2012 LTA Land Speed Runs/Trails Main Event - new class record set

[fnkngrv]

Well it was that time again this last weekend. 130 racers from all over the country flocked to Loring on Friday the 13th through Sunday the 15th for the 4th annual LTA LSR Main Event to attempt to make personal, national, and world records in the 1 mile and 1.5 mile course. Bill Warner started off the morning on Sunday by pummeling the 1 mile record for his class on his Suzuki turbo motorcycle at 290mph. I participated for my second event this time being the Main Event; last year's Harvest Edition was my first. Last year I turned in a 120.981mph for a class record. This year I was able to raise the record on late Saturday to 129.743mph with 20mph head winds. Because of the head winds I was able to only turn 5400rpm...I had 600rpm to spare with my tune. I was definitely able to feel the winds pushing my car back. Due to all of the hurdles with my motor replacement after blowing the stock one back in April it came down to the wire for me being able to run and feel confident in the car. I will be posting up videos of my car and a few more vehicles to include my friend's 91 Nissan DETSR20 powered pickup and the 730hp 69 Chevelle that he built for another local friend.

We were able to actually represent not only locally very well, but also for the state as we had a guy from Bangor (central Maine) join the 200mph club on his Ninja ZX14. My friend's Nissan would have easily joined the 200mph club however he snapped his 4" custom driveshaft from the Driveshaft Shop at 190mph/7600rpm on the first day of the trials. The Chevelle pulled out a 162mph, but found out unfortunately that the rearend was geared wrong as well as the clutch slipping from the hp/tq being produced. Another guy from the local area that I am acquaintance with ran 134mph on his Yamaha 250cc dirtbike.

The 2012 Harvest Edition will be the first weekend of September and I plan on making a wheel/tire change to lower the car and lighten up the corners. This will most likely be my last weekend if I do run in the Production Supercharged category as I am working toward a motor and custom transmission build over the winter/spring. My next goal is to skip 150mph and move straight to the 175mph for the 2013 Summer Main Event.

You will see a couple pictures of a custom luge built by a gent that I was able to talk a lot with over the weekend. I wasn't able to make the races on Sunday, but as of his last run on Saturday he had hit 169mph! The weekend was great fun. Temps were around 90 during the peak of the day and low 70s in the morning. Humidity was around 20-25%.

For those that are interested there was a guy there from Mass that had a new Subi BRZ. His fastest time clocked in at 132mph...a mere 2mph more than mine. I understand that his car is stock, but would have thought that it would have delivered more out of the gate.

[fnkngrv]

91 Nissan Hardbody 190mph run before the driveshaft tore in half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqNBvn0yXD4

2011 Corvette ZR1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjM8LFlmi4A

69 Chevelle 162mph run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktqQCV2mvkU

250cc dirtbike 134mph run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPzA9dFpha0

[Jeff@MicroImage]

Very nice! Sounds like the shorter wheel & tire would have helped... looking forward to see how it goes in September!

[cali yaris]

I want to see your rear window!

[fnkngrv]

Spoke with CCI today about the difference "offers" they have for if you are a winner in an event, listed in a magazine, cover story, etc. Apparently the whole concept of Land Speed Racing is new to them even though they have heard of Bonneville and know what is done there so I will not be able to get "credit" for "winning" a race at an event. They informed me that they will investigate for the future. I do hope that they are being sincere about it. There were several vehicles running CCI gear ranging from 200hp to 1000hp. They also informed me that their magazine article, cover story credits need to be with a very well known publication which is different than when I purchased my clutch/flywheel combo . Sucks because it changes things a bit for the September event.

[justjesus]

Sweet.

Good job on getting out there. Eventually, I'll do some top speed runs myself.
(been to El Mirage for some fun runs on "regular" day)

[Blown_xa]

cool man! I know that guy with the luge, his name is Roland! he hit 169mph lol. He invited me out to run his other luge, and my friend Bob who has a jet powered streetluge. 3 makes for an official class I think.

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by Blown_xa

cool man! I know that guy with the luge, his name is Roland! he hit 169mph lol. He invited me out to run his other luge, and my friend Bob who has a jet powered streetluge. 3 makes for an official class I think.

Yup, its Roland alright.

I picked up one of his shirts he was selling for his personal charity to get himself to Bonneville this year. Not sure if you have seen it, but it is hilarious. Has the pelvic area of a skeleton on it with pistons where the testicles would be and says, "More Balls Than Brains"

When I talked with him just before the 169mph run his last one had been around 158 and he said that at LTA it was great because the ground is so stable he could just stick his foot out a few inches to use it like a rudder if he went any off course. He did say though that even though it was better than Bonne it was worse because it jarred him so much at those speeds that he couldn't read his GPS Speedo strapped to his leg so he gave up on that and just went for broke and would find out his speed at the logging table.

[Blown_xa]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

Yup, its Roland alright.

I picked up one of his shirts he was selling for his personal charity to get himself to Bonneville this year. Not sure if you have seen it, but it is hilarious. Has the pelvic area of a skeleton on it with pistons where the testicles would be and says, "More Balls Than Brains"

When I talked with him just before the 169mph run his last one had been around 158 and he said that at LTA it was great because the ground is so stable he could just stick his foot out a few inches to use it like a rudder if he went any off course. He did say though that even though it was better than Bonne it was worse because it jarred him so much at those speeds that he couldn't read his GPS Speedo strapped to his leg so he gave up on that and just went for broke and would find out his speed at the logging table.

he is good guy. That thing runs 11s in the 1/4 mile too haha.

[fnkngrv]

some videos added...I am still working on my in car video.

[fnkngrv]

Here is in cabin footage of my run. First time using a GoPro so I have some lessons learned to include paying better attention to the file format when I did the editing with CineForm...I apparently encoded it in CFHD avi format which Youtube doesn't like so the final YT version got converted again hence the crappy quality.


http://youtu.be/HxvGRJNWdnk

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

I want to see your rear window!

I am not sure wtf happened this last time that I went through the car wash a couple days ago, but it peeled parts of the decal off!

luckily enough however the first one you sent me appeared...my mother-in-law apparently had it messed up in her belongings while I was on business travel.

I will be putting on the other one this weekend after another good washing with rubbing alcohol. I did get it in time to have it on Saturday of that weekend...actually had my buddy with the Nissan help me put it on.