Sunday -- Oct 20th
The Chock Full O' Nuts gang picked up the truck at the Salt Flats
this morning and started their big trip back home. They will
probably get here sometime late Monday afternoon.There is sad
news today: Nolan White passed away during the night. The
landspeed racers will miss him so much and our prayers go to his family and crew.
Saturday-- Oct 19
Friday afternoon Jim did attempt to back up his 194.439 run but
the engine was too fat and wouldn't clear so he turned out early.
They decided not to try to beat their new record but give Bill a shot at
the wheel.
Saturday morning Bill took the truck for a license run and
this time it was too rich and wouldn't clear, so he pulled out early. They discovered the number five plug wire had come from connected. Then they took
the truck to inspection for the displacement check on the engine.
You must have this test before your record is "official" to make sure
your engine is within your Class guidelines. Well, the inspector
had the wrong piston in his engine pumping tool and was only showing 360 ci.
They were all agonizing about pulling the heads - which means pulling the entire engine, but then the Inspector caught the problem and they were right on 460+.
They made 3 runs after the final record run. During the
displacement test they realized they broke a rocker arm also! It
suddenly hit them how horrible it would have been if they had demolished
the engine on these 3 runs and not passed the displacement test.
They had opted for having the engine "sealed" after the record run instead
of checked. They won't do that again. Whew.....
Friday -- Oct 18th afternoon
After the tire change and a fuel change, the Big Red Truck
managed to go 194.439 mph. So now they are in Impound again
waiting to attempt a record run in the morning. They did not
change the gear ratio, but Jim managed to get into 5th gear this time
and said it sounded good. |