Hi Folks !
Prepare yourselves for a bit of a ramble from an excited racer
The initial testing on the new transmission has been very good so far. The downside is that I had trouble teaching myself to shift gear correctly. The old tranny was a normal forward shift pattern. The new gearbox is reverse pattern. This should have been no problem, or so I thought ? After 10 years of pushing the ratchet shifter forwards, getting my body to pull it backwards became an issue which was the cause of much piss taking from the boys in the pits
Even as I drifted into stage I was shouting at myself "pull it back, pull it back" But as soon as the lights changed I let the transbrake button go, and as the shift light came on and I pushed the stick forwards into neutral DOH!! I did 5 test passes in total. Passes 1 and 2 were 1st to N with the rev limiter working overtime. Pass 3 was a clean shift to 2nd and then the tyres let go so I was drifting on the limiter for a while before I aborted the run. Passes 4 and 5 saw me growing a pair and actually bringing the launch rpm up to 4000 on part throttle, then letting the button go and planting my foot. But again on these two passes I shifted from 1st to N ?? Rev limiter came in so I kept my foot in and pulled the stick back twice to find 2nd gear. and then 3rd gear to finish the runs. These were all non nitrous passes (as I guessed I would cock it up) and despite the missed gear shifts on the last 2 passes I did run 1.4 and 1.5 in the 60 foot and both runs were 10.9's. On the old setup I would hold the revs at 2000 on the foot brake (anymore than this and the brakes would creep me into a cherry) and just plant my foot as I let the foot brake go. I did several non nitrous pulls like this on the old setup and the car ran 60 foots of 1.5 with ET's of 10.8's to 10.9's !!
So I have already equalled my old non nitrous PB data with missed gear shifts. If I can get out next Saturday and do a clean non nitrous pass with no gear shift cock up's I'm hoping to run around 10.8 or better with a 1.4 60 foot or better. I know that the above ramble may make no sense to some folk, but I'm getting very excited right now. I have already decided uprate my Mallory 6Al to an MSD digital 7 controller as this will give me the option to use a 2 step rev limiter so I can go full pedal in stage with a launch rev limiter holding the engine back at 4000rpm until I let the button go. The MSD isnt cheap so it will have to wait until after Xmas to see how the funds go. If I get some time I intend to add another relay to run piggy back with the transbrake button. This relay will provide a series contact for the throttle microswitch on the carb. So in theory I could push my foot to the floor on the transbrake to see where the revs settle as the converter winds up. This would see the throttle micro switch closed, but with the circuit still held open on the aux relay. Then when I let the button go I can let FRED do whatever I have programmed him to do. I'm thinking to leave him with his current settings, but add in a 1 second start delay so the car can get rolling for a second before he chucks in a 100 of nitrous with the other 75 shot coming in over 0.8 of a second which is what my old foot brake launch setting is?? OH MY!! This is so exciting now
If I can get my shit together and bring myself to go with more pedal on the transbrake I may actually make a new non nitrous PB next weekend ? If I can do this and make proper gear shifts I'll chuck a bottle in the MGB and see what happens. I think FRED is over 20 years old now and he's still going strong
At this point I will say sorry for all this blurb ! But I'm on the point of another breakthrough with the old Rover V8 on the 1/4 mile. I did say that when I broke the 10's I would retire the car and build something else with a Chevy engine. But I had run the 10's for a good while and then with a few tweaks we not only broke into the 9's, we sort of smashed it with regular 9.6 passes. There were 17 back to back 9.6 passes over several visits to the track. The last 9.6 was straight off the trailer at the Mopar Nats at Santapod. This raised a few eyebows when the folk on site saw that I had a rover 3.9 under the bonnet.
I'm out next Saturday at the Pod for more test runs. I have been online to Sport and Soccer and ordered a new pair of balls which should be with my on Friday so I can use them on the start line next weekend
The next goal for the MGB was a 9.59 pass. I'm hoping that before the end of this season that the car may run in the 9.4's ??
Here is my last run from last weekend. I have the shift light set at 5700 rpm and the limiter is set at 6000 rpm. In the vid you cant hear the missed gear shift. It just sounds like I've run 1st gear out a bit longer than normal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BXRnsAe ... GyG4tfRrjw