We have just finished our Mazda RX4 with the running gear out of the Cortina in it. BBC 454. The Mazda is about 200lb lighter that the cortina, so should run 9.4's to 9.5 - that was the plan. Every time we took the cortina out with changes made, it never ran the numbers that we thought, so was this going to be another disappointing day?
We headed to Heathcote for the LS1 Nationals and entered in the fixed index bracket. Friday night test and tune, I sent my crash test dummy (my son Michael) down for the car's first ever pass. It is a brand new full chassis car, so I wanted to know that it would run straight and more importantly, stop at the other end.... First pass was an on and off, get the feel of it half track pass, all seemed OK, so Michael did a full pass, a lot of wheel spin and ran a 9.69 - very happy with that. It had a lot of vibration at about half track and Michael mentioned it was a bit disorientating, but my turn never the less. Although a car that had never been raced, it could be about 7 years old with a few owners doing bits to it and the tyres are about that age also, so may have been sitting flat for some years!! They'll be right they tell me.....But this could be the cause of the vibration. In the car I get, pitch black night time, the seat isn't comfy, I can't see over the scoop, the belts don't feel right, my helmet hits the chute lever if I move too far left, the visor hits the window net if I look right - what am I doing, a 50 year old granny that should be home knitting - never!! Up to the line I go, it has a line locker on the steering wheel, something I haven't used before and the trans brake on the wheel - new to me too. I do the burnout, not good enough according to my husband, so he sends me back to do another one - the poor guy in the other lane, but they expect these things from a woman!! This one must have been OK as I was "allowed" to stage. Well, what a ride! It launched well then started to dance, then the vibration came in and I couldn't focus on anything, being pitch black made it worse, it started to get out of shape at about 800 feet and I was thinking, I should get off it, I should get off it, I'm nearly there, I should get off it, I made it!! Hit the brakes and pulled up nicely. Waiting for Steve in the tow car, I really didn't know what I had done. He arrived all smiles - 9.63. Great result for a more than average track and first time - I was stoked. We turned it straight around - no checking for loose nuts and bolts, no checking plugs - it'll be right, you'll be fine. Next pass, all seemed much better, still the vibration, but didn't dance around anything like the last pass. Wheel spun off the line, but nothing major. Steve arrived and seemed a bit reserved. Not bad, but you ran a 9.9 - bloody hell, what went wrong? It all felt good. For that few seconds, I was really pissed - then he said "OK, you ran a 9.51!" I was so excited, my best ever time before that night was a 9.75, so that was great. Slept in the trailer - froze all night then some joker started his generator at 6.00am for a coffee and woke us all up - another day in the dust at Heathcote. We took the bonnet off and checked a plug (well they did - I have long nails you know...) and it looked perfect, no need to change anything. If I can run 9.5's I'll be rapt, but maybe I can get it down to the 9.4's. First pass and I think I was the 2nd car down the lane, felt real good, no vibration, could see where I was going - daylight, just red lit by .0069 (so I know I'm not far off) and whoo hoo, I ran a 9.37. No wheel spin to speak of, just slightly out of the hole. How exciting. The rest of the day went really well. ran a 9.42, 9.46, 9.48, 9.46 then a 9.53 with a far bit of wheel spin when the track went off in the heat of the day. The vibration only came once, when they put in a 5500rpm chip in, and wheel spun off the line, then the vibration came in at about half track - not a nice feeling, your eyeball seem like they are rattling. This motor always gets slower in the heat, so we knew it would come back in the eliminators at night. After a lot of oil downs, 1 car into the wall, then a huge roll over, the meeting got canceled at 10.30pm with no eliminators for our class being run. A bummer really, but we couldn't have had a better day. My lights ended up great being .0065, .05 and I think .09. When qualifiers started, they put my class on a pro tree and I don't know what I reacted at. We took the bonnet off at lunch time only because we thought we should, looked under there for a while and put it back on. The whole day was a first for us, no dramas, the car ran like it should, I reacted like I should, then the meeting got canceled...... Michael put his motor and box into the Cortina and his day was another story..... A day like we normally have, bent valve we think, but still running at the end, just not the times he would have liked. We went down the track side by side twice, nice to beat you son home!!!
Sorry to bore you all, but wanted to let you know about our first meeting, because knowing our luck, it will be a first and last!!!!