Well Ransom's beast is back and on 3/31/01 he is going to Maxton NC, the home of the East Coast Timing Association speed trials. Something like a Bonneville without a salt lake and with thicker air.
see http://www.ecta-lsr.com/recordscars1.htm
Ransom is in the E/BGC class which has a current ECTA record of 120.582 mph & a street legal E/SS class. Knowing Ransom the problem may not be enough speed but too much. He is limited to 125 mph without a roll bar.
The lakes record for E/BGC is 152.351 which I suspect Ransom would had a good shot at if he had a roll bar.
Bring home a trophy Ransom!
Buford
Ransom DID bring back a new record! Congratulations!
Look for pictures and a full exclusive story in the Summer issue of the S.H.O. Magazine. Ransom's runs were partially sponsored by the S.H.O. Club. (www.SHOCLUB.com)
NEWS FLASH 5/28/01
I had a blast this past weekend. For the first time I had no troubles out of my SHO at a major event, of course this was the first time I tailored it to an event. :) I made it through the 'extensive' technical inspection without much to do or change. I have three items to add or change before the next event. The comment was even made by the inspector that this was the 'easiest' street car to race car inspection he had ever done.
I made 6 passes on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. I could have easily made a bunch more, especially on Sunday, but I learned that to get the best times I had to wait for my SHO's intake to cool down and I did so well on my 1st run Sunday, I didn't want to press my luck. I now believe all that business about an intercooler for anything above 6 psi.
My best run of the meet was on Sunday at 157.895 mph. Now, I'm only 2.105 mph away from the required parachute! Of course I set or reset a record on nearly every run that I made. A bunch of ECTA members were really impressed with my SHO, they even jokingly said that they would gladly accept one of my slower 150 mph speed slips to replace with theirs.
Thanks for y'all's support.
Ransom T. Holbrook
I take some of the blame for thinking this may be a better type of competition for SHOs than 1/4 mile runs. This is the 2nd time Ransom kicked serious high speed butt, and now maybe with a chute he may yet go faster. Lawdy, Lawdy. Look for a major report with all the bloody details and technical highlights in the next printed Issue of SHOCLUB!
For those who may not be familiar with the Maxton NC track, it is an old airport landing strip less than 2 miles long. You have about 5000 feet, less than a mile, to get up to speed and then about another mile to slow down. You don't have forever to get up to speed, and you don't have all that much room to slow down either. I know Ransom had some issues getting his Vortech blower sorted out. It had issues in sustained use vs. intermittent use you would expect for normal street use.
Maxton NC has the advantage that it is lower altitude, lower ambient temperatures and the runway is better to run on than the salt flats because it has less rolling resistance. Offsetting all that is the fact that the track is a lot shorter. Maybe the biggest issue is that the salt at the flats is corrosive and will ruin any street driven car.
Remaining racing dates this year are June 30 - July 1, September 29 - 30 and November 3 - 4. I can see maybe with cooler fall air and Ransom may yet go faster if he so desires. How does that work Ransom? "Honey the SHO needs a parachute & a bigger intercooler."
We had some complex feelings about Vadims' Gen 3 blower kit. Ransom did all this with a 3.0L V6. It makes you wonder what a 3.4L V8 might do with some "artificial inhalation."
Way to go Ransom!!!
Buford
Are you going to get a chute & inter-cooler? try for 170?
How does it feel at 157? Still pulling strong?
Tim
If I had enough room it should do 190. It just doesn't pull as strong when I shift to 5th as I would like. It has to do with the RPM drop from 4th to 5th. I go from like 7400, were it's making 420 fwhp, to 5500 where it makes only 310 fwhp. I'm ending my run at 6k rpm. Ben Bentley has suggested water injection to get the intake temp down and I think that I might look at going with a 'shorter' front tire to get the rpms up a little.
When the fellow welded in my 6 point bar, he designed it so I could attach a chute to the back 2 bars. Thinking ahead :)
Seems that you can never go fast enough ...
Ransom
The rules say I do. However, no mention of the chute at the 'post inspection' AND when I got my car tech'd they ask if I was planning on 175, I said "no" and the inspector wrote N/A on the form next to chute. Still may put one on it anyway :)
----- Original Message ----- From: timwright To: Ransom T Holbrook ; 1 V8SHO list Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 12:32 AM Subject: Fw: My weekend at ECTA
Congrats on the record!!!!!!!!
now you need a chute?
So your gonna paint your car like a flag too?
;-)
Tim W
----- Original Message ----- From: Ransom T Holbrook
To:timwright@msn.com ; Donald Mallinson ; Ben B.
Sent:Sunday, September 30, 2001 8:36 PM
Subject:My weekend at ECTA
Just got back from my time trials at ECTA and thought I would send y'all a quick note on how things went.
The weather was near perfect; the perfect part was the cool temps, low humidity, and sunny skies. The "near" part was the winds :) All of us battled high winds this weekend. The track was even shut down for a brief time Saturday due to high-sustained winds of more than 20 mph. The wind was blowing out of the north, giving us a direct head wind. Needless to say, few new records were set. Many of the 'regulars' did one or two runs and stopped because they were running anywhere from 7-10 mph slower than they did May or June. However, I did manage to set a new record in E/BGC of 160.142 mph. I am very pleased to break into the 160s, especially with the strong head winds. I have a "in-car" video of one of my 157+ mph runs that I will post soon on the internet. During my 160 mph run, the video camera decided to shut off at the 3/4 mile mark :(
We had a large crowd of new cars and spectators. A beautiful twin turbo Viper, painted like the American Flag, from Chicago was there. He had run at Bonneville last month with a speed of 241, however due to the wind, gearing, and mechanical problems was only running in the 160s. A 'modified' twin turbo AWD 911 Porsche (Tipronic?) was present and was running in the upper 180s when the engine decided to blow. Also, Speedvision sent down a small crew to film some of the event.
All in all it was a memorable event.
I would just like for everyone to know that I've set a new National One Mile Record in E/BGC of 160.142 mph. My record run was this past Sunday at ECTA (East Coast Timing) in Maxton, NC. The entire weekend we dealt with a STRONG headwind, on Saturday the track was even shut down briefly because the winds reached 20 MPH sustained, gusting into the upper 20s. Sunday was a little better, but the winds were still in the 15 MPH range.
I am excited about this run because I believe any street car that can reach 160 within a mile can run with the best of them.
Also, I believe that using 40 series tires helped. Most of the regulars were experiencing 7-10 mph decrease in top speed because of the wind. During some of those 20 MPH head winds, I made a 154 MPH run with my 55 series tires, then switched tires to the 40s and ran 157 MPH. So the shorter tires, IMHO, was good for 3 MPH. The short tires allowed me to get into 5th gear quicker raising the RPMs up into the HP curve and lowered the front for a little help with aerodynamics.
Soon I will have an "in car" video posted on my webpage of a 158 MPH run (During the 160 MPH run the camera shut off at the 3/4 mile mark) ..