Lee Zane's Buick Apollo Wins The US Nationals In Stock Eliminator. Lee qualified 36th out of about 166 cars and then went on to defeat all challengers for Stock's biggest win of the year. Lee defeated multi time World Champion Dan Fletcher in the final and Peter Biondo in the semi's. Needless to say there was much rejoicing in our Buick camp... The Apollo ran a best of a 11.79 on a 12.95 Nat'l index. And also of note, we have been running fast enough for NHRA to adjust our horsepower rating from 260HP to 264HP. Therefore we will have to run 50# heavier in the same class. Safe Trips All,
Sooooper! If you only win one, that's the one to win! I am sure you can take the 50# and still smack em down. Thanks for keeping the Buick banner waving high!
Way to Go!!!:beer It's not every day I see another Apollo, but one that fast!:grin: I'm guessing he's doin that with the 350?
Cograts on a fantastic win! I'm sure that was tons of hard work. Any suggestions on "what works" for the Apollo's in terms of suspension, engine etc., for those of us with dragstrip aspirations for our Apollo's? Nobody talks much about these cars. I look forward to building mine as a bracket car for my stepsons. It'll be nice to be able to MODIFY something for a change.... I love my GS, but get tired of having to keep everything looking kosher...
Heck, if I knew you were running at Brainerd International Raceway on Aug 17th I may have driven over to see ya run! Only about 3hrs away from me. Here's a link to the Stock class point standings, and Lee is currently 3rd as of today's update. :TU: http://www.nhra.com/stats/stock_top50.html
I just saw Lee's run on ESPN coverage of the Nationals, taking out two champions to get the win is way big. :TU: :TU:
Here are some (all that I can think of) of the not so secret secrets that make the car go as fast as it does. Camshaft, running an old Lunati one but have since gotten a new one from Bullet Cams in TN. It has the stock .392 int., .408 exh. lift. The secret is in the duration!! This cam looks alot like a roller cam. A real wide lobe. The piston rings are a real low tension set-up. They are from Tri-City rings out in California from Greg Luneak. Ring gaps are .018 1st and 2nd ring. Intake valves are the "Pro-Flow" or some type like that where they neck down near the bottom of the valve. I got them from TA Performance in Phoenix. They are big into Buick stuff. Mallory ingition with a new Mallory distributor. "Stock" as far as NHRA sees it calls for our engine to have the pistons .010 minimum down in the bore at TDC. We paid careful attention to this and made each one .011 in the hole by adjusting the stock connecting rod, length. Our NHRA approved head gasket calls for it to be .041 min. thickness which is what the blue Fel-Pro is. We also use NAPA Victors gaskets. Our bore is .030 oversized. We are allowed to go .070 over, but Buick cylinder walls are rather thin. We may try to sneak up on .060 over, but that will be later. There are places in the walls that are less than one hundred thousandths thick. Our crankshaft is stroked .013 with .015 being the max. Thats what got the pistons up in the hole necesitating the rod work. Use rubber seals for the front and rear main. We paid careful attention to the carb making sure everthing opened fully. We have many metering rods and primary jets to tune it for conditions. Pistons are off the shelf Venolia products which require a .072 deep dish that has a volumn of 17.3 cc's. A little stiffer valve springs to hold onto the bumpy duration. I haven't measured the duration. The cam has 106' lobe seperation and the cam is installed at 108' intake centerline. Our piston to valve clearance is REAL TIGHT!! About .045 where .070 is recommended, but we "only" spin the thing to about 6400 rpm. That's about it for the engine. Sorry I jumped around with things. You can get a higher lift cam that will make up for getting one with less duration, but we have to stick to the stock cam lift. The tranny is a T350 that has been thoroughly gone over by Frank Lupo's Dynamic Trans with lightened drums hubs etc. to make it easier to rotate. The converter is a 4800 rpm stall unit from Dynamic unit also. We leave the line at anywhere from 2800-3300 depending on the track and how the car is performing. This is our adjustment to get good lights. A 4.56 Richmond gear ratio rear that has a Strange spool and Mose axles with 9x30 M/T radial slicks transfer to "power". That's about it...... Car weighs 3620 with driver. NHRA minimum is 3605 in our class. We removed heater, wipers etc. in order to lighten it up. It has a 6 point roll bar and frame connectors. A 5 gallon fuel cell and Mallory pump and regulator account for our fuel needs. Anymore questions, don't hesitate to ask. Machine work was done by B&B Atuomotive Machine in NY. Nice guys! Much of this was taken from an old message. New stuff includes B&B doing another engine which is the fast one. The pistons are further "in the hole" on this one whereas the old engine had the valves sunk in the heads to allow for the big (270ish) duration. We now have solid rocker shafts after breaking 2 stock units. We also use the larger diameter adjustable pushrods which we got NHRA approval. Thanks Folks!!! Lee is currently in Joliet, IL for the Car Quest Auto Parts Nat'l event. Stop by and say HI. He should have some TA Performance catalogs if anyone needs them as they have been helping us out lately. Please support them if you can and tell'm we sent ya... OK, sounding toooo much like a commercial.. gotta go Safe Trips ALL!!!
I'm heading there on Friday. I have HIGH expectations so I hope he will be prepared to win. (again!) Good Luck! :TU:
amazed that it ways 3600 lbs. will definately do some studying during the winter on rebuilding my motor. going to try to make my '77 lark lighter than 3600 lbs. i know i dont have enough converter, gotta upgrade. agree on the gear and tire size. ran that combo with my 73 stg1 4spd. crossed the line at 6200 in g/stock. but 73's cant compete with the other cars in that class, too heavy. do you have a phone number to talk sometime? john
When we run J/SA we can weigh 3470 with driver. We can get the car that light! Used to be 3420 with the old HP rating. :beer
THERE WAS A VERY NICE WRITE UP IN THIS WEEKS N/D ON THE ZANE RACING TEAM KEEP UP THE GOOD JOB AND HAVE FUN ISAAC
Dave, I can send you a copy of the article if you would like. Address?? email me at: isaac.j.zane@exxonmobil.com
Isaac, what's the date on the issue? One of my bosses subscribes and has been bringing his issues in to work after he has read them. There's several at the office now from late summer/early fall. I'll bet it's there too. I've glanced thru them, but haven't seen it anywhere yet. If I knew the issue date, I'll bet I could find it, or have him bring it in to work.
I made copies of the ESPN2 coverage of the US Nationals if anyone is interested. A real nice .003 finish line..... Looks like we will finish 6th in National Points out of over 1100 racers earning points. Too bad Indy didn't count!! We'll try to do better next year... Safe Trips to ALL!
