Archive for October, 2009
Intro from Amir
Thursday, October 8th, 2009More On-Site Video
Thursday, October 8th, 2009On the Salt!
Thursday, October 8th, 2009After a week of 20 hour days the Speed by Spectre team is on the salt. This morning the car is going through tech now, and hopefully we will be in the pits with full bodywork on shortly.
Night Before Big Day
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Just got to wendover. Night before the big day. The SpeedLiner is quiet, for now.
Loaded and Ready to Go!
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009We’re loaded up and ready to go. We will leave at 5:30 am on and arrive this evening. We will tech on Thursday and set up our pit and hopefully get in 1 run. We plan on being there through Sunday, get in as many runs as possible and collect as much data as possible.
We still have a shifter issue, but Liberty FedEx’d parts to our hotel, so we should be good to go there. We had a lot of hurdles and gremlins pop up during the entire build, including the last hour…… The car is 38′ long, with about 1″ of ground clearance. Getting it on the trailer took a couple of hours, plus a forklift, and tons of wood. So that isn’t workable, especially if you set a speed record you have to bring the car to the impound area in under 1 hour or the record is forfeited. Anyway, an eleventh hour brainstorm fixed everything and now we’re all looking forward to seeing the car run.
More to come as it develops.
Bonneville Update
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
Pre-entries: 91 Cars and 43 Bikes, Total 134
Bonneville Update
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
We inspected 101 race vehicles today and the salt is the best we have ever seen. (ever in my 25 years) We are running a single course and will get underway directly after tomorrow morning 8am drivers meeting. Roy Creel
Bonneville Update
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
Inspection starts tomorrow.
Event runs from Thursday to Sunday.
Bonneville Update
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
What a beautiful day.
Bonneville Update
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Well, it’s past 4:30 am and we’re not heading out yet, some of us will try to get a couple of hours of sleep. We’re not there yet, but a lot closer.
Main hurdles right now: The Liberty transmission isn’t working right and the dashboard from FAST isn’t working right. Both those issues will get addressed tomorrow.
Still a lot of minor misc. stuff, then skinning, then we see if it will roll onto the trailer, and if all that happens, we still need to pack.
At that point we will assess the time of day and our condition to drive and determine when to head out. Stickering will be done there, on site.
Current plan is to drive all night and get there in the morning, or drive early Wed.
Will know more later today………
No Rain on Course Monday
Monday, October 5th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
No rain on course Monday, surface looks
perfect! Inspection starts Wednesday morning. It is cold.
Roy Creel
Bonneville Update: Final Checks
Monday, October 5th, 2009Engine fired and final checks progressing. Have some engine leaks to deal with though.
Plan to start skinning and finish the undercoating soon………. Decals will have to be applied on site when we arrive.
The new trailer is set and ready to go.
Will update more as it progresses.
Very Close to Firing Engine!
Monday, October 5th, 2009Still at it 5:30 pm on Monday.
Very close to firing the engine, testing all the systems, and then, if all is OK, skin the beast, apply all the decals, apply undercoating to all vehicles and pack up.
Skinning takes a while, but is fairly straightforward, lots of mallet action.
I don’t know how long the decals will take, hopefully not too bad if it’s a group effort.
Then there’s undercoating, which will now be done at night, in the dark…….
Packing up, ah, well that could be a while as there is a lot of stuff to take.
But first, let’s see if it fires up and not too much stuff starts to leak out……… CO2 for the shifter, Nitrogen for the tires, gas, oil, various water tanks…….. but not brake fluid, no. Because we spent all day chasing down brake and clutch leaks, so hopefully those are all fixed. The rest should be a piece of cake.
Schedule Change
Monday, October 5th, 2009Posting on the SCTA Bonneville Website
http://www.scta-bni.org/index.html
Schedule Change – Due to weather issues, all World Finals Events are pushed back one day. Tech will now be Wednesday October 7th. Racing takes place October 8th – 11th
Bonneville Update: 1 Day Delay
Monday, October 5th, 2009We [us as a team and the Bonneville organizers] are delayed by one day [so far]. Our plan is now to leave TUESDAY morning, at 4:00 am, arriving Tuesday night IF we get the car together and IF the weather gets better like the forecast says it will.
In any case, the car is not finished and we are not ready to leave. The plan for today is to get together around 9:00 am and to fire up the car by noon. Then if all goes well, there is the body to assemble followed by prepping the undersides of all 6 vehicles with anti salt stuff, loading the car, packing and getting 1 good night of sleep.
If all that happens we plan on leaving tomorrow morning at 4:00 am….. if the organizers don’t delay the event for another day, probably waiting for the lake to dry up.
We’ll see.