Day 2 – Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Spectre Performance

Posted by pikesan on Aug 14, 2011 in Featured, Racing | 2 comments

Round Two goes to the Salt

2011 Bonneville Speed Week sponsored by Spectre Performance

My last post about the Spectre Performance “SpeedLiner” detailed THE PLAN. Everyone knew bringing 5 motors and trying to break 5 records was a stretch. Nobody’d argue that, but the team is motivated and prepared right down to the spare quick change rear axle they’d need after yesterday.

Then “the salt” announced it’s plan.

The Cadillac bullet shown above sits sadly alone. Supplied by the Cad Company and owner-Cadillac-genius Courtney Hines out of New Mexico, the 434 cube heavy hitter had tons of potential coming off the dyno, but announced a “chirp chirp chirp” sound when cranking that said… “I’m done here.”
See what happened in Day 1 Results – click here.

By the time I got done shooting the record certification runs for Sunday morning (guys looking to backup the runs made Saturday) Steve Schmalz and the extremely hard working crew from Performance Fabrication had the motor out and the new one ready to go back in. With the complexity of a setup like this, be impressed. Every trick, injected, electronic, data-logging gizmo availble’s installed and needed to be disconnected. The plywood you see is so the engine hoist doesn’t dig into the salt.

About 3-4 hours later, I get a call saying, “We’re back on the line, come on up!” So I hustled the six miles from the pits back to the start. Six miles. Yea, the pits, in total, are about 3-4 miles long and nearly a quarter mile wide. If you ever visit, don’t plan on walking!

At the starting line, the Spectre Speedliner’s one of the heavy hitters. When you’ve run over 300 mph before (they’ve run over 400!) you have the option, once-a-day, to get into the 300 mph line.  That takes you right to the front and the starters, the nicest group of people you’ll meet, will let you run when you’re ready. If you’re thinking, “HEY! That’s cutting!!” It is. Nobody complains cause they’re ready to see (hear really, nobody at the start can see the finish) a big, BIG mile-per-hour number go up.

Here’s one of the way teams are making more power:

Ice! Lots of it!! The Spectre Performance Speedliner runs twin turbos with a massive air to water intercooler. To get the maximum power, in the end, the colder (cooler really) the air charge, the better. Without an intercooler, hot exhaust gases are compressed by the turbo – which makes them hotter- then stuffed into the engine. But… with a setup like this, similar to what almost every boosted car’s running, the charge is cooled enough to show a 200 horsepower improvement on the dyno. Ice is cool in that way…

How much do you put in?

MORE! Crew member Greg Hoffman looks on as team owner and driver Amir Rosenbaum literally stuffs in more ice. By the end of the run the tank contains, just under ambient temperature, water. The energy of the ice has been turned into salt pounding engine horsepower. First Law of Thermodynamics satisfied, the day continues…

As I’m writing this, it’s already time for another update. They’re coming! Hang with us.  Grease Girl’s and I will have tons more coverage, including 2011 Bonneville Speed Week record results along with the results for Spectre Performance. So far however, the results for my new friends at Spectre aren’t great…

Catch up on Speedliner’s record chase here: Bonneville Record plan and check back soon for more. The A-fuel motor’s in and the team’s still gunning for top speed of the meet, or at least to bust up the record