Bonneville Update - 8/13/02

[DBesic@domain.elided]

Today was HUGE!!  We had absolutely gorgeous weather all day, with very 
slight breezes and temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's with humidity 
around 10%.  Bonnie was performing flawlessly, with another run this morning 
of 203+ mph.  The team owner, Dick Kreines, had been pouring over SCTA's 
record books and discussing with Bonneville officials and had discovered an 
open class - G/BFMS - in which Bonnie could qualify to run in.  It was 
technically a "Fuel" class, meaning that a competitor could run any form of 
fuel, from pump gas to alcohol to nitro, but would still fit within the 
classes restrictions if we ran the 118 octane spec gasoline.  Based upon 
Mike's previous day's qualifying run of 200.6 and today's record run of 
203.75 mph, Mike was able to secure a Bonneville Land Speed Record in G/BFMS 
of 202.17 mph.  This was not one of our initial goals but Dick was elated to 
finally make it into the record books.  We fully intend to continue our 
pursuit of the "gas" record in G/BGMS which stands at 211 mph, held by a 911.

Later this morning one of the team sponsors, Bill "Leadfoot" Lightfoot, made 
his licensing run for his "D" license (125 - 150 mph) on the Short Course in 
Bonnie.  Some of you may recall Bill's licensing attempt at last year's 
SpeedWeek when he went too fast (166 mph) during his licensing run and SCTA 
officials refused to give him his license upgrade.  This time, the mechanics 
gave him specific instructions to keep boost at 10 lbs and further prevented 
another "speeding" episode by activating a rev limiter at 7,000 rpm.  His 
licensing run went flawless, with Bill reaching a comfortable 142 mph and 
earning him the "D" license without further dramatics.  Bill is most anxious 
to get back into Bonnie to try for his "C" license (150 - 175 mph).

Craig Bielat, the Limey car guy of the group and Top Gun of our 1999 effort, 
was prepped to take Bonnie on the Long Course.  Craig, having an aviation 
background, wanted to further test aerodynamics of the car and asked for the 
chin spoiler to be reinstalled.  His first run proved inconclusive since 
someone forgot to disengage the rev limiter, causing Bonnie to fall flat on 
her face at 7,000 rpms. (Have I mentioned how much I love engineers?)  His 
top speed was a disappointing 184 mph.  In the pits, Bonnie's engine 
management system was tweaked to disengage the rev limiter and the turbo's 
wastegate disabled to achieve full boost all the time!  Craig's second run, 
and the fourth of the day, exceeded all of our expectations when Craig ripped 
off an amazing 203.335 mph, but with only 23 lbs of boost.  He had beaten 
Mike's fastest time and the record set by Mike in G/BFMS, qualifying him to 
make a record run tomorrow morning.  If Craig is able to "back up" his 
qualifying run, making a record run which when averaged with his qualifying 
run exceeds Mike's current record, Craig will own the new Bonneville record.  
Needless to say, Mike is MOST anxious to get back in the car to reclaim his 
title.  For those of you who have been following the aerodynamic debate, 
Craig's 203+ mph qualifying run was WITH the chin spoiler.  He reported that 
Bonnie was rock steady throughout the entire run, with virtually no drifting 
at all.  

The team has collectively tipped its hat to Jim Steck who built a fabulous 
turbo system for the 2.0 litre.  The setup has been able to generate 24 lbs 
of boost regularly, based upon calibrations set on a dyno at Jim's shop in 
Ohio, but which unfortunately translate to much less here in the thin air of 
Wendover, Utah (elevation 7600 ft).  Jim intends to cannibalize the turbo 
from the blown de-stroked 1600 motor we had built last year in the hopes of 
creating more boost, and hopefully more horsepower.  We are so close to the 
Alfa Top Speed Record (210 mph) and the "gas" record in G/BGMS (211 mph) we 
can just about taste it.

Eric Storhok and his $2002 Challenge teammate, Ed, have been frustrated all 
week trying to get their data aquisition system to work.  They were able to 
record a significant amount of data from several runs yesterday but the IBM 
laptop in Bonnie's trunk finally gave up the ghost this morning when its 
hardrive went south.  Eric and Ed have been a huge help in the pits and their 
effort and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated.

More later........

Darren Besic

FYI, John Katos, a very active member of the Bonneville team and Chicago 
AROC's webmaster, has experienced much difficulty in posting photo galleries 
and story to CAROC's website.  The phone line connections at the Motel 6 are 
painfully slow and haphazard.  He will do his best to post photos to 
www.caroc.com as fast as humanly possible, probably a few days.  (Just click 
on the "Bonneville" link) 
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided