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Sorry, I totally forgot to update.

Our trip to World of Speed 2016 @ Bonneville was an absolute blast. The car ran great; 100% trouble free so all we had to do was flash-in new tunes daily from Mario and we magically ran better.

My son Josh ran the car first. He had just picked up his drivers license 2 days before we left. The first 6 times he drove without me or his mom in the car were all over 100mph!! He raised the record to 117.8mph on his best run which was super cool!! He raised the record 3 separate times behind the wheel!! I'm a proud poppa for sure!! Here's a couple videos of his runs.

Here's his second record run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFYlj9ijO7Q

Here's his best launch (He was still learning to drive a manual):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rlOVH2mTH4

Here's the in-car of that last run where he stayed in it until he hit 120mph: (check out the celebration dabs at the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7dNkHSA6Uw

Like I said, I'm super proud of him. He improved so much and was driving like a pro at the end!!

I drove next and was able to raise the bar to 119.0. I did get a chance to drive the full 2.25mile short course to find out what the true terminal velocity was and all she had was 123mph indicated on my GPS. It got there just before the 1.5 mile marker and just stuck there. With what we have in it, that's all she's got @ 4,200ft on salt.

My buddy Robert drove her last and only got 3 runs his first day. He ran a 116mph in the heat and we planned on setting a new record the next morning, but a storm blew threw in the night and the flats were under 1/8" of standing water by morning so racing was canceled. Robert had never even been in a car that went over 100mph before, so to get him behind the wheel and have him click off 3 runs with all of them in the 115/116mph range was huge for him. I told him, "you can't over rev it. . . I dare ya to brake it!!" He drove it like a pro!! He's hooked!!

Here's a pair of his fastest runs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjxFiT1a-w

The time of our lives!! No other way to describe it

That's Great ! Was hoping to hear something along these lines. I like to think I'll have my life squared away enough in the next year or two to make the trip myself.

ALYKAT III wrote:That's Great ! Was hoping to hear something along these lines. I like to think I'll have my life squared away enough in thew next year or two to make the trip myself.

Do it!! Even if you don't bring a car to run, it's a great time just spectating and taking it all in. Bonneville is a true spectacle of racing that should be experienced by every car guy at least once.

Yeah, I have been there as a spectator a few times back in the mid and late 70s and again in the early 80s. Just always had the itch to go back and actually run the line ...even if in just a pure stock vehicle or lightly modified , so I can cross it off my bucket list.

The 130 club rules at WOS is your friend. It's the closest thing to "run what you brung" out there. Just some very basic safety rules that any properly cared for car can comply with, add a helmet, ling sleeve shirt, long pants, shoes and you're racing.

See ya next year. . .

Here's a video I just saw taken by Terry Wolfe at WOS this year. It's got a couple runs that Josh made in the Squarsche, but more importantly, it shows a small sampling of the cars that were there. Many, many more are not shown. What is also not shown is the comradre of the VW challenge teams in the staging lanes and in the pits. If you can make it next September, please do; you won't be disappointed!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPCBwHu_4Nc

The 130 is what I had in mind. I picked up part of a 3 wheel VW powered car kit a few years ago. It came from a small shop back in the 60s / 70s and is named TRI-VATOR. I got maybe 70% of the kit, but the most important parts of the front suspension are missing. I have it jury rigged so I can move it around, but think I should build a front suspension that will make it a 4 wheeler rather than 3. Just finished welding in a rear torsion assembly, a little rust stop paint and test fitting a swing axle trans before setting the fiberglass panels on for test fit. The body shape is what makes me think it will be fun for the salt. Sorry for the highjack !

That's a neat looking car, put a VW beam front end on it with fenders mounted to the backing plates and you should have a nice street car as well.

ALYKAT III wrote:The 130 is what I had in mind. I picked up part of a 3 wheel VW powered car kit a few years ago. It came from a small shop back in the 60s / 70s and is named TRI-VATOR. I got maybe 70% of the kit, but the most important parts of the front suspension are missing. I have it jury rigged so I can move it around, but think I should build a front suspension that will make it a 4 wheeler rather than 3. Just finished welding in a rear torsion assembly, a little rust stop paint and test fitting a swing axle trans before setting the fiberglass panels on for test fit. The body shape is what makes me think it will be fun for the salt. Sorry for the highjack !

That is way cool! The VW Challenge Trike record is wide open and there for the taking.

Hmmm. Wasn't aware of that. Food for thought ! Thanks !

We have decided that we will NOT be competing this season at World Of Speed 2017 down at Bonneville. The reason is that we don't have any plans this year for adding power to the car, so we already know what it will run up there within a couple MPH. We need a full 11MPH to gain entry in the 130 Club and I figure that will take around an additional 80hp+ to make happen and that's just not in the cards this year.

This year, I'm working to finally dry sump the motor so I can better control oil foaming and thus pressure on the high-end. I'm currently in the process of shoe-horning a MASSIVE Thorsten Peiper T4 dry sump pump in and it's no joke making this thing fit!! Also we're going to finally get this suspension dialed-in for road racing.

So, we're sticking closer to home this year and will be using that $$$ to attend the Mary Hill hill climb in August and possibly September. We're also going to finally make some full track days at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, WA (Google Earth it) and attack the 2.5 mile road course. We also want to make an SCCA Track Night at Pacific Raceway Park with some of my Auto-X buddies (I need to get them hooked on track racing, 'cuz no one like$ to be broke alone ). I'm going to be getting Josh out on the auto-x course to get seat time and build those car handling skills he will need to do Mary Hill. We're going to be attending the Ridge Racing School soon and that should help both of us prepare for this season.

I look forward to sharing more racing videos over this season and campaigning the Squarsche around the PNW this year. It should be a good time!!

Don't forget to leave room for that turbo you know you want.......It will give you an easy 80 more hp for the Bonneville run..........

Room is not the issue. I got plenty of that. I would need to upgrade pistons and cam which are not in the cards financially this year. I 'm just going to beat on what I have for now and plan that upgrade for the future.

In preparation for the hill climbs coming toward the end of summer, Josh competed in his first auto-x this past Sunday. We had a blast and he really did well. He takes direction well and his times improved as the day went on. His fastest was a 1:05 lap which is about 3-4 seconds off my average times with a similar track. Here's a video of his fastest and most fun runs of the day.