Tuesday dawned dry and bright with one of the most beautiful sunrises you have ever seen.
Ian shot off to wait at the auto parts store for the new starter motor. It had arrived and we headed off to the salt filled with great expectations. The starter motor bolted straight on and at first seemed absolutely perfect however on the second fire up the car was reluctant to start.
As it turns out the battery despite the fact it wasn’t particularly old had suffered with the vibrations of Saturday’s runs and had lost a cell.
Off Ian and Andy went to the auto parts store for a new battery (they must really love this time of the year! The next auto parts place is over 125 miles away!).
When they returned there was some glum faces around the tuning computers. We had some issue with the computer not taking the new map. It would tune up, run perfectly and all seem well but as soon as the car was shut down it would then restart with the old dodgy tune.
After some time and with the assistance of Andy’s wonderful refilling of every instructional piece of paper that Ian had simply chucked in a bag. Every time a new part was acquired all the paperwork was put in the bag and many happy hours would then be spent trying to find the relevant piece for any given problem. Andy in a quiet moment had organised these pieces of paper and the answer to the computers Alzheimer’s was soon found.
Towards the end of the day we went off for our first run. This was the tuning run mentioned yesterday but on the three mile course. Ian set off with great gusto and had control of the wheelspin before he got into third. The engine was steadily worked through the rev range feeling for how much power we had at any given point. Ian had been told to keep an eye on the temperature and oil pressure gauges through this process, but apparently the ride was a little too lively.
Still we managed 143.887 mph with a final speed over 148.00 with plenty of power and engine to spare. Ian said that if he hadn’t been messing around with the revs 150 mph would have been in the bag. Ian also commented that with the way the engine was pulling 165-170 feels obtainable.
This last statement has a huge proviso though at speeds around 150 + the aero side of things has a much bigger effect. We have not tried our front splitter and side skirts yet until we have convinced ourselves that the engine is 100%.
Whilst looking towards the next run the wind got up and again for safety reasons the course was closed for the day.
So while we only achieved one successful run, we did get a lot of massive problems out of the way and have spent the time preparing the car for hopefully some very fast runs tomorrow.
