No problem Keith- I enjoyed being able to thrash on a car out at Bonneville,
I wish it was ours, but as the saying goes, The more complicated they get,
the easier they are to mess up. Doug and I did start our motor before he was
forced to fly home early. It sounded OK with our initial 26 degrees lead. We
noticed a small fuel leak on the distribution block and shut it down. We
pulled the injector, tightened it up, advanced the mag to 32 degrees and lit
it off again. It sounded much better. The throttle response was CRISP !!!!!
and with 26.5% Overdrive, the whole car would lift up an inch when I'd crack
the throttle. After about 3 minutes of idling, trying to build a little heat
in the motor, she leaned out and started revving up before I could hit the
fuel shutoff. We had blue fire pouring a foot out of each header, and in the
3 minutes, burned 4 gallons of Methanol. We're looking forward to getting
this car to the track, and were disappointed that we could not make it to
speedweek. I did have fun though at Bonneville, and enjoyed meeting you and
Dave, John and Wes in person, as well as many other racers. It was a nice
change of pace for me, and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it as well (although
you scattered your motor).
Darrell Ferguson
BLACK RADON ENGINEERING
# 939 BBFALT
http://my.cybersoup.com/blackradon
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Turk [SMTP:kturk@ala.net]
> Sent: Monday, August 23, 1999 3:49 AM
> To: land-speed@autox.team.net
> Subject: No Records...Big FUN
>
> Well we didn't set any Records.... Damn shame but We had a Great time and
> made lots of new friends.... Met a Ton of E-mail buddies.... which was
> wonderful... we are in one of those environments that simply doesn't put a
> face on a fella... It was great to talk with all of you... and honestly
> .Your great folks in Person...
>
> The So Al "semi" Special was an absolute riot to run on the salt... thanks
> to John Beckett for having the ECTA and Joe Timney for quality inspections
> over a years time.... Tech was a breeze big bubbles no troubles... matter
> of fact Less Problems then most folks.... (reckon Mike Cook (pres SCTA)
> walking up and introducing us to the tech guys helped?)
>
> We ran the car Ten times total... which was well short of our goal... but
> we had a little French kissing exercise between the Valves and the Pistons
> when the Jesel Belt drive slipped.... for some reason... the valves didn't
> take kindly to this
>
> First passes were 140mph then up to 160 and a good plug check... cleared
> me
> up to 190.... and Brad was cleared to 7800... so based on exit Rpm he went
> 198 with about 3/4 throttle.... The car was cooking with no real
> problems...
>
> came in Monday Morning and swapped in the 307 gear set with the Help of
> Darrel from Our list here...(thanks Darrel... your help was most
> appreciated) Took the car over to the Long course... and decided it was
> time to let the car run up to speed.... after the first mile of slick salt
> I got it in fourth with the motor breathing fine and building Rpm like a
> banshee.. and it all quit accelerating.... just stopped at 5800 rpm....
> Pulled off the course to the right and shut it down..... I was bummed....
>
> I had waited 4 hours on the starting line with the full expectation that
> the car was going to run the number.... For once in my life I was quiet...
> secure in the knowledge that the car was going to do what I had built and
> designed it to do....
>
> Took a full night to relax and gain a little insight on what was wrong and
> what happened to the motor... and to kinda regroup and figure out how to
> get the most out of the rest of the week.... Oh and thanks to John
> Beckett's Prodding we finally decided to Swap in our back up motor and run
> it the rest of the week....
> ( thanks to help from our Aussie Crew.. Garth Butterworth) we put Brad's
> 355 in and ran it several more times.... Learned lots of lessons.... and
> finally listened to what we knew was right and slipped on our Big carb and
> tall tires and ran a respectable 180mph... with a short shut down due to
> over heating... seems the Belt drive got the CSI Water pump also...
>
> The lessons learned could fill a Large book.... and over the next couple
> of
> months I am sure I will fill you in on them all.... Mostly I want to say
> thank you again to all of you who took the time to drop by and say
> Hello.... and for making our first speed week one of the most pleasant and
> enjoyable weeks of my life..
> Keith Turk
> Austin Healey 100 / Bugeye / Box Sprite / Bonneville Land Speed Racer
> Camaro ( D Gas Altered )(modified to a C on short notice)
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