Mike Licht
I was here first
- Joined
- May 23, 2001
It was a lot of work to put a car together in a few weeks like we did and I swore I would never build another one of these like this one, but we did, and we sure are happy. The stock block 4.1 motor started out as an exercise to test the new 4.1 pistons and we had to put it in something right? The build details are here http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/4-1-stock-block-build.396792/ on Friday at the Nats I decided to take it for a shake down pass. I have about 80 miles or so on it and have never raced this car so I wanted to go easy. Set the boost at 17. The plan was to leave easy go to mid track and shut it off see if it goes straight and stops. Did a burnout and got the 10 year old comp T/A drag radials hot and left when the boost gauge barely started to move, leaves good, 1.7 sixty foot, gets out about 70 to 80 ft and the tires go up in smoke, back off to half throttle pull second (400 trans, PTC converter) get back down on it, second pulled good, put it in third at 6300 and it felt real good so I stayed on it. I got the slip and was pleasantly surprised to see 11.37 at 125.7 MPH it pick up 26 in the back half. Needless to say the little engine is making good power at 17PSI. I got a set of slicks and planed to put them on Saturday at turn it up to 26-28 but the rain stopped the fun. My friend Dick Walker from OK said me when I told him I was going to crank it up " go ahead Mike, it does not know its not a stage motor" that cracked me up! I was looking for a 9 sec slip from the car will I think I will be pretty easy. All in all I could not be happier! We had lot so help and support from friends here and I want to acknowledge some of them, My old friend Bob Bailey and newer friend Eric Marshall both shared wisdom and great parts with me like the TR6, SD2 and powerlogger. Tom at Champion for the iron heads, ported intake and other items, Lane at PTC for the awesome converter, Racetronix for the fuel system and wiring solutions, Matt at PAC for helping me sort out the valve train with their new parts, Morel for the new short travel lifter they made for us, they flat work! Diamond Pistons and Trend pushrod for engine parts I trust, GN1 performance for lots of things but the intercooler especially, my air temps were crazy low, Tom Molnar for the connecting rods. My son Steve who built this car with me and spent the time, late nights and energy to get it right. My good friend and master fabricator Curt Smith for all the late nights and time spent doing assembly and fab work. Mike and Dave Bamford for giving me some of the parts from the car I bought new in 86 for this one so a little bit of the original lives on. My friends Scott, Derrick and Tony for helping me find the little pieces I was missing sometimes reaching into their own stash to help out. Scott even loaned me his TT6.0 chip to get the car started which I ran there when I ran out of time for the SD2. Most of all however I need to thank my lovely wife Marianne, she provided the support and the budget for this project. She also inspired Steve and I to do something different and new so at her urging we have a new parts program that will be track proven with this new shop car. Without her this would have happened. We made lots of new friends, reconnected with old ones and even though the weather was not great we had a blast, see you next year, we will have the "Shop Car" there, who knows what will be in it or what it will be running but you will read about it here. Steve Kessler did hand me some XTSM stickers on the way out, holy hell!, what will I have to tell Marianne to pull that off? The saga continues soon.......
Regards,
Mike
Regards,
Mike
