5
 
 
 
1:32 PM, Wednesday, June 28th, 2017:
 
Here it is...
 
 
Black space for spoilers:
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0.16 seconds. Hard to even wrap your head around. Let me get to that in a minute. So I said that was scary after the first race and watching now, I think scared probably is the wrong word. It's this crazy mix of adrenaline + concern for the car at the HIGHEST LEVEL. Every shift I wonder if I'm destroying my clutch, I'm trying to concentrate on when to do it and again - THIS IS MY FOOD TRUCK. This isn't a hobby, if something happens I'm in serious, serious shit. I'm racing my business and it's schizophrenic to say the least.

 
Now afterwards? Then I felt legit fear. And hitting the breaks at 100+ mph made the car leap to the right a bit and that was scary... but some downshifting saved me pretty good. It also got far easier as I went on and, although I'm sure you could presume it, I'm not driving this from here on out. I love Ray, would love for him to be here, but now the $ to his plane ticket has to go to the car and I really feel like I have a grasp on how to race it. Now, the results...
 
I'm kind of at a loss. Yes, I could replace the computer and rewire the car but is that really affecting the speed? Is that really hurting my time? Alas it may not matter because I believe it IS affecting why the car stalls constantly and that's now a BUSINESS issue. Once hot, the car is nearly impossible to drive. Every time I push the clutch in the car stalls. Putting it in gear pops it back on and usually if I'm in bumper to bumper traffic, I have to actually turn the key over and over. Doing some research this is indeed what happens if you put a V6 computer into a V8 car. <throws hands up>
 
...but what I'm completely flummoxed about is we're talking 3/10ths of a second difference between all the races? Uhm. Everyone saying it should be an 11 second car with the power and weight we have? Yet it's clearly a 13 second car (high 12s)? I don't get it. This isn't user-error. We're talking 1/4 of a second here no matter what. How do you improve that? And why is it this close!?!? That's what I cannot understand. It's like there's a real problem with the car. 3rd gear is a disaster. 1st and 2nd are flying, 3rd gear is a long, slow... it's where I lose ALL of my time. And is that in the tune? 2nd didn't USED to be THAT fast. And now there's a TON of power in 2nd... how can that be? It's the same motor... tunes don't change the gear ratios... is it in my head? There's so many questions.

Of course, the heat. That didn't help. But even there... it was 40 degrees cooler last time and Ray basically got the same time. I really need to figure out why my temperature gauge doesn't work. Will probably try the 12volt/1000ohm resistor trick. There's just soooo many ways for this to go and goddamnit .16 seconds and I don't care. I DON'T WANT A RACE CAR. Like, if this was going to be my business? Sure, I'd hunker down and make this right. But knowing that once we get this record I am NEVER DOING THIS SHIT AGAIN? It feels like throwing money out the window. Alas, I was put in this situation by my brother and I have little choice but to keep going and get the record.
 
...and yes, speaking of him. I alluded to this in the last Fastest Video: we're now at a point where I have no choice but to make this documentary a referendum on all the mistakes. I did everything humanly possible to HIDE his deficiencies and clearly even he knew he was in over his head which is why he refused to race it himself. Why on earth he didn't realize the day would eventually come where we'd have to actually GET the record is beyond me. There's a fucking OPENING VIDEO that explained EXACTLY that in early January. It's now clear that he was just throwing shit together as fast as possible to get it over with and he felt it was a nuisance. I now have to take apart that build and find the pieces that were incorrect and replace them. Which, sadly, means that $28,000 in parts was the start. I get to buy a new ECU! A new wiring harness. PUT IT ALL TOGETHER somehow with NO knowledge of how to do that. Yay.
 
We're in the dark times here and the next 4 weeks will be spent replacing everything while making sure that the car is still running thoughout. THEREIN lies the rub - fo sho. If this wasn't a business the entire car would be apart NOW and I'd be sifting through the pieces and testing everything. Ya can't do that when you need to also drive it. Just an awful situation. And yes, the longer this goes? THE MORE the documentary becomes about the fix instead of the build. It's completely unavoidable.

So it is. July 30th awaits.
 
Adam