Events

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11/11/01

Went autocrossing with the NEOKLA region SCCA today in Stroud, OK with a bunch of my good friends.  Buck and Shirley Morris were their with their 1996 LT4 Corvette.  Bobby Jasan and his folks with their red 3rd gen RX-7.  Martin with his electron blue 02 Z-06 Corvette, along with his brother Sam in his black C5 hardtop.

It was a perfect day with sunshine, no wind and low 70 degree temps.  This would help to explain the largest turnout the NEOKLA region has had all year, with something like 150 cars in attendance.

Martin had the fastest time of the day with a 44.349 in his Z-06, but Buck gave him a superb run for his money with a 45.914 in his C4.  I was several seconds off the pace with a 48.300.

Here's a whole bunch of pics I took.

This event brings to a close my motorsports season.  I've had a lot of fun and learned a lot.  

Although the Cobra really isn't competitive for autocrossing, it is still a lot of fun and people seem to enjoy watching and riding in it.  With the Griggs suspension and the Vortech blower, it is a blast for open track events, which is what I built it up for anyway.

I'm looking for a new car to use as a daily driver and autocrosser.  As of now I'm undecided what I want to buy, but I'll post an update when I find something.

11/07/01

Here's some pics of my friend Steve Fuller's Mystic Cobra after he fell asleep while driving home from work the other day.

His company has been working him entirely too hard lately and I think they should at least pay his deductible for the accident.

Luckily, Steve was OK and the car can be repaired.

10/26/01

The truck is SOLD!  Sniff.

The new owner of my 2000 Lightning picked it up today.  I really hated to get rid of it, but I won't mind not having to make the payments any more.

The good news is that is going to a good home down in Dallas.

I really enjoyed the Lightning, and it served me well.  Too bad Ford didn't make it in a Supercab or Supercrew, or I might have been able to justify keeping it.

Ford are you listening?

10/21/01

Went autocrossing with the NEOKLA region SCCA in Stroud, OK with my good friends Buck Morris and Bobby Jasan.

As usual I was a couple seconds slower than fast time of the day with a 59.666, while Buck missed getting FToD by about 30 hundreths of a second.

Here's a bunch of pics.

10/20/01

I attended the last High Speed Touring Association event at Hallett today with my good friends Buck Morris and Bobby Jasan.  

Also, Martin Henry was there with his brand new Electron Blue 2002 Corvette Z06.  What a sweet car!

The weather was perfect, and we had a great time.  Here are a few pics I took.

10/16/01

Speedvision is dead...  Long live Speedvision!

It looks like our fears about Fox ruining Speedvision are likely to become true.  Here's an article with some hints of what is to come.  It remains to be seen just how bad it will become, but the following quote is illustrative of their attitude:

"We don't think it can be just NASCAR 24 hours a day out of the gate," Brooks says. "It will have some other racing elements. That's probably the right mix to get us started."

Here's an interesting interview with Tony Stewart.  He has some refreshing views about NASCAR.

10/07/01

Like any non-islamic-fundamentalist-militant person, I was shocked, saddened, appalled, and infuriated by the attacks perpetrated on the United States on 9/11/01.  Our heart goes out to the thousands of victims of this heinous attack.

I would like to take this opportunity say THANK YOU to all of the Law Enforcement, Fire & Rescue, and EMS personnel that put their lives on the line for the rest of us every day.  You folks never get the recognition you deserve.

I've been pretty busy since the day after I returned from Road America when the world changed so dramatically.  I've been very busy the past few weeks and had to do some travel for my work, but was fortunate enough to be able to attend the SCAT Nationals in Ft. Worth this weekend.  Here are some pics we took.

We also went over to Fun Ford Weekend since we were in the neighborhood.  While we were there we were thrilled to hear that the US retaliatory strikes had begun today.  Here are some pics we took at FFW.

God speed to the men and women of our armed forces who defend our freedom!

9/10/01

Just got back from the Northwoods SAAC meet at Road America.

We had fun, but it rained on us for most of the event, which really sucked.

The worst thing about the rain was that it caused our good friend Dave Stuart to total his 94 Cobra in the kink.  While Dave was unhurt, his car will need a lot of work.

We got in a few good sessions on Friday, and a good enough timed lap to take 3rd place in my class (a 2:47, about 5 seconds faster than last year).

Congrats to my good friend Jonathan Blevins who was 2nd in his class with a 2:46.

It was great seeing many of my old friends, as well as meeting some new ones, and hopefully we will have a dryer time next year!

Pics are here.  Thanks to Gene and Kurt Borton for taking a bunch of pics from Kanada Corner!

8/31/01

Finally received the 2000 R carbon fiber brake duct kits from Sean Hyland Motorsport yesterday.  Its been nearly a year since Steve Fuller and I talked to the Multimatic rep at the SVT Experience, and finally I have a set of these babies in my hot little hands.

Here's some pics I took while I installed them on my car.

8/25/01

My friend and fellow SCOA webmaster Wayne Bender was down from Pennsylvania on business, so of course we hit the track.

I set a new personal fast lap time at Hallett today, a 1:30.590 (counterclockwise)!

Here's a few pictures we took at the event today.  

8/25/01

A big congrats to my good friend Buck Morris who took Fast Time of the Day today at the NEOKLA Region SCCA autocross in Stroud today!  This is only the beginning my friend!

Also I finished up the rear end rebuild and battery relocation projects today with Buck's help!

Here's a gallery of pics for the battery relocation project, and here's a gallery for the rearend rebuild.

8/22/01

Prepping the Cobra for Hallett this weekend, and Road America in 2 weeks!

I've had the Cobra's rear-end rebuilt with a Torsen T2R, 3.73 FMS gears, 31-spline Superior axles, and all new bearings and seals (thanks Billy!).  Here are a few pics.  Also, a TA cover is on the way.

The battery relocation project is almost complete, and I'll try to take some pictures when it is finished.  My good friend Buck Morris really helped me out by welding in the bracket and a brace for the remote battery cut-off switch.

8/12/01

Went autocrossing with the SCCA Oklahoma Region.  Pics are here.

8/12/01

Dyno day in Tulsa with the SVTOA Oklahoma Chapter at Hogan's Dyno Shop.

The Cobra has reached a new peak:

428 RWHP, 363 lb./ft. Torque!!  Click here for the graph.

I credit the 29 RWHP gain to my AFM Power Pipe that I got from Spence Hart.  That was the only change, other than new NGK plugs and Taylor wires.

8/05/01

I've been working on relocating my battery and installing my Safecraft fire system.

Here are a few pics I took of my progress.

7/16/01

Todd Zikas sent me some pictures of his crash at Hallett during this year's Mid-America meet to scan and post.

Also, Jeff Lacina has some pictures of the crash on his site as well.

Todd said he is sure the rotor failure was the cause of the crash, but that he didn't see any evidence that the rotor had made contact with the caliper bracket.

7/15/01

Went autocrossing with the Oklahoma Region SCCA today.

The track was pretty tight, but the Cobra ran pretty good.  With 400 RWHP, the challenge is to keep from spinning the tires.  I finally managed to figure it out on my last couple of runs.  My best run was a 73.47, compared to a FTD of 66.739.

Here are some pictures from the event.

7/13/01

Went to the drag strip at Thunder Valley tonight.  The weather was a bit cooler than it has been (80 or so) so we thought it would be a good time to see what the Cobra would do.

My best time was a 12.77 @ 114 MPH!  This was on my worn out BFG R1 track tires, and I could not get any traction.  I think the car is good for a high 11 if I could get it hooked up.

7/11/01

Went back to the dyno today.  The fuel pump cured the high end lean out to the tune of 399.8 RWHP!

Here's the dyno graph for the best run, and here's another graph showing the air-fuel ratio.

Here's a bunch of pics I took the last time I was at the dyno shop, but I accidently left my camera there so I'm just posting them now.

Unfortunately, the Cobra has developed a rear end clunk which is almost certainly the ring and pinion, so I'll be doing a rearend rebuild soon.

7/08/01

Went autocrossing with the NEOKLA SCCA Region at the former Tanger Outlet Mall in Stroud, Oklahoma with my friends Buck Morris, Clay Pearce, and Scott Edwards.

The site used to be an outlet mall until the famous May 3rd, 1999 tornado leveled it.

Now its just 40 acres of asphault and concrete..  perfect for autocrossing!

Kudos to Brad Holliday for an excellent course that was a blast to drive.

This is the first time I've been autocrossing since I installed the supercharger, and the car sure was a lot of fun.  Its going to take a lot of practice to get used to the power and the new suspension tho.

Here's a few pics that I took, and a video of my fastest run.

7/05/01

Dyno time!

I took the Cobra down to Powerhouse Performance to have it dynoed.  Brian and David hooked it up and we saw peak power output of  392.7 RWHP and 326.6 torque.

First we ran it with the 4:1 FMU and saw 385 RWHP with 332 torque, but the A/F meter got blown out of the exhaust.  

Here's a graph of the next run where we saw 386.1 RWHP, which also shows the A/F ratio.  It looks to be running very rich until around 5000 RPM, and then it runs out of fuel around 6500 RPM>

We tried going back to the 8:1 FMU and it helped the peak power a little to 392.7 RWHP, but hurt the midrange a lot.  Here's a graph of the same run showing the A/F ratio.

It looks like the fuel system needs some work to get the top end sorted out, and then we'll have to work on the midrange a bit.  I have an Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator on order, and I'll be ordering a new Walbro in-tank fuel pump soon.  Then we'll put it back on the dyno and see what it will do then.  Stay tuned!

7/03/01

I've been working on installing a set of 42 lb. fuel injectors, and a Pro-M 80mm Mass Air Flow Meter calibrated for 42 lb. injectors.

All I have left to do is install the JMS chip that I got from Steve Sisler at Johnson Motorsports.

Here are some pics of the install progress.

6/26/01

I spoke with Todd Zikas last night and he informed me that the cause of his crash at Hallett was another Brembo rotor failure!

It was the same type of failure discussed in this thread at Corner-Carvers.com:

http://www.corner-carvers.com/forum/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000856.html

It even happened in the same turn of the same track on the warm up lap.

Todd said he would be sending more pictures and info.

This concerns me as I've been running these rotors for some time.  I think I'll be switching to that  rotor-on-hat setup now.

Also: here are a few pics of my friend Bryan Appleby leading the vintage race at Mid-America (he won!).

6/25/01

I've posted a bunch of videos I took during the Mid-America meet.

6/23/01

Another great day at Hallett.  Saturday was even better than Friday because there were maybe only 30 cars running.  The weather was cooler than normal, mid 80s and sunny.

After we refilled the cooling system my car ran cool all day until late in the afternoon, when it puked again.  I refilled the radiator with water this time, and it ran fine the following session.  I think I'll be installing that oil cooler soon.  :)

During lunchtime, Scott Griffith pointed out that my car sounded like it was running on 7 cylinders, and suggested that I check my plugs and wires.  We pulled all the plugs and noticed that the metal clip that attaches to the spark plug on the number 5 cylinder had come loose from the wire.  With some help from a Ford mechanic named James from Arkansas, we repaired the wire, and enjoyed a nice power boost afterwards.

I mounted up my new Kumho Victoracers which I had heat cycled the day before, and managed a 1:32.46 lap after some coaching from my friend Jonathan Blevins.  Here's a video of a 1:33 lap with Jonathan riding shotgun.

Here are some pics we took at the event.

Unfortunately Todd Zikas wrecked his car again.  He had just gotten it fixed from the HPT incident, with a beautiful two-tone paint job.  His car ran off thru the weeds and into the trees.  As far as I know Todd was OK.  Hopefully he will be able to get it fixed again and we'll see him at Northwoods SAAC in September.

6/22/01

Spent the day at Hallett for the Mid-America meet.

Steve lucked out and got them to let him run on Friday since he had paid for Thursday and didn't get to run.

The weather was great, and I managed a 1:36 lap time on my cheapo BFG R1 rain tires which were hard as rocks.

My car overheated on the next to the last session, and puked all of its fluid out.  I made the mistake of assuming it had only puked out the excess fluid, and took it out on the next session.  It got very hot and I ended up pulling off the track to let it cool down.

We left it at the track to allow it to cool off overnight and I was hoping I hadn't hurt anything.

I met the famous Scott Griffith (skod) Thursday night at the Hotel, and discovered I'd been chasing him in is "Perfect Pony" at the track off and on all day.  I remembered following him because we had a good dice and his race fuel was burning my eyes.

6/21/01

Steve and I got up early again and got out and bought some sharp carbide grinding bits for my die grinder.  We had been able to make some progress the night before with the die grinder, but the bits were getting dull.

On the way back, I remembered a new auto repair shop that had just opened up about a mile from my house, so I suggested that we stop by and see if they had any suggestions.

We talked with Rob at Christian Brothers Automotive, and he was confident that he could get the bolt out, so we had Steve's car towed over from my house on a flatbed.

After we took him the correct tap, Rob had the bolt out in about 2 hours, and the car was back together and running again in another hour.

Steve and I drove up to Tulsa so we could hook up with everyone and hit the track on Friday.

Lessons learned:

• Never, try to do anything to your car within a week prior to an event
• Never use a breaker bar to tighten anything
• When tightening a bolt, always consider the difficulty of removing it if it breaks
• Admit when you are in over your head and take it to a professional

6/20/01

Steve and I got up early and replaced a caliper piston seal that was leaking on his car.

Then we decided to install the ASP underdrive pulleys that used to be on my car onto his car...  big mistake.

We started the balancer pulley on with a longer bolt, and I neglected to tell Steve to stop tightening it before it bottomed out.  I also made the mistake of letting him use a breaker bar to tighten the bolt.  POP!

The bolt had broken off in the crank snout!  Uh oh!

We managed to get a nice hole drilled into the broken bolt and tried to use an easy out to remove it.  Unfortunately the bolt would not budge and the easy out broke off.

We spent the rest of the day/night drilling and grinding trying to get the easy out out with little success.

6/19/01

My friend Steve Fuller and his family arrived from Iowa today in their 96 Mystic Cobra.  They are down for the Mid-America Ford Performance Meet in Tulsa.

We got my Bassani cat X-pipe installed on his car tonight with no hassles.

6/16/01

Went to High Speed Touring at Hallett today.  Here are some pics.

6/09/01

We had an SVTOA Oklahoma Chapter meeting today at Eskimo Joes in Stillwater, OK.  Here are a few pictures.

Also, here are a bunch of pictures of my good friend Buck Morris' new 96 LT4 Corvette.

6/08/01

Went to Thunder Valley Raceway last night for a few 1/4 mile runs to see what the Cobra could do.

My best run was only a 13.41 @ 107.99 MPH.  I was only able to make 3 runs before it started raining.

I had a hard time getting it to hook up, and I felt like the MPH should have been better than it was.

6/07/01

I received the replacement Vortech head unit today.

That's what I call FAST TURNAROUND!  Thanks VORTECH!

They shipped it via UPS RED yesterday.

I got it reinstalled tonight, and the car is running and driving again!

One thing I noticed is that this new head unit is even quieter than the last one.

The last one had a fairly loud whistle, but the new one is very quiet.  Now I understand what they mean by "Super Quiet".

6/05/01

If you are in the market for a supercharger, buy one from VORTECH Engineering!

Their customer service is excellent!

Thanks to Ricky at Vortech, who received and processed my head unit today and called to let me know that they will be shipping me a new unit which will arrive by the end of the week.

Apparently there is a small magnet attached to the oil feed fitting that is there to catch any metal particles.  This magnet somehow became dislodged and got eaten by the supercharger.  Ricky said that he'd never seen this in the 5 years he'd been at Vortech.

Thanks for standing behind your product Vortech!

6/04/01

I sent the s-trim head unit off to Vortech today via UPS RED.  Should be there tomorrow.  I'm really hoping to have it back by the end of the week so I can get it re-installed by Friday night.

Also, here is a video (1169KB) of my friend Bobby Jasan wrecking his dad's MR2 at Hallett.  The MR2 is nearly totaled, but luckily Bobby is OK, which is the important thing.  Here is a video (1433KB) of the damage.

Hallett is having a special High Speed Touring only day on June 24th, the weekend of the Mid-America Ford Peformance meet.  The cost will be $95, and there will be 3 run groups.  Here is the registration form.

6/03/01

Went autocrossing with the Oklahoma Region SCCA today.  Here are a some pics from the event.

I would like to thank my good friend Buck Morris for letting me drive his gorgeous Red 1996 LT4 Corvette, which he bought just last week.  It was a lot of fun!  I wish we had taken better pics of it, but you can kinda see it in this picture.

6/02/01

Bad news!

I took the Cobra in this morning for a front-end alignment, then I parked it in the garage.

This afternoon I tried to start it up and it wouldn't turn over.  After a few more tries it finally started up, but the supercharger was making a dreadful whirring noise.

We pulled the oil return line and confirmed that it was getting plenty of oil, then we pulled the head unit off.  There is obviously a bearing problem as when you try to turn the pulley it sticks.  Looks like its going back to Vortech on Monday.

5/30/01

Finished up the gauges and mounted the shift light tonight.  

Then I mounted the wheels and went for a test drive..

WOW!

Power feels great.  Front end feels great.  Now I need to get the ride height worked out and have it aligned.  Should be ready to go autocrossing this weekend.  :) 

5/29/01

It's Alive!

As of tonight, my Cobra is running again, and it even started on the first try!  Thanks to Jonathan Blevins for the help!

Hopefully I'll get to drive it tommorrow!

5/28/01

Vortech installation is nearly finished.  Just need to put the computer chip in and finish installing the gauges.  Latest pics start here.

Here are some more pics of the gauge install.

5/27/01

Finished up the Griggs installation.  Just have to have the panhard welded on.  Latest pics start here.

Resumed the Vortech installation.  Got the head unit installed.  Hope to have it running sometime tommorow!  Latest pics start here.

5/26/01

The K-member and most of the front suspension is installed!

The latest pics start here.

5/25/01

I got the rest of my Griggs parts in today..  woohoo!  New pics start here.

Got the Canton oil pan installed.  It took a bit of grinding on the stock oil pickup to get it to clear the windage tray, but its done now.  Latest pics start here.

5/24/01

Finished up the clutch quadrant yesterday when the bushing arrived from Steeda.  Updated pics are here.

I got started on the oil pan last night, and almost got finished with it tonight.  Here are some pics.

The Griggs K-member should be here tomorrow.  It made it all the way from California to Dallas today!  UPS tracking rocks!

5/20/01

Spent the day working on installing a Steeda clutch quadrant, and some Autometer gauges.

Here's some pics of the quadrant install, and here are some pics of the gauge install.

5/19/01

K-member is OFF!

I got most of the front suspension off last night, and got the K-member dropped today.

For the latest pics start here.

5/17/01

I came home today to find a nice big box full of Griggs Racing parts from Brad's Custom Auto!

I ordered almost a full Griggs setup, except for the torque arm and rear lower control arms.  I'll be keeping the Maximum Motorsports TA and LCAs for now.

Only one problem, Griggs neglected to ship me a K-member, but Brad hooked me up with Rick at Griggs, and they will be shipping me one ASAP (which means I should see it around the end of next week).

I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Brad of Brad's Custom Auto for his excellent service and prices.  I got all of my Griggs parts from him through a group purchase, and the Vortech kit as well.  I would highly recommend that you talk to Brad's Custom Auto the next time you are in the market for go fast parts!

Also, I received a new set of Brembo rotors and dust seals today from Monty at Bits & Pieces.  Be sure to call Monty at 562-420-3557 for all of your Brembo and Hawk brake needs!  Make sure you tell him Alan Chavis sent you!

Here are some pics of the stuff that came in today!

5/14/01

Work continues on the Vortech supercharger installation.  Today I got the front of the engine ready to mount the head unit.

I added some more pics to the end of the photo gallery. (New pics start here)

5/13/01

Got started on the Vortech installation today.  Buck Morris came over to lend a hand and he sure helped me out a lot!

We managed to get the FMU and T-REX fuel pump installed today.  Here's some pics of the install so far.  Stay tuned.

5/09/01

I've got a bunch of parts on order from Griggs Racing which are part of a group purchase through Brad's Custom Auto.  Here's a pic of the truckload of stuff just after it was loaded.  I heard this is the largest single shipment Griggs has ever made.  Its on its way to Seattle, where it will separated out and my parts will be shipped to me.  Hopefully it will show up next week sometime.

5/08/01

I faxed in my certificate for my Vortech kit's ECM chip yesterday, and the chip was on my doorstep when I got home today!  

WOW!

Thanks Vortech!  That's what I call service.  Here's a quick picture.

5/07/01

I had the opportunity to have dinner with One Lap of America competitors Bill Gratton and Mark O'Dell as they passed through Oklahoma City on their way to Motorsport Ranch in Texas.

Here's a few pics that we took.

5/06/01

I went autocrossing with the Oklahoma Region SCCA yesterday and today.  You can see pics here and here.

Also, here is a video of one of my runs.

5/04/01

Some of my parts arrived today!  Click here for some pics.  The rest of it should show up next week.

5/02/01

I posted some videos of Todd Zikas' crash at Heartland Park Topeka and one of my faster laps on the videos page.

5/01/01

Here is a PDF version of the registration form for the 2001 Mid-America Ford Performance Meet (7707KB).  If you are anywhere near Tulsa, OK and are a Ford enthusiast, this is the place to be from June 21st - June 24th.

This is the premier Ford meet in the area, with 3 days of open track, drag racing, and a huge car show and swap meet.  Click here to see pictures from last years meet, and email me if you need any more info.

4/30/01

Steve Fuller sent me some more pics of my car and the NSX that got totalled at HPT.  Thanks Steve!

4/29/01

Spent the weekend at Heartland Park Topeka attending a Great Plains Region Porsche club event.  Kudos to the Great Plains region for putting on a fabulous event.

I had a great weekend.  Unfortunately, several others didn't.  Fellow Cobra driver Todd Zikas smacked the wall and messed up the right front of his car.  Fortunately Todd is OK.  Also, an Acura NSX got totalled in a big way.

Pics are here.

Heartland Park is a fun track to drive and I managed a 2:10 lap.  I will be posting some lap videos soon. 

4/22/01

I went autocrossing today with the Oklahoma Region SCCA.  Much warmer weather this time, but it sure was windy!

Buck Morris and I shared my car and had a blast.  We were roughly 2 seconds off of FTOD, and it was a blast because we learned by riding along with each other.  The course was fun and was nearly a minute long.  No first gear corners this time!  Hooray.

Here are a few pics of me, and there are a whole bunch of pics on the OKSCCA site here.  Also, I posted a couple of videos on the videos page.

4/04/01

Big things are on the way..  the UPS man cometh..  stay tuned!

My good friend Buck Morris will be competing at the National Tour in Ft. Worth this weekend, so we are rooting for him!  We are going to try to make it down there to watch at some point.

Steve Fuller and I will be on track at Heartland Park Topeka for a PCA event there April 28/29th.

Brian Provost and I are thinking about doing a PCA event at MSR May 19/20th.  Also, Brian is bugging me to do the Virginia City Hill Climb out in Nevada.  That sure is a long haul (1600 miles) but would make a fun vacation for the family.  I may have to trade the Lightning in on an Expedition or something though.  :(

Also, I posted a new video of a lap around MIS for fellow CC'er Mark O'Dell.