It has been too many years since I first told you about the book. But it is finally underway. It tells the story of what was happening, and what we were thinking as the car and Blog that tells some of the stories of the build and.
The Book structure is now clear and is nearly halfway completed in its' first draft.
The book starts with an introduction. Then presents each blog entry exactly as it appears on the blog, follwed by a page, or in many case pages of explanation about what was really happening, and how and what we were thinking.
At the end of the book, in conclusion, will be listed the roughly 30 differences/innovations/changes that made the Mega maniac different than other Drag Paks. A few of these difference were shared with others. The vast remainders were never revealed, before now.
As always, I wish you safe racing and fast tracks.
David
The New Hemi Guy
Monday, October 16, 2017
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Mega Maniac has been sold
Ending one of the most remarkable runs by any car, and owners the Mega Maniac has been sold.
Look at the calendar, friends... It is NOT April fool's day. This is the truth, and it is now a done deal.
The transaction took place at a McDonald's Restaurant near Columbus Ohio at about Noon today.
Sales documents were signed, and the money crossed hands.
The Mega maniac is now in the hands of the only person, besides me, and Christopher, who had more than an emotional attachment to the car.
Keith Lynch, good friend, and two time World Champion Drag Racer, and driver of the Mega Maniac for the last two years, now owns the car.
I wish Keith all of the best, and know that his knowledge and skill, will keep the Mega Manic in the winner's circle.
This is my last posting to this blog. I am inventorying the shop, and New Hemi Racing shortly will live only in my memories, and in the book, telling what was really happening behind the scenes when each entry was made on the Blog.
God Bless, and Race Safely my friends.
David Wertman
Look at the calendar, friends... It is NOT April fool's day. This is the truth, and it is now a done deal.
The transaction took place at a McDonald's Restaurant near Columbus Ohio at about Noon today.
Sales documents were signed, and the money crossed hands.
The Mega maniac is now in the hands of the only person, besides me, and Christopher, who had more than an emotional attachment to the car.
Keith Lynch, good friend, and two time World Champion Drag Racer, and driver of the Mega Maniac for the last two years, now owns the car.
I wish Keith all of the best, and know that his knowledge and skill, will keep the Mega Manic in the winner's circle.
This is my last posting to this blog. I am inventorying the shop, and New Hemi Racing shortly will live only in my memories, and in the book, telling what was really happening behind the scenes when each entry was made on the Blog.
God Bless, and Race Safely my friends.
David Wertman
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Hello friends!
It has been a while since I posted anything, but that doesn't mean that nothing is happening. It only means that I have been pretty busy.
The new trigger cable/cord for the Innovate EGT system finally arrived. The old one got pinched in the glove box, and the wire got ripped out of the crushed plug.
Don't you just hate it when those kind of things happen?
Anyway, the new cable has been sitting in the corner for a while, but is now in the nice heavy plastic Innovate carry box with Data Collection unit.
The sensors are still in the headers and terminate in glove box. So it will simply be a matter of plugging the box back in to everything, and reconnecting the trigger.
I love the name of the company that provides the EGT system; Innovate.
One reason why I like that name is that being innovative has been one of the hallmarks of what Chris and I started when we first got the Drag Pak.
Doing things differently, just to be contrary, was never our goal.
Doing things differently, to gain an edge, was always what we always tried to do. And talks recently with several people about the Mega Maniac, have reminded me of the nearly 40 unique innovations on my car. That is nearly 40 different things that we did first, and some others have followed. Or things that we did, and since I don't tell everything, (except to the Secret Squirrel club), they are still secret. In addition some of these things can't really be copied as they are integral to this car.
For example, most drag packs use the standard steeling wheel that comes with the car. Fortunately the air bags are removed from them. Something I didn't think about until I had the steering wheel off of the car. Them, there was that moment... when I realized that I might be messing with a live "bomb" and had one of those "oh crap" moments. But fortunately for me, the air bag was not active.
The steering wheel on the Mega Maniac is lightweight, and removable. Interestingly it also retains the stock tilt/telescope mechanism of the Dodge Challenger for maximum driver comfort and flexibility.
Other things like polycarbonate side windows which only reduce weight a few pounds, and add infinite inconvenience since every time the windows go down, and back up, the Drag Pak windows don't go back into the roof channel unless someone on the outside pushes them in at the top. That didn't seem so bad when Mandy was with us, and went around pushing the windows in place. Everytime the door was opened, the windows controller would put the window down a tad, and when close, would raise the window. So there would be times when you would go down the track with extra wind resistance because of the window being outside of the roof track. Probably not something that slowed us much, but the inconvience irritated me. So I decided to fix these two issues.
So I replaced the poly "pain in the tail" windows with stock safety glass windows. A total increase of only about 10 pounds. And I threw away the smart window switches that lower the windows when the door is opened, replacing them with positive action switches so the driver can control both windows. When a window is up, the door opened, and then closed, "They"told me that the glass would break trying to escape from the roof channel. Or, if it didn't break on opening, the window will not properly reseat into roof channel when closed.
Once again, I was right. And "they" were wrong....again.
Lot's of other innovations but I have talked about some previously, and some are only known, and will only be known to the owner of Drag Pak 24, the Mega Maniac.
God Bless, and Race Safely
David
It has been a while since I posted anything, but that doesn't mean that nothing is happening. It only means that I have been pretty busy.
The new trigger cable/cord for the Innovate EGT system finally arrived. The old one got pinched in the glove box, and the wire got ripped out of the crushed plug.
Don't you just hate it when those kind of things happen?
Anyway, the new cable has been sitting in the corner for a while, but is now in the nice heavy plastic Innovate carry box with Data Collection unit.
The sensors are still in the headers and terminate in glove box. So it will simply be a matter of plugging the box back in to everything, and reconnecting the trigger.
I love the name of the company that provides the EGT system; Innovate.
One reason why I like that name is that being innovative has been one of the hallmarks of what Chris and I started when we first got the Drag Pak.
Doing things differently, just to be contrary, was never our goal.
Doing things differently, to gain an edge, was always what we always tried to do. And talks recently with several people about the Mega Maniac, have reminded me of the nearly 40 unique innovations on my car. That is nearly 40 different things that we did first, and some others have followed. Or things that we did, and since I don't tell everything, (except to the Secret Squirrel club), they are still secret. In addition some of these things can't really be copied as they are integral to this car.
For example, most drag packs use the standard steeling wheel that comes with the car. Fortunately the air bags are removed from them. Something I didn't think about until I had the steering wheel off of the car. Them, there was that moment... when I realized that I might be messing with a live "bomb" and had one of those "oh crap" moments. But fortunately for me, the air bag was not active.
The steering wheel on the Mega Maniac is lightweight, and removable. Interestingly it also retains the stock tilt/telescope mechanism of the Dodge Challenger for maximum driver comfort and flexibility.
Other things like polycarbonate side windows which only reduce weight a few pounds, and add infinite inconvenience since every time the windows go down, and back up, the Drag Pak windows don't go back into the roof channel unless someone on the outside pushes them in at the top. That didn't seem so bad when Mandy was with us, and went around pushing the windows in place. Everytime the door was opened, the windows controller would put the window down a tad, and when close, would raise the window. So there would be times when you would go down the track with extra wind resistance because of the window being outside of the roof track. Probably not something that slowed us much, but the inconvience irritated me. So I decided to fix these two issues.
So I replaced the poly "pain in the tail" windows with stock safety glass windows. A total increase of only about 10 pounds. And I threw away the smart window switches that lower the windows when the door is opened, replacing them with positive action switches so the driver can control both windows. When a window is up, the door opened, and then closed, "They"told me that the glass would break trying to escape from the roof channel. Or, if it didn't break on opening, the window will not properly reseat into roof channel when closed.
Once again, I was right. And "they" were wrong....again.
Lot's of other innovations but I have talked about some previously, and some are only known, and will only be known to the owner of Drag Pak 24, the Mega Maniac.
God Bless, and Race Safely
David
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Sports nationals Wrap Up
Not much to report, unfortunately.
Keith won his first elimination round in his A/SA Camaro. And he won his first elimination is SS/JA in the Mega Maniac.
But that was all of the winning.
The next round for both resulted in elimination.
Oh, well! That's racing.
God Bless, and Race Safely!
David
Keith won his first elimination round in his A/SA Camaro. And he won his first elimination is SS/JA in the Mega Maniac.
But that was all of the winning.
The next round for both resulted in elimination.
Oh, well! That's racing.
God Bless, and Race Safely!
David
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sports Nationals Columbus Ohio September 21-23
The Sports Nationals is always a great event. And with the exception of potential rain, at this time of the year, the temps are usually good and the track is usually fast.
As it turns out, Saturday was pretty much lost to the rainy weather. But that is Columbus In September in Ohio.
Back to racing. So why wouldn't the Mega Maniac be registered to run A/SA in Columbus, this year?
Keith decided to run his Camaro in A/SA, and you can't run two cars in the Stock. But that doesn't mean that the Mega Maniac won't run at all in Columbus? No!
It just means that we will not it in Stock.
What other class, can the Mega Maniac run, you ask. How about Super Stock!
Reasons why running a stocker in Super Stock doesn't make sense:
1: You can have wider tires in Super Stock
2. You can have additional work on your heads
3. You can have a much more aggressive Cam
4. You are allowed to have a Trans Brake
There are more reasons, but these are the big issues. Wider tires would give us better traction on the starter line. Additional work on the heads would five us better air/fuel flow and more horsepower. An bigger cam would increase our horsepower too. And the Trans Brake would give us a more more positive initial launch, as you just hit a button and off you go.
So, other cars can have some pretty significant advantages on us, if we are running in Super Stock.
But there is one significant edge that we do have is the horsepower rating for my car that is back to where we started in stock; In Super Stock, it is 305 Horsepower. That is where we started in Stock before an illegal car stole some class wins from us, and got us a bunch of horsepower before he was finally torn down and found to be illegal. But since the NHRA won't bother to correct that obvious error, we will just go where water hasn't been poisoned.
We had run Super Stock in a the Nationals last year in Las Vegas. We then stayed the week to run A/SA at the divisional in Las Vegas where set the A/SA Stock National record. We did OK ub the Class in the Nationals, and it was the first time we had actually run Super Stock with Mega Maniac and although we were competitive, we didn't win it. But Keith has won two World Championships in Super Stock, so he knows what is involved and we weren't terribly disappointed.
And so far, in Columbus, we have done OK.
We qualified number five out nearly 100 cars in Super Stock, and we won out class; SS/JA
Eliminations are going on right now. And it may run into Monday, So I will keep you posted as to how we do,
God Bless, and Safe Racing
David
As it turns out, Saturday was pretty much lost to the rainy weather. But that is Columbus In September in Ohio.
Back to racing. So why wouldn't the Mega Maniac be registered to run A/SA in Columbus, this year?
Keith decided to run his Camaro in A/SA, and you can't run two cars in the Stock. But that doesn't mean that the Mega Maniac won't run at all in Columbus? No!
It just means that we will not it in Stock.
What other class, can the Mega Maniac run, you ask. How about Super Stock!
Reasons why running a stocker in Super Stock doesn't make sense:
1: You can have wider tires in Super Stock
2. You can have additional work on your heads
3. You can have a much more aggressive Cam
4. You are allowed to have a Trans Brake
There are more reasons, but these are the big issues. Wider tires would give us better traction on the starter line. Additional work on the heads would five us better air/fuel flow and more horsepower. An bigger cam would increase our horsepower too. And the Trans Brake would give us a more more positive initial launch, as you just hit a button and off you go.
So, other cars can have some pretty significant advantages on us, if we are running in Super Stock.
But there is one significant edge that we do have is the horsepower rating for my car that is back to where we started in stock; In Super Stock, it is 305 Horsepower. That is where we started in Stock before an illegal car stole some class wins from us, and got us a bunch of horsepower before he was finally torn down and found to be illegal. But since the NHRA won't bother to correct that obvious error, we will just go where water hasn't been poisoned.
We had run Super Stock in a the Nationals last year in Las Vegas. We then stayed the week to run A/SA at the divisional in Las Vegas where set the A/SA Stock National record. We did OK ub the Class in the Nationals, and it was the first time we had actually run Super Stock with Mega Maniac and although we were competitive, we didn't win it. But Keith has won two World Championships in Super Stock, so he knows what is involved and we weren't terribly disappointed.
And so far, in Columbus, we have done OK.
We qualified number five out nearly 100 cars in Super Stock, and we won out class; SS/JA
Eliminations are going on right now. And it may run into Monday, So I will keep you posted as to how we do,
God Bless, and Safe Racing
David
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Mega Maniac at the Indy Nationals
It was last minute, and totally unplanned.
But I told you that came about in the last entry, so no more to say about that.
Considering that racing was not high, or even located on my to-do list, the trailer had been mostly unloaded, of tools, spares, etc. The only tools we had were inside of a 10" X 10" cardboard box containing a few miscellaneous tools that Keith had brought.
There were a total of about 140 or more cars there. Only the top 128 would go into the eliminations. We ran a 9.96 and were 17 out of the 128. Not bad for a car whose engine hasn't been apart in nearly a year. And in all honesty, we could have run faster.
In fact, the motor is still sealed from our record run last year in Las Vegas. So we were hoping that we wouldn't need to tear down. We could do it, but we didn't have spare gaskets, and would have needed to borrow tools.
But fortunately/unfortunately, the track conditions saved us from a tear down. We were clearly running well enough to get second place in Class, but the bald spots on the poorly prepared track caused us to spin the tires (happened only twice before in the car's long history) and we lost the race and were eliminated in class.
On Friday, when eliminations got under way, we drew Jeff Taylor again. And Jeff always seems to really hit the tree hard when we run against him. He knows that we are no pushover, and that he had better play his "A" game. Keith had a .009 reaction time. (Pretty sporty when .030 is about the average for all racers. But, wouldn't you know it? Jeff had a perfect .000 light. So we went out in the first round. Oh Well. At least we got to race. And once again, neither the driver nor the car were an embarrassment.
Here is a video of our 9.96 run, which came in the first round of Class, which also was the last round of qualifying. This run, although impressive, was done running less than a 1/4 mile at full throttle. I wont say where on the track the brakes went on, but it was before the finish line.
But I told you that came about in the last entry, so no more to say about that.
Considering that racing was not high, or even located on my to-do list, the trailer had been mostly unloaded, of tools, spares, etc. The only tools we had were inside of a 10" X 10" cardboard box containing a few miscellaneous tools that Keith had brought.
There were a total of about 140 or more cars there. Only the top 128 would go into the eliminations. We ran a 9.96 and were 17 out of the 128. Not bad for a car whose engine hasn't been apart in nearly a year. And in all honesty, we could have run faster.
In fact, the motor is still sealed from our record run last year in Las Vegas. So we were hoping that we wouldn't need to tear down. We could do it, but we didn't have spare gaskets, and would have needed to borrow tools.
But fortunately/unfortunately, the track conditions saved us from a tear down. We were clearly running well enough to get second place in Class, but the bald spots on the poorly prepared track caused us to spin the tires (happened only twice before in the car's long history) and we lost the race and were eliminated in class.
On Friday, when eliminations got under way, we drew Jeff Taylor again. And Jeff always seems to really hit the tree hard when we run against him. He knows that we are no pushover, and that he had better play his "A" game. Keith had a .009 reaction time. (Pretty sporty when .030 is about the average for all racers. But, wouldn't you know it? Jeff had a perfect .000 light. So we went out in the first round. Oh Well. At least we got to race. And once again, neither the driver nor the car were an embarrassment.
Here is a video of our 9.96 run, which came in the first round of Class, which also was the last round of qualifying. This run, although impressive, was done running less than a 1/4 mile at full throttle. I wont say where on the track the brakes went on, but it was before the finish line.
The car is still for sale. It is still capable of winning, and it will be sad to see it go. But it is time. Both Chris and I knew that a time would come when it would be sold, and that was OK with both of us. It would cost a lot more and take a great deal of time to build a car capable of what this car is capable of doing. $85,900 is a very fair price for this car.
See you at the Sports Nationals in Columbus at the end of the month. Cash, or a Cashiers Check will allow you to take this gem home with you.
Next post will include some comments about the nature and character of most Drag Pak owners.
God Bless, and Safe Racing!
David
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Mega Maniac goes out to play...
A fellow Drag Pak owner needed some help. He thought that the electronics in his car were faulty and asked to borrow the ECU from the Mega Maniac.
I was trying to figure out the most efficient way to get the ECU to him at the Nationals in Indianapolis. I called Keith since he lives about half way there, and thought that if I drove down, and gave him he box, it would be in good/safe hands, and Dennis would get it right away.
Keith was already in Indianapolis. Oh well, I hate to trust Fed Ex with something that cant be replaced, but was preparing to do just that, when Keith called me back and told me the day in Indy was lost since it was raining. He and I had talked about getting the Mega maniac out for a race later in September. But he suggested that since the day was lost, he might as well come up and get the car and race it at Indy, That way Dennis could check out his electronics, and the car could get some exercise.
So, on Monday afternoon, Keith picked up the car and went back to Indy. I got up early on Tuesday and drove to Indy.
We checked out the electronics on Dennis' car, and they were OK. After replacing his with mine, there was no difference. So trouble shooting was the order of the the day. After a lot of possibilities, Keith suggested examining the fuel filters to see if there is some issue with the fuel.
The symptom was that the car start out running fairly well when fuel injectors were changed, but get progressively worse running very rich.
When the filters were examined, they were packed with crap, apparently from the foam that comes in the fuel cell to prevent the fuel from sloshing around. We had removed outs a long time ago, because Keith said that they tend to break down. Well, it appears that is what happened to Dennis' car.
The fuel was drained, the foam removed, and the plugs and injectors pulled. The plugs were crusted black with unburned fuel. Too much fuel was being dumped into the cylinders because the injectors were being jammed open with junk form the foam in the fuel cell.
The filters were replaced, and another filter was inserted into the line. The lines were flushed again, new fuel in, and the car started fine.
So, for you Challenger Drag Pak owners who still have foam in your fuel cells, you are playing with fire. It might be a good idea to take it out.
And while I see no disadvantage to taking it out, I do see an advantage. When you wish to see how much fuel you have in the tank, you just need to look. You don't have have to guess what is hiding in the foam.
More tomorrow on our runs at Indy.
God Bless, and Race Safely
David
I was trying to figure out the most efficient way to get the ECU to him at the Nationals in Indianapolis. I called Keith since he lives about half way there, and thought that if I drove down, and gave him he box, it would be in good/safe hands, and Dennis would get it right away.
Keith was already in Indianapolis. Oh well, I hate to trust Fed Ex with something that cant be replaced, but was preparing to do just that, when Keith called me back and told me the day in Indy was lost since it was raining. He and I had talked about getting the Mega maniac out for a race later in September. But he suggested that since the day was lost, he might as well come up and get the car and race it at Indy, That way Dennis could check out his electronics, and the car could get some exercise.
So, on Monday afternoon, Keith picked up the car and went back to Indy. I got up early on Tuesday and drove to Indy.
We checked out the electronics on Dennis' car, and they were OK. After replacing his with mine, there was no difference. So trouble shooting was the order of the the day. After a lot of possibilities, Keith suggested examining the fuel filters to see if there is some issue with the fuel.
The symptom was that the car start out running fairly well when fuel injectors were changed, but get progressively worse running very rich.
When the filters were examined, they were packed with crap, apparently from the foam that comes in the fuel cell to prevent the fuel from sloshing around. We had removed outs a long time ago, because Keith said that they tend to break down. Well, it appears that is what happened to Dennis' car.
The fuel was drained, the foam removed, and the plugs and injectors pulled. The plugs were crusted black with unburned fuel. Too much fuel was being dumped into the cylinders because the injectors were being jammed open with junk form the foam in the fuel cell.
The filters were replaced, and another filter was inserted into the line. The lines were flushed again, new fuel in, and the car started fine.
So, for you Challenger Drag Pak owners who still have foam in your fuel cells, you are playing with fire. It might be a good idea to take it out.
And while I see no disadvantage to taking it out, I do see an advantage. When you wish to see how much fuel you have in the tank, you just need to look. You don't have have to guess what is hiding in the foam.
More tomorrow on our runs at Indy.
God Bless, and Race Safely
David
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