Welp, as many of you know, we completed George Sweesy's Tube Chassis 72 GS 455 this summer, and began testing it. The car ran super consistant, but a little slower than I expected, cosidering it's chassis upgrade, and 525 ci power output (804 HP, 727 torque) Last Saturday, we found some answers. The car had run nothing but 9.50-9.59, regardless of if it was 90* or 50*, on a good track or a slippery one. So I knew we had a limiting factor to find, and there were pieces of the puzzle that did not add up. So here is the first piece of the puzzle. We finally had a chance to get it on the wheel scales in the shop, and quit guessing at how much the car actually weighed. This is race ready WITHOUT George's 260 lbs frame in it... Dang steel doors and fenders.. ou:
She's a heavyweight... Yep ... 3175# with him in it.. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I went back, and pulled the reciepts for the tubing. We put in 276# of .134 wall mild steel 1 5/8 and 1 1/4 DOM tubing, in the main cage, funny car cage, and all the supporting bars. Had this been Chrome Moly, we would have saved 70 lbs, and if we skipped the funny car cage, it wouild have saved us another 80 lbs. But saftey is important to me, and I will sacrifice some ET, to keep my customer's safe in their cars. And if we had used CM, we would have run the risk of NHRA poo-pooing the chassis, since I had to work with the existing front end chassis structure, as George could not stomach the "start over" idea.. and I don't blame him a bit.. as it was, we cut out and threw away stuff he had paid someone else to put in, to the tune of $10K.. To the chassis credit, I have yet to see this car spin the tires.. Ice cold track to super good track.. it flat hooks.. period! Here it is, in the shop, on the wheel scales. These are a critical tool in chassis tuning, and I am lucky to have access to a nice set. We dialed it it, with him in it, to make the rear tire weights within 2 lbs of each other, and the LF about 40 lbs heavier than the right.
And the search continued.. Next, we knew we had a battery voltage issue. His new Optima battery would get a good surface charge on it, and appear to be fully charged.. but just turning the fans and water pump/fuel pump on, would draw the battery voltage down to 11.8 volts, and even with the alt charging the battery, we were lucky to get barely 12 volts when it was running. I want to see that running voltage up in the mid-high 13's.. All we had to do was really nail the battery, with the big charger in the shop, and it came right around.. stable battery voltage, with the draws of the fans and water pump/ fan on it, of 12.6 volts, and a running voltage above 13.5.. Ran thru a quick ground side voltage drop test, with the car running, to insure we had no issues there, and there were none. Electrical issue solved..
Next, we investigated the fuel system.. Filter clean, and pump cabable of draining the 8 gallon cell in less than 1 minute.. thru the regulator, out the carb lines, into a couple gas cans. Pump pressure 25 psi, regulated pressure to the carb of 8.5 psi. No issues here..
Now, looking at other things.. We sealed up the front of the grill opening, as he has a steel front end (all 97 lbs of it :eek2: ) with the factory grill. A little clear lexan took care of that. Verified the Ignition timing steady at 31* advance, thru the rpm range. Re-set the line control to 4300 on the starting line, the latest version of our 9.5" converter ( we have changed it three times now) transbrake stalls to 4600 rpm, flashes to 5000.. Motor makes 727 ft/lbs at 5100 rpm. Loaded up the car last night, and headed to the track this morning, at 2:30 am, ..... Earlville Iowa ( Tri-State Raceway) Hoping to see something more than 9.50's at 139 mph. JW
Out of the box, with a quick warm up, on the still cold track, it ran: 60' - 1.279 seconds 1/8 th mile ET... 5.94 1/8 mile MPH .... 114.39 1/4 mile ET .... 9.389 1/4 mile MPH .. 141.91 Conditions: Adjusted Altitued- 1286 ft - 15-20 mph steady headwind. The fact that we leaped right over the 9.40's, and broke the 140 mph barrier, made me happy indeed.. The car then ran a 9.51... What the??? Went back and read the tach recorder... oops, looks like the air shifter skipped second completely (or George bumped the shifter) and we had a heavy powerglide... Whew... :gt: Ran a backup pass again.. this time we had second, and it ran 9.386 at 141.6.. Conditions... temp went up 10* degrees.. 2089 Adj Alt.. Wind switched to cross/head.. that dead headwind killed us on the first pass. Dang, a guy could win some races in this thing.. Then, we had lunch, and tweeked this and that a little, And George wanted to watch the car.. dang.. that means I had to drive it again! Hate it when that happens.. Took a good pass, and that went like this.. I weight about 25 lbs less than George does.. And the car responded to the weight difference.. even though the air really went away, as it was now 79* so it should have slowed down.. Adj Alt was now 2710 ft 9.366 at 141.91 Now that was fun.. I gotta' build me one of these.. 1.275 60' time.. In a 3150ish pound car, that will get your attention.. George reports that the wheelie bars leave about 15 ft of chalk on the starting line, and the car runs dead straight and true. A joy to drive, and going that fast, it is not scary in the least bit. Sitting that low to the ground, there is very little sensation of 140 MPH.. Feels no different than my 10.40 126 mph Regal did, other than it's a whole heck of a lot faster. We strapped George in for the last pass of the season, so I could get an idea of where we go next spring, and I have a grocery list of things from watching that last pass.. we still are wasting some energy in front end travel, and are no where near the limit of the tires and suspension. I still have some pretty conservative intersection points and shock settings in this beast. And surprise, surprise.. it ran 9.38 at 141... We may.. Add a 4.30 gear, at the suggestion of renown Buick racer Dave Mongeon.. we are asking a lot of the 4.10, with this heavy a car. Reduce the weight.. I think we may be able to shed some steel in favor of fiberglass, and get this car down to around 3000 lbs, race ready with Driver. Not sure if George's Budget permits for next year, as he spent the GNP of a couple of third world countries on his entire race operation this year, including the car, a real nice used 40' gooseneck trailer, and the 01 GMC dually to pull it. And my grocery list of suspension tweeks..
Where we were, and where we are.. AS delivered to the shop, this car weighed 3225 lbs, had 680 HP, and 650 Torque. It would run 10 teens and twentys, at 132 mph, (when he could get it to go straight) Best ever for this car was 9.92 at 135. We added 120 HP, and 75 ft lbs of torque. We lighten the car, 50 lbs, but built a tremendously better chassis for it. Safe, and tuneable. And the car is now conistantly 8-9 tenths of a second faster, and 10 mph. I am happy, and more importantly, so is my customer and friend. We had a very good day today, after a very long and sometimes frustrating road. I am quite sure we can get this car to run high twenties, without the gear and weight reduction. With those two things... well, who knows? Can't wait to get out next year with it, to all the Buick events. And I also have to give credit to where it is due. Ron and Brian at R&R in Spring Lake Park, Mn -my dyno operator and head porter respectively. Ken and Bruce at Total engine in Bloomington - My shortblock machine guys. Dan Hopkins- More experience and advice sharing. Mike and Sheri Tomaszewski and the rest of the gang at TA. Dave Mongeon - helpful insight on his past experiences. Doug Hecker - lots of phone calls, and note comparision, between the two cars Scotty Guadagno - greatly appreciated advice from the guy who has "been there, done that". And of course, Mike and Tim in the shop, and George..for his patience, his letting me drive, and of course.. writing the checks.. which makes this all possible. Been a great project so far, with more to come yet. now where is WS racing's phone number, for that glass front clip and doors.. JW
Cool! From the looks of it, I think it is the same color combo as my 72 GS. Antique Gold with a white vinyl top. Must have been a pain to have to test it all those times Jim! If you need someone to take it and test, just let me know! :Brow: I am here to "help". :Brow: Brian :grin: :grin:
Hey, next time your in my neck of the woods....gimme a yell and I will bring the camcorder and camera. :Brow: It's only about a 45 minute drive from here I think. Mike
I Think It can, I Think it can........ :Brow: Great job to everyone ! I know the car has been a problem for a little while . But also knew you would get it !! Kool !:laugh: :laugh: :TU:
I'm just wondering...... I'm just wondering......what felt better the sense of accomplishment after months of hard work..... .....Or the kick-inda-Arse 1.275 Blastoff after George threw you the keys Ok...Ok....I know BOTH together !!!!!! Thanks for the Recap
Way to go guys! No doubt Norwalk in 2004 will be the race to put up or shut up with some big guns going. Let's see by then, you, Hecker, Zerucha, Csordas...4 Buick bodied cars should be in the 8's! Hmmm 4.30 gears Glass doors (13 pounds each) There is a lot of weight to remove. As Greg Gessler, the great Buick Poker Player once told me, "16 ounces equals a pound, it all adds up no matter how slight the weight savings" How true after hearing about him clean up at Bristol running his "all Stock appearing" GS at an incredible 11.36! Oh and a small bottle of Stackers for George:Brow: Rick
Good job on the car. I hope all the bugs are worked out. That is also one fine looking race car. Great job.
4 cars in the 8's? Rick If we get the cars that are in the 8's now and a few that are close we could have as many as 8 or 9 cars in or darn close. Jeff and I were talking about this at lunch the other day. Hears our list we came up with. Doug Hecker John Csordas John and Stan Zerucha Dave Mongeon Dave Dehabey (who ran an 1/8 mile track this week end fast enough to go in the 8"s) Jeff Ketchum Rod Hendricks Larry Clark These guy's have all run in the 8's (well Doug's car has :laugh: ) Then you have the guy's with a chance if not really close. George Sweesy Gary Paine (putting scats motor in the new car) Rick Martinez Bob From long Island (no way am I trying his last name from memory) Who have I missed I'm sure there are a couple of others. This could be one fast year of racing
NHRA POOPOO JW: The NHRA and th IHRA have no problem mixing mild steel chassis with CM cages. When I replaced my .111 mild steel cage (which was, according to the seller, "certifiable" when I bought the car - buyer beware :af: ) I replaced it with .083 CM. Certification only applies to the cage. If you noticed when the car was certified, the inspector never looked outside the drivers compartment. You could have had the front end hanging on with bailing wire and it still would have passed. The only time you'll get into any trouble with CM/mildsteel mixing is if you try for certification to go faster than 7.50. But since you are running a BIG BLOCK BUICK, that will never be a worry.:Brow: :Brow: Why are you putting it away now. There is the Noble, OK Buick Mustang shootout, the Ford vs Buick shootout at ATCO, the Reynolds, GA race, and the 1/8 shootout in Farmington, NC. Lots of Buick racing left. At 9.36 you'd probably be one of the fastest BB Buicks at Noble. JW, as you know, I had the opportunity to see the car. Very nice job. Keep up the good work and hope to see you in the 8's at Quaker City.
Re: 4 cars in the 8's? TA Wagon with a new Aluminum block ?!?!?!? Blown, injected and running 7's ??? Hey.....we can dream o No:
