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Nov/Dec Report 2004 Editor - Paul Carey
A few of you may have noticed the car on display at Western Salon in the new Perth Convention Centre. Jamal from Current Trendz asked if we could display the car with his other street cars, and the clever punters noticed our car actually had no engine below the blower!
After the damage from the previous "blower sneeze", the new billet crank from New Zealand was fitted to the 20B, along with Terry Stacey's peripheral port job. I had spent a lot of time with the fuel system on a test bench, and was confident of developing my own tune, based on what we had learnt during the past year or two. Originally the engine was to be set up on the engine dyno, but due to delays we lost our spot.
I made the decision to test the car on Nov 20th at the Kwinana Motorplex, despite people all around me wanting the engine dyno first. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling, and I was confident I had addressed all the issues causing dramas before. The first start was interesting, as we did not know how the peripheral porting would work. The engine was basically the same, just a little angrier. First burnout and I knew we had something better, as the rotary flashed up to redline and held the revs very easy. First pass was a fat and lazy 10.292 @ 133.72mph with not much RPM at the shift and through the traps. We left the tune as is, and rattled off another straight pass (with a little humping) of 10.244 @136.36mph.
A diff gear change was organised in the break to bring the revs up a little and give us a better launch, as our 60 foot times were lame at 1.5. Pete Veersma set up a Richmond gear set in the back end, and back we went for the two day Westernstates at the Kwinana Motorplex. First pass with the same tune got us into the nines with a 9.845 @ 141.73mph, with the exhaust gas temperatures still cold. The gear change worked, and we took a little fuel out to get a 9.614 @ 142.63 with 1.3 60 foot times - getting better. I reversed the blower pulleys overnight to take the overdrive from 3% under to 3% over, as the boost was a little low.
First run next day with bad air turned in a 9.618 @ 140.40mph, so we took a little fuel out and ran 9.557 @ 140.84mph with me having a little trouble falling asleep on the lights. For the last qualifier at 3pm Zap and I pulled a small amount of fuel out after reading the plugs, the downloaded exhaust temps on the laptop, and the weather. For super Sedan it's important to dial the car in ready for eliminations rather than just going faster. A 9.443 @ 144mph was a good result, so we were ready to dial in a 9.4 for the first round (and my first official race).
We qualified 4th in a field of 27, so got into the top eight that get to run the slowest and have lane choice. We had Gardener up first in his chopped Torana, who headed right for the wall and got off it. I got off so as not to break out and coasted through for a 10.62 and my first win. Second round was against seasoned veteran Graham Kennedy in his "Good, Bad and the Ugly" Capri, who basically whole shot me as I fell asleep at the wheel again with a 0.543 reaction time. A 9.431 @ 147.78mph on a dial in of 4.3 was a good result, despite the win, and we went away from the event very happy and with 60 points for the championship.
Next event for the team is Dec 27th in Super Sedan, after we strip the engine down and find the source of some fine metal in the filter. A little more blower and we may dip into the eights. In other news, the Cosmo shell has arrived and already being stripped and prepared. A new full super light chrome molly chassis car will sit under the Cosmo, ready for the new engine combo from the RX-7 after full development.
Archived Newsletters:
Nov/Dec Report 2004
Sept/Oct Report 2004
July/August Report 2004
May/June Report 2004
April Report 2004
March No 2 Report 2004
March No 1 Report 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
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