First day of Test & Tune at Pacific Raceways, Kent WA. March 25th 2012. First runs with new Scribner 9-inch Ford housing in our ’71 Chevelle.
Video by Pam Young:
Goal: To adjust the rear suspension to launch straight.
Edwards & Young Racing. 406 c.i. small-block Chev. TH-400 trans with trans brake, ladder bar coil-over rear, Strange center section, Moser 35-spline axles.
Here’s a video Pam took of Jeff Wanke’s Nova at the TNT. They are having some problems and hope this will help?
March 30, 2012:
There is an old expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and in this case a photo taken by the track photographer gives us vital information not captured in any of our videos. It is clear from his photo that we need to increase the pressure in the slicks, as the tires are waffling too much on the starting line.
See:
We were darn close in our initial setup! After three runs and a few minor adjustments, the car is leaving straight. Now we need to raise the wheelie bars slightly so it’ll carry the front end further out on the launch and get the timer set to get our shift points right on the money.
Going to the higher 4.71 gear ratio lowered the shift points slightly. But we’re back in the hunt!
It was GREAT getting the Chevelle back on the strip after bending the axles tubes in our old 12-bolt last August. An expensive update but necessary. And it was fun seeing all our fellow racers and the crew at Pacific Raceways. It was a great turnout for the first event of the 2012 season.
Thank you Roger for posting the video and all the others over the year. It’s great to see what’s going on outside of the car! Thanks again to you, Pam and the boys.
Thanks, Tom and Jeff Warnke
Our pleasure guys, and thanks for loaning us the 4800 launch chip. I knew 5000 was pushing it, especially on a cold track.
March 27th 2012:
Chris and I worked on the Chevelle today, checking all the nuts & bolts, jam nuts & axle retainer nuts in the rear end. We checked the valve lash & raised the wheelie bars & the wagon is ready to go back out!
The final analysis isn’t in yet until we get the shift points down, but we were hoping with the higher gear ratio to improve the MPH by lowering the finish line RPM in the wheel house of the motor’s horsepower curve. We haven’t seen that yet but should know more next time out. .