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G.S., Thanks for the background on your experienced with sponsorship. I believe that you are correct when you say, sponsorship is where you find it. I hope that we will find more of it soon! Baer Brake offered us a 25% discount on warehouse cost. That will come in handy I am sure. Work began at about 4:00am this morning on further preparation of the Faithful Pursuit. Hmmm...brain does not seem to be working well after nearly 19 hours of non-stop work. Lets see..hmmm...ok...First I wired in the hood tach but could not find the directions so I cruised the web, with no joy I might add! Finally I found the paper file that had the instructions. The overdrive relies on a switch to engage and disengage the unit as you drive. It has a pretty sophisticated control box, foot button (looks like a dimmer switch) and another hand operated switch. I do not have the '88 or newer speedo cable, transducer, and electric speedo so I needed to bypass the automatic controls hardware I just mentioned. The people at Gear Vendors said, "If you want just manual operation, apply 12 volt power to the solenoid to energize it. I tried this on Friday with no luck so I reversed the polarity. Hopefully I can test drive it tomorrow. I hooked the OD ground cable to the parking brake foot pedal. The E-Brake is not connected as we will be using a small disk brake as our e-brake. It seems to be a nice setup. The brakes appeared to be out of balance, biased to the rear. I installed a WILWOOD proportioning valve in the rear line. This will add some flexibility to our work to dial in the system at Watkins Glen or any other venue. The port side aft, excuse me...er...driver's side rear, wheel had lots or greasy build up.Our brakes were still a bit weak and the axle grease leak I found may have been responsible in part. The retaining bolts for the axle were loose and at the root of the problem. I replaced a braided stainless brake line, bled the system front and rear, then one side both front and back were evaluated. I then used the WILLWOOD proportioning valve to help match the front to rear bias as best I could. All this does not sound like much but trust me, getting this car into the air, done yesterday, was no picnic. You can lift this Electra from many points that were impossible for a standard Electra. The boxed replacement rails saw to that. It was still necessary however to lift carefully and evenly and rest the massive motorcar in the best position for work.

G.S., The Tuskegee Airmen were stationed in Alabama in the early days of the war. As the war progressed, a medium bombardment group, the 477th were being trained to fight in Asia. These men were stationed at Godman Field, KY. None of the Airmen were stationed in California, however it is possible that a few made their way out there to visit family or for other reasons. A good book to read is The Tuskegee Airmen, by Charles Francis. It talks about all the stats and where they were stationed. Since we have no long stretch for high speed testing other than a quarter mile, some aspects of a 90 mile run can be simulated with the appropriate gear set. We have a GT Performance, Co. 9" Ford rear and 4.11 gearset installed in the Nodular "chunk". We can run through all six speeds in a quarter mile and get a feel for how she will operate as optimum cruise rpms are reached. We will move to a more realistic gear set in August/ September, once the testing is done. We will not use slicks and therfore will not stress our driveline more than absolutely necessary. If we ever do get serious about 1/4 mile, we can shed a couple hundred pounds worth of road race hardware! Also, the Faithful Pursuit uses a TH375, Gear Vendors Overdrive, 4" NACSAR Spicer drive shaft, Moroso Yoke, modified Ford 9", held on with 4130 Chromoly Steel tubes. We figure the driveline can withstand 650 ft-lbs, conservatively. The problem is "We do not know what we do not know". We should do high stress short runs to find out what would go wrong before we have it happen at 150 mph! God Speed,

G.S., Good to hear from you again! You are correct, the car was intended to serve as a rolling calling card for the Tuskegee Airmen. I never dreamed that they would actually endorse it when I started working on the Tuskegee Airmen theme Buick back in '79 - '81. At the BCA convention I had some hand outs, photos, and a model of the Red Tail P-47 Thunderbolt that the Tuskegee Airmen flew during WWII before they received their Mustangs in the summer of '44. I shared the story of the Tuskegee Airmen with many Buick people who were present. The Faithful Pursuit is up on jacks. I drove it on the street on Friday for the first time in over 20 years! She sets you back in the seat and all gears hit pretty hard! I drained the oil, this will be the fourth oil change in about 3 - 5 hours of run time. It was pretty dirty after flushing the gunk out of the new TA oil pump. I put in a quart of fresh oil to purge the remaining gunk from the 7 quart TA oil pan. We will be using AMZOIL 10W-30 that I purchased from Gary Shaw before he died. Gary was dealer for the stuff and said it was the best. Scotty Guadagno, our engine builder, said to go to synthetic as well. I wired in the hood tach, will rewire the OD solenoid and check to see if it all works over the next few days. I plan on hitting New York International Speedway on Wednesday for the test and tune. My guesss is that the Faithful Pursuit has the capability of 14s out of the box with maybe high 12s possible at our present 4,455lbs weight without the 200lb driver. (If I can get the OD to work) Scotty's green 1970 Electra managed 12.4 at 4,700 lbs and 11.7 on nitrous. We are not running nitrous and we are not quite as radical on the engine as Scotty was. We have better traction however and the overdrive should keep us in the torqe band for longer. Perhaps mid 12s are possible over time.

All, On Thursday morning of this past week I received an official communication from Col. Len Nevels, USAF; Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., Convention Committee Chairman, that our 1969 Buick Electra "GSX" roadracer, dubbed the "Faithful Pursuit", has been accepted as a display for the 34th annual Tuskegee Airmen convention to be held in Orlando, Florida, August 16th - 20th. This has been what we dreamed about! We have been working with several Tuskegee Airmen as well as military affairs personnel to aquire the National Organization's recognition of our Tuskegee Airmen theme racecar effort. cool: We will be in the main hall and the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. is waiving the $800 fee for the display area. I cannot express to all of you how much of an honor this is. Surviving members of the WWII 332nd Fighter Group, including the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd combat squadrons as well as the 477th medium bomber group and all of the surviving support personnel will be present! What an honor and an accomplishment not just for our team but for Buick!I wish our deceased Air Force team mates could be present! our late team members, Gary Shaw and John Dove are smiling down on us from heaven I am sure! God Speed,

John, Bill, Adam, Thanks for your feedback and again thanks for your support and interest. I just returned from the shop, had to attach the front anti-sway bar after Dave fabbed some anodized aluminum spacers we needed for it. The guys at the shop kidded me a bit to make sure I did not get a big head about the BCA event I guess! Hey, what are friends for. We need to go to Watkins and run the track!!! That is the next hurdle and I think we are in striking range for the end of the month finally! We still have no electric overdrive control, high speed gears, or rear anti-sway bar. On the bright side our weight on the digital "REBCO" scales was exactly <span style="font-weight: bold">4455</span> "4455" at a nearly 50/50 weight distribution!!! Adam, thanks for putting pix on when you have time. I hope that your event is well attended and I know how very busy you were jumping from a BCA event directly into another! I was drawn to the air show in Geneseo but just went home and slept. I loved John's '32 and Riv! Adam, your white on white Centurian was breath taking even at a distance. My weekend was made when I saw all those Buicks and met new friends and worked together with you. God speed!

All, The meet has been a real blast so far. It was great to meet Adam, John, Fred, Frank, Guy, and so many other people. I have seen some of the most incredible BUICK motorcars! There is a red '68 Electra that is incredible! A black '36 Coupe that looks like fine art deco! The GM show cars are super impressive as is the engine display with a '60's turbo nailhead, 455 Stage 1. 350, GNX turbo-V-6. I have not slept much as it took hours to set up on Thursday night. It was good to hear from all of you who were following this and stopped by to lend a hand or say hi. John Shieb really teamed up with me to get the display up and drive the car down the ramps while I worked the winch! ...must sleep...no must go see more BUICKS!!!

All, We will be in a humble display under a 20 X 20 Blue and white tent beginning Thursday evening at the Holiday Inn. We are not taking part in any competitions as our car is far from show quality and far from racing trim. Right now, the Electra GSX is up on jacks for the undercarriage detail, shfter linkage work, and front stabilizer bar mods. The stripes for the rear spoiler are finally being painted this evening. She should come together by about noon tomorrow then we ship out for Batavia! Thanks to Dave, Robbie, and Tim's long hours of prep work over the last couple of days, we will make it on time! This will make up for our missing JUNETEENTH in Elmira! My thanks to Jim, Mark, Rich, Judy, Ronita, Mike, Jody, Chris, Tom, DJ, Ameth, suppliers, TA Performance, PAE, Autozone, Machuga Racing Chassis, and the families of our deceased team members Gary and John. This one is for you! May God Speed you on your way, in a BUICK!

John, Smartin, & others, I'll see you there on Thurs/Fri! God Speed,

We are GO! See you there. We are not taking part in any of the competitions. Look for us as a basic display with red balloons. IF YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER maj2nd@aol.com (Spotter, Detailers, or to share details with visitors) Faithful Pursuit and I will arrive on site Thursday evening at about 6pm. and will pull out on Saturday afternoon or evening. God Speed,

John, That is affirmative. I drove in myself and offered my apologies. I was invited to come next year.

I worked for the past 72 hours to complete all of the major work associated with the re-fit. Upper and lower control arms were installed with all plated grade 8 bolts, even the huge lower control arm bolt had that gold tinted plating commonly used on the Grade 8 bolts. The highly modified control arms were a real bear to install as they now had to fit with the inner fenders back in place. I used an old table leg to move the fender lip out of the way to slide the A arm into place. Wheel bearings and races were carefully removed and new TIMKEN units eaqually carefully installed. Grease was packed as shown to me 15 years ago by an old black garage owner in Gainesville Georgia. Center link, tie rod ends, idler arm, were all painted, installed, rough aligned, and new grease fittings installed. I ran out of grease at about 2am Friday night! The CARRERA 7 valve shocks were installed, at least one anyway as there were adjustment issues with the variable height suspension reinforcemnets newley welded in place. The aluminum blocks that secure the front anti-sway bar were polished and tinted gold, greased, and grade 8 bolts were fitted. The WILWOOD calipers were checked, installed with grade 8 bolts, & aviation jam nuts. Brake lines were re-plumbed with the correct fittings to replace all reducers previously in the system. There were no leaks. A new master cylinder and brake booster were installed. The BENDIX unit is a high capacity large bore unit made for the rare BENDIX disk brake option on the 1969 Buick Electra 225. I wore my leg out pumping it until it finally flowed and bled out but it works great! It was tough trying to do a 1 man install with the eye bolt and pin arrangement that you could not see from the front of the firewall! The rears were finally bled out at about 2 am. Rims and tires were re-mounted with three point spinners carefully hammered in place with a soft plastic mallet. Fuel system was replumbed so that the regulator would work this time! The regulator bracket was painted red along with several bolts nuts and other parts that were already of high quality and did not have a plating. Ignition sytem was re-installed along with the alternator and the 12V electrical system regulator. New bypass hose and upper radiator hoses arrived from NAPA at about 9am and installed with fresh stainless steel clamps. Removed the tape and paper which had allowed me to paint the engine compartment. It is not a super sano job but it is presentable! New STAGE 1 chrome valve covers were installed along with new gaskets which i lubed with MOBIL 1. Each 8mm plug wire was cleaned, checked and carefully installed. Firing order was checked. New NGK racing plugs, gapped to .037, were installed to spec. dozens more things were done . Its Fathers Day and the kids are calling me to breakfast! Over and out!

http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/showflat....;o=&fpart=1

All, I finished painting the re-finished and re-welded A arms, lower control arms. The engine bay is nearly done as well. Every suspension bolt was identified for replacement with Grade 8 on Monday. The front suspension is mocked up outside the car and assembled for that purpose. The chassis scrubbing left the garage floor pretty wet. Its hot and muggy and the garage floor would not dry, even with a fan on it all night. I spread kitty litter on it! Next Satuday at 1pm the Faithful Pursuit and I will be in Elmira, NY at the annual Juneteenth Celebration, the oldest African America celbration. It should be really Kool to show the kids and folk there the Tuskegee Airmen's theme road racecar! www.juneteenth.com/5newyork_events.htm

caGSxlr8, I race my '69 Electra Convertible at Mt. Morris which is 2 hours or less from Lancaster. I look forward to seeing you and Roberta, who has visited here a few times, and the other BCA people. Hopefully, I can encourage Tom Wagner, with his 11 sec. 1969 Buick Wildcat, to attend. He lives a couple of hours from my home in Corning, NY. He has visited a few times and helped me to tune my Electra GSX roadracer! God Speed,

This is probably the longest front end rebuild in history! I finally got the super rare upper ball joints from "Rare Parts" and all the ball joints pressed in. The lower control arm bushings were pressed in as well. All the welds on three of the arms were fine except for one small crack in an upper where the ball joint opening was. See, it was worth it to tear the whole thing down to check for cracks! Dave welded it in minutes of my finding it. Both arms were extensively modified to add more flexibility and strength to the front suspension. We will see how it all works together. June 18th we will show at "Juneteenth" the oldest African American celebration which denoted the actual time when the slaves were finally freed after the civil war. It will be cool to have the Faithful Pursuit, symbol of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, present during the festivities! God speed!

The newly machined polyurethane bushings are pressed into the upper A arms and Dave welded a cross bar into them to help them keep their shape and strength under load. The whole A arm thing has taken way too long, but that is the price of trying to keep the thing as original as possible. I just got in from visiting Brucie who is recovering from a horrific truck accident. He can start walking without a walker in 8 weeks. Broken pelvis and a few crushed vertabrae. He is in good spirits but is getting bored after two days in bed. Just 7months and 28 days to go! They figure the 10 wheel dump truck got away from them and rolled over a few times before becoming airborne and traveling 250 yards or so. Please do not quote me on the details because data is still being collected by the State Troopers and Brucie does not remember much. Now he has plenty of time to do his racecar designs. His dream is to get enough money to go to a fabricator school down south and someday be a master fabricator in the south. He is pretty good now after working beside Dave for many years. He can build and set up a dirt or asphalt car and crew pretty good now. He should recover fully pursue his dream. At 23, he has his whole life ahead of him. Vinney underwent more surgery today. I know that one of his legs was re-attached but I do not know what today's surgery was for. He has had several surgeries since the accident last weekend. Somebody with a prosthetic leg visited him today to boost his morale, which was pretty high. I wish him luck.

All, One of the ex-Machuga Chassis fabricators, Brucie, was hurt on a construction job in the last 48 hours. Brucie had left Machuga last year after helping to get the Faithful Pursuit ready for the unvieling for the Tuskegee Airmen last year. He and another person lost control of their huge dump truck and crashed into a gulley after launching the truck off a mountain road near here. Dave said they must have lost the drive shaft or brakes and catapulted off the road as they clipped off the tops of several trees 30 feet in the air before crashing. The other guy lost part of one leg and all or most of the other. They could not find one leg. Both of Brucie's hips are broken, among other things. I forget the grocery list Dave ran off, I was stunned. The authorities had to medivac them both out and did not have time to find all the pieces. They were able to get them out in time and save both their lives. This past Saturday I went over to Machuga's to give him the poly bushings, we finally got, and the A-Arms, and Brucie stopped by. I had not seeen him since he left Machugas last year. We talked about his girl, cars and stuff and got caught up on things. Nobody knew that in just another day he'd be on the ride of his life and nearly lose it. Please give the good Lord your prayers for Brucie. He is still 20 something and wiry so he should walk again but the doc's say 8 months before he will be able to on his own! That is rough! This sounds like the Machuga milk truck story where Dave and his brother were driving back when they were little more than kids and crashed. Auto parts were passed through their insides and other serious things happened to cut them out of there. I guess the moral of the story is: The next time you are feeling sorry for yourself, consider that your life can be taken at any time in any number of ways. Brucie, may God Speed your recovery!

Hey Duce Boy, It sounds great. Lets see, to decode the car lets check the rear end first. Use the reference codes I have on my 12/22/04 entry. The vin number will tell us exactly what kind of Electra you have. You may have an "ordinary" 1969 which was anything but...or even a super rare high performance 1969 Electra "PX" with 3.91 posi A/C delete! Chances are, if you had one you would know it! I like the twin tubo 430 motor idea and have been toying around with that one for a while now. The old Buick block cannot survive long under high boost. 1000 - 1500 HP is the max I have heard for the 455 in a quarter mile. Thin block webs, among other things, being the major problem. Do not lose hope however, many people are working now at PAE to develop a much stronger block. We will wait and see! God Speed,

Hmmm... Looks like you have a serious case of Electra 225 love my friend! You have an amazing story of good fortune that tells me she was meant for you! Some people say I went through engineering school just to earn enough $$$ to build the "Faithful Pursuit" "69 Electra 225 Custom racecar. This was pretty close to the truth!!! I held on to my dream of what a '69 should look like through many discouraging times and many many years. Now, what do you want your car to do? Look good? or Beat Mustangs? 'Vettes? or both? Old school or new?

Yo '69Duceboy, It's good to see another Electra enthusiast out there! How did you come to own that 1969? Have you noticed or read about some of the special performance features and options? God Speed,

My last note to original Faithful Pursuit chassis designer, Gary Shaw, included the famous quote"...Let's Roll!" As some of you remember, on the one year anniversary of 9/11 , Gary had just finished figuring out some the 5 bar setup after narrowing the chassis and we were preparing to relocate the engine mounts and set the body on when he died tragically that September. I had the Silver State Classic Challenge, Inc. rule book in hand when I called him on that Friday in September 2002. He was getting set for a weekend of racing his pride and joy, a really hot open wheel modified. I told him I'd stop by on Sunday to give him the regs. Well, when I came by there was a guy sitting on the grass on the side of Gary's driveway, unknown to me, his son Brian. Brian asked me who I was there to see. "Gary" I said, "He's gone" Brian said. "I'll wait" I said. A few seconds passed before Brian told me his dad had died. I was floored, Gary was so trim and tough! I first met Gary when he supervised the research center precision machine shop Corning, Inc. Gary had kept up a rigourous racing schedule since the early 1970's. Gary was the Steuben County Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee in 01 or so and local racing and engine/chassis legend. Having street raced in his youth, and later asphalt, dirt, even 24 hours at Watkins Glen, Gary was really accomplished! I think his orange 1964 B Production Corvette convertible still holds a track record at Watkins! Once, the Racing Research Library at Watkins Glen got word of our interesting little Silver State luxury racer project, through a few words overheard at the local bar and grill, the Glory Hole. The research librarian, a Buick man, invited the designers, myself included, to the library. The youthful librarian, Mark Stiegerwald, was amazed at Gary's command of the subject of racing particularly his knowledge of the history of the racing activities at the Glen. Gary was racing when the rest of were in diapers after all! The library still tracks the Faithful pursuit?s progress and Mark flagged me down in a Cobra Roadster a few weeks ago at Watkins. Just last weekend a few of us got together to talk about future development plans, eat some good food, (curry chicken, goat, and other East/West Indian treats) and showed them the old note I wrote to Gary, still attached by yellow sticky to the Silver State racing regs. As I he stated many, many times, Gary's good friend and fellow chassis builder Dave Machuga jumped into the project with both feet and we got the car running and painted for the roll out to the Tuskegee Airmen last April. The event planning began in January with a 10 person team, separate from the fabrication team of Machuga and his people. The date was set early and we had 4 months to get the support to make the program happen. Luckily, we made the target date for delivery of the car, even with the extensive fire at Machuga Racing Chassis. An added bonus was rolling the car out for the Tuskegee Airmen on the 60th anniversary of the introduction of the P-47 Thunderbolt to the men in combat in '44. The old jug was the inspiration behind our Buick Electra GSX down to the rear mounted underslung oli coolers and deep bass rumble. We played a recording of an old Jug 18 cylinder before firing up our car. It drew a lot of applause! Sorry to make a really short story long here! The point of the ?Lets Roll? comment is this: ...Our 7.3 Liter Turbo-supercharged Diesel tow vehicle arrived today. It can haul a 5 ton trailer without breathing hard and still get reasonable fuel economy and range thanks to a high performance chip and 40+ gallon tank. Its a super clean Kentucky truck. Gary, here's to you buddy...Lets Roll! God Speed,

To make a long story short, I wound up making about three laps with Roy Hopkins in his specially set up BMW M3. We pulled more Gs in turns and in stopping than I ever experienced before. He is using PRAXIS ADVANCED SUSPENSION components which allow the car to be pneumatically lowered for the track. The rally/street tires also provided by his sponsor PRAXIS were the same ones he used on the One Lap of America competition this year. It?s nice to land a tire sponsor, Roy noted with a grin! Back in '93 I flew with top ranked aerobatic pilot Franklyn Augustus in his Pitts S2B. We did a 15 minute series of aileron rolls, snap rolls, split "s", and other scary stuff pulling a max 7.55 G's on the counter! The BMW ride felt a bit like that! My guts were yanked from side to side and front to back as we made a couple of hot laps at Watkins. Wow "CAN YOU IMAGINE OUR BUICK ELECTRA DOING THIS !!!" I yelled over the wind noise and shifting, Roy said "GET BETTER BRAKES!!!" We are working out a deal with BAER and who knows we might get lucky and score some really good 13" rotors and calipers out of the deal! Roy came in second this year in the annual One Lap of America competitiion. He is a SERIOUS racer and also an instructor. Part of the BMW program at Watkins this weekend is dedicated to teching people how to negotiate the track. There had to be more than 100 BMWs there and perhaps 30 or so out on the track at any one time. It was fun to get that sort of introduction to road racing. I've lapped Watkins severltimes in my old '87 GN, '70 Electra Coupe, but never took S turns at 80mph before!!! WE HAVE TO GET THE FAITHFUL PURSUIT OUT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THAT WOULD BE TOTALLY MINDBLOWING WILD!!!!

All, I must thank John for mentioning Watkins Glen. As you know, our driver Roy Hopkins does most of his high speed driving an a specially built BMW and runs the famed 1 LAP of AMERICA race. This is the same race that has its roots in the go for broke cross country (hush-hush)event of legend years ago. It is all legal these days and they do their racing on tracks accross the country in one long 6,000 mile long week of racing and driving. Roy came in second in his class and 11th overall in a very competitive field this year. CONGRATULATIONS ROY!!! Well, the BMW Club rents out the Watkins Glen racecourse, 20 minutes from here, for a weekend of racing, fellowship, and fun. Our plan was to meet Roy and do some trials with the Faithful Pursuit. Due to parts delays, lack of funds, lack of transport, and lack of so many other bits and pieces (most of which have come over the past few days and weeks!) we are unable to hit this target. Luckily, we have time as the race is in September. We still need to shake her out and sort out the suspension, fuel and transmission issues. We still need a road race oil pan, Accusump, and other fun and expensive toys!!! Still hitting sponsors and making some headway!!! As things shape up I will pass on the details! God Speed,

...Just finished a major ordeal, getting those rims polished and painted. Two solid weekends of knuckle beating polishing. Several pair of old socks later, the aluminum rims are shing like chrome! That Billet polishing Cream by MOTHERS really works! It is really expensive, about $13 for a small jar, but I tried several polishes and compounds and MOTHERS is the best. (Jar was mis marked to Autozone sold it to me for the lower mis marked price, those guys are cool!) Smartin will post some photos of the latest labor of love. I still have hours of fun left with final detailing. You will see it all when she rolls out in Batavia. Also, the roller rockers came from TA Performance after about a 4-5 week wait. I guess it was not so bad, since I have so much other stuff to do. TA did get a good machine shop to do the work however. T&D has the best units out there, by many accounts. It pays to wait and get the best! I remember when it used to take months to get parts out Kenne-Bell back in the '70s! I used to think "In 20 years, no more problems." I am sorry to say that Buick people still have to pay tons more and wait for service. The Chevy stuff is on the shelf, all chromed out for 29.99 and we have to pay $150 and wait for it to ship. The 1969 GS emblem is attached to the rear deck lid like the '69 GS. We made a special spacer to match the contour of the body and the swing away unit is new and looks like a million! So much to do and so little time! Anybody ot there have a 26' trailer to sell? God Speed,

Adam, You are really close to the 14s at 15.11! That was a really nice run against a 14 second 4 speed Regal that was perhaps 500+ lbs lighter than you!!! I have seen a lot of runs with big buck racers not half as fun to watch as you battling it out! I know everyone at the stands was pulling for you like they could give you a few more horses by wishing hard enough! It looked like you took him at the 60' and the 1/8th and he pulled away in the end. I will look forward to seeing you in Batavia! God Speed,