Today = Learning Curve!

 

300.104 MPH is still our top speed.  Today we learned a lot!  Hats off to the crew!  We completed an amazing amount of work on the Salt today including rebuilding the exhaust outlets (which began to disintegrate during the last run yesterday), changing the supercharger pulley and set up (through one failed run when we blew another alternator belt and supercharger pulley belt), carb jetting changes, supercharger alignment correction, and changing one parachute pilot chute lead.  This may not seem like much...but it was an incredible amount of work on a steep learning curve.  Today it became very obvious that 300MPH puts us in a new speed arena...where a lot of things change.

Losing the alternator and supercharger pulley belts in the first run this morning resulted in a run that ended prematurely at 280+MPH.  We picked Dan up at the about the 6th mile.  Dan was excited about the power that the car was making through the first couple of miles, but the car shut down in the 3rd miles.  We found the issue immediately when we pulled the engine cowl.  Several hours of work paid off and we were able to get a second run in at 6PM.  Again the power that the car laid down from the starting line was incredible.  Dan felt like it certainly would have been a run over 300 MPH, but the car left the 5th mile at 290 MPH.  When we pulled the data from the O2 censor it showed that the we were leaning out right from the start until by the end of the run the air fuel ratio was too lean to develop power. 

Finding ourselves in this "new league" everyone is putting their heads together to problem solve.  A phone call to Joe Woodward back in Vermont on the ride back to the hotel netted some valuable information and we've got a game plan for tomorrow morning.  Dan got a feel for the potential in the car these last two runs and we all eager to see if we can get some more performance tomorrow.

Dan's thought for the day:  Of course the goal today was to get the car over 300 MPH...and learn how to use and maximize the supercharger....bottom line...today I just really had fun running the car!

A nice treat today:  Land speed legend, Tom Burkland, stopped by the pit today and spent a good half hour or so with Dan and the crew.