Final results for the Stude’ this year: 211mph with 2 cylinders acting up– valvetrain issues. The back two cylinders on the drivers side of the motor had been suspect all week, burning significantly richer than the rest as the story was told by reading the plugs. Boost (with the wastegates wide open) last year was at 12psi, and this year was at 18-20psi, there were no intentional changes to the motor to make this happen… this was suspect as well. I’m not there for the motor teardown, but my suspicion is those two cylinders weren’t flowing air properly as evidenced by their burning richer than the rest. Less flow through the engine would also cause more pressure to build up in the intake causing boost to climb higher than expected just as we saw.
We also had some grounding issues with the car that we sorted out (block was not grounded directly to the battery), though the inadequate grounding appeared to have damaged the 5v regulator in the MS so I dropped a spare MS1 v3.57 EMS in the car which got us back in the action…. At least enough to get back to the valvetrain issues. Turns out one of those two cylinders finally game up the ghost on day 4. We dropped an exhaust valve on the 211mph run and holed a piston. Oh well…. as they say… “that’s racing”.
The Buick set 2 records in classes in the 135-142mph range. They were going back for a 3rd the day I left.
David Freiburger’s car (Hotrod Special) had set 2 records when I left and was going back for a 3rd as well.
Tons of pictures below — be sure to check them out (and click for a bigger view):
