Mopars at the Strip. Vegas Baby!!!

[altered7151]

Well with all the talk of TD happenings on the east coast its time to get something going here out west. I've made a goal to have my car operational in time for this event, so lets get something together! March 24-25-26 at the strip in Las Vegas, www.moparsatthestrip.com. Check out the site, but there will be a car show and of course drag racing, with a sport compact class in effect. It would be awesome to gather as many people as possible together and have a strong TD showing. Of course being Vegas, there will be some partying going on, so bring your A game :evil: Also, for anyone that may be coming from up north, or from the nor-cal area, maybe we can arrange a rally point and caravan down there together. :thumb:

Edit: At the time I posted the link, it seems they must be updating the site, as it doesn't work, but it is indeed the right site, so give it a little time.

[gasketmaster]

Here's the current link :)

http://www.moparsatthestrip.com/2006/index_2006.shtml

[Ubmbass]

I'll be there, hopefully with a fully functional transmission. If not, I will at least be watching.

[altered7151]

Getting closer... Who's going?

[Ubmbass]

I still plan on going, I almost completely doubt I will be racing because of my tranny situation. Who's teeth do you have to pull to get a decent tranny built for a decent price in a reasonable amount of time?

[2.216VTurbo]

Ask Ramsdell jr, he must be pretty cheap beacuse as he posted on another trans thread, "I can build one in under five hours..." Of course I had just posted how it took me over 20 hours to build my 523 and install the OBX with all new bearings so maybe he was just ribbing the NooB:D

BTW I am still going to M.A.T.S. With or without a proper cal:o

[altered7151]

BTW I am still going to M.A.T.S. With or without a proper cal:o

Thought you had that taken care of Alan? Not to rub it in, but mine got shipped off today :eyebrows:
Hope to see all you guys there!

[SwiftTech]

would love to go but it looks like I might not be able to:( , will be down at Laguna Seca that week with work and don't know when I get back.

[altered7151]

As much as I hate to say it, things are looking pretty sketchy for me also. This new house thing is taking way more time then I thought it would, we'll see how things turn out.

[2.216VTurbo]

What is the TD community coming to, everyone has RESPONSIBILITIES now??? :p I used to get grief from the younger members of the CaSDAC group who at the time had no wife, no house, and no kids and wanted to know whay I couldn't commit more time to wrenching or events. Same guys years later are slacking on the regular 4 hours a month meetings because of the house/wife/kids... If you guys don't go to MATS it means you HAVE TO go to SDAC in Topeka this year:amen:

[altered7151]

Yeah tell me about it, A couple year ago I was making fun of my friends that were staying home to work on their house or yard, and the other day I was excited because I got a killer deal on new door knobs. Funny how things turn around on you like that. My car is getting close, just not close enough. Plus I found out my sister is coming up here that weekend, and that was another of my main reasons I was going down was to visit her, plus that was where I was going to stay. It depends on how the house thing is going. If we get all moved in I might get a hair up my --- and decide to drive down. So... how far of a drive is it to Topeka?

[mock_glh]

Getting closer... Who's going?

Count me in.:peace:

[2.216VTurbo]

Thanks a lot Boyd:mad: I was planning on having the fastest L body there:o

[Clay]

Have fun. I was suppose to go, but with a baby due that weekend, and the owners of that show pissing me off this year, I wont be there.

Clay

[clocktowersniper]

Well, I am going to be leaving on my move to Vegas on Tuesday. I will be at the show so count me in!

[mock_glh]

Thanks a lot Boyd:mad: I was planning on having the fastest L body there:o

Considering the hardware you're packing, with all due respect, you "should" have the fastest L-body there.:D Who knows, we may both have a surprise coming.

Boyd

[Shelby5150]

:lol: :lol:

Well, however it turns out, whether Alan or Boyd has the fastest L body, i'll be there to record everything and show it to the Turbo (Mopar/Dodge) crowd. :amen: Or maybe with the wonders of my computer capabilities, maybe i can change the outcome of the video to better suit the person whom can bribe me with a greater gift :eyebrows:

[clocktowersniper]

I will be bringing my Spirit R/T but not racing it.

[2.216VTurbo]

The new BF goodrich drag radials got mounted today:D :D :D

225-50-15 on some pumpers, kind of balloony with 225's on a 6" rim but hey, I'm just going strait in Vegas right:thumb:

They are so soft a fingernail nearly dissappears into them when you push hard enough:eyebrows:

[clocktowersniper]

Whoever goes,lets meet up somehow.

[2.216VTurbo]

I'll be pretty hard to miss with a bright Red GLHS;)

It looks like Friday will be the best day to get the most passes, so my plan is to be in line when the gates open Friday Morning. Probably be a couple of all nighters before then-just like last year...

[clocktowersniper]

I will be in Vegas tomorrow, I got delayed when they closed the interstate for a blizzard with me on it. When are you getting to Vegas?

[bansheenut420]

I will be in Vegas tomorrow, I got delayed when they closed the interstate for a blizzard with me on it.
You call your wife and let her know? ;) I could call and let her know for ya! LOL

[mock_glh]

Went to Vegas for MATS this weekend to run the Sport Compact and guess what. I took all the money! Here's how it went:
Drove the Omni up (250 miles) on Friday morning. Got the car ready and went up for my first run. It blew the tires away and I missed 2nd gear, turned a 12.89 at 111 mph. Ugh! Second run was almost as bad. I rolled the staging lights, which added about 3 tenths to my time. Again it spun the tires. I caught all the gears but only ran a 12.60 at 113. Didn't look promising.

Saturday was much better. First run I cut a .063 light, a 1.78 60', and finished at a 12.07 at 114 mph, blowing away a 14 second SRT-4, and getting the first standing ovation of the event. I followed it up later with an 11.90 at 115 mph, taking low ET in the class with a $75 award. People were suddenly showing up at our pit to see what this Omni was all about.

Sunday was showtime. Dialed in at 11.90, my first match was an 18 second Neon and a worthy opponent. Our RT's were .043 and .046 but the headwind got the better of him and he couldn't run his dial-in so I got by him on the brakes with an 11.92. Second round I got the odd-lot single run and went 11.97. Dialed back to 11.95, I got very lucky in the third round. I bogged the car slightly and ran a 12.10 and my opponent had a better light but he slowed from a 16.90 dial-in to 17.24 and I got by for the win. The final round was the best race of all. A PT Cruiser with a sharp driver dialed in at 18.08.
He cut a .032 light and 6.13 second later I went after him with a slower .112 RT. The car left hard and I just caught him at the finish line. It was a double breakout, me by .05, him by .12. The crowd went crazy. I was shaking the hands of delighted spectators and racers for the rest of the day.

My prize money was enough to pay for my entry fee, 2 nights at a hotel and a few meals. Needless to say I had a great time.:)

[BadAssPerformance]

Sweeeeet! Sounds like a fun weekend! Congrats! :thumb:

[altered7151]

Nice job Boyd! I was so bummed all weekend that I wasn't down there. All I could think as I was packing boxes and sanding doors, is that I should be at the dragstrip. Oh well, hopefully soon though.

[TrrboJeep]

Wow... it doesn't get much better than that! :thumb: I sopose on the way home you picked up a stranded playboy bunny, and gave her a lift to the next town too! :p

What a weekend. I hope my first time out to the track this season prooves just as rewarding (even though I'll be a couple of seconds off your pace)! :nod:

[2.216VTurbo]

I had a great weekend too but you wouldn't know it by my timeslips:p Trying to make a few improvements in the last couple days before I left to the fuel system netted me a NO-START condition when it was time to trailer up Thursday night for the drive to Vegas:mad: Yeah, we are not all as confident as Boyd who will drive hundreds of miles then thrash on his only ride home AFAIK, he has never been stranded at an event with his Omni, though he did drive home from Phoenix a few years back on three cylinders... Anyway, to get the GLHS to run I had to hotwire the fuel pump/coil and figured I could deal with it at the track-ended up running it like that both days Whereas Boyd ran nearly flawlessly, I was plagued by tuning 'issues'. First pass, on the start line I rolled thru both stage lights (I swear there is a low spot in the right lane, Boyd rolled thru too so I don't feel so bad ) and in my haste to back-er-up, popped the crossover cable off of it's linkage Nothing like haveing to push-back in front of hundreds of Mopar fans:o Two second degree burns from the turbo on my arm and two minutes later, I had it back on and talked the starter into letting me run after the Sport Compact class. Like three classes later and after that other guy had left, the relief starter let me run. In the meantime though a used-to-be-infrequent-problem surfaced, my old freind the power loss light:( Knowing I am now in limp mode doesn't inspire me. Boost is a manual external gate so even though it will take forever to spool with the ignition pulled back to whatever limp will allow, I can at least still have the boost-I thought. 2100 feet or whatever had me pulling only 13-14PSI, first launch ever on the BFG Drag Radials netted me a catch-and-bog 2.52 60' time(dang Fidanza flywheel ), and the rev limiter getting in the way of where the 16V motor wants to actually run netted me a 14.73 at 100.6 MPH:( Next pass (still in limp with a less than stellar spool up) I figure I'd give it a few hundred more RPMs to launch, all spin going nowhere backpedaling not helping, short shift to 2nd with a 2.56 60' (going the wrong way here:o ) and a 14.76 at 105.08 MPH Car ran worse on Saturday so I'll spare you that read. Hmm, this car ran 114 last year here:confused:

Between Boyd, myself, Patrick P. and whichever TD guys wandered over to our pits we replaced cals, injector driver boards, coolant temp sensors,intake temp sensors, resoldered some wires, checked the TPS and just about everything else we could think of, the GLHS was refusing to run for more than 2 minutes without going to limp mode:mad: Pretty sure I am gonna park that thing until SDS is in the budget.

Our pit was the gathering place for any Mopar fan who ever even had a FWD car, we heard plenty of stories from old guys who 'back in the day' had a G,P,or L body of some sort. We did meet some cool folks from different states and did plenty of bench racing so our space was by no means dead. However a funny thing happened after Boyd's 11 second pass, I look up and there are like 30 guys gathered around, mostly V8 guys with the what-the-hell-is-that-thing look poking around under his hood. This is a full interrior, power steering, air conditioning, cruise control equipped car not some 1700 lb drag strip only machine!:eek: Very impressive Boyd, nicely done:thumb: Now, can you come over and tune my car...

[altered7151]

Sorry to hear the car didn't meet your expectations Alan, I was expecting to hear about you and Boyd duking it out all weekend. Hopefully there is a race here in the near future we can all meet up. It was great hanging out with you guys at the TU dyno day, it'd be nice to actually have a running vehicle at an event.

[johnl]

Went to Vegas for MATS this weekend to run the Sport Compact and guess what. I took all the money! Here's how it went:
Drove the Omni up (250 miles) on Friday morning. Got the car ready and went up for my first run. It blew the tires away and I missed 2nd gear, turned a 12.89 at 111 mph. Ugh! Second run was almost as bad. I rolled the staging lights, which added about 3 tenths to my time. Again it spun the tires. I caught all the gears but only ran a 12.60 at 113. Didn't look promising.

Saturday was much better. First run I cut a .063 light, a 1.78 60', and finished at a 12.07 at 114 mph, blowing away a 14 second SRT-4, and getting the first standing ovation of the event. I followed it up later with an 11.90 at 115 mph, taking low ET in the class with a $75 award. People were suddenly showing up at our pit to see what this Omni was all about.

Sunday was showtime. Dialed in at 11.90, my first match was an 18 second Neon and a worthy opponent. Our RT's were .043 and .046 but the headwind got the better of him and he couldn't run his dial-in so I got by him on the brakes with an 11.92. Second round I got the odd-lot single run and went 11.97. Dialed back to 11.95, I got very lucky in the third round. I bogged the car slightly and ran a 12.10 and my opponent had a better light but he slowed from a 16.90 dial-in to 17.24 and I got by for the win. The final round was the best race of all. A PT Cruiser with a sharp driver dialed in at 18.08.
He cut a .032 light and 6.13 second later I went after him with a slower .112 RT. The car left hard and I just caught him at the finish line. It was a double breakout, me by .05, him by .12. The crowd went crazy. I was shaking the hands of delighted spectators and racers for the rest of the day.

My prize money was enough to pay for my entry fee, 2 nights at a hotel and a few meals. Needless to say I had a great time.:)


Hot diggity dog!
Had to "quote" it cause its such a good story!

Alan - wish i'd been there to help for what it would a been worth.

[turbovanman²]

Wow guys, job well done, :thumb:



If you guys don't go to MATS it means you HAVE TO go to SDAC in Topeka this year:amen:


I am in, Hotel is booked, just need to confirm my reg to SRT club, :nod:


Too bad you didn't very well, :(

Crappy no Mini-vans showed up. Oh well, theres always Topeka, :thumb:

[TurboMinivan]

So no turbo minivans showed up? :(

-Dempsey

[mock_glh]

Sadly, no. A minivan would have surely looked better in the final round. What disappointed me was the lack of any fast SRT-4's. The next fastest qualifier was a very funky K-car from Utah that went 13.60. All the other stick-shift cars (SRT's) were out after 2 rounds.:(

[BadFastGTC]

Great Freakin' job Boyd! How is the valvetrain holding up?




Went to Vegas for MATS this weekend to run the Sport Compact and guess what. I took all the money! Here's how it went:
Drove the Omni up (250 miles) on Friday morning. Got the car ready and went up for my first run. It blew the tires away and I missed 2nd gear, turned a 12.89 at 111 mph. Ugh! Second run was almost as bad. I rolled the staging lights, which added about 3 tenths to my time. Again it spun the tires. I caught all the gears but only ran a 12.60 at 113. Didn't look promising.

Saturday was much better. First run I cut a .063 light, a 1.78 60', and finished at a 12.07 at 114 mph, blowing away a 14 second SRT-4, and getting the first standing ovation of the event. I followed it up later with an 11.90 at 115 mph, taking low ET in the class with a $75 award. People were suddenly showing up at our pit to see what this Omni was all about.

Sunday was showtime. Dialed in at 11.90, my first match was an 18 second Neon and a worthy opponent. Our RT's were .043 and .046 but the headwind got the better of him and he couldn't run his dial-in so I got by him on the brakes with an 11.92. Second round I got the odd-lot single run and went 11.97. Dialed back to 11.95, I got very lucky in the third round. I bogged the car slightly and ran a 12.10 and my opponent had a better light but he slowed from a 16.90 dial-in to 17.24 and I got by for the win. The final round was the best race of all. A PT Cruiser with a sharp driver dialed in at 18.08.
He cut a .032 light and 6.13 second later I went after him with a slower .112 RT. The car left hard and I just caught him at the finish line. It was a double breakout, me by .05, him by .12. The crowd went crazy. I was shaking the hands of delighted spectators and racers for the rest of the day.

My prize money was enough to pay for my entry fee, 2 nights at a hotel and a few meals. Needless to say I had a great time.:)

[mock_glh]

Great Freakin' job Boyd! How is the valvetrain holding up?

Pretty well. I haven't replaced all the old valve adjusters so occasionally one will snap but for the most part it's been worlds better than it was. While idling at a stop sign in Vegas one of the rockers broke. After having dinner, Alan put me on the stopwatch to fix it. 9 minutes (not a record) from popping the hood to fixed and started.:D No problem. Nothing went wrong at the track.

[2.216VTurbo]

While idling at a stop sign in Vegas one of the rockers broke. After having dinner, Alan put me on the stopwatch to fix it. 9 minutes (not a record) from popping the hood to fixed and started.:D No problem. Nothing went wrong at the track.

The old record for a rocker/lifter change was 8 minutes at the Irwindale track, I think his failure to beat that time was directly related to the Hefenwiesen's consumed at dinner;)

[johnl]

When are you posting pics? We want pics! We want pics! :)

[Ubmbass]

Yup, didnt make it. thanks to certain vendors that can't supply a transmission in a reasonable timeframe with plenty of cash.

[clocktowersniper]

I got the pics of Alans Charger, who wants to post'em for me??

[butchsuppe]

Went to Vegas for MATS this weekend to run the Sport Compact and guess what. I took all the money! Here's how it went:
Drove the Omni up (250 miles) on Friday morning. Got the car ready and went up for my first run. It blew the tires away and I missed 2nd gear, turned a 12.89 at 111 mph. Ugh! Second run was almost as bad. I rolled the staging lights, which added about 3 tenths to my time. Again it spun the tires. I caught all the gears but only ran a 12.60 at 113. Didn't look promising.

Saturday was much better. First run I cut a .063 light, a 1.78 60', and finished at a 12.07 at 114 mph, blowing away a 14 second SRT-4, and getting the first standing ovation of the event. I followed it up later with an 11.90 at 115 mph, taking low ET in the class with a $75 award. People were suddenly showing up at our pit to see what this Omni was all about.

Sunday was showtime. Dialed in at 11.90, my first match was an 18 second Neon and a worthy opponent. Our RT's were .043 and .046 but the headwind got the better of him and he couldn't run his dial-in so I got by him on the brakes with an 11.92. Second round I got the odd-lot single run and went 11.97. Dialed back to 11.95, I got very lucky in the third round. I bogged the car slightly and ran a 12.10 and my opponent had a better light but he slowed from a 16.90 dial-in to 17.24 and I got by for the win. The final round was the best race of all. A PT Cruiser with a sharp driver dialed in at 18.08.
He cut a .032 light and 6.13 second later I went after him with a slower .112 RT. The car left hard and I just caught him at the finish line. It was a double breakout, me by .05, him by .12. The crowd went crazy. I was shaking the hands of delighted spectators and racers for the rest of the day.

My prize money was enough to pay for my entry fee, 2 nights at a hotel and a few meals. Needless to say I had a great time.:)
Cool Boyd, but what did Alan do ?

[turbovanman²]

I got the pics of Alans Charger, who wants to post'em for me??


Start up your own account at www.photobucket.com or use this site, :amen:

[bansheenut420]

The next fastest qualifier was a very funky K-car from Utah that went 13.60.(
Whos car is this? I had no idea there was any kind of a quick K car around here. I know there is about to be a fast p body and a van. Anybody know whos car that was? Thanks!

[BadFastGTC]

What exactly is happening to the rockers? Are they spreading and coming apart or are you having troubles with one end?





Pretty well. I haven't replaced all the old valve adjusters so occasionally one will snap but for the most part it's been worlds better than it was. While idling at a stop sign in Vegas one of the rockers broke. After having dinner, Alan put me on the stopwatch to fix it. 9 minutes (not a record) from popping the hood to fixed and started.:D No problem. Nothing went wrong at the track.

[BadFastGTC]

Various brands of Hefe's were my beer of choice at SDAC 15!




The old record for a rocker/lifter change was 8 minutes at the Irwindale track, I think his failure to beat that time was directly related to the Hefenwiesen's consumed at dinner;)

[altered7151]

I got the pics of Alans Charger, who wants to post'em for me??

I can post them if you email them to me, altered7151@charter.net

[mock_glh]

What exactly is happening to the rockers? Are they spreading and coming apart or are you having troubles with one end?

They just break apart on the bottom side at the roller. There's a picture of it in my next post.

[mock_glh]

Here's a few pictures we took. The K-car had a T-II setup with a Spearco and an auto trans. He qualified at 13.60 but popped a hose off. Alan had issues with the famous "Red One" but it was pretty nice to look at.

[mock_glh]

A few more. The Viper was twin turbo and ran in the 9's. The diesel truck went 12.06 at 116 mph. The pit vehicle is a half scale pro stock chassis with a V-twin engine, slicks and a fuel cell. Really cool. It's for sale for $2500.

[mock_glh]

Some Indy Neon stuff. That head looks pretty sweet.

[mock_glh]

And of course me, in Victory Lane.:D
That rocker broke while I was idling on the street.

[2.216VTurbo]

Hey Boyd, the pic in victory lane is a little soft, is that you or Smokey Younick (sp) accepting the class win?:lol:

Thanks for sharing the pics:thumb:

[johnl]

Great pics - love that bucket hat on the winner.

The pics of the neon head are quite clear, well done too.

[cordes]

Thanks for all of those pics.

That Indy head would put out some power for sure. That is some serious flow.

[Ubmbass]

I have video of all the runs on friday

[mock_glh]

I have video of all the runs on friday

Oh, Great! These guys can see me murder the tires, miss 2nd gear and roll the staging lights:mad: . You missed the good runs:( .

[bansheenut420]

Whos car was the K car from Utah?

[mock_glh]

Whos car was the K car from Utah?

Some farmer lookin' fellow named Clay. I didn't get his last name.

[Clay]

Hey who you callin a farmer!!!!!!!!! ;)

(NO, it wasn't me!!)

[Shelby5150]

I have video of all the runs on friday
I have video of just about every single waking moment we were there... I'll eventually edit and post some vids but my freakin computer is fighting me :banghead: All of a sudden my computer does not feel like hooking up to the camera. I'm thinking it's the 1394 drivers....

[Ubmbass]

Well, when you get it all figured out, I would like to see the footage you have. i'm sure everyone would.

[Marcus86GLHS]

MOCK GLH congrats on your win. i read about your car in sport-compact mag a while back (i presume its the same car), very impressive car. simple and very effective.

thanx for all the pix they look great, hopefully soon the action out east will be beginning and we can share some pix also.

[jberg]

I witnessed Boyd's little brown box kickin' a$$ and takin' names at the MATS meet last weekend...super cool to watch him give half-track leads to cars, then go search & destroy on 'em. Congrats, again, Boyd. Hope to see you and Jimmy at the Inland meet in May. Jerry B.

[ShelbyMotorsports]

I have video of just about every single waking moment we were there... I'll eventually edit and post some vids but my freakin computer is fighting me :banghead: All of a sudden my computer does not feel like hooking up to the camera. I'm thinking it's the 1394 drivers....

Jimmy

Bring the video on Thursday if you can as I'm sure we would all like to see it.

That's if we have time since a lot of us will be busy harassing Alan :D

[Shelby5150]

Well, when you get it all figured out, I would like to see the footage you have. i'm sure everyone would.
I had to mess around with the 1394ieee drivers until one of them worked. I copied the first tape to my computer, which was 23 gigs. I've edited it quite a bit already, just a few more things to do. But boyd is holding two of my tapes hostage (the tapes are of Saturday and Sunday).



I witnessed Boyd's little brown box kickin' a$$ and takin' names at the MATS meet last weekend...super cool to watch him give half-track leads to cars, then go search & destroy on 'em. Congrats, again, Boyd. Hope to see you and Jimmy at the Inland meet in May. Jerry B.
I hope very much to be there! Glad to see you here Jerry :thumb: You'll learn lots here about turbo's, etc. I know that i've been learning imense ammounts from these forums that I could'nt have learned anywhere else!!!!



Jimmy
Bring the video on Thursday if you can as I'm sure we would all like to see it.
That's if we have time since a lot of us will be busy harassing Alan :D
Why is it that I have a feeling that Alan is going to have "mysterious car problems" thursday night? :eyebrows: Hopefully i'll have DVD's made by then. Should'nt be too hard as i already have 1 of 3 tapes processed. If i get DVD's for all of us, then we'll be able to dedicate the night to harassing Alan and watch the movie at home.

[Quadraphonic]

Here are some photos I took at the MATS.

http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33162#post33162

[Shelby5150]

Wooohoooo! The movies are ready!:amen: Read more about it in the Strip & Street Stories (http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=34138#post34138) section of TM.com.

[2.216VTurbo]

Nice work Jimmy, you da man. You deserve a toaster pastry:thumb: