear down party.

So, here are some pictures of some of the process:

The engine before we tear into it.

Friends and other interested parties stop by

to encourage, or just to look at the whole process.

The intake and plumbing comes off.....

And the Head comes off...I skipped a few steps but once

the head comes off, we can also pull the valve lifters.

Her, you can see the pistons clearly marked as NHRA legal,

and below you see the headers which are one of the hardest,

most troublesome things to take off. And the two long things

above the are what holds the valve lifters down.

Everything gets measured. Here the exhaust runners

are being measured to be sure they are not larger than legal.

And, they are not. Intake runners get the same treatment,

and does the combustion chamber which is measured to make

sure it isn't too small. And once again, it isn't! We are legal.

And the engine gets checked for bore and stroke, and piston

dome height, and then the cam lift is measured,

first the exhaust, then the intake lift. And once again we are legal.

Oh, yes, then wheelbase and front overhang, and rear overhang are measured.

Then we have to put it all back together again and hope that it runs as well as it did before we too it all apart.

So, as you might imagine, there is a bit of mild concern as the switch is pressed, and the engine turns over. Will it start? Will it run like before? Yep! All good.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

We are Baaaaaaackkk....

2011-06-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

After the last two pretty weak races, we are now officially back with a Top Qualifiefier spot. So now for 6 out of 8 races, we are Top Stock Qualifier. It may have been done before by other cars, and Larry Hill may have done it in a truck, but no Drag Pak Challenger has kicked the kind o f butt that we have. And we running a 5.7 Hemi engine. There are 6.1, and 6.4s now, and they just can't crush their indices like we have.

But next week we be at Bristol, and running in A/SA so we need new vinly letters, and we can dump a ton of weight next week... Keith re-upped his license so we can run in the nines, and as you might imagine, WE WILL RUN IN THE NINES! So maybe we will be competitive with the big boys, or maybe not. But only time will tell.

As for now, we got a bye in the first round,and we ran a 10.07, so we didn't get any additional horsepower penalty, but we now have a good baseline for our runs in further eliminations. We have a good run tomorrow against a good car with a good driver. But I am confident in my car, and am certainly more than happy with Keith Lynch as the driver. So tomorrow will be what it will be, but I like our chances.

Unfortunately we will be without a lot of good friends tomorrow. John Mcloud and his 6.1 Challenger are gone from the competition, as is Dennis Breeden and his 6.1 Challenger, and for some unknown reason Larry Hill's cuda ran faster than it has all weekend and broke out. It seems also that Irving Johns is out. And Randy Warford we are once again the LAST CHALLENGER STANDING! And although we will miss the camaraderie and fellowship of all of those friends tomorrow, we will do what we can do, and when it all ends, we will go home and ready for next week at Bristol Tennessee. And yes, next week we will be running in A/SA not any longer able to run in B/SA... Of well, B/Stock Automatic cars rejoice. For a minute or two, you have seen the last of of us. We are now back where we started. We began running in A/SA with a 6.1 Hemi. And we went down to F/SA with a 5.7. Then we, due to nothing we had done, got bumped up to C/SA. A coupe of folks who will remain nameless, went out and broke the index for no good reason. In one case, another 5.7 ran against us when we were running poorly, had us beaten badly, and still broke the index. He didn't want to win, apparently he wanted to insult us. And he did. He broke the index a total of 3 times, for no good reason.

But I would bet that he doesn't want to run us again. And if I were him, I wouldn't either, because we will show you what pay back looks like. We ha vent run against a 6.4 Hemi yet. But as for 6.1s and 5.7s, there isn't one that scares us us. And frankly there is only one that would even make a good race with us,and that is Doug Duell and his Drag Pak prototype. But I hope we don't meet, because Doug is a real gentleman, and he has earned his success. Someday we may eventually race, but maybe by then, we will have a sponsor and the 6.4 engine. Regardless, it will be a good race, and Doug is a good friend.

Well, let's get through tomorrow.. We race about noon, and since we have no heads up races, it will be a good day of racing. And I hope we do as well as we are able.

God Bless, and Safe Racing my friends.

David

Top Stock Qualifier again, but not without a steep price....

2011-06-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

In our last two races, we knew we had some issues with the car. And we addressed them. I won't repeat it, because I chronicled it before.

Our first run today we 10.28 seconds. We were Top Stock Qualifier at .96 under our index.

We were one of the first cars out, and we knew the burnout was weak on that run. We also knew that we might have slipped a bit starting out. But overall, the car felt pretty good on that first qualifying run. And we were pleased to be back at the top of the stack.

The second qualifying round we were a bit late getting to the staging lanes, and a lot of cars ran ahead of us. We were particularly interesting on one of the new Mustangs. He is one of only a handful of cars that could unseat us from the Top Stock Qualifying position.

And sure enough, he went a full second under his index, putting him ahead if us.

We had a quick strategy meeting, and determined we would push a bit more than last time, and recapture the Top position.

Well, we did it. Boy, did we ever do it! We ran a 10.049 that put us 1.201 under our index. We tried to run slower, using all the tricks that you use. But we just missed, so although we got the top spot, and the only way anyone is going to beat us, they will have to pay the same price that we paid.

Running faster than 1.20 under the index means that on Tuesday, you get horsepower, meaning that we can no longer run in B/SA, our next race, we will be in A/SA...And no longer allowed to run in B.

The worst thing is that you also get torn down. And we were invited to that party today. We had to disconnect almost everything. Remove the intake manifold and throttle body. We had to remove the valve cover on one side, remove the rocker shafts on one side. remove the header on one side, and then remove the head. Our head was then measured every way possible, the combustion chamber was cc'd. The intake runner was cc'd. The exhaust runner was cc'd. The valves were measured, The bore and stroke of the engine were measured. The cam lift was measured, first the exhaust, and then the intake. And the throttle body was measured. The wheelbase was measured. The front and rear overhang were both measured. We were examined every way possible to make sure that our engine was legal.... Then, nearly eight hours after starting the tear down ordeal, the engine was finally back together, after we had been judged to be legal. But we still get penalized on Tuesday...

Oh well, sunburned (And yes, I had sun block with me, but I was too busy to remember that and put some one. I even had taken off my hat as I was sweating so bad So I am really fried.) , and so tired, that I can hardly even think. But we are now back in our hotel rooms, and settling down for a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow is another day. Let's just see if there is any brave soul out there who is will to pay the same price we did. There still is one qualifying run tomorrow. So there is still a chance.......

Otherwise, we will just stay on top of the Ladder and get a bye run at some point.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Chicago, Chicago and more threat of rain.

2011-06-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

Does a big black storm cloud follow us? Or do we follow it? Who knows for sure, but it is Friday, and the forecast is for more rain today.

I got here fairly late yesterday, as I was attending my Grandson David's 8 Grade Graduation. He is excited to now be going into High School next year. And he reminds me regularly that it is only about a year and a half before he is 16 and can drive. So it won't be long before before he hits the track too. And if he can drive a real car as well as he drove his Junior dragster before he outgre it, he will do OK. So, after all 270 eight graders were recognized, some many times over, and sitting for a couple of hours in a very hot, very crowded gymnasium, I hit the road, and finally got to the track. Keith and Tonya had already parked and met me with my my credentials. I used to live in Chicagoland back in the 70's. And I have always lliked Chicago.

You can never be sure what will happen when the weather comes in to a race like this. You might get lucky and get all of your qualifying runs in, or you might not do more than get one run., and even that is questionable at times.

Sometimes, if the weather is a big issue, they just take the fastest qualifier in each Class and name them as theClass Winner.

But we are here, and the Mega Maniac sounds like it wants to kick up it's heels. It is hard to say what has given it a whole new growl, deeper, and with a pip more pop than we are used to hearing. But it sounds pretty good, and now we just have to figure out if it will run as good as it sounds.

We got all checked out and Teched in yesterday. So our only tasks this morning will be to fuel up, charge teh battery, and get the car weighed to make sure that the car didn't go on a diet like Keith did. He is down to about 160 pounds, and we might have to make up some of the weight he lost. That is no real problem, as our weight box is almost empty right now. But we have to convince him that he is light enough, or we will need to put an elephant in the trunk to compensate for his weight loss. But he is a real role model, excercising discipline and good eating judgment. And as a result, of seeinghim do so well, I am also working on getting rid of the last 15-20 pounds that will get me back closer to my "ideal weight".

It looks like there will be a lot of cars in B/SA. We are the only Drag Pak in B/SA, but there are about 4 or 5 in A/SA and most of them are the newer 6.4 Hemis, so it looks like folks would probably prefer B/SA, if they don't think they can run with the new Drag Paks. And since we have no idea how the car will run, that could be a good choice for tehm... Or it might just be the case of racing against us being the lesser of two evils. You can wither run a little 5.7 Hemi in B/SA, or face a slew of 6.4 Hemis in A/SA. But I think Doug Duell will be here in A/SA with his 6.1 Hemi, and Iu saw John McCloud's 6.1 in A/SA too, so it isn't an all 6.4 show.

The more cars in B/SA, the better. At least that is what we hope, and it is all predicated on the plan for the car to run as good, or better than it has done before. I like our chances. And after class runs, with teh possiblity of a lot of heads up runs in Stock Eliminator with the other B/SA cars, it should be a good weekend, if the rains hold off.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

The Mega Maniac roars again...or does it?

2011-06-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

The entire drive train layed quietly in piles, stacks and boxes all around the shop. From the engine to the transmission to the rear end, everything was apart for inspection. And now many parts were cowering, in fear that they were all used up and due for replacement. And for many, their fears were well founded.

The crank was redone. Thank you Ohio Crankshaft! A new cam that had been waiting for it's turn is now installed. The pistons got a treatment, a legal one, and are now ready to produce power. The engine is going back together.. The transmission is now back together, with all new internals.. A new torque converter converter also goes in. Like the cam, the torque convrtor was our spare, a bit better than what was in the car, but we were running so well, we just didn't need them. Until now. finally the rear end is also tightened up and all back together.

Everything then went back into to car. The rear end goes back under the car. The engine is back in place. The torque converter and transmission go back under.. The drive shaft is home again..

But will it run? Will it once gain breath fire, and roar thunder through the cutom Pete Z headers...

HELL YES!

It sounds absolutely great! And it moves forward and back.

The Mega Maniac is back.

But what will it do now? Who knows? But we will find out soon!

See you in Chicago!

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!
David

More to do than we thought...

2011-05-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

We have a number of issues that needed to be addressed, and we are full steam ahead at getting them all sorted out.

We had to send out some parts on the motor to have some minor issues addressed. But we hope to have those parts back within the week. In addition to finding a few problems, like our rear thrust bearing which we believe that we understand the cause of that problem. So we will take care of that. It appears to be a drive line alignment problem. And we did find a gasket leak in the intake manifold, and will replace that gasket with a slightly different type of gasket that will give us great seal ability. So we think the motor will be good once we get it all back together.

The tranny also had a couple of problems after our beating up on it for so long. And we are lucky that it didn't really didn't do much but cost us a bit on our sixty foot times, and a bit on top end. But it didn't break and spread its guts and fluid all ove the track. So that is a good thing.

We will the new parts tomorrow, and the tranny will shortly be back as good as new. It was built well originally and even has a stock, but rare reinforced truck 904 case. So it is as good as a 727, but much lighter. That was our goal originally, and we were saved from spending more money and adding more weight because we could get a Protrans 727 in the time frame we had. But we did get this monster 904 built up for us by Paul Forte at Turbo Action. We only did one band adjustment over the first year and a half we ran it. And now, that same tranny will keep on moving our car down the track. As soon as we get it put back together.

And I also got tired of the hood pins we put on the car to replace the Dzus fasteners originally on the hood of drag paks. We put regular hood pins on it, and they work just fine, and are definitely better than the Dzus fasteners, but keeping track of the 10 pins pulled from the hood, is a subtle but annoying task. And it wouldn't make sense to tie ten wire hold downs on it. So I have what I think is a better solution. They should be here shortly, and after we replace the existing hood pins, I will get pictures of the new pins posted. The should be as good as it can get.

So, life goes on, and the money goes out. So we really do need to find a real sponsor, who is looking for broad exposure by what may just be the fastest and most competitive 5.7 or even 6.1 running today. If nothing else, we sure know to get ink.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Oh No! Say it isn't so! The Mega Maniac is broken...

2011-05-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

After two races of increasingly poor performance. So we finally took things apart.

And although we liked the look of things at first, a closer look started to show some chinks in our armor.

A little off in the motor, and a little off in the tranny. Stuff that eventually would have caused catastrophic damage, was diagnosed. Parts are already on order, and things should be just fine with a little TLC, and some new fluids.

So now we know why the car wasn't running as good a sixty foot time as we expected, and why our top speed was down. And from this point forward, when we have a chance to take Top Stock Qualifier, we will again have the capability to reach out and grab it.

The transmission had already taken well over a year of severe abuse, so we suspected that it might need refreshing. And the engine had an awful lot of really high rpm, high speed runs on it too. And although the problems we found there were not really due to the engine itself, as much as they appear to be due to strain put on it by problems with the drive line. By strain, I mean abnormal strain, and we found some things thangs that weren't tranny, drive shaft, or rear end, but were just downright questionable. So we are taking care of them too.

So, if you are asking yourself "what racer do when they arent racing?"

I can tell you. They are putting more hours, and many more dollars into their race car!

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Norwalk, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and the Rest of it...

2011-05-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Good:

We improved with every qualifying round. We even held the Top Qualifying spot for the night, went out the next day on our final qualifying run, we actually improved our time.

The Bad:

Charley Horse, Charley Bob Downing in his J/S new Mustang ran almost at teh end of Stock qualifyirs, and took the Top Stock Qualifyier spot away from us.

The Ugly:

Our first round elimination run was against a car that was slower than us, and that usually means that we can run them down, and either cause them to break out, or we can nose them out.

We dialed a 10.31, having run a 10.33 the previous day. And everyone was saying that the track was about 1 or 2 thousands quicker today. We had to rely on other people's opinions of the conditions because our weather machine broke. Oh well, others know what the weather looks like, and they had already run confirming their estimates.

We got beat to the line and didn't even run our dial. So we lost and were eliminated in the first round.

The Rest of it.

Somewhere along the line, probably in one of our runs in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, we lost some horsepower.

In Norwalk, before our last qualifying run, we pull coil packs, and checked plugs and saw that one cylinder seems to running extremely rich. The other 7 look just fine. We expected that it could be a compromised coil pack. If that was true we reasoned, then the plug wouldn't fire and burn up the carbon, which was the condition we observed. So we changed the coil pack. Then we ran, and it proved that it really didnt make much difference.

So finally, after running since the middle of last year witout ever pulling the engine, or even the heads, it looks like time to pull it all apart, and see what is wrong. We also will probably put our EGT sensors back on the car. I will have to go down to Dayton and pick up the electronics for it, order a replacement part that I expect it needs, and we will reinstall the monitoring unit.

We also will make a couple of other changes that we believe will be good for performance, but we have been saving them for "when we need them." Now, after two consecutive bad outings, we need them. So the game is on, and we will put all of our secret weapons into the car, and see what happens.

We probably won't run the car again, unless it is a test and tune, until the Nationals at Bristol Tennessee in the middle of June. So we will also get our tranny freshened up, and balance out our suspension. .

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Norwalk, and it it is raining, so what is new with that?

2011-05-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Not a thing... We have been to more races that had rain, than seems to be fair... But such is life. Hardly ever fair...

Last night after we got teched in, it rained. But we were back in our rooms, so that wasn't too bad.

Today, we made a couple of qualifying runs, and we in third place. The car just is not running like it has been running, but everyone is complaining about the "air", meaning the humidity, temperatures, density altitude, wind, etc, etc...

But we all run the same air, but the Mega Maniac was running exceptionally poorly. The fuel ratio was a bit rich, so we leaned it out some. Then we ran our last run, which was held in the evening in front of the crowd. It is unusual that Stock classification cars get to actually run in front of any fans. So this was cool.

We decided that since there were four Challenger Drag Paks here, that it would be a good show to have two pairs of Challengers race against each other. Mike Pustelney was there with his 392 Cubic Inch (6.4) 2010 Challenger, John McCloud had his 370 Cubic Inch (6.1) 2009 Challenger, and Larry Smith was there with his 370 Cubic Inch (6.1) 2009 Challenger, and obviously we were there with our tiny little 345 Cubic Inch (5.7) Challenger.

It was fun to see the four Challengers run out that way. And it worked out pretty good for us too.

When the qualifying run was over, we were back in a familiar place, Number One Stock Qualifier...

Not sure that we can hold out through the next (.. and last) qualifying run tomorrow, as there one car, the one who won the Top Stock Qualifier in Indy, and he is driving a ...... m u s t a n g ...... and I have a feeling he can go a bit faster if he really wants to do that.

But we have another little trick or two, we might pull out of our bag of tricks.. Did I mention that I am a professional Magician? Seriously I am, and Sunday evening is our Annual Magic Club Banquet... So when I say we have a trick or two up our sleeves, don't think I am totally kidding... Tricks are a lot easier with a deck of cards... but some magic is beyond the medium, so, tomorrow, we shall see.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!
David

All done with Indy

2011-05-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we lost in third round at Indy.

But the good news is that we got home early Sunday evening.

We did find a couple of issues that need addressed on the car, nothing that affected our perfromance in Indy. That was all us. Some wounds are worse when self-inflicted..But we are still learning about the car, and what it can do. Soour next time out should be better.

It appears that the extra weight we had to add to make our class weight, has affected our suspension. So we need to think about making a minor change, well maybe not such a minor change, to the suspension. But, time will tell

A couple of days before Indy, we removed the original front hubs and brakes, and installed a complete Strange Engineering front hub and brake system. But something is still just not quite right yet. So some phone calls and a few tweaks should take care of things. The front end wobble we had before installing the Strange brakes did go away. So the change wasn't a total loss. In fact it looks like a good move, but we just need to get a couple of answers and we should be just fine.

And one more thing. It appears that my car has gotten younger. It is a 2010 now, when all along, I thought it was a 2009.

Wish I could age in reverse like that!
Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!
David

Lost our streak...

2011-04-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, just as I expected might happen, we lost our streak of top stock qualifiers.

We ended up qualifying fourth out of a 99 cars.

They are not running class here, so we cant get a class win, but there are more B/SA cars than any other class here, and if we happen to get heads up against another one of the B/SA cars, we can forget the dial and run all out. But we have run two rounds of Stock Eliminator and we have won two rounds.

We hear that Sunday will be pretty rainy, but if not we could finish up the eliminations. If it does get rained out, there will be a makeup race starting from where we end up, some time in the future.

Update you tomorrow.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!
David

More drama....

2011-04-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

For the first race in the last 6 that we have competed in, we are not the top stock qualifier.

We still have one qualifying run tomorrow, but with the risk of getting horsepower for going too fast, and who even knows if we can any faster since we had to add so much more weight to our car after the last horsepower hit. Things are looking pretty dim in that category.

But 5 in a row as top stock qualifier is still an awesome streak, and I had already resigned myself to having our streak end. So what the heck! We will get over it.

And we can still look ahead to the stock eliminations racing, and see if we can once again be the last Dodge Challenger standing.

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David

Let the Drama begin... Will Indy be rained Out?

2011-04-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the weather pattern is certainly ominous...With so much rain coming up from the south west, it is literally going to be a crap shoot as to whether or not Indy is rained out.

Too bad though, as we were hoping the Test and Tune on Thursday would give us a chance to test our new front brakes.

We were having a front end shudder when braking due, we believe, to a warped rotor. But it also could be the OEM front hubs that Dodge uses on the Drag Paks. Both showed some variance with a dial indicator. So, rather than waste time and effort replacing one part at a time, I went all the way and bought everything new for the front braking system.

It is unlikely that we will extend our streak of five straight top stock qualifier at Indy because of the NHRA horsepower penalties that will force us out Stock ultimately, if we keep banging on the top stock qualifier. So I guess, that we will just have to give someone else a turn at it.

Until next time,

David

A picture and some video from zMax Raceway

2011-04-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

In both the picture, which was taken by good friend John Park of New York, and the video which can all be blamed on me, you can see some of the four wide lanes.

The picture is during our run to the semifinals in Stock Eliminator. We ran the A/SA Camaro who dialed the same number as us. And we won. The lead you see here, is the same distance as how we won. What we got him by at the line, we still had at the stripe. No more, no less. Good driving Keith!

Next is our B/SA final against Skipper, which although I missed the end in recording the video (I just get so excited, I forget that I am doing the video. But I will try to get better in the future.) but you can take my word for it, since I have the Wally sitting on my mantle, we really did win.

And how about the burnout? Pretty nice smoke! And watch closely when the car leaves, we carry the front wheels for almost 60 feet. And just in case you are wondering, the voice on the video is me. We can't hear the announcer down there, so I added a quick verbal recap of the events for reference.

Until next time,

David

I have returned...And we were the last Mopar standing again...

2011-04-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

ZMax four wide Nationals at Charlotte North Carolina is done. And we are all back home.

It was a bittersweet finish for us.

Once again we made the semifinals at a National event. And once again, we were close but the fates were not on our side. We lost by 6 thousands of a second in double break out. And if we had won, the finals would have put us against another B/SA car heads up, and we could have walked to the finish line and beaten him for the event win. Not that the other B/SA car isn't a fast car. He has won more than his share of races. But heads up, we have a significant edge.

But please don't try to encourage me and say that most people never even make it far. I know that. But we are not most people.And I just don't want o hear that anymore. We are capable of winning it all, and some time soon we will do just that.

Our next race will be in Indianapolis for the Divisional in a couple of weeks.

Now we are working on a small mechanical problem that we have been somewhat ignoring for a while, but it is time to fix it.

I am also finally getting the dimensions to Dennis the Diaperman for the for the engine diaper for our car.

This will be just another innovation that we have implemented on our car, that other Drag Pak owners have not.

And I am seriously thinking about doing a book on Building the Ultimate Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car. In it, I will expose all of the secret squirrel tips and tricks that have taken us to 5 straight top stock qualifier, two class wins, and one stock eliminator. And our car is more tricked out with little things just make racing easier than anyone else's Drag Pak. The book won't be cheap, but it will also contain a lot of the decision process and other things that Chris and I considered and why some were done, and some were not. The same goes with decisions that Keith and I have made on the car. It will really give people an understanding of how to build a race winning car. And I don't mean a car that is simply so softly factored that it has an inherent advantage, because that was the way the Challengers came. but a car that can still win when the factor advantage is gone.

We are also seriously considering a motor change. So, other classes out there, be afraid. Be very, very afraid. We may be coming to a class near you.
David

Zmax Nationals Update

2011-04-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

We got into Charlotte pretty early Tuesday evening.We dropped our trailer in line at the race track, and visited with some friends, making plans to pit together with Jim and Pam Marshall Then we went to teh hotel we had reservations for Wednesday night and through Saturday. We just thought that might not get in until reall late Tuesday, and it shouldbn't be tough to get a room on Tuesday nightr. WRONG! Our hotel had nothing... Who would have thought? But we did confirm our reservations for teh rest of teh week, so the trip wasnt wasted. Then,, we drove around, found a another place, got checked in, and went to sleep.

I for one, was particualry anxious to get the car out of the trailer and onto the track. .

Wednesday, we got the track at around 9:00 am and they weren't scheduled to start parking rigs until 10:00 am, but guess what? At about 9:20, they starte4d parking them. So all was good , not too much waiting. And we got in parked next to Jim and Pam.

We got the car out of the trailer and started checking things out. We wanted to change oile, and a few other things. But basically had done nothing to teh engine since we put it in the car. And since it was running so good, why change anything? We do have a couple of tricks up our sleeves, all legal, if and when we need more speed. But for now, we just will drive it the way it has been. And we DO have four consecutive Top Stock Qualifier perfromances. That is right, at the last four Stock races, Nationals, and Points Races included, we have been Top Stock Qualifier at the last four we have attended. We would not be able to do it again, without getting horsepower.

So we did what we could do to qualify at a safe speed so we didn't get horsepower. And we ran a 10:48 in the quarter mile. And that just didn't feel right. It was a little too slow. So we made a tiny litlle adjustment. And our second run was 10.02, oooooops.... That means horsepower on Monday. But it is Top Stock Qualifier for now. We moved things back to a safe setting, and ran again, with nothing very remarkable. But the first round of Class tomorrow will also count as a qualifying round so, we could get knocked out of Top spot. And now that we have aready done it, and goten the horsepower, it would be be sad not to get it.

So here we are at Thursday, running class. We made another tweak just in case someone ran faster than our qualifier, we could turn up the heat. But we ran before a couple of folks who could get there.... What to do, what to do?

We went out and carcked a 9.97, or wsomething close to that. And as it turns out, that kept us in top Qualifying spot as anothre Challenger hit a 10.16 on a higher index, and would have taken the top spot, if we hadn't bettered our time.

Kind of funny, was the fact that when we picked our class, it was either A, B, or C, and B had the most cars, so we picked B. Then half of the people in B, moved to A, or C. Wonder why? maybe tehy were afraid of us.... But they have good reason to be afraid of us. We won our class.

Now we need to decide what to dial for eleiminations. But we have some time to think about it, because here it is Saturday morning,and we had quite a bit of rain, so we don't even know if we will run today.

So far, a good trip. We added a Top Stock qualifier to keep our streak alive at FIVE consecutive Top Stock Quailifiers, and we got another Class win. Not bad for a 65 year old car owner, and a 62 year old driver!

David

4 Wide Nationals Apr 14-17, Picture of New Hood

2011-04-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, we are registered for the 4 Wide Nationals. This is exciting since we haven't run since last year in Pomona, and I am anxious to see if we still have magic.

Thought I should post a picture of the new hood. So here it is:

You may notice that there are no pins at the middle of the hood on both sides. We just aren't sure that we need these, so the brackets have been made, and we will have the tools to install them in North Carolina if we see too much flex after our first run.

And although the picture could be bigger, but I reduced it so it didn't take all day for you to download it in your browser. It makes it a little tough to see the hood pins.

But all we have to do, is to flip the ring, and pull the pin, eight times (maybe ten times if we install two more), and lift the hood off the. Look Ma, NO TOOLS! Putting the hood back on, is also so much easier than before, that it is a real joy. The pins align it, pop the pins in, flip the ring, and you are done. No more putting several Dzus fasteners in, and discovering that the next one won't go, as somehow it is misaligned. And Oh yeah, you also do need a Dzus tool, and where did you put it last time you used it?

This is nothing but really, really good.

And if you would like to attach Drag Pak hood this way, just send $399.99 to David Wertman at New Hemi Racing, and I will send you the required brackets for the New Hemi Racing Secure your Hood attachment system.

But wait, there is more!

I will also include a set of ten hood pins, at no additional cost.

But wait, there is even more!

You also get graphically illustrated instructions to complete the assembly and attachment of the New Hemi Racing Secure your Hood attachment system at no additional charge.

And to the first 100 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak Owners, I will also offer free shipping!

New Hood not included, but your old hood can easily be modified for the New Hemi Racing Secure your Hood attachment system.

Can you tell I am excited?

God Bless, talk to you after Charlotte!

David

Happy New Hood to me...........

2011-04-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, not only did I pick up the new hood in Detroit, thanks Ma Chrysler!

But that new hood is now in place on the Mega Maniac Drag Pak #24...

Hood pins now secure the hood to the car. No more trying to remember where the Dzus fastener tool was last put. And no more scratching the hood as the fastener tool slips out of the slot, and scars the hood. And with as many fasteners as were used, you would think that they would hold. But it was the wrong thing used the wrong way. The problem, and the reason our hood went sky flying solo and separate from the car, was that the front dzus fasteners were mounted in plastic that flexes. So as the car hit about 135 mph, the vibrations and air up pressure caused some fasteners to release. Then with some sections of the hood loose and more fasteners releasing, when enough had let go, the rest ripped through the carbon fiber, or in a couple of cases pulled the pop riveted brackets right out of the metal.

But even on its best day, the dzus fasteners were a pain in the backside. Start locking them down, and invariably, there will one or two that just didn't get lined up right, and so you had to undo a few, readjust the hood, and start locking more of them. It was never easy, and neither Chris nor I like them very much.

Now, there are eight pins holding the hood down. And removal of the hood is sooooo easy when necessary. But when the hood needs to be on the car, it stays on the car. And nothing will cause those pins to release, until the pins are pulled. One more thing we need to do, is to wire the pins to the chrome so you don't end up with a pocket full of pins that can get lost. I will post some pictures here, as soon as I find my camera...

One unfortunate side effect to the effort to build the new brackets and attach the hood, is that I caught another cold. I spent most of the month of December, and part of January fighting a cold, only to finally get feeling better. Part of that feeling better came as a result of leaving cold Ohio for a bit. But now I am back, and so is my cold... Don't you just love the weather in the Midwest?

Next race? We are getting ready to go to the ZMax Raceway in Charlotte North Carolina April 13- 17

See you again after Charlotte.......

The hood is home..

2011-03-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

Unlike Eddie Money, I don't like a Rainy night. But yesterday, I got a rainy morning, as I drove to Detroit, a rainy day as I was there and waiting for rush hour to end, and then a rainy night as I drove back home, arriving around 10:30 PM...

The hood did actually fit into the back of my Chrysler Pacifica, and traveled safely home with me. I was sure that it would fit, or I wouldn't have driven 3 1/2 hours, and waited a bit longer. But when the hood was carried out to my car, doubts flooded in.

It wouldn't go straight in, but would it go sideways? ..........No.

The points at the outside edges of the back of the hood , are two wide to go straight in. So, my lightening fast powers of observation, and analysis kicked in... Put one point in first and then turn the hood.

That worked! The hood was in. But it was supported on one side by the small point of the back of the hood. And I was not comfortable with that all of the way back to Akron. So I put my laptop bag there to provide a broader support. It worked and the hood traveled safely back home.

And, according to my wishes, there were no holes or Dzus fasteners in it.

So, now on to our mad scientist plan for the new, better way to attach the hood.

I sent a note to Keith with my version of the Better Way. And I expect that he will have some refinements, if not a whole new Better Way. And that is all good. I am about making the hood easy to get on and off when we want, and that will stay on, when it is supposed to stay on.

Next week, (this is already Thursday, and I am busy for the weekend), so next week, the hood will go to the car, and we will start getting it put in place.

While I am there, I also will get more pictures of the wrap as it currently exists, so that Gator Wrap can tweak their template for Dodge Challengers, and get ready for the brand new wrap.

I don't think we will have the new wrap done by the time the car goes racing again. (More news on that to come later....the racing, not the wrap..)

I had mentioned it previously, but who reads this stuff anyway? So to make sure that there are no gaps in coverage here, I will just mention it again.

I have been in touch with Rod at Gator Wraps on a whole new wrap for the car. Some things will change. These are things that need to change. And some things will stay the same. These are things that should not change. And some things will get changed to make them even better.

How it turns out is still an open question, as I haven't pulled the trigger yet, and haven't even seen yet any renderings yet to know if Rod and I are on the same path. All things in their own time.

Will it look good? Now that the car is running right, will the car visually represent everything that Chris and I dreamed together, and planned, and worked and schemed together that it would?

I think so. But only time, and a few more tears will tell.

David

.

Oooooooh, Car Stuff........ Back on track

2011-03-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks for hanging in there with me as we had a bit of a quiet period relative to the car. This time was not too quiet for me, however as I took my Vegas Trip, which I chronicled here, and have met a bevy of lovely ladies.... But, back to the car!

We (Driver/Mechanic extraordinary) Keith Lynch and I, have been talking a lot about where to run next, and what our goals will be for this year. The decision on where to run, has been tentatively made. We will hold off on that announcement until a bit closer to the race date.

You all know about our problem with the hood on the Mega Maniac. We lost the hood on a run in Las Vegas. It went flying up and into the air, over 25 feet above the car and track. When it came down, it hit on a front corner of the hood, crushing that corner, and the scoop totally separated from the hood. Fortunately, at that time, the track at Vegas had a bizarre schedule for Stock, so we had time to cobble, rivet, tape, wire, and hammer things to get the hood back on the car. And we managed to at least get it back on, and into running shape, before time for our next run.

There was particular anxiety as we were very concerned about getting the hood off for fuel check, and back on again. We only had a limited supply of items to secure it, and they were consumable, so each time we took it off, and put it back on, we used up some of the supplies.

Well, we went a few rounds in eliminations and didn't do too bad, and the hood stayed in place during our later runs. By this, I mean it didn't come off during the runs. Although another Drag Pak, did lose just the scoop off his hood. He had a really pretty paint job too. At least ours was a wrap, that could be duplicated if necessary....

OK, why am I talking about the hood again?

I have been talking to the Drag Pak Group at Chrysler Corp, and today just heard that my replacement hood is available. Yeah!

I will be picking up the new hood, on Wednesday, in Detroit.

I have asked that the supplier does not punch the holes and insert the dzus fasteners as in the standard Drag Pak configuration. We have a different plan for attaching it, and believe that we can avoid future incidents of flying hoods, and actually make the hood easier to lock on, and remove than before.

We are talking to a number of sponsors, and hopefully will have one signed before we get too much further down the line. If, in the worst case, we don't actually sign a sponsor, I am ready to commission a new wrap, that I think will get us another Best appearing car award. And it will make us even more memorable. If that is possible.

So, for those you who have been patient, this is your reward. We are talking car again....

David

Vegas Trip, last installment - No car stuff here...

2011-02-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

OK, this is the last installment of my recent Las Vegas trip. After this installment, I hope to have some news about the car. But if you are jonesing for car stuff, go back a few blogs and read that for your fix.Or wait a few more days and see what happens.

Part 4

I am finally on the plane back, at least my first plane, and wonder of wonders, my seat is a window seat. I tossed my laptop bag into the overhead bin, and scurried into the window seat, strapped myself in, and started napping. Mr. Big climbed into the center seat, the only good thing I could think at that point, is that if we crash, he will either serve as a great big cushion, or crush me to death. OK, I lied about it being a good thing. It was a good and bad thought.

I don't even remember the plane taking off. And the next thing I do recall is hearing the stewardess, say we are landing in Chicago.. Almost home...

Chicago, you gotta love Chicago. The gate where I arrived and the gate where I depart are continents apart. I have three hours until my connecting flight leaves. Time for another note to my travel planner. “You are stupid.” So I trek on towards my destination gate. Between the miles of moving sidewalks, and escalators, I arrive at my gate with minutes to spare, and settle in to wait. But wait, they just announced a gate change for my flight.

Now, down the hallway to the left, and down the escalator. OK, again, I am settled in waiting for my plane back to Akron Canton. Resting comfortably, anxious to get home.

Whooops, another gate change. Thank you United Airlines! I needed the exercise. Well maybe I really do, but this is ridiculous! Back up the escalator and down the hall, to the gate right next to my original departure gate. Again, I settle in to await the flight home.

But back to thoughts about Chicago.

Down to earth, straight to the point. I don't care who you are, you gotta love Chicago as a Midwest, no nonsense, blue collar city.

Most airports have gentile civilized signs for bathroom facilities. “Men's Restroom”, and “Ladies Restroom” signs abound in airports outside of Chicago. But not so, in Chicago. They tell it like it is in Chicago. No “bath” here. And apparently you cant “rest” here either. In O'Hare Airport, the signs read simply “Toilets”. And who could argue with that?

And I see that Rham Emmanuel is going to be mayor of Chicago. So much, for his not being a resident of Chicago. But I guess you can get elected to any office in this country without being a resident, Wink, win for you birthers out there.... you know what I mean. But I guess you can do anything you want if you are well connected like Rham and his buddies.

Back in the 70's, I lived in Chicago. And I liked Chicago. One fond memory is that of going to the Maxwell street flea market with my wife and son Christoper. He was a year old, and we bought an already old red wagon at the flea market, to drag him around. Now rusted and hardly recognizable, that wagon is still in his mother's garage, and Chris talked about it on numerous occasions that he actually remembered being pulled around in it. Yes, I still miss him. And can't imagine a time when I will not. But times like this when I am tired, make it hard to hold back the tears completely. So if my typing gets a little sloppy, please just bear with me.

Finally the plane boards. This time, once again, I actually get the seat that I had selected. So I settled in the window seat. This was a smaller plane, and only had one seat on the one side and two seats on the other. Nice to fly on a comfortable plane that isn't huge with rows and rows of seats, making it seem like a gymnasium with wings. Why the window seat? For flights like these, especially when traveling alone, the window seat lets you lean against the plane, and comfortably catch a nap. And since I had only gotten about 5 hours per sleep per night for the last 6 days, I needed the nap.

An uneventful flight. I slept the hour and a half on the flight from Chicago to the Akron Canton Airport. The plane landed smoothly and and as usually happens folks start jumping up from their seats and filling the aisles. Some eager travelers even “stand” all hunched over under the overhead baggage compartments. I am not sure how much of a hurry they must be in. But surely it is a life and death rush they are putting on.

I sit comfortably, and wait until the aisle is clear.Once everyone else is off the plane, I reach up and grab my laptop bag from the overhead, leave the plane, and climb down the airplanes steps and move into the terminal building. My phone is dead. Apparently I forgot to charge it, and though it has a long life, it is not eternal. So as I wait for the luggage to hit the carousel, I move to a comfortable seat near an electrical outlet, plug is my phone and rest. Funny how anxious people are to get going somewhere. After hurrying to stand uncomfortable and hurry off the plane, they now stand and wait to get their luggage. They are jammed in, several layers deep, all around the carousel anxiously awaiting the time it will finally belch loudly with an alarm horn, and begin to move the metal segments of the track, and from the cavern holes in the wall, open and return their precious luggage, in some condition or another.

Finally the luggage comes, and like roaches scattering when a light turns on, they now all scurry off to their destinations. When there are only a few bags left, my phone is adequately charged, So I walk over to the abandoned baggage carousel I pass up the first bag. It is not mine. The second and third bags are mine.

No crowd to fight now. No reason to hurry. The plane left Las Vegas at around 11:30 PM, and arrived at Akron Canton airport near noon, Akron time. Why hurry now? Note to my travel planner: What a dunce, you are!!!

I take my bags, and now go to the parking shuttle. With help from the driver, my bags are loaded on th eshuttleand we head off tot he parking lot. I now look for the slip with the number of my parking spot. I know which lot I am parked in, but have no idea what slot or parking spot. Having been there twice in two days, when leaving. Once parking, and turning around and going home, I am fairly certain that I know where I parked, within a few rows anyway..

The shuttle driver is very patient, and drives to where I thought I had parked. No joy there. The car isn't there. So we drive row by row looking. Still no car. Being more than a little tired, my mind plays silly tricks. Could my car be stolen? I look around to see Lexus SUVs and Mercedes SUVs, and decide that my 2004 Pacifica probably would not be the target of car thieves, after all. So, next row maybe. All around the areas I thought were likely to hold my car. So around we go, row after row. Still no car. After covering all of the rows that I thought seemed likely, we didn't find my car. But we still had a few rows we didn't check yet, and I was sure my car wasn't there, but at this point, why not look. So we traveled there too. 10 minutes seems like a long time, when you feel really, really stupid. And I felt pretty stupid for not remembering where I had parked.

Last row.... near the end. Oh yes, now I remember. I see the car and remember that is where I parked. (and even if I did not remember it, the car is there, so that is that!)

Lots of snow packed around my car. My luggage is set down into the snow as I open the rear hatch. I tip the shuttle driver with a generous tip, partly in appreciation, and party out of embarrassment. She leaves, and I toss the bags in the back, jump into the drivers seat, and head home.

And I arrive, and I push through the snow piled in my driveway, into my garage. Home, Home at last!

End of Vegas Trip.

David

Las Vegas trip, closer to the end, still no car info.

2011-02-27T15:34:00.000-08:00

Once again, no car stuff. But as I said, we have car news coming soon. So stay tuned....

Las Vegas Trip - Part 4

Another interesting issue comes to mind here too. The difference in the “character” of poker rooms. I don't mean anything relating to the players, but rather how things are run.

The room at the Golden Nugget, is loose. Players often act out of turn, talk about their hands, and basically do whatever they want and the dealers and management just smile and stand by doing nothing. Another issue is that when in a tournament if you are in a back table, one away from the convenient front of the poker room, it can be hard to get a drink. While in one tournament, and sitting at that table I waited over twenty minutes without a waitress coming by. And this is after I saw them at the other tables only minutes ago. Fortunately, we had a break, so I went to bar and had to buy a drink because “I wasn't gambling.”, I am playing Poker I said! He said, then I should have ordered from the waitress there.

If I actually had normal blood pressure, I think it might have gotten elevated at that point. But thankfully, my blood pressure is lower, so even when it got raised, it only gets back to normal for other people. I talked about not being able to get a drink, to floor manager as I left. He said they must have been on shift change, and I should have just come to him. Fair enough.

But guess what? It happened again, in another tournament, on a different night, sitting at the same table. The waitresses all seemed like little humming bees flitting around here and there to all of the other tables, but somehow managing to skip mine. Could it be a conspiracy? Are they out to keep me from drinking? Who knows, but this time I am ready. Between Poker hands, I went to the floor man, mentioned my previous experience, and told “it is happening again”. No problem he said. What do you want to drink? I will have it brought to you immediately. So I got my drink, and that wasn't really that big of a deal. But darn it folks! Please just do your jobs.

It might seem form what I have written that I was most upset by the failure to get a timely drink. That really isn't true. That simply was a more interesting episode. It was the out of order play and the lack of table management that disturbs me the most at the Golden Nugget. .

By contrast, at Binion's, the rules are enforced, and mid way through a tournament, I wasn't paying attention, didn't see the cards held by the fellow next to me, bet out order, since he had cards and hadn't completed his action, and I got sat out for hand. But it is so much nicer to play in a well run tournament, where you don't see cards folded into the muck from all positions, bets trying to come from everywhere, making it hard to determine when it really is your turn. And oh, the waitresses come by like clockwork. You never go thirsty at Binion's. I like playing there.

My flight back from Vegas was less eventful, unless you count the TSA agents singling out my laptop bag which contained, in addition to laptop related things, a variety magic items that confused the TSA gal doing the Xrays of carry ons, Anything sharp or dangerous in here, a cute lady agent asked, as she puts my laptop bag on a table for examination?

No, I comment, the only thing sharp and dangerous here is me! I immediately get the "that isn't funny, this is serious business" look, and she starts pulling things out of the bag, and as each item comes into the light of day, we play “what's this?” Once they the entire contents of my laptop bag has been individually examined and dumped into a gray plastic bin. She looked at it all, and said, Hmmm, I wonder what she saw? So the bag goes back through the Xray, and the contents in the gray plastic container goes though and she stops it and runs it back and looks again, and puts it through again with look of, I know there is something bad in there, and it has been a slow day, so I will find it!

OK, finally, it is good. I repack the laptop case, which really just means that I opened it up and dumped the entire contents of the gray container back into it. And I squeeze it, and the zippers finally close. Off to my departing gate.

This is the part of the trip that I wonder what I was thinking! The flight leaves Las Vegas at 11:30 PM, and arrives in Ohio sometime the next day. It has been about 30 years since I last took a red eye flight from Vegas, and apparently it was long enough ago to have somehow obscured the idiocy of it.

Once again, time to make a note to my travel planner (Whom I previously mentioned was Me). Dear travel planner, you are really stupid.

Continued.....

Vegas Continued, Still no car stuff

2011-02-26T07:46:00.000-08:00

No Car Stuff yet..

Just more about my Vegas trip...

Part 3

I left the hotel, crossed the small street that separated the hotel and parking garage, and went into the parking garage to get my car. There are two elevators at the Golden Nuggets parking garage.

You can't use the stairs because they are locked going up, as a security measure. The stairs are not of any interest to me anyway, as I prefer to save my energy for important things, and usually take the elevator. Well, this morning, both elevators were broken!

OK, how do I get my car? The elevators are broken, and the stairs are not a viable option. The parking garage attendant tells me that there is a golf cart that will take me to my car, as soon as he gets back. And as soon as the three people who were there before me are taken to their vehicles. My concept of a golf cart is something like the cart we use as a pit vehicle. It seats a total of four, and moves pretty fast when you step on it.

But that isn't what they had. They had a cart that could take one passenger. And it was slow! After a genuine ten minutes, I happen to see the maintenance guy with a key ring that looked like he could open the world. I knew he worked there, because he had taken a jumper box up to to the next level to jump start someones car.

I ask him if he had a key to the stairs.
Why? He asks....
Because the fricking elevators are both broken!
Both of them? He asks....
Oh gee, that is a great question, so now just let me check. YES!!!!!!!!!!! Both of them!

A light came on, and he said: Yes, I can open the doors in the stairs. So two of us who felt that waiting for the golf cart was a poor use of our time, took to the stairs with the maintenance guy.

Three flights of stairs later, I am in the car. And as I drive down to the exit, I see the golf cart with it's original passenger still puttering around looking for her car. So walking the stairs really was more time efficient choice, especially for someone like me with no patience whatsoever. I fully relate to Lucy in a Peanuts/Charley Brown comic strip which I read many years ago. She prayed, "God give me patience. And I want it now!" So the stairs worked for me. No patience required or used here.

This was it. It was finally getting close. It was the day before my return flight, I played a lot of Poker. And went to my room very tired, but not sleepy. I got on the Internet, watched the news. Watched weather on TV, and caught a couple of episodes of Law and Order.

I packed most of my stuff. And it was now about four in the morning when I got to sleep. Around 8:30 AM, I got up, finished packing, and took a couple of bags, my suit bag and laptop bag to the car. Came back and got my big bag and put that in the car. I don't leave until late tonight, so I will just leave the car with the luggage in the parking garage until later. I check out of the hotel, and they ask, as they always do, How was your stay? I wonder why they bother to ask.. I guess they expect everyone to be polite and say “fine”. I am not in a mood to be especially polite, after four hours of sleep and a bit of an alcohol induced headache, so I told her how it was. It was basically OK, but the noise from the vehicles going by on the street was more than excessive. They sounded like big trucks. But I was on the 15th floor! So I was surprised that I got that much street noise. It didn't keep me from sleeping, but it definitely was annoying when I was awake.

To be Continued.....again....

Part two of the Vegas Trip (still no car stuff being posted)

2011-02-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

I don't want to mislead anyone, so I am making it clear that this blog (for the next few days) will not be about the car. There is some news about the car coming, but not for a while.

So for right now, I am just posting a bit about my recent trip to, and return from Las Vegas. It was an adventure and some of it actually a bit amusing. But I will let you be the judge. Enjoy... or not.

Part 2

Poker, Poker Poker. I played a lot of tournament Poker. And had more than my fair share of success including a couple of near legendary comebacks in games where I was never really getting any good cards, but still hanging in, playing smart poker, getting a bit lucky, and actually cashing. In one case, I was down to 2 big blinds with 7 players left, and ended up winning that tournament for over $800. In general, I cashed in more than half the tournament I played. So, as far as Poker goes, I had a pretty good week!

One time, between Poker tournaments (I play two to five a day) , I was sitting at the bar playing Video Poker, (more about the Video Poker later) but I was making small talk with the well dressed man who was playing the next machine. A mature gentleman walked past us, with his beautiful young daughter on his arm. The fellow next to me, obviously noticed her too. So I commented to him that I see a lot of that. Yes, he confirmed there is a lot of that here. I told him that I thought it was good idea for a father to bring his daughter to Las Vegas. Family bonding, etc. He laughed. Then I told him that since I don't have a daughter,I am now beginning to think that I should adopt one. He laughed again! You don't have to adopt one, he said. You can just rent one. And I have a stable of them. I can hook you up, man.

Well the thought of a nubile young woman, with perky appointments, and a tight shapely tush unfettered by age and gravity was pretty exciting for a moment....... What happened? You know what they say about Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.....

But seriously, I guess I am just too old to pay for something that is only sexual, and has no emotional component. I have had something just like that, a couple of times before. Well, minus the sex of course. What was this thing that had no emotional component, and no sex? Well, It was called marriage. And it was very very expensive too. Anyway, it was an interesting temptation. Or maybe it was a lot more than just a temptation? I'll never tell.

I previously mentioned that I was playing Video Poker. Every time I played Video Poker, I was waiting for the holy grail of Video Poker; four aces. And it finally did happen. It was in Binion's Casino, where I played most of my Poker. Four Aces with a 3, payed a thousand dollars. I got a number of other four of a kinds, but nothing has the emotional impact, or the payout, of four aces with a small card. OK, a Royal Flush does, but those are close to impossible. And since I have never had one, I am not sure they are even possible. So, I will stick with my Aces!

And I had another epiphany as I observed the people in Las Vegas casinos on my way to the Poker Room. Most people are downright fat. In many of the the casinos, a lot of the people walking around look like they could just as easily be plodding around the local Wal-Mart. It is particularly annoying when you want to get somewhere, and a couple of folks who should have wide load signs pasted on their backs, amble back and forth, randomly stopping and looking around as if, they have a difficult decision, then they go back to ambling further. This makes passing them difficult and even potentially dangerous. One poorly timed move, and you could be unceremoniously bounced by the wide loads into a table full of cards, dice and chips, and hopeful gamblers and smiling casino employees. Quite a risk there! Just go the other way. But, there are more of them. They are clogging up aisles all over the casinos. Is this a conspiracy to keep me from the Poker table? Did that guy I recently took out by hitting my set on the river arrange all of this? Probably not..... It is just a fact of life, that there are a lot of obese people and and they take up far more spare than was ever planned for aisle ways in public places.

I won't continue to go on here about the scourge of obesity that we are experiencing, except to say that I have a theory about Global Warming. I believe it is real, and is caused by all of the overweight people. Heat, from them. Interfering with air flow.. Etc, etc... But I said I wouldn't go on about that here. So I won'.

On my second day in Las Vegas. I decided that I needed to pick up something from the local magic shop. If readers are not aware I am a professional magician.Actually I am a professional magician whether or not readers are aware. Not a full time magician, but I get payed to perform magic, so that makes me a professional. Or maybe that just means that I an amateur who gets paid. Don't you just hate gray areas? But from my viewpoint, I am a professional. That is my story, and I am sticking to it.

So here I am in Vegas. Why go to the magic shop? Well, I like to do a little impromptu magic, and it takes an awful lot of advance planning to be impromptu. And I needed a special something for an effect I like to spring on folks. Naturally, it is something that already own, but just didn't bring it along. Or, if I did, I can't find it. So off to Denny and Lee's magic shop I need to go..

Down the hall, down the elevator, out the door, I walk form the Hotel to the Parking Garage..........

Continued.....

Las Vegas, and not much car related here...

2011-02-24T18:53:00.001-08:00

Today's blog isn't car related because we aren't racing right now, and frankly have not yet decided when and where we will race again. We WILL race again, but just don't know where or when.

Also, there was a bit of a grassroots effort on classracing.com to have our effort recognized in a special upcoming readers favorites edition of National Dragster. We appreciate everyone who lobbied on our behalf. We will not be featured in that issue. There simply isn't enough time and there aren't enough pictures of our car to do that. I understand and respect that decision. I also appreciate the personal contact by National Dragster to convey that information directly to me.

The rest of this blog is about my recent trip to Las Vegas, I started writing this simply as something to do while waiting in the airports. However it took on a bit of its own life and became very long, and may even be a bit entertaining to someone. Because it is very, I repeat, very long, I will post portions over several days.

Thoughts and Musings from the Vegas trip

Part One

First I want publicly berate, verbally assault, and condemn the lack of professionalism of my travel agent for this trip's lousy planning and a faulty itinerary. Ooooops, that was me! What was I thinking when I made these reservations?

First, it seemed like a good idea to get into Vegas around 10:00 at night on Tuesday evening. After all, things are just getting jumping there at that time. And I could leave on Tuesday late in the day, after taking care of a number little things that needed to be done. So far so good. I guess that this part of the plan wasn't all that bad.

The problem was that upon arriving at the airport, parking my car, dragging my overpacked suitcases to the terminal, waiting in line for the US Air agent, I was then told, that the flight that was to be the first leg of my trip from Akron to Charlotte, was late getting to Akron. And that meant that when it did arrive, and got loaded up for Charlotte, I would miss my connection to Las Vegas. And that flight was the last one from Charlotte to Las Vegas that day. My options to get there tonight? Absolutely none!

Oh well, I guess checking things like how many flights will be available from your connecing city, in case you can't make the scheduled one, might be a consideration. But I need to get to Las Vegas, so forget planning for the next trip, how can I get there now, and when.

Tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM? That doesn't seem so bad. Drag your luggage back to the car, pay for parking and go back home for a quiet evening of playing a game called; “did I pack everything that I meant to pack?”. After obsesing about it, finding a number of items that I had meant to pack, and didn't, I finally decided that if I didn't remeber it now, it really didn't matter. So I opened a bottle of wine and settled in for a couple of episodes of Law and Order. The I went to bed, set the alarm and quickly fell asleep.

The wine and extra TV were probably not the best ideas in the world there either, considering how quickly 3:30 AM comes, and that is when I need to awake as I need to be at the airport around 5:15 AM.

But I do it. I get up, get ready, and get the airport, go through the same parking, luggage dragging, and rush to the US Airway ticket counter. But where are the US Air ticket agents? I don't know for sure, but I do know that they weren't there at the ticket counter. So I Wait. And wait. And wait. And wonder of wonders, a ticket agent appears. So I finally get ticketed, and pay the ransom for my baggage of $60, and finally get on the way to Las Vegas.

I enjoy an aisle seat, preferably on the emergency exit row. And being a good travel planner, had selected that seat for my travel all the way to Las Vegas. But wait! That was the flight yesterday, and US Air must have decided it would be amusing to put me in a middle seat between two people who are both prime candidates for bypass surgery, taking up all of their seats and part of mine, on both legs of this trip.

Every time I have flown US Air lately, they have ticked me off. And obviously, this trip was now no exception to the statement. I hate US Air. But finally I make it to Las Vegas. Hooray!

I go to the Hertz counter, get my car assignment and all that they have available is a compact car, and I wont say the name, because it isn't the car manufacturers problem that the make a roller skate with a windshield. Thankfully, at least with only a bit of physical encouragement, my luggage actually fits. So all is good. I am mobile in Las Vegas.

On to the Golden Nugget. I left my luggage in the car, and registered. Waiting what felt like 10 minutes in line to register, I get my room keys. Back to car to get my luggage, up to room. And more joy! I am checked into my room in Las Vegas.

Now, let the good times roll!

To Be continued....

Rotten Weather and Bad News

2011-02-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

The Snow continues to come to Northern Ohio, making "going out" a challenge, both in desire and deed. That doesn't mean that I stay at home, but it does mean I don't go out as often...

As for the bad news, I just heard today that friend had passed away. He was a really good guy who helped with our car in a number of different ways, both the chassis and the engine. But even with any help, he would have been a friend as he was one of the genuine good guys. And he will definitely be missed by many.

A couple of times I did get out, I played a bit of Poker at a couple of nearby casinos. And I did pretty well. Kind of nice to go into a Casino, and walk out (more than one time) with more money in my pockets, than when I went in.

Life is Good! (Actually God is Good, and if He chooses to let me live, that is good)

I also happened to run into a couple of extra dollars from another source, so I am trying to decide where I can go where it will be warm enough. I am tired of the color white and temperatures below freezing.

Sun, Water and Poker. And if necessary, I guess I can do without the water... There is a nice charity poker tournament in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget later this month, that looks like fun. Playing with movie stars would be fun. I have already played against a lot of the Poker Pros so that isn't as big of a deal. But hey, fun is where you find it. And how you choose to live life is that, a choice.

Life is so uncertain, don't let it pass you by, without at least reaching out with both hands to enjoy it.

David

Nasty Weather and what its like to shop a discount store.

2011-02-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

The Weather in this part of the country really is really nasty.

I have been trying to get down to the Dayton area to pick up some things from the trailer, and talk with Keith on some things we will want to do for next season whenever we decide that our season will start. But every time I plan it, either I get sick, or the weather gets nasty again.

It is hard to think about racing when you have two feet of snow being covered now with icy rain.

What it is like to shop at a discount store.

We have chain around here called Marc's. They don't take credit cards and have an express checkout line, so it usually isn't too hard to get in and out. They offer name brand products at good prices, and often have some strange or odd items that people like me just can't resist.

On Monday evening, an hour or so after I finished Chemotherapy and was just starting to "feel the effects", for some reason (Oh, I remember, I was out of soda pop) I decided that I would run into Marc's and then get home to rest.

But as I went around the store I found more and more things, I "needed" and my cart got to about half full. So I wasn't eligible for the express checkout line. I looked up and down for the shortest line, and then tried my best to be in a very long line and not block the aisles. I got in line behind a group of people, that were behind the folks checking out. One of the people in the group ahead of me was a girl about 18 with a year old child. She was extremely loud and obnoxious telling her life story to the world as if anyone cared. The lady going though the check out also had a one year old, and took time from attending to her purchases to chat with the loud one about when her baby walked , etc. Well, her check out was going very well at first, she was big woman, with a tall thin man, and her baby.

They all looked healthy, and even sound somewhat intelligent. But then there was a problem with her welfare card. It didn't have enough money on it, so she had to decide what to put back, so she could cover the costs. Five minutes or more and she found a few dollars in her purse, the man with her just held the child and and offered nothing. So finally she got finished.

And then, up to the register steps this group in front of me. They had a pretty full cart so it took quite a while just to ring them up. There were a couple of little delays as they decided or argued about whether the items in the cart belonged to the loud girl with the baby, or the overweight couple pushing the cart.

Then it happened, with the loud girl narrating the action loudly, their welfare card did not have enough money on it.. Deja vu. All over again... Once again, I have to wonder why these folks qualify for welfare (can you say, abuse of the system?) But come on, why fill a cart, if you can't pay for it. Here we go again. They start going through the cart and the things already bagged, deciding what they can leave, and what they can afford.

It took nearly a half hour to get through this check out line. And in case you want to project race into this situation, the first folks in line were African American, and the next group were White with Red Necks. And the scariest part of it is that they are both bearing children, and their children will probably be on welfare too.

It just makes you wonder what kind of future we have in this country. How can we break the cycle? Put people back to work, and get them off the welfare roles. No wonder we are going broke as a nation. Too many people at the well to drink, and too few there to pump it.

Maybe it was because I felt like crap after my chemo, that it bothered me so much. I don't usually do much after chemo but go home and take a nap, But I felt like I could accomplish something with very little effort and then get home. Thatwas a mistake, and is one that I will not make in two weeks when I have chemo again.

The good news is that I got four twelve packs of Pepsi products for $10. But somehow in spite of that my total bill was over sixty dollars. I was a bit hungry, and they say you shouldn't food shop when hungry. I guess "they" were right. Imagine what my bill would been at one the big grocery chains!

David

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

2010-12-31T14:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-12-18T09:15:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-07T14:29:00.001-08:00

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.

2010-12-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Switch for windows

2010-12-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-11-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-11-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-11-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-18T17:11:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-11-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-06T00:26:00.000-07:00

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..

2010-10-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-10-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

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........

2010-10-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-10-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-10-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

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......

2010-09-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-09-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-13T20:31:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-03T20:59:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

As most of probably already know, Chris "Drooze" Wertman, my son, only child, and best friend recently passed away as the result of smoke inhalation during a house fire. He is missed by his friends and family which included his Mother Linda Snowball, Step Father Francis, sons David, and Max, daughter Isabella, and me, his father.

The blog will go on... only because Chris would have wanted it to go on and to help other Dodge challenger Drag Pak owners.....

The car is currently under major rework. We are now more than ever dedicated to the Dream the Chris and I shared that this car, Drag Pak #24 would be a record holder, and we think we are now very close.

For those of you who are tired of stuggling with windows, the polycarbonate door windows, know this, there are options...

Here are the issues as I see them after at least 5 track outings;

1. First the intelligent door modules have to "relearn" how to put the window down on door open, up on door close, etc, etc., after every time you totally turn of power to them. This is especially awkward, and can get a bit anxious in the staging lanes....

2. The polycarbonate windows are not curved like the glass. So when a window is being put "up", somebody needs to push the poly window in at the top to get it into the rubber molding. This means you need someone along in the staging lanes, and right up to burnout, simply to push the window in at the top...

These two issues, are quite simply inconvenient. There are many better things to be thinking about in the staging lanes.

So here is one path that you can consider to address both issues.

1. Remove connections to the smart door modules. Or don't wire them in, in the first place. We had them working, saw the problems, and removed them. We added two switches into the stock switch positions on the drivers door. These are "reversing toggle switches", DPDT On - Off - On . The switch has three pairs of connecting lugs. The power and ground go to two center lugs, this leaves the two out lugs on each end open. You connect one side of teh switch to the two pins in the motor connector that are heaviest - at the back of the plug. You connect the two wires other side of the switch to opposite wire on the motor pins. One way, the switch will put hte window up, and one way it will go down. The switch, quite simply, having +12v, and ground to teh center lugs, reverses the +12v, and ground so that one way you send the +12v to "pin 1", and ground to pin 2, and pushed the other way, sends +12v to pin 2, and ground to pin 1.

It is really simpler than it looks, and you can even wire in the passenger door switch with a third DPDT reversing switch.

If you have questions about this, just email me, david@newhemiracing.com

Now, for the issue of having to push in the polycarbonate windows at the top..... replace them with glass. Simple enough, isn't it? Why wouldn't you just replace them with glass? You might think they look cool. If so, and you don't hate pushing them in at teh top eaqch the window goes up, so be it... You might think the glass is too expensive. I got both windows at slighly less than $100 per window. You might think that the polcarbonate is so much lighter than the glass, that you can't afford the extra weight. I didn't get a chance to weigh them, but my sense of the relative weight, is that the glass weighs 3-5 pounds more each. It might be less, or even more, but frankly, the weight is an acceptable loss due to the gained benefit of having the glass window close without a push from the outside.

Credits: I would never have thought of replacing the cool polycarbonate windows, if not for Doug Duel, whose Drag Pak clone has glass windows (even though Doug has the poly carbonates ones too...) and said when he weighed the poly windows and glass windows, there wasnt that much differences, and the glass windows work better. Thanks Doug.

Well, that is all for today, but keep tuned in, there is more to come.

David
The New Hemi Guy