Nevada Open Road Challenge (ORR)
05-19-2011, 01:19 AM
#16
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
I don't know about adreneline pump, but it was very intense. The car danced around a lot more in that strong wind then I'd experienced before. If I were trying for a "record" run this weekend, it would have been a lot more stressful. As it was, this was a "just finish" race and see what we learn. We have seemed to solve the overheated fuel problem as well as the lack of fuel issues that we had experienced the last couple of years. Now hopefully we can focus on reaching higher sustained speeds.
05-19-2011, 02:18 PM
#19
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
For those that are interested I put a HD version of the videos on my site,. They are
large files so a fast connection is recommended. Also you might try downloading and
playing instead of streaming if you have a spotty connection.
http://928.jorj7.com/2011-norc/2011-norc-dust-720.wmv
(53 mb)
http://928.jorj7.com/2011-norc/2011-norc-finish-720.wmv
(83 mb)
And another photo:
My car at the finish with Tim's in the background. The Corvair came in 1st in the 170 class.
large files so a fast connection is recommended. Also you might try downloading and
playing instead of streaming if you have a spotty connection.
http://928.jorj7.com/2011-norc/2011-norc-dust-720.wmv
(53 mb)
http://928.jorj7.com/2011-norc/2011-norc-finish-720.wmv
(83 mb)
And another photo:
My car at the finish with Tim's in the background. The Corvair came in 1st in the 170 class.
05-19-2011, 02:44 PM
#20
Chronic Tool Dropper
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
George--
Glad you were able to have a successful trip! The last photo there looks like the car lineup for a Le Mans-style start.
Sounds like we need to go cone off about 20 miles of I-80 for ORR tuning sessions. Think anybody would notice?
Glad you were able to have a successful trip! The last photo there looks like the car lineup for a Le Mans-style start.
Sounds like we need to go cone off about 20 miles of I-80 for ORR tuning sessions. Think anybody would notice?
05-19-2011, 06:46 PM
#21
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Lake Tahoe, Ca
Posts: 749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I would like to be among the people who congratulate George (& Bill).
They have gone through an extaordinary amount of bad luck, problems and unforseen occurances
. All of the Super Sport drivers were at the finish line hoping that this would be the race that George came across the line. I first saw him about two miles up the road as he was approaching the line and told everyone "hey, that's Georges 928". Everyone looked up and we all noticed the blue stripes on the hood and a cheer went up. Good work guys!! Still some work to do but 200 is now in sight. I can't wait.
The race for Cheryl and I was not as good as we had expected. The cross wind was not as bad as I expected but the headwind was BRUTAL! We cruised along the first part of the race testing out increasing speed but it was taking a lot longer to reach the 190's than it usually does. We banked about 30 seconds before the speed trap then I floored the car and for a minute I thought we would make our 200's. It was not to be on this day.
The car really struggled to get to 195, then 196, then 197 and it just stopped and started loosing speed. The wind just would not let us go an faster (disappointment #1).
I don't know what the radar got us at but for us it was 197 mph. We slowed down and scrubbed off some time, about 45 seconds and entered the narrows (3 miles of quite tight turns). As soon as we entered the wind was howling, must have been 30 mph and very confused direction. I usually go through at 140 but not today. (disappointment #2). My wife gently reminded me that she was in the car also and to "slow the $@@# down". It was good advice as the car was being blown around a lot.
We exit the narrows just about on time and I start going faster to gain a 10 second cushion for a turn I really hate just before the finish. Right hand, left hand and UHG, the turn I hate. Off camber left turn with a really funky apex just when the camber starts.
We had our cushion so we are right on time and are mentally congratulating ourselves when we look way down the road and see this complete white out of dust, dirt really. We are on time and traveling at 160 mph and need to continue to do that but this "thing in the road" is just about 3 miles before the finish and just seconds in front of us. I originally was just going to power through it at speed but as we got into the dust the road literaly dissappeared. I could see no more than 50 or so feet in front of me and I am in a turn. I don't want to unsettle the car so I drag very lightly and shift down (yes I matched the revs) to 4th, then to 3rd, then to second (2nd gear in an open road race, must be a record). The darn storm is about a mile wide. It starts to clear and I push the car as fast as it will go. Who knows how fast we crossed the finish line but it was not enough. We finish about 9 second SLOW. The worst performance in the Beasts career. Heck, you could add up all of the time differences from the last 5 years and it would not be 9 seconds.
Pretty depressed for 2 days but we will be back to the Silver State in September to redeem our selves. Might even run 180 mph to get away from George so he doesn't cream me. Anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Once again, Congrats George!!!
They have gone through an extaordinary amount of bad luck, problems and unforseen occurances
. All of the Super Sport drivers were at the finish line hoping that this would be the race that George came across the line. I first saw him about two miles up the road as he was approaching the line and told everyone "hey, that's Georges 928". Everyone looked up and we all noticed the blue stripes on the hood and a cheer went up. Good work guys!! Still some work to do but 200 is now in sight. I can't wait.The race for Cheryl and I was not as good as we had expected. The cross wind was not as bad as I expected but the headwind was BRUTAL! We cruised along the first part of the race testing out increasing speed but it was taking a lot longer to reach the 190's than it usually does. We banked about 30 seconds before the speed trap then I floored the car and for a minute I thought we would make our 200's. It was not to be on this day.
The car really struggled to get to 195, then 196, then 197 and it just stopped and started loosing speed. The wind just would not let us go an faster (disappointment #1).I don't know what the radar got us at but for us it was 197 mph. We slowed down and scrubbed off some time, about 45 seconds and entered the narrows (3 miles of quite tight turns). As soon as we entered the wind was howling, must have been 30 mph and very confused direction. I usually go through at 140 but not today. (disappointment #2). My wife gently reminded me that she was in the car also and to "slow the $@@# down". It was good advice as the car was being blown around a lot.
We exit the narrows just about on time and I start going faster to gain a 10 second cushion for a turn I really hate just before the finish. Right hand, left hand and UHG, the turn I hate. Off camber left turn with a really funky apex just when the camber starts.
We had our cushion so we are right on time and are mentally congratulating ourselves when we look way down the road and see this complete white out of dust, dirt really. We are on time and traveling at 160 mph and need to continue to do that but this "thing in the road" is just about 3 miles before the finish and just seconds in front of us. I originally was just going to power through it at speed but as we got into the dust the road literaly dissappeared. I could see no more than 50 or so feet in front of me and I am in a turn. I don't want to unsettle the car so I drag very lightly and shift down (yes I matched the revs) to 4th, then to 3rd, then to second (2nd gear in an open road race, must be a record). The darn storm is about a mile wide. It starts to clear and I push the car as fast as it will go. Who knows how fast we crossed the finish line but it was not enough. We finish about 9 second SLOW. The worst performance in the Beasts career. Heck, you could add up all of the time differences from the last 5 years and it would not be 9 seconds.
Pretty depressed for 2 days but we will be back to the Silver State in September to redeem our selves. Might even run 180 mph to get away from George so he doesn't cream me. Anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Once again, Congrats George!!!
05-19-2011, 07:49 PM
#22
Under the Lift
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
I wish I could have stayed and run with George, but I was having some trouble with the altitude, even though it was only 6000 feet. I need a minor tune-up but should be good for September.
George's car ran better at altitude than during our sea level dyno tuning, despite nearly the same fuel mixtures. We all understand there is less air and that you expect richer mixtures at high altitude, but at sea level with similar mixtures we had a lot of knocking and had to retard timing even more than expected for a supercharged car. We even retarded the cams. At altitude, maybe with somewhat higher octane race fuel than we had been using, we did some WOT runs and saw very few knocks, so I popped some ignition advance back in, which ran well in subsequent WOT runs. What I didn't get to before the race was high-speed cruise tuning, slightly below WOT. So, there was an area of the map where George had to get through a lean spot we had not tuned well enough, as you saw in his report. So, he would temporarily go WOT then back off and repeat. We'll fix that and try a few other tricks. We still have a few mysteries we'd like to resolve, such as poor gas mileage even while just street cruising with apparently stoich fuel mixtures that extends to worse then expected fuel mileage during the race as well, again with decent AFR. Not sure what's going on there.
On the real good news front, George consumed far less oil than in past years - only 1/4 qt this time. True, he wasn't near the rev zone he will be at 200+, but this is better than I expected, especially considering that he has extensions inside on all 4 cam cover breathers. This motor has far less blowby (leakdown) than George's previous build that blew a lot more oil out the breathers. So, oil packing in the heads did not reach critical but we're watching for it. With George's 2.2 rear end and 27" monster truck
tires, he'll never exceed 5800 RPM and may never have a serious problem with oil packing.
As George mentioned we were planning to have Sharktuner active during the race, primarily to record a data log, had I been there. And I'm sure I would have popped off my gloves and tuned out that lean spot at 160. That would have been fun.
With the predicted head/side winds, we figured this would not be a 200 MPH attempt, and I knew George could pretty much go flat out and drive the bulk of the course in his sleep. He takes nearly all the turns at 160+, except for the Narrows area. His car is a sled with remarkable stability. So, I wasn't all that essential as a navigator, and after a bad night I knew I had to get back down to sea level. It would have been nice to run the Sharktuner during the race, but I think we know what we need to do tuning-wise, with the exception of not understanding the fuel consumption issue yet.
Congrats to George and to Tim & Cheryl and to Joe & Jim for safe and successful runs. And special congrats to George for breaking a multi-year hex that kept his car from either running or finishing until this last weekend. This time it appears we remembered to tighten at least the important nut and bolts.
George's car ran better at altitude than during our sea level dyno tuning, despite nearly the same fuel mixtures. We all understand there is less air and that you expect richer mixtures at high altitude, but at sea level with similar mixtures we had a lot of knocking and had to retard timing even more than expected for a supercharged car. We even retarded the cams. At altitude, maybe with somewhat higher octane race fuel than we had been using, we did some WOT runs and saw very few knocks, so I popped some ignition advance back in, which ran well in subsequent WOT runs. What I didn't get to before the race was high-speed cruise tuning, slightly below WOT. So, there was an area of the map where George had to get through a lean spot we had not tuned well enough, as you saw in his report. So, he would temporarily go WOT then back off and repeat. We'll fix that and try a few other tricks. We still have a few mysteries we'd like to resolve, such as poor gas mileage even while just street cruising with apparently stoich fuel mixtures that extends to worse then expected fuel mileage during the race as well, again with decent AFR. Not sure what's going on there.
On the real good news front, George consumed far less oil than in past years - only 1/4 qt this time. True, he wasn't near the rev zone he will be at 200+, but this is better than I expected, especially considering that he has extensions inside on all 4 cam cover breathers. This motor has far less blowby (leakdown) than George's previous build that blew a lot more oil out the breathers. So, oil packing in the heads did not reach critical but we're watching for it. With George's 2.2 rear end and 27" monster truck
tires, he'll never exceed 5800 RPM and may never have a serious problem with oil packing.As George mentioned we were planning to have Sharktuner active during the race, primarily to record a data log, had I been there. And I'm sure I would have popped off my gloves and tuned out that lean spot at 160. That would have been fun.
With the predicted head/side winds, we figured this would not be a 200 MPH attempt, and I knew George could pretty much go flat out and drive the bulk of the course in his sleep. He takes nearly all the turns at 160+, except for the Narrows area. His car is a sled with remarkable stability. So, I wasn't all that essential as a navigator, and after a bad night I knew I had to get back down to sea level. It would have been nice to run the Sharktuner during the race, but I think we know what we need to do tuning-wise, with the exception of not understanding the fuel consumption issue yet.
Congrats to George and to Tim & Cheryl and to Joe & Jim for safe and successful runs. And special congrats to George for breaking a multi-year hex that kept his car from either running or finishing until this last weekend. This time it appears we remembered to tighten at least the important nut and bolts.
