Hey Bruce,
Congratualtions on a great job. Building a car
with the family spread from the Atlantic to the
Pacific is worthy of a hat tip in itself, much
less breaking deep into the big two oh oh on it's
first trip to the salt.
Dick J
--- FastmetalBDF@aol.com wrote:
> Hello All, We're back from California'
> s Bay Area, and our first
> time of running
> a car at Speedweek. Much as I love the awesome
> beauty of the Bonneville
> scenery,
> it feels good to have lots of trees around, the
> cool breeze off Long Island
> Sound,
> and not be coated down in sun block . We
> did not set any records with the
> 939 Black Radon Engineering Firebird, but did
> accomplish several things we
> feel good about ...... so here are several
> notes : We made a total of nine
> runs from Sunday to Thursday, and on Tuesday
> Darrell's fourth licensing pass
> was at
> 192.688 and that afternoon his fifth pass (
> first on the long course ), on
> straight methanol, netted a speed of 200.005
> ..... not much over two bills
> ..... but enough so that our good old buddy
> from Alabama lost his bet with
> Darrell that he wouldn' t go two hundred at his
> first Bonneville competition
> ! Sure enough, ever a man of his word,
> Keith soon zoomed into our pit
> area on his neat-o mini bike, with the payoff
> ....... The Can of Diet Coke
> ...... and a towel over his arm to serve it
> ...... waiter style !!! Many
> laughs and wise cracks followed ....... the
> stuff that makes the Speedweek
> experience so great !!!
> The following morning, Wednesday, the car
> was a little faster at
> 209.353 mph,
> but the best was yet to come, as that
> afternoon, on his seventh licensing
> pass,
> and with some fine tuning and a light load of
> nitro in the tank, Darrell made
> a pass
> down the salt at 259.038 mph, which was 2.350
> mph OVER the existing
> B / BFALT record ....... so, needless to say,
> our whole crew was very happy at
> this strong run ! The amazing thing about
> this, the FASTEST of all our
> runs, was
> that the blower belt totally self destructed
> about 400 feet before the last
> timing light,
> causing the car to " nose over " in a loss of
> power ! The blower belt was
> just a tangle of cords and lots of small chunks
> of rubber ! We all
> concurred that had the belt held together the
> speed would have been in the
> 260s ........ but as we all know ....... in
> racing, as the real world, "
> coulda --- shoulda --- woulda !!! " This
> run really charged up the whole
> crew, for sure !
> However, as the saying goes, " There's
> many a slip ' twixt the cup and
> the lip ! "....... and the slip came Thursday
> afternoon, after some thorough
> engine maintenance that morning ........
> checking the innards ........ when,
> on
> the long course, at the three mile mark, the
> car spun, while recording a time
> of
> 195.824 . That was run number eight, and
> while it was disappointing, the
> good news was that the driver ( Darrell ) and
> car were A - OK !
> Time was running out ...... it was
> Thursday afternoon already, and
> after the mandatory check out of the wheels,
> tires, suspension, etc. (
> required after a spin...... and an excellent
> rule ) by the tech officials
> ....... we strapped Doug in the car for his
> first licensing pass, which netted a run of
> 157.278 mph . We were all very
> happy that Doug got at least one run in the car
> as he has worked tirelessly
> on this car, as has Darrell, and all the
> fabricated aluminum pieces on this
> car were TIG' d by
> Doug ...... about three thousand miles away
> from the car, here in Connecticut
> .
> NOT quite like walking four or five steps
> from the bench to the car to
> make sure things fit right !!! MANY long
> phone calls coast to coast
> ....... MANY double
> and triple measurements ....... and MANY very
> accurate templates going thru
> the
> mails ! It all seems to have come together
> pretty well for our first
> outing , and I
> am very proud of all the design and
> construction work my two sons have done
> on this car ....... they did EVERYTHING on this
> project except the machining
> on the
> engine block, which we are not equipped to do .
> They chose the flat black
> color
> ...... not primer ..... to give the car a
> sinister look, and many people have
> told us it has that look to it . This car was
> formerly owned by my uncle
> ....... was Doug' s first car, and he put in
> its' first big block Chev while
> in high school ...... then several years ago
> Doug & Darrell did some car
> trading ....... towed it to the Bay Area after
> Darrell moved out there in ' 94 ........
> Darrell drag raced it a bit, and
> then they decided that Bonneville & the dry
> lakes was the way they wanted to
> go ...... after
> reading about LeVan Prothero' s Camaro, I
> think . The boys feel there is
> a lot more speed potential in this family
> heirloom, and will now commence on
> fine tuning
> and refining many as yet unfinished details on
> the car, and making many
> improvements . Watch for it at the dry lakes
> ! I would like to thank
> all the fine
> people, both on this list and off , who had so
> many positive comments and
> nice
> things to say about our car, including those of
> the SCTA inspectors . It
> was great to meet so many on this list for the
> first time, and also to see
> again others I have met
> previosly ! For some on this list that I
> didn' t get to talk with, my
> apologies ......
> crewing on a car sure cuts down on socializing
> and checking out other cars .
> Congrats, again to my sons ...... for
> many years now my wife has said "
> You
> injected gasoline in those boys veins ! "
> ....... I guess they were exposed
> to a lot of
> oval & drag racing ! Now, I tell her , " No,
> now it' s nitromethane and
> alcohol ! "
> My thanks to Michael Burns of
> California, our youngest crew member,
> and avery big THANK YOU to Tom Shea and Ed
> Ruggieri, both of Springfield,
> MA.
> for all the help they gave us on the salt
> ...... both old time hotrodders
> from Mass.
> like me ! Most of all ...... my GREATEST
> thanks to my wife, Mary Ann, for
> putting up with, and making possible all our
> car antics over the years !!!
> We
> will be married for 35 years next month ( !!! )
> ...... and she will always be
> the pretty
> girl I saw on the car trailer, in the pits
> ....... Connecticut Dragway, Sept
> 9, 1962 .
> ........ It' s been a long trip from
> helping the older boys run
> flathead oval track cars in 1948 and ' 49 , in
> Massachusetts and Rhode
> Island, to watching my sons run down the salt
> at Bonneville , Utah , in the
> year 2000 .............
> Who says life isn' t wonderful
> ???
> Bruce Ferguson ........ feeling
> pretty good ......... off now
> to see my
> two beautiful grandchildren !
=====
.............................
..........Dick J.............
......(In East Texas)........
..........# 729..............
........Roadsters............
.Hemis and Flatheads Forever.
.............................
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