Well, we had a great time at the track on Sunday. It was Agricultural Fair Weekend here on St. Croix so a lot was going on. Due to the President's Day holiday the track was open on Saturday and Sunday nights. Unfortunately, UVI had classes on President's Day as the Spring schedule is always tight as it has to fit between the Crucian Christmas Festival (Carnival on St. Croix) and Carnival on St. Thomas. I had plenty at work now also but we went anyway and just planned on lots of coffee on Monday morning. Saturday night we were invited to a party with some of our sailing friends so we could only run at the track on Sunday.
I was curious to see how the car would perform as I have made some changes since the last time we were at the track.
1) I clamped the front segments of both rear springs (did this before the last time and it seemed to help so this would be a good confirmation)
2) I spent a fair amount of time playing with the timing to get it working well at the low end without being too much at the top end, it might need a little more mechanical taken out of it.
3) I reset the float bowls, turns out they were low which I thought might explain the running out of fuel symptom I was experiencing.
4) Finally put in new spark plugs, I decided to try NGK BKR6ES. They were even available locally.
5) We now have a nice new RobbMc starter which really spins the engine over well which has fixed the starter problem.
Anyway, due to picking up a free refrigerator, going to the gym, then going to the Ag Fair, we got to the track a bit late. Michelle had a migraine but was feeling better as the drugs were working. We decide to bring the RR and the Land Rover. Karen at the gate was glad to see that Michelle was feeling well enough to drive and wished her luck whipping up on the boys.
We get there and start changing to the slicks. I just drop the exhaust at home and bolt on the collector extensions and so far the Gendarmes have not given me a problem. I do try to be discreet.
Michelle goes to make a run as they want to get the racing started. I was finishing up changing the tires so did not get to see it but she runs a 15.77. Okay, this is in the 1/8th but it is the first time she has broken 16 so she was psyched. She said that she could tell that it was going well. Some people were laughing as she was pulling up but she was going down the track -- they were not.
I then made my first practice run. Car felt pretty good, it didn't seem to be spinning at the line so I can probably raise my launch RPM. I didn't miss any shifts and there was no sign of the sputtering I had been experiencing about a month ago. It took a little while to track down the time slips to confirm as a buddy of the other car's driver had grabbed both slips. Michelle tracked him down and she said it was funny as he pulled out this huge wad of time slips from his pocket and then they were all laughing and sorting through them trying to figure out which one was the right slip. It turned out that my RT was terrible, .889 on a .5 tree. The 60 foot was 1.847 and the ET was 8.172 at 85.55.
Now, that ET is the lead in to the "I told you so". It turns out that the street class was low on cars so Michelle decided to run, even though she was initially only going to practice. We decide on her time, she decides to go with 15.7 on her dial to be safe. She is paired with this young man John with his red turbo Honda Civic. This is maybe the second time we have seen John at the track so it was great to see him participating in the bracket program. They line up. The announcer is saying "I am betting on the Land Rover, who wants to bet $20.00 on the Land Rover". Sadly, he lost his $20. Michelle was a little late on the light but the Honda spun at the start so it was very close. She said that he just caught her between the MPH and ET cones so it was a tight finish. She had a good time and congratulated John on winning. John actually went on to win that night
so I am sure he will continue with the racing which is of course a good thing.
At some point in all of this, two small boys about 9-10 years old came up to Michelle and shyly ask her "Do you do a burnout in your car"? She told them "no, I don't do them, I'm sorry". It was very cute. She also saw at least two of her students from UVI; she commented to me she hoped they had studied for Monday's exam.
I got paired up with our friend Chema in his AMC Spirit. He is a very nice guy and a good racer and has been dong it for a long time. Michelle had been advising me to dial an 8.10. I decide to dial an 8.12. She says "I think you should dial an 8.10". I stick with my 8.12. I am sure by now everyone can tell where this is heading.
Chema and I line up. I really want to beat him as he is good and I am getting tired of going out first round. I have a better reaction time than before, still not great, but the car is running well and I had decided to just not let off as a couple of times I have and been nipped at the stripe. The finish is similar to Michelle and John's. It looked as if Chema just caught me at the finish cone. We stop and turn around and drive back down the track and I notice that the win light is, in fact, blinking in Chema's lane. Michelle has retrieved the time slips for us and as she hands me mine she says "I told you so". I am trying to figure out what she meant but as I did not want to hold up traffic I just pulled on ahead and drove up to our pit area. As I am driving up, light dawns on Marblehead, and I figure out what she meant. Sure enough, after I park and check the slip my ET was 8.113 at 85.39 on an 8.12 dial. Broke out by .007. Just call me James Bond. Chema had a better light, .598 to my .676, and ran 7.32 on a 7.27 dial so he drove the better race. I think he got runner up that night.
I managed to get in one more run that night and then we decided to call it quits. Just by coincidence it was the same car I ran the first time. I had a terrible reaction time, .927, but the 60 foot was best of the night, 1.734 and here is the big one, ET of 7.955 with an MPH of 87.04. First time into the 7's!!
According to an 1/8th to 1/4 calculator, that translates to a 12.40. Dram can be proud, he told me this engine had mid 12's in it, thank you Dan
The other guy had a reaction time of .571 and an ET of 8.015 so it was a very close finish but he took me.
All in all, a great time, connected up with some people we had not seen in a while. No wrecks or spills.
It does seem that the clamping of the springs helps. I have also been lowering the front end which I think helps. There is a guy down here, Davin, who takes a bunch of photos and there are several of the RR, including one of the launch where you can see the front end lifting relative to static, and the rear section of the leaf spring is arching and there is more of the differential visible under the fuel tank which implies that the car is lifting, not squatting.
Here is a link to the photo galleries from Sunday night on Davin's website, streetseen.vi He has a lot of shots from our track if you prowl around the site.
http://www.streetseen.vi/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=573Best regards to all!
