[BqUICK]

Just returned from Machuga Chassis. Dave and I put in a full day having worked since 10:30am. It is a little after midnight now. We cut the trunk floor out and set the body down on a few of the poly mounts. Most of the day was spent fabbing the tubs and enclosure around the fuel cell's perimeter.

I was very impressed with Machuga's mastery of forming metal, welding, and cutting. He has an english wheel, benders, bead rollers, who knows how many hammers with custom handles he also made.

I went home for a while and got the skirts and attached them. We looked it over and all you saw was tire that went on so far back and disappeared under the car. You never saw the end of the tire they were so huge. It was neat effect. Since this car was built to race, it may not look as pretty as some "made for photo op cars", this baby was born to run first and photos second! Our approach to suspension and tubbing is not traditional but it is effective.

The last entry had the wrong photo. I'll try again to attach the one with the fuel cell in place and the bumper mocked up. Oh and Rebe took a bite out of my leg. He was asleep and I walked past him going to the house to return some dish soap. He must have forgotten Dave was around and he nipped me above my Wellington boot. @#$*&$dog! Well, we made up when he got his marbles back and i guess I'll try not to get in his way when he's asleep.

Also, last Sunday one of Dave's racer friends was burned really badly while racing. We got the call this morning. She was driving a "modified" which hit the wall and flipped over. In doing so the fuel pump hose broke and sprayed 100+ octane all over her. The emergency team had to get the car in the right position to get her out and the extra time was more than her saftey equipment could handle. She was sent to a special burn unit, in Rochester I think. Dave's wife said its probably bad if they had to do that. I don't know the racer's name but lets keep her in mind and in our prayers. It could be any one of us someday.

God Speed,

BqUICK

[BqUICK]

Click on "Attachements" above for photo of body on chassis. Note JAZ fuel cell and new suspension arrangement Carerra Chrome coil over.

[BqUICK]

The main challenge is achieving maximum suspension functionality while trying to keep a functional rear seating area. Remember the "luxury" component of trying to build a functional road racer that can still seat 4 people. Since the new 4 link ties into the frame just below each rear seat, we lose about 3 inches of usable floor height. The frame clearance is 7" rear 6" front.

Dave was stressing over keeping seat functionality and I told him, remember the main goal of road capability. "Ground Superiority" if you will. Dave adjusted the link position to achieve "anti-squat" and we fabricated our enclosure from the optimum link position plus a little clearance for the swing of the arms.

Achieving anti squat means that under power the rear end will not react in such a way that the back end comes down or squats. You want the back end to rise, indicating that the rear end is being forced down to achieve maximum contact with the road. (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction...remember?)

You see there is a theoretical optimal point of convergence forward of the suspension arms that if were extended, they would touch somewhere near the front seat. Its like imagining your arms are your links up to your elbos. You extend them in front of you straight and then make your fingers touch. It's that point of "virtual" contact you have to determine and set your links' angles to achieve that. Your torso becomes the "axle". If you twist from the waist your fingers rub. This is where the spherical ends at your "elbos" come in. they help to mainatin a constant axle geometry. You dont want it to twist, you must maintain Pinion Angle, in our case 4.5 degrees, so the rear end does not "steer" the car at high speeds! (Motorsports Hall of Famer Gary Shaw lectured me again and again about the importance of geometry and alignment being critical at high speeds. In a max G turn, the last thing you need is the "back end steering the car!")

The sheet metal fabrication continues...After the trunk floor, the back seat floor and bulkhead, and transmission tunnel for GV Overdrive were cut out; we set to fabricating enclosures for the areas over the past two weeks. The chassis and body need to be rigid so we are using .050" sheet steel to weld back into the affected areas. Remember that we are using Energy Suspension poly bushings for a much stiffer interface between chassis and body. (1970 Riviera bushings do the trick as there are no "Electra" poly bushings)

The wheel tubs are really neat looking because we simply split the original tubs and placed a gap between the halves. This will help to retain a certain "factory" look although they are now much wider than stock.


You would be surprised how much engineering has to go into rear seating. (Pull out the old MIL 1472 Human Engineering Specs.)It will be challenging to add the cage as well but Dave and I believe we have it figured out. Can you imagine four race buckets with 5 point harnesses? True Electra style!

Also, one of our technical contributors suffered a fall and required brain surgery. John's daughter informed me yesterday about the situation. He should recover but it will take several months of therapy. He was to helping us with some other neat high-technology stuff you dont know about yet. John is a great guy and invented lots of neat technology. I pray he gets better soon.

God Speed,

WOW!!! This is amazing. I had a '69 Electra I used to street race in Milwaukee back in the 80's and early '90s and boy do I miss it. This was my 1st car and had been used to drive me to school from kindergarten all the way to college. At 100,000 miles I took it to Union Grove dragstrip where it went 15.78 @ 94mph in the 1/4. that was with 2 cracked pistons, single exhaust, 2.78 open rear, and 4200rpm shift points. Later I put dual 2 1/2" exhaust, shift kit, ported the intake, and made an open element aircleaner. I unfortunately didn't get it back to the track after doing the mods but I did beat almost every Grand National and T-Type I came across, even some with aftermarket chips and I know these cars were in the low 14's to high 13's. I know my wife would kill me if I brought one of these old land yachts home as I haven't finished my 68 Skylark yet so I will have to live vicariously through your project for now.

[BqUICK]

Otter you have my respect. Racing an Electra requires strong character. Also, as far as I can surmise the performance range for the Factory 1969 Electra was somewhere between high 15s for the standard Big-E with single exhaust. High 14s were theoretically possible for a Special Order PX Code 3.91 Gear A/C Delete Option. Who knows how many, if any, were made.

In theory my Electra should do a quarter mile in the very low 12s or high 11s with the Detroit Locker 4.11 gear set I have. We will run a 2.56 gear for the Silver State Classic.

The Electra GSX "Faithful Pursuit" was designed for road racing so it requires lots of set up set up for the 1/4 including a change from the low stall 6 bolt ALLISON torque converter, 90/10 shocks, and other things that may not make the change over practical. (I still cant wait to take it to New York international Speedway to try a few passes!!!)

The new wheel tubs were designed for low profile tires. This allows us to save the rear seat. Tall slicks would be not practical in this application but BF Goodrich Drag Radials 315mm x 17" may do the trick.

[BqUICK]

The wheel tubs really look awesome. The trunk spring reinforcements fit on the passenger side tub with no problem. The driver's side needed to bridged .5". The wheel houses were split so that a foot wide section could be added. This part was nicely done and is nearly complete.


Machuga Chassis finished most of the rear seat sheet metal fab work. They still have to do some minor finishing here. The 32 Gal. fuel cell is in place and the floor reinforcements were done a few weeks ago. The cell just drops into through the reinforced well in the floor and onto the brackets made in the frame.

Work on making an enclosure for the Gear Vendors Overdrive began this weekend. The tunnel for the Electra is very small so the transmission and propeller shaft fit very tightly. I suppose Buick intended that the tunnel be of minimum impact to the passengers so I think the Electra tunnel is smaller than most cars you would put a GV into. Dave cut out a piece of tunnel up near the transmission where it widens and brought it back about a foot. A foot long half tube will bridge it. Dave and Bruce are really great metal men and I admire their skills. Bruce studied under Dave for several years and is building his first oval track racecar while we work on the Faithful Pursuit.

God Speed,

[BqUICK]

I selected this trick Corvette ignition system from the 60's called "Magna Pulse" It has been enhanced by J & C's Part's Buick Ignition expert Mr. Carmen Faso in Tonawanda, New York 716-693-4090. He says that that the accuracy of spark delivery in terms of timing is hard to beat. He set it up to run with the MSD 6AL and Blaster 2 coil.

I really liked the quality of the set up as the internal components were a lot more robust than the pertronics set up that burned out a few weeks ago. The Pertronics "halo" is not level and is a little wavy. This could throw off the geometry enough to cause a variance in the timing of the spark. This set up was clean, properly lubricated and you could even feel a slight magnetic detent at every spark point within 360 degrees of rotation. Nicely done, thanks Carmen!

[BqUICK]

All,

Last Wednesday I invited three Road Racers, Don Hopings, Roy Hopkins, and Chris Wightman to the shop. Roy Hopkins races internationally and both Roy and Chris are BMW club members. They all gave me tips on sponsorship and will help me get onto Watkins Glen International Raceway in the Spring. We discussed the rules of the Silver State Classic. Roy encouraged me to try the "One Lap of America", that he races in with Brock Yates annually. I know retired Air Force Col. Jim Atwell who was with Brock back in the early '70s when they were doing the no holds barred coast to coast race. Col. Jim runs the "legalized" One Lap of America and I have talked about that possibility for a few years now. Brock Yated, Jr. and I have also talked about it. I think we can do that but the main target is the Silver State race in Nevada in 2005.

The racers were impressed with the seriousness of the racing chassis fabrication. Dave is a real serious race car builder and had more than 10 champion chassis come out of his shop. I fired the 455 STAGE I for the men. It became clear that we crossed the line from street machine to race car when Dave said,"You dont think you can actually drive this on the street do you? "The cops will arrest you the moment you drive into town!" Perhaps 3.5" x 3.5" straight mufflers are too loud for the street? Naw!!!

After the shop tour we went to The Stone House retaurant and talked over cooler placement issues, aerodynamics, and some tricks the Porsche guys use to cool their oil. I never knew they took air in at the nose and had the oil cooler attached to the wheel well and exhausted it into the wheel house. Chris told me that the spray you see billowing out of the front wheel wells are caused in part by air that the tire carries with it impacting air currents coming at it from the front of the car. This causes turbulence and forces air out of the wheel wells. The draft can be used to positive advantage.

There has been much work done over the past month and I have been too busy to get back on here.

Buick Wildcat racer and record holder Tom Wagner visited the shop and lent his expertise to tuning the Pee Gee Performance INTIMIDATOR about two weeks ago. Tom has a sharp black 1969 455 STAGE I Wildcat that runs 11.7 sec. in the 1/4. (No Nitrous)He gave the following recommendations. We worked at the magna pulse ignition from Carmen Faso, 6AL and 8.8mm wires and chrome Blaster 2 coil. We saved the NGK plugs for the trial runs. The motor sounded great!!! What a beastie!!!

Tom suggested the following additions for ultimate reliability:
a. Get roller rockers from TA Performance. They are the best. Initially
we opted for a very stock look and thought good shafts and new
rockers could do it. We need ultra reliability for our serious
racer .
b. Get a Romack harmonic balancer. If your 6AL goes into shut
down mode at the rev limit, you may "ring" the block. Essentially,
the block hits a resonant frequency and starts to vibrate violently
causing freezout plugs to pop out and balancers to break down.

Tom Wagner just returned from Bonneville salt flats where his buddy ran a 1996 or so Firebird with a Buick 455. They ran it to 141 mph, with lots more potential to go faster. He showed me pix of a '66 Olds Cutlass that had gone 202mph at the flats. It had some kind of long short fins accross the roofline and a rear spoiler, very stock looking. They cruised up Pikes Peak too but the 'Bird's suspension could not handle the rough parts too well. Tom said he is up for a Nevada road trip! Tom Wagner and Scotty Guadagno have more time 100+ in a big Buick than perhaps anyone else other than perhaps Jim Bell and the late great Pop Kennedy of Kenne-Bell fame.

Wheel tubs are finally done! Dave welded the whole wheel tub, back seat bulkhead and floor assy. Its quite an achievement. It is super rigid. We figured that the cage can come on after the car is assembled again. Yes, every thing has to come apart for underside paint, chrome, weld check, and plumbing. I cannot tell you how many times the body has come on and off this car! This will make about 4 I think! In any case, all the work and re-work will have been worth it! She will be totally awsome!

There has been a lot of activity on the business end of the project. First, I had some discussion with an organization called the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. New York chapter president and original Tuskegee Airman, Lt. Colonel Clayton Lawrence said he liked the idea of the Tuskegee Airmen paint scheme. I mailed him a drawing of the car with 99th Pursuit squadron insignia. As you may know, the Tuskegee Airmen were the only group to never lose an allied bomber in combat during WWII. They also had a BOMBER GROUP being trained in the US for the Pacific. Col. Lawrence was part of that 477th composite group which struggled in the US for freedoms like being able to go to officer's clubs reserved for "whites only". Get this...they paid dues too but could not use the facilities, how wrong was that! Once, 101 officers were arrested for pushing past the guard and going into the an officers club at Freeman Field. They were all arrested and one was court marshalled, Roger "Bill" Terry. His record was finally cleared back in 1995 after 50 years! Anyway I am happy that the Tuskegee Airmen seem to like the idea because it shares their contribution to American history and freedom with younger Americans interested in motorsports, which is the #1 American past time.


Until next time, may God Speed you on your way...in a Buick,

[BUICK RACER]

Michael, you've come a long way very fast this year! Alot further than you thought you would get, I bet. Maybe I can stop by again at Christmas and check it out! Keep up the pace and we surely do appreciate the updates!

[BqUICK]

Roberta,

Yes, it is hard to believe that one year ago you saw the basically bare frame with just the rear suspension and a cobbed up front end. You are right we have come a long way, and have a long way to go yet!

It would be great to have you visit again! Maybe we can get Tom Wagner up as well. When Tom visited two weeks ago, he showed me a few "Left wheel up" pix of his 11.7 sec. 1969 Black Wildcat. He loves to talk Buick!

Let me know when you would like to meet, as the time approaches, and I'll coordinate a flexible get together.

God Speed,