March 29, 2008

The Bonneville has recorded a new best time!

With a general invitation from the Pontiac Drag Days director, Dave, My '65 Bonneville and several other Pontiacs attended the Super Chevy Show at California Speedway in Fontana, CA from March 28-30th, 2008.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Sadly, several of the Pontiacs were powered by Chevrolet engines, to which I gave each and every one of them a hard time about it. ;-) Especially Josh, a kid I met while waiting in a three hour long line just to get into the event, with a beat-ass spraycanned flat black '65 Lemans powered by a '90's Chevy Tahoe 350 smallblock. As you can imagine, we got along great.

Josh (a youngin' of around 20 years old, I'd guess) and I got to talking about our cars and he invited me to join him and his brothers, father and their significant women in the pit spot they had grabbed. Meeting people at the track is usually pretty fun, and these people were no exception. Their hospitality was welcomed as we helped each other out, and I even got a free sandwich out of the deal! I dumped my gear off under their trailer and headed out to tech my car. Passed with flying colors.

For this event, I'd picked up some 235/60/15" BFG Drag Radials (Tread wear rating: ZERO!) as a large problem I had with my car last time was traction. They had a bunch of different run groups and I competed in DOT; as in DOT legal tires. Thankfully they were broadcasting over an FM radio band so you could listen for your run group and hear everything the announcers were saying. Unthankfully, you got only ONE PASS during each run group rather than there being a time limit on running. How is it really a test and tune session with such few runs? Oh well, I had a goal in mind and wasn't going to go home without achieving that goal. A timeslip with a 12.XXX was the goal, down from a 13.45 second 1/4 mile that I ran at LACR.

Run 1: First time with the drag radials VS. 65 Nova, or 67 Camaro.. one of the two beat-ass primered yellow Chevies that was there.

60 foot: 1.931 (Wooooaaahhhhhh these tires hook and caught me off guard!)

I think to myself that it's going to be a good day and I can launch a lot harder with these tires!

Then, we played the waiting game. I ran around 1:30pm and didn't get to go again for about three hours... but then it was time to play:

Run 2: VS 80's Camaro

60 foot: 1.848
330 foot: 5.524 (ummm.... WTF? It's not shifting into 2nd!)

Yeah, so my transmission didn't shift! To control my shift points, I move the gear selector manually and did not miss. I was bouncing the engine off of valve float at some astronomical RPM (like 6K) ;-) in 1st gear. I let off, mash it again and the same thing happens so I let off and slip it into 3rd and by this time the Camaro had caught up and even pulled a little bit ahead, but with foot planted, I still pulled out ahead.

1/8 mile: 8.833 at 76.60 MPH
1000 foot: 11.547
1/4 mile: 13.798 at 100.49 MPH. (Camaro ran a 13.97 at 98 mph)

CRAP! Well the track closes at 5pm so I pack up and hed to the hotel. Jenny (my Girlfriend) meets me there later on and we go to Dave and Buster's and get a little tipsy while playing skee-ball, car racing and other games on a D&B card I bought in Michigan about a year and a half ago.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The car was still driving normally so we headed back out way early in the morning and got about 300 feet before it stalled at a stoplight. No biggie, I thought, the car is still cold. Only problem is that it won't restart! The lights are on, it has power, the starter just clicks. Ok, probably the starter is goofed up since it had this problem a little bit yesterday, but it always restarted after a couple turns of the key. I get under the car and start whacking the starter with a hammer old school style and have Jenny turn the key. It behaves the same. Great, so I'll be R&Ring a starter in the hotel parking lot!

Jenny and I pushed all 4300 lbs of Bonneville plus tools and wheels in the trunk slightly uphill from the stoplight leaving Ontario Mills to the first driveway we came to. A guy from the hotel courtesy shuttle drove by, parked and slowly strolled his ass over just in time for us to make it to the first driveway, where we'd stopped to take a breath. I say, "Thanks; now it'll probably start since you're here." With a quick flick of the key, she starts and idles. Damn car. You are SO getting beaten on today!

Upon arrival to the track at 9:15am, there's yet another line so I turn on the radio to listen to the announcers. The first thing I hear is "DOT Class should be lining up now!" DANGIT! Jenny doesn't have a ticket but my car is all ready to go. Looking at the other cars in line, none of them are registered so I get out of line and drive all the way to the front, point to my stickers and numbers, show the lady my ticket and she says, "well you can't go back now, so just pull up over there and buy her ticket." Woohoo!

I drive in, see Josh heading up to the line and dump all my stuff off at the pit. The BFG's are still on the car since they are street legal, after all, so I give Jenny the video camera and we go up to the staging lanes.

After the run and grabbing my timeslip, I jump out of the car in front of Josh and with helmet still on, wave that first 12 second slip in the air. Josh was congratulatory instead of punching me in the face as he vowed to do if I ran a 12 in a 4460 pound (race weight) car. What a guy. He ran another 15 second pass and I tell him (again) that his car is mad because he put a Chevy engine in it!

After picking up Jenny and my video evidence, we wait for the next run for me to back up my 12 second pass with another. We wait, and wait, and a couple cars blow their engines, laying oil down all over the track. This makes things incredibly behind schedule. In the mean time, I see Jim Wangers, the "Godfather of the GTO" at a booth and start talking to him. Great guy. We chat for a while, he loves both of my Pontiacs, shows me a new book he has with a '78 Trans Am on the cover, and shows me a '65 Catalina 2+2 in the book as well. He tells me to keep the '65 looking stock as they are really shooting up in value right now. Looking, sure.. but not performing! Anyway, I decide to buy his book about the heyday of Detroit and he cheerfully signs it. A little while later, we see the "Gee Tee Oh Tiger" run a 10 second 1/4 mile pass. Yeah I got that on video, too.

Jenny and I watch some racing and walk around the show but It's getting closer to 5pm and we STILL haven't run DOT class a second time. With a little investigation, the officials don't even know if it will happen! Damnit! All was not lost though. Finally we get the call we were waiting for, around 5:30pm.

Since things were so far behind schedule, they are really pushing people through the staging process. I felt so hurried that my burnout didn't even result in any tire smoke, meaning my tires were not heated up properly.

This time however, I ended up next to a fellow big car owner in a '66 Chevy Caprice with HUGE meats on the rear and think to myself that this ought to be a good last run for the weekend.

Well, the guy running that Caprice found me afterwards and had this to say, "I thought 'Yeah! I got him off the line! Oh... no, there he goes.'" Hehehe. My slow reaction time fools 'em again.

Saturday, Run 2

YES! Two in a row, the car kept starting and the transmission behaved. It'll be time for a shift kit now. The governor in the trans may be sticking as that non-shifting thing has happened before. It only gets faster from here, folks!

Directly after that 2nd run, I'm changing tires and someone who saw me run said, "Driving her home?" to which I replied, "Hell yes."

"I love it." He says.

Me too.

Video of the Bonnie's first two 12 second passes

Listen to people's comments. ;-)

"That Bonneville's a monster"
"That's a lotta car"
"Better start, he woulda had him"

"Check out the Bonnie- wow that thing flies!"

"Bonneville, 12.97 at 104, how cool is that?"

Pretty cool if you ask me

Image Gallery of the Super Chevy Show, Mrch 28-30, 2008

October 23, 2005

Yesterday Bonnie and I made our first drag runs at LACR- approximately 2700 ft above sea level. I entered in the Pontiac Drag Days trophy bracket. Having never competed in a bracket race before, I didn't expect to last long but I had a lot of fun! Thankfully we were able to have three qualifying runs.

Car setup: daily use, full interior, stereo, 1/2 tank of gas, front 1 1/8" sway bar attached. 225/70/15" tires with blown air shocks in the back and air bags in the springs. At least I have a limited slip.

• CLICK HERE for a video of my 4 good runs (12 MB)
• Image Gallery - includes Jet cars!
  

Run 1:
I torque-braked up to about 1300 RPM and the rear tires just roasted off the line so I let off. When I did, the transmission shifted into 2nd so when I saw my timeslip, I knew it was going to be a great day.

Run 2:
Torque-brake again, tried to ease onto the gas but spun the tires on a roll so I let off. Leaning from the first run, I shifted the transmission manually from here on out. The electric exhaust cutouts were also open for the rest of the day. I wanted to see if they made a difference open/closed but there's no way I'll be able to know until I get consistent.

Run 3:
This time I launched at about 900 RPM (idle is 650) and eased onto the gas lots more gently so I didn't spin the tires at all.

Run 4:
The first run of the bracket racing. Since I was getting better each time and the air was getting cooler, I set my dial in at 13.60 so as to not break out. I was up against a 4th generation Firebird Formula with some bolt on mods running 13.2's. He dialed in at 13.20 and was pretty excited that we were fairly close in times. When we ran, it was a great run except that he red-lighted when he charged off at my light. This would be my saving grace as much to my surprise, I broke out. By a lot. Being a good sportsman, he ran it out and I ran right there with him to the last few hundred feet. What an exciting run this was for both of us!

I can't for the life of me remember how I launched so well since I was concentrating on keeping up with that Firebird!

Run 5:
I roasted the tires so badly trying to duplicate my last launch that it completely ruined my time.I lit 'em up, let off, lit 'em up again and decided to ride out the tire smoke. The transmission didn't want to shift into 2nd when I asked so I let off again and tried to play catch up. The '86 Grand Prix i was up against had a tuned port LT1 running 13.6's so I had a chance to beat him heads up, I just plain did everything wrong! The last 50 feet I just let off to a sad 14.3 at 97 mph while the Grand Prix carried away with the win at 13.8 at 100.1

Overall Impressions:

Needless to say, I was very stunned by my 13.45, as were so many others! It was a blast to run and the car got about 13 MPG round trip 260 miles, including 5 runs. I still had 6 gallons of gas left in the tank. This car has been worth every penny and ever headache to take me to this point. I have stock-like idle and drivability with brute-force on tap to pounce on unsuspecting Mustangs and riceburners.

It's very obvious I have traction problems but also as made evident by my one great run, with more practice and less anxiousness, they can be dealt with. My goal this weekend was to better my '77 Firebird's 13.9 at 102 mph. My new goal is to get into the 12's. :-)

Next time, I'll run at a lower elevation track with the same set-up and see what happens.

Thanks for reading! See you on the strip; or the street...