Craig's 2001 Review

UPDATE--5/12/01
The new 383 made its maiden voyage down the 1320 on May 12, 2001! Its so nice to be back on the track with some horsepower under the hood. The ignition box and Pertronix trigger gave me fits, so the ETs were off from where they will be. But the mph shows some promise. Its best pass was 11.84@119.37, despite a bad miss at 6500 in 1st gear and poor upper rpm performance in 2nd gear. With a healthy ignition system to light this baby off, I have no doubt that the Nova will go 10s after a reasonable amount of testing and tuning.

Here is the timeslip from the best run so far (the 60' is slow because the 1st gear miss was before the 60' timers):

UPDATE--6/3/01
With a healthy ignition, but poor traction, the new motor pushed my Nova to a new all-time best of 11.552@119.37. The 60' was only 1.718 due to poor traction, but it also needs some serious tuning before it'll be pulling a 60' that will please me. I got to feed this beast a couple more portions of pony meet too. That's always a nice bonus. One probably wasn't used to gettng beaten real often.

Here is the latest timeslip:

UPDATE--6/23/01
The Death Nova, as its become known as on the Nova Listserv, behaved itself on the street for the most part at G01. I had quite a few problems at the track, but I did bring home the 2nd lowest ET with a 11.80@116. I wasn't too concerned over the drop in mph and gain in ET since everyone was well off the pace. The corrected altitude was high, the track was slick and there was a strong head-wind. I also managed to lose in the first round of the Nova-only brackets, but despite my lack of racing luck, the weekend was still killer.

UPDATE--8/24/01
After way too long away from the track, I finally make it out to Lake Cumberland Dragway for the Friday night test-n-tune. The Nova turned in its best ever 60' of 1.66 after some tweaking of the CalTracs and was running consistent enough to let me runner-up in the street brackets (DOT rubber, through the mufflers). I would have won the final round if I had only been .001 slower on the tree. Yes, I went .499 red :-( Oh well, I took home $75, so how bad can it be.

UPDATE--9/15/01
My dad and brother finally made it to Beech Bend to play pit crew this past Saturday night. The track was packed with F-bodies, who were having an EFI challenge. They had the track really torn up due to street tires and a few of them continually carried water to the starting line from the burnout box. Needless to say, most cars running quicker than 12s were having problems hooking up. After a mediocre first pass and long waits in the staging lanes, the car finally responded to a timing change and went 11.550 (my best ever by .002). Then on the final pass of the night, it broke through the 120 mph barrier with 120.01. That left me in good spirits for the 70 mile drive home.

UPDATE--10/20/01
My pit crew deserted me for this trip to Beech Bend, so all the pushing in the staging lanes was done solo. I've found that this motor likes to be only slightly warm, so I try to start is as little as possible. Before this trip to the track, I removed the inner fenders, two bumper braces and the wiper motor (it didn't work anyway). I also installed the new 1000 cfm Holley HP double-pumper, Holley black 140 gph fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator and 1/2" fuel line. Wow, did it make a big difference. The Nova ran a 11.31@121.96 right off the trailer and ended the night with a 11.29@121.96. The 60' times are still only in the mid 1.6s, so I'm probably going to have to make a gear change and maybe loosen up the converter this winter.

UPDATE--11/3/01
This trip to the track was made with very few changes to the Nova. I removed a little more weight, but probably only about 20 lbs. I also added a torque strap from the engine to the chassis to help transmit a little more torque to the rear wheels. It must have worked since the car responded with improved 60' times. I only got 3 runs in, but it went 1.641, 1.643 and 1.664 in the first 60 feet. My previous best had been 1.66x. This improvement showed up in the 1/8th mile and 1/4 mile ETs and speeds as well. The first pass was 11.226@122.62 with an 1/8th mile of 7.204@97.40. The last pass resulted in slightly better ETs, but the mph was down due to a jet change that it didn't like. Those ETs were 11.224@121.96 and 7.191@97.19. I got to take on a '00 Mustang which went 13.8 and a '99 or '00 Lightning, which put up a 13.0 (not bad at all for a big heavy truck). So it was a good day. Maybe I can make it to the track once more this year.

UPDATE--11/10/01
The final day of the season. Time to give it one last tune-up before putting the Nova away for the winter. Unfortunately, I ended up exploding the stock carrier in the rearend on the first run of the day. It also destroyed my gears. That's OK, I was going to buy a Detroit Locker and some 4.88 gears this winter anyway.

Craig Watson
4/8/02

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