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- May 29, 2007
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It started as a great day. Cool air and sun. We got to the track by 8:30am and finally got in and unloaded by 9:30. We had a check list of things to go over before making any runs. One of which was to make sure the 2-step was setup properly. When Jeremy fired the car up and tested the 2 step I noticed a bit of moisture come out of the left tailpipe along with some light white smoke. I honestly thought it may just have been from the car sitting overnight, the cold weather and the 2-step loading up the cylinders with fuel. I really didn't think anything more than that as the car ran great on the dyno and I had no other reason to believe there was an issue.
So we headed to the staging lanes. Lowered the tire pressure to 14psi and made our attempt at our first run with the new setup. The 2-step was set at 3500rpm's and immediately blew the tires off. The track prep was crap and I'm sure the cold weather didn't help. Since it was such a horrible launch Jeremy shut down even before shifting into 2nd and aborted the run.
Since the car was still cool he rolled back around and got into the staging lane again. Waited a bit for our class and then stepped up again. This time the 2 step set a little lower. Launched the car. Same thing. Blew the tires right off finally got back into it by granny shifting into 2nd and then stayed in it through 3rd and 4th. We obviously didn't expect much due to the launch and slow shift into 2nd. The run yielded a 10.40@138 and change. I don't have the slip but the 60ft and 1/8 time and 1/8mph weren't anything special.
When Jeremy came back around from that run he told me he noticed some white smoke out the drivers side exhaust when he let out of it after the 1/4 mile mark. At this point we started getting concerned as even though the launch was junk we should have seen a faster mph for the power we're making. So we started to look into what was happening with the smoke and moisture. My first inclination was to check the radiator reservoir. When I opened it up it was very low. There was only about an inch of fluid from the bottom of the tank. The last time I had checked the tank was when we were on the dyno. Since then the car has been worked on so it's possible some fluid may have been taken out but again I was very concerned. We ended up pulling all of the plugs. What we found was some light pepper speckle on most of the porcelain which means that at some point the car detonated or ran hot. We did a compression check on each cylinder and everything checkout out fine. So we put the plugs back in and I flashed the car with the 93 octane aggressive tune. The tune we were running before was the race gas only tune.
Get up to the line with the 2 step lowered a bit more and launched the car. Same thing. Blew the tires off however it wasn't nearly as bad as the last run. The run actually looked like it was going well until I see the brake light lit up from a distance and see that Jeremy shut down before the end of the run. He coasts through the traps and the board lights up a [email protected]. I believe it was around the 1000ft mark where he let off. When Jeremy comes back around to the trailer he said that as soon as he went into 4th the car broke up so he shut down. After reviewing the run on paper it was going real well until the back end. We had a 1.535 60ft and 6.56 1/[email protected]. We believe that if the car stayed on it's course from that 1/8 mile time and mph we should have trapped 144-146mph and seen that 9 sec pass.
Now here's the negative part. We know something is going on with the car. The moisture in the exhaust, loss of fluid in the coolant tank and the way the plugs looked make it pretty clear that we're going to have to pull the motor for a checkup. It's not worth it to risk hurting the motor so in order for us to see what's going on it's got to come out. Whether it's a blown head gasket or something else it needs to be fixed as it definitely played a role in the poor performance of the car today.
I'm somewhat upset as I was expecting a better day and we were really hoping to see some 9.60-9.80's however I completely understand that this is just how it works with racing and accept it. The motor will come out this week and picked up by our engine builder for him to take apart and find out what's going on. We look to be back up and running in a couple of weeks.
On a positive note we know that the 1/8th mile time we saw from our only somewhat clean pass is an indicator that the car is strong. Being that it was also done on the 93 aggressive tune and not the race gas tune also makes us realize there's a lot more in her. We also learned a bunch about our suspension setup which will be helpful for later on. Lastly it was a great day spent with my family and friends. My wife, son, employee and crew from UPR made it all that better considering what was going on.
We promise to get everything sorted out and give you guys that mid 9 sec run you're all waiting to see.
For now thanks to everyone for all their support.
Have a great weekend.
Jared
YouTube- Lethal Performance 2010 GT500 1/4 mile run 10.13
So we headed to the staging lanes. Lowered the tire pressure to 14psi and made our attempt at our first run with the new setup. The 2-step was set at 3500rpm's and immediately blew the tires off. The track prep was crap and I'm sure the cold weather didn't help. Since it was such a horrible launch Jeremy shut down even before shifting into 2nd and aborted the run.
Since the car was still cool he rolled back around and got into the staging lane again. Waited a bit for our class and then stepped up again. This time the 2 step set a little lower. Launched the car. Same thing. Blew the tires right off finally got back into it by granny shifting into 2nd and then stayed in it through 3rd and 4th. We obviously didn't expect much due to the launch and slow shift into 2nd. The run yielded a 10.40@138 and change. I don't have the slip but the 60ft and 1/8 time and 1/8mph weren't anything special.
When Jeremy came back around from that run he told me he noticed some white smoke out the drivers side exhaust when he let out of it after the 1/4 mile mark. At this point we started getting concerned as even though the launch was junk we should have seen a faster mph for the power we're making. So we started to look into what was happening with the smoke and moisture. My first inclination was to check the radiator reservoir. When I opened it up it was very low. There was only about an inch of fluid from the bottom of the tank. The last time I had checked the tank was when we were on the dyno. Since then the car has been worked on so it's possible some fluid may have been taken out but again I was very concerned. We ended up pulling all of the plugs. What we found was some light pepper speckle on most of the porcelain which means that at some point the car detonated or ran hot. We did a compression check on each cylinder and everything checkout out fine. So we put the plugs back in and I flashed the car with the 93 octane aggressive tune. The tune we were running before was the race gas only tune.
Get up to the line with the 2 step lowered a bit more and launched the car. Same thing. Blew the tires off however it wasn't nearly as bad as the last run. The run actually looked like it was going well until I see the brake light lit up from a distance and see that Jeremy shut down before the end of the run. He coasts through the traps and the board lights up a [email protected]. I believe it was around the 1000ft mark where he let off. When Jeremy comes back around to the trailer he said that as soon as he went into 4th the car broke up so he shut down. After reviewing the run on paper it was going real well until the back end. We had a 1.535 60ft and 6.56 1/[email protected]. We believe that if the car stayed on it's course from that 1/8 mile time and mph we should have trapped 144-146mph and seen that 9 sec pass.
Now here's the negative part. We know something is going on with the car. The moisture in the exhaust, loss of fluid in the coolant tank and the way the plugs looked make it pretty clear that we're going to have to pull the motor for a checkup. It's not worth it to risk hurting the motor so in order for us to see what's going on it's got to come out. Whether it's a blown head gasket or something else it needs to be fixed as it definitely played a role in the poor performance of the car today.
I'm somewhat upset as I was expecting a better day and we were really hoping to see some 9.60-9.80's however I completely understand that this is just how it works with racing and accept it. The motor will come out this week and picked up by our engine builder for him to take apart and find out what's going on. We look to be back up and running in a couple of weeks.
On a positive note we know that the 1/8th mile time we saw from our only somewhat clean pass is an indicator that the car is strong. Being that it was also done on the 93 aggressive tune and not the race gas tune also makes us realize there's a lot more in her. We also learned a bunch about our suspension setup which will be helpful for later on. Lastly it was a great day spent with my family and friends. My wife, son, employee and crew from UPR made it all that better considering what was going on.
We promise to get everything sorted out and give you guys that mid 9 sec run you're all waiting to see.
For now thanks to everyone for all their support.
Have a great weekend.
Jared
YouTube- Lethal Performance 2010 GT500 1/4 mile run 10.13
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