Comin' right up!!

Smartin,

Thanks for posting these pictures of the Electra GS prototype. This car is a dark burnished brown convertible.

Faithful Pursuit (Electra GSX coupe) will be Crystal Blue with Midnight Blue stripes!

Here are some updated pics of Faithful Pursuit! BQUICK will chime in shortly with an explanation of what we're lookin' at....

Smartin,

Thanks again for posting these Photos of the Faithful Pursuit's Transmission cooler development.

1. Looking into the stainless steel intake just behind the fuel cell.
2. Intake connects to the rear bumper in this shot.
3. This fuzzy shot is flipping up the rear license plate and looking at the cooler.
4. This last shot is the cooler lines going over the fuel cell at the rear of the car.

In street and drag circles, you rarely see this type of cooling arrangement.The heavy duty lines go from the TH375/Gear Vendors combo to the B/M cooler at the rear of the car. "Cool" air is picked up from the underside of the car. The long lines will serve two key purposes, first to provide an extra measure of cooling as the temperature will drop over the distance of more than 20' . Second, the added capacity of fluid will provide added opportunity to enhance transmission life.
We will take advantage of the negative pressure behind the car to pull the air through the cooler. Even though the so called cool air may be as hot as 120 Degrees F, it is the speed and volume passing through the cooler that will make this an outstanding arrangement!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Dave Machuga talked to me again about brakes for the "MEGALITH" Buick. He really does not like the single piston floaters in the Lincoln 9" rear. The 4 piston Bendix units are marginal. No word from NAPA yet on the status of the rebuild either. I have been talking to brake people for the past few weeks, as you know, and am only now getting clear on how to do this.

Here are the facts!

BAER, Brembo, & Stainless Steel Brake, are among the many after market manufacturers I have spoken with. I have checked Ferrari, Mercedes, and Corvette as well. There is no manufacturer that makes brakes for what we are doing. I have been quoted $7000:o, not including shipping and custom fitting or installation.

I have contacted more than 20 manufacturers, distributors, and racers.


About two weeks ago I called my friend Maynard Bodine, uncle of the famous racing Bodine brothers of NASCAR fame. He was a carb specialist for the US Air Force and advised me on an old Offy dual quad setup I had for my other Electra racer a couple of years ago. He suggested that I talk to Tom Holleran. Tom's speed shop does lots of business and he knew Tom or his people could direct me to the right people.

The latest outfit I am considering is The Brake Man, referred to me by Tom Holleran's Auto Centers in Elmira, New York.
http://www.thebrakeman.com/superbrakes

They say they have the only brakes capable of slowing down a high performance Hummer because they made brakes to stop some 10,000 LB armoured vehicle. The owner Warren, sounds like he has lots of experience (He has been doing it for 35 years)and sounded to me like he knew what he was talking about.

The Brake Man is the only one who built brakes for something as heavy and as fast as the Faithful Pursuit!

I will start saving my pennies because these babies are not cheap but seem to be the best buy for the money and offer superior performance to all the other competitors! They have at least done similar wild stuff before!

When you are racing is not the time to realize you shorted yourself on brakes!
(My wife (The Chief Financial Officer) agrees!)

God Speed!

"When you are racing is not the time to realize you shorted yourself on brakes!
"

Why not Corvette never did.

That said, I was going to suggest looking into light truck brakes. Then speaking of Corvette, have you thought about late model Corvette components. The independant Corvette rear end even , too late now I realize but maybe the brakes could be adapted.

How are you going to attach the calipers to the rear? By this I mean, do you have to fabricate the brackets to match whatever caliper you go with ?

I havent read everything you have put down here but I have been following along, so sorry if I missed something you already wrote about the rear brakes.

Q : Does a road circut car have to have a standard tranny ? This makes a huge difference in braking as well as frees up power.

I enjoy your project and look forward to your final results.

Dear 86 2DR.LTD,

Thanks for your questions, I'll try to answer them. First, the theme of this Faithful Pursuit project is "Long-distance...high speed...rugged durability..luxury grand touring" In other words..."Fast with class!" our BUICK motto We want to keep some key classy Electra elements, like the auto-trans. We are emulating a WW II P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter also so we are doing some really neat things with our coolers similar to the "Jug"

Our entire driveline can manage 700Ft-Lbs and easily be upgraded to 900Ft-lbs. Sooner or later I'd have to go to a 9" so why wait to scatter expensive Vette parts all over the track? Our Gary Tyler Performance 9" can handle 900Ft-Lbs now!

Yes, many road racers use some prepped Turbo 400 like ours. However, it depends on the type of racing you do. My feeling is that you will suffer at a track with lots of turns if you have an automatic. It is heavy, requires more power to run, and cooling and durability are issues. Faithful Pursuit overcomes those issues by having 535 ft-lbs of torque on the dyno + this ultra trick rear mounted cooler developed by race chassis builder Machuga Chassis and a six speed with a "Truck Medium Stall" ALLISON 6 point torque converter with anti-balooning hub !

As I believe you mentioned, a manual box can aid in braking. You have heard many a racer preach "Heel and Toe!" save your brakes! Advances in brake technology have helped with this however. Our Competition built 6 speed Automatic (TH400/GV-OD)offers some ease of operation plus the torque multiplication coming out of turns or launching.

Yes, we will use some reasonable brake combo and weld brackets onto the 9" rear for the time being. Motor State offers a set of brackets. Over time we will determine the best braking solution once we get track time this year.

BqUICK,

I've been "pursuing" the Faithful Pursuit story for some weeks now, and got your posting over on my "430 Gas Mileage" thread. Just wanted to let you know what a kick I get out of your using Allison transmission modifications and a WWII theme. I have long had daydreams (fantasies?) of mating a vintage Packard aircraft V12 (such as used in the P-51 Mustang!) to an Allison truck transmission (Allison also made WWII aircraft engines, including those for the P-38, so the theme is consistent) and putting them all in a torsion-level '55 or '56 Packard suspension/frame--of course, with massive modifications. It would also have to have a classy Packard-themed body.

This would definitely be a straight-line car for the salt flats... I can dream, can't I?

Yeah,

I suppose the Aircraft theme can be taken pretty far, however we want a "no kiddin" race capable grand touring car. The Machuga Chassis people in Campbell, NY are pretty hard core racers, and I get lots of funny looks when I suggest something go on Faithful Pursuit just cause "it looks cool". We will borrow enough to actually make the car better, not look "showy".

I have seen pictures of Jay Lenno's aircraft engine powered '30's Rolls with 900 HP at about 900 rpm! It would be nice to see an American car with one of our WWII fighter engines in it!

Anyway, I looked over the cage that Dave welded up for the Faithful Pursuit. You see there are actually two different main hoop configurations. The first is a "full metal jacket" race cage and does not allow any rear seat passengers and is wicked rigid. The second cage, nearly completed is a "mild action" cage.

Sure, there are some challenges, like having the officials review our cage and determining how fast we can go with it. We are using 1.50" tube with about a .098 wall. It is a bolt together unit that we may have to end up welding together when we try for speeds much above 160mph. Who knows?

The mild action setup is a really nice piece of work that allows people 6' tall to sit with comfort in the rear. Over the next few days we will update the site with more photos.

Today I showed one of the Machuga Chassis works people, Brucie, this page. He got a kick out of it. I will get some photos of Dave and his team on the site too. They have lots of photos of their past race cars and have more trophies than they know what to do with!

I took apart the front brakes down to the spindles today. NAPA called yesterday and Mike informed me that they could not rebuild those brakes. So here we are back to square one. We tried on an old Wilwood 4 piston caliper which seemed to work well. We will shop around for the best price and get that as an interim solution.

We will try to find a low cost setup until we can actually put more common spindles on the car. Right now we cannot afford the custom $7,000 Alcon package or those other custom high end deals. We will have to get creative, so what else is new?

Here is a link to a childhood hero of mine, Sir Malcom Campbell. He was long gone by the time I read about him and by that time people like Art Arfons were putting surplus USAF jet engines in cars. Sir Malcolm set many speed records and was the first man to drive more than 300 mph! Sir Malcolm was referred to reverently as a "speed king" in the golden age of big fast cars with aeroplane type engines.

Campbell's car was named the BLUEBIRD and had a small British "Union Jack" flag on the speedster's tall vertical tail.

Enjoy!
http://www.rumbledrome.com/campbell.html

BqUICK,

Thanks for the link. Remember Art Arfons' car, the Green Monster?? I saw a T.V. show on it when I was a kid. What a monster it was. I still remember the photo of his back yard where he ran the jet engine tied to two trees, with the exhaust pointing into a swamp. Dried up the swamp. What a wild man! As I recall, he broke 600 MPH with the thing, running nothing but military surplus gear, except for the tires.

I do have one thing against the jet cars though. They are not "wheel driven" but basically a rolling platform holding an engine. That means, in essence, they are more like taxiing airplanes than true automobiles. Airplanes that never get off the ground, so to speak. Impressive, but not as impressive to me as cars that go really fast by putting power to the wheels.

That's why I like the idea of a turbine or piston powered drivetrain--like Faithful Pursuit!

You could call Art Arfons a childhood hero of mine, though. The Green Monster was just so mean. I remember the Bluebird, too, but Sir Malcom Campbell is a new name for me. Thanks!

This is a magazine article on achieving a land speed record (over 570 mph) "The Hard Way." Note the cash outlay for the car: $10,000. (Firestone donated the tires, though).

http://www.americanjetcars.com/arfons/art/art20.htm

More pics!!!

Smartin,

Thanks for putting up these photos for us. They show details on the Full Race Hoop with that NASCAR inspired SPIDER WEB OF STEEL bracing and the Street Hoop for our roll cage. The TENZO R "Rally" seats have a great fit and ajustability . LOTS AND LOTS of metal fabrication work went into making recessed areas in the rear steel firewall to nest these seats properly. Dave and Brucie did an expert job that probably took a solid 8 hours of fabrication work!

Dave and I reviewed the brakes again last Saturday and finally agreed on a strategy. We will replace all the calipers with high quality new Wilwood units and upgrade to 13.5" rotors in the future. Money is tight but we need the car in performance driveable condition for our fund raising tour in April!

On Monday I ordered Wilwood Superlite Forged Billet calipers for the front and rear. The fronts are 4 piston units with 1.75" diameter pistons. The rears are 4 piston units with 1.38" diameter pistons. Although we will use a Wilwood proportioning valve, received last week, the smaller rear pistons will help to ensure failsafe directional stability. (So we won't swap ends when we hit the brakes!)

Eventually, our pads will be full race, but until we can upgrade to 13.5" rotors we will use a medium duty pad to save the stock rotors. The stock rotors are 12" front and 11.5 rear.

The stock 1969 Electra Custom Coupe disk option is super rare and actually pretty robust but expensive to rebuild . The 4 Superlite Forged Billet calipers cost the same as re-sleeving and rebuilding the 2 Bendix units!!!

Also, the Bendix units weigh 29lbs for just two! The 4 Wilwoods weigh about 4.5lbs each or as much as the steel splash guards!!! Since the splash guards are coming off for the Ram Air Ducts, Dave says "Weight wise, its like having no brakes at all!"

We are using #4 braided stainless flex lines. A new Bendix master cylinder with a 1" bore and an additional Wilwood Propprtioning valve will be used to control front to back braking.

Any ideas on emergency brakes? Since we are eliminating the Lincoln units on there now, we need to come up with some sort of mini caliper that can handle 1" thick rotors. We dont have the $650 bucks for the full kit with a parking brake yet. Daves motto is "We will adapt and overcome" Any ideas out there?

More eye candy!

Smartin,

Thanks for posting some photos again. I dug out a 1981 pen drawing of a concept for the GS-V. This was the generation before the "Faithful Pursuit" which began its life as a GS-III series car. V and III denote 5 speed and 3 speed. The Faithful Pursuit is now a 6 speed and its designation is Electra GSX. The GS-V, with a manual box will be built over the next few years to accomplish the ultimate top speed goal of 194.9mph by 2009.

Also, Deborah and I spent a pleasant evening at the home of Guy and Anita Bennett. Bennett's Buick-Chevrolet-Olds, Wayland, NY 14572 (585) 728-2260. Guy has an unmatched passion for Buicks and was fascinated by our Faithful Pursuit car and the fact that it is a 1969 Buick Electra 225 Custom Sport Coupe with a professionally built competition '70 Buick 455 STAGE I engine.

When we first walked into the 1920's era dealership we were struck by the fact that it looked pretty much as it must have 70 years ago, yet well maintained like a restored victorian home. There was not a soul in the place. A single vehicle, a new Rendezvous, sat on the antique wood slat floor.

It was a surreal experience and you half expected to see Tiger Woods & the ghost of Harley Earl or at least his Fedora hat.

The place had a museum like feel with the soft lights, lots of wood, and "portraits" of some of the most famous Buick ever. Framed original black and white photos of the Y Job, Wildcat II, & Harley Earl's 1951 "Star Buster" LeSabre, as well as aerial photos of the old Buick City hung in a little office. After about 5 minutes, Guy's son and Guy walked in. We both drove our 90s Rivieras to Guy's home nearby. Little did we suspect what we would find in Guy's barn after supper!

A life long Buick lover, Guy printed out the entire posting and reviewed the details with me. They were not sure what an "INTIMIDATOR MOTOR" was. "Is it a BUICK?" I told him it was basically a Scotty Guadagno, Pee Gee Performance built 455 STAGE I .038 over, forged 11.1 pistons, etc. etc. etc. Scotty built and drove the world's fastest Buick (170+ mph) at one time. (Scotty's widely regarded as the best Buick engine builder and now works for Pat Musi's in 'Jersey.)

In his 70s, Guy is really with it and keeps on top of new developments in the Buick world. When he and his son bought the 1970 Saturn Yellow GSX, Guy's dad who founded Bennett Buick in the 1920's got a load of that Saturn Yellow and stripe job and said "I dont get it." Guy's dad passed recently at age 104 and was one of the few BUICK dealers that hung on over the years. They even continued to sell Buicks through the Great Depression! I heard lots of great stories and saw too many Buicks to recount all their stories here.

It was the surprise of my life to see a GSX at Guy's home and a 401 original mile GNX in front of that! Most of the cars in guys collection are in A-1 shape, really 400 pointers if you like "original original". He has a 1949 Convertible that is original paint, interior, and even the tires! (Yup even the tires! ) He has a 1968 Buick Electra 225 Sedan with 1000 original miles. It even has the super rare disk brake option!

God Speed,

John Dove, our technical consultant in the area of laser sensing of high cross winds, died yesterday after a brief illness.

THE FAITHFUL PURSUIT goes on.

God Speed John Dove!

I really like the artists concept drawing. Who was the artist? Is the roof of a 69 shaped as that car is ?

862dr.ltd,

The roof is for the 1969 Electra 225 Custom Sport Coupe. I am the designer and did the stock contours free hand without the benefit of a real curve fit. There is also a mylar drawing of the body and the chassis mods that go back to the 80's.

A series of about 100 such Electra drawings were done between about 1977 and 1983. There were bacisally dozens of sketches made of two versions of drag cars and two road race cars. One car, the GS-V designed with a complete composite body in mind. The GS-V is probably the car that you are thinking of. It is drawn in ink. There was a GS-III car with a 2" chop on the top as well.

Also, the Faithful Pursuit will be out of Machuga Chassis mid month, I hope. It will be prepped in my garage for two weeks, then sent to Bobby at Bumper to Bumper for paint. Bumper to Bumper is widely regarded as the best paint and body shop in this area. Bobby and I have been planning for this for about 5 years! It hard to believe that the paint will be on in the next two months!

Good job, it should have been in the Cannon Ball Run.

The bumpers are being prepped for chrome, the Wilwood Forged Billet Superlite 4 piston calipers are finally here, the rotors are prepped, the axles are back in the housing, the street cage is welded, the correct oil cooler hardware arrived, and the new body mounts are being fabricated as we speak . Our deadline is February for the painter! The "Pursuit Stripe" is being designed and a GSX rear spoiler is on order.

There are still lots of problems like the Gear Vendors electronics were set up for an electronic speedo, Wiring needs to be re-wired for the cockpit, rear anti-sway bar needs to be installed, the exhaust pipes need to be rebent for the final install, etc, etc, etc ! About 30 things need to happen before April and at least now we have some help. There are a few more people helping out at the shop and on the unvieling in April .

Also, last week I visted the Watkins Glen International Raceway Research Library. The research librarian, Mark Steigerwald, happens to be a Buick fanatic! He was excited about our progress with the Faithful Pursuit. He heard about the project from someone talking about it in a local bar! Among the Lotus, Porsche 917, 300 SL Gullwing, Jaguar SS 100 and D Jag lore, here is a guy who loves the 1967 Wildcat! He and his brother have about 5 430 blocks in their basement and have photos of one of the two experimental "X" code 4 bolt main Buick 455 prototypes!

Get this! Mark showed me pictures of when Harley Earl visited this area with the multi-million dollar LeSabre wunder car. Back in '51 Buick set the pace with a fully functional show car that was years ahead of its time. Supercharged V-8, rain sensors closed the top, low slung sleek body. It was GM's answer to Mercedes-Benz and featured an upside down three pointed star crest which is, incidentally, very similar to our 100th Anniversary Buick logo.

(In the past I have seen nice photos of 5 Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, WWII, being driven around in the LeSabre by Earl. There were lots of the Ike's staff standing around admiring the car. That was a SERIOUS coming out party!)

Mark showed me lots of photos of Earl with his friends when they visited Watkins Glen back in 1951 or so. They all seemed to be just having a great time just a few hundred yards from where we were standing at Watkins Glen, New York. They took turns taking photos with the car. The photos were original and official GM R&D photos with a special number code, I think denoting the LeSabre.

They called the '51 LeSabre the "Star buster" because it busted the myth of German superiority in automotive engineering. When I outrun a 600 series V-12 Mercedes at Watkins or at the Silver State we may have to call the Electra GSX the "Star Destroyer"!

Michael, with all the Watkins Glen info on the LeSabre, it would be a great article for the Buick Bugle, maybe you can convince Mark to join the BCA, if he isn't already a member and write an article. Which also reminds me that a friend found a postcard of the LeSabre at WG in his father's stash after he passed away last year. Unfortunately he's not sure where it is at the moment. The LeSabre appeared to be a pace car at WG, I think, this is way cool history stuff, that should be shared, Thanks!

At 1:00pm there was a devastating fire at Machuga Chassis. The roof burned in the back half of the shop. A few of Dave's men tried to contain it but had to get out in the end. The Campbell Fire Department responded quickly and the fire was contained just 10 feet from the Faithful Pursuit .

I am thankful that no one was hurt. Dave and everyone else was pretty shaken up.
They are working on the insurance details at I am writing this. They believe that the fire was electrical and Todd heard the breaker popping just before the flames caught.

I just got there at 6:00pm after a basketball game with my son. Through all the smoke and water everywhere, Dave took the time to show me the brackets for the Wilwoods as well as the welding on the floor they did today.

Dave's a real professional!

Oh my!!!


Very sorry about Machuga Chassis catching fire....but I'm glad to hear Faithful Pursuit has been saved

Smartin and everyone,

Thanks for the notes of concern and well wishes. A few people at Machuga Chassis were still stressed out hours after saving the place and one guy burned his hand but things were calmer the next day.

Over the past two days Dave's people all showed up, Todd, Dwayne, Tim, Nancy, Robby, Allen, and fellow racers, family, and friends. We had a lot of help on the Faithful Pursuit once the 4" of water the Fire Dept left dried up.

I appreciated Machuga Chassis taking time to work on my dumb project while 2x4s are holding half their shop up. You would figure they had better things to do. Like I said before...these guys are hard core professional racers and fabricators. Machuga Chassis' attitude is: Cars and customers come first, then we'll fix the roof!

I really have to hand it to Dave and his guys for rigging up power to the welder and getting back at it last night. They had drop lights and flashlights while welding on the brake brackets they fabricated for the new Wilwood Superlite calipers. I saw those Wilwoods on my Electra and it was like a dream come true! We did not knock off until nearly midnight last night and Dave probably has not slept in a 4 hour stretch since the fire on Sunday! These guys have HEART!!!

People have asked me if I was worried about the car when I heard about the fire. I said no not really. You see, over the past few years we have gone through so much. It hurt more to lose local racing legend and Faithful Pursuit suspension designer Gary Shaw and electronics genious John Dove. Sure its great to re-build your first car and fullful long term dreams but burying two team members in the process puts the value of things into perspective. Even after having it for 25 years, I'd rather see the Faithful Pursuit a twisted ruin before having to speak at another team member's funeral. I dont know if that makes sense but there you have it.