Now that it is getting close to complete I figured I would share some pics of my project car.
It’s a maxim 86/40 sprint car (86 inch wheel base/40 inch driveline) with a 305 chevy per class specs. I am going to be racing the Virginia motor speedway series this year.
I’m taking it to a car show this weekend so I will hopefully get some pics of it with the bodywork and the wing on. The first practice is in 8 days and the first race is the end of the month.
A video of it idling to get the timing set. For those of you that aren’t familiar with sprint cars the intake manifold you see is a hilborn mechanical fuel injection.
why are you wearing a helmet and gloves to set the timing. nerd. Just for that I’m going to have the rest of the trees behind your house bulldozed over.
Thanks for the support guys. My first time driving it under power will be a week from today and I am very excited and a little nervous at the same time.
Slowcamaro,
The F body belongs to Mary Anne who was actually the one in the car. She has been racing sprint cars for over ten years. She was in the car in the pictures. I was busy taking pictures, operating the timing light, and checking for leaks. Her and her husband and crew chief Mike have really helped me a huge amount in getting this thing together and setup right.
A468BU,
Yes the car runs on methanol, it’s a rule for all sprint cars. It’s a safety thing since it’s harder to get lit and from the picture you can see the fuel lines run inside the passenger compartment, with the fuel pump between your knees and the drive shaft running between you legs.
Darkstar,
Mary Anne is wearing a helmet and gloves probably from force of habit since most tracks won’t allow a car to be pushed off in the pits without a helmet on. It actually wouldn’t have been a bad idea to have been wearing a fire suit too since both her car and mine had fuel leaks onto the headers that needed fixed but luckily no fires.
I got it all complete today or at least I HOPE I have it all complete. So it is already loaded up on the trailer for next weekend and I get a full week off from it. It has felt like I was spending every free moment with this thing for a last two months.
I did get some pictures of it today with the wing on and all the body work.
I should have some on track action pics after next Saturday if the weather and everything else cooperates.
So I took it out to the track for the first time today. It was a great time, I have been nervous and excited all week since this is completely new to me. I spent a good portion of the morning praying that I will survive and that I will catch on and learn how to drive these.
The first session I was as slow as can be. The second session I caught on to it a little better and started to actually drive it like a sprint car.
The experience is entirely not what you would expect. There is no sensation of speed, my best lap time today was about 20 seconds which is a 90 mph average but it doesn’t feel fast at all. The sensation is like nothing else, you are sideways and drifting but at the same time it is stuck like glue to the track, it’s like a drift with g forces. Turning it is almost like driving a jet ski, it absolutely will not turn without the throttle on, if you let off and try to steer left it will just push towards the wall.
The third session the track got really dry and slick and I spun twice which was kinda embarrassing but no damage other than to my ego, but sometimes it is better to be humbled to maintain some caution.
It almost looks like I knew what I was doing. Luckily no camera around when I am facing the wrong way at the bottom of turn 2.
