First track day of the year for A-team van

[j4278h]

April 8th was the first day of test and tune at us 131 motorsports park.
So much for td invasion, only the a-team van and andrew with his shelby charger showed up. Lots of cars breaking down resulted in me only making 5-6 passes with the van.

All day i was fighting a charging issue and had to leave the van running in the lanes for way too long and i'm pretty sure the cooler got extremely heat soaked.

First run was very entertaining. I lined up next to a newer supercharged lightning and I must have been sleeping while we were staging as i didn't build boost off the line but still managed a better reaction and got a jump on the lightning. Suprisingly i was still ahead of the lightning almost the entire lenght of the track with him pulling past me on the last 300 ft or so. With the race being so close i was extremely excited thinking i managed a 13.xx on my first pass of the year. As i'm pulling up to get my slip I look back and don't see the hatch to the van, immediately i think it flew off somewhere on the track and start freaking out. Well i get my slip and see the the hatch just blew open and get a bunch of laughter from the official who handed me my slip.

Unfortunately i only managed a 14.99 on that first run.Come to find out the hatch blew open on launch and slowly rose during my entire run. I got plenty of laughter from the people in the stands on that one. Immediately i get a bunch of people coming up asking all sort of stupid questions about the van and one guy even asked if the hatch opening was some trick downforce setup to keep the back of the van planted. I kid you not i have witnesses to verify it.

To make a long story short i only managed a 14.5 with 2.25 60ft. Only problem was the blown out suspension on the van didn't like going that fast and it was swaying pretty good so i had to lift.

Hopefully next weekend the van will have the new suspension goodies on it and i will actually be able to make a full throttle pass to see what it can do.
Right now with the stock auto trans i'm hoping for 13.99 with it.

Also my brother made his first pass ever down the track with the white shadow and managed a 17.25 with a best of 16.5. He is addicted and will be there any chance he gets.

[turbovanman²]

Awesome, looks like it was a shitty weekend for vans, I had mega issues also,

[j4278h]

Yeah,

Sorry to hear about your van Simon. At least mine is still holding together. It definately made my butthole pucker when almost bouncing off the wall. Any idea if i can make a 1 1/4 daytona front sway bar work with the van?

[turbovanman²]

Yeah,

Sorry to hear about your van Simon. At least mine is still holding together. It definately made my butthole pucker when almost bouncing off the wall. Any idea if i can make a 1 1/4 daytona front sway bar work with the van?

Nope, its not as wide as the mini, but theres nothing wrong with the stocker, thats all I have.

[j4278h]

Well i just happen to have a 1 1/4 with new bushings just sitting so i was hoping there was a way i could make it fit the van oh well, guess i gotta spring for more bushings.

[Marcus86GLHS]

... Immediately i get a bunch of people coming up asking all sort of stupid questions about the van and one guy even asked if the hatch opening was some trick downforce setup to keep the back of the van planted. I kid you not i have witnesses to verify it.
.

oh that is just too funny.

nice runs.

[DeckSetter]

aaaaaaaaaahahhahahhahahahahhahahahaha!!!!!!! That's hilarious about the hatch.

I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry when I came up to pick my van up, I would have liked to see some of your other stuff.

[fleckster]

That reminds me of the story of James Reeves' GLH Turbo flying down the track one time and his rear hatch wasn't latched either. At about the 100' mark the hatch opened enough and one of the trash bags that he covered his slicks with blows out and looks like a parachute being dropped by the Omni. It was hilarious!

[contraption22]

I had the hatch on the horizon open up on me on a pass one time. I did't even really notice it, until i hit the brakes and heard a THUMP!