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Hi, Local autobody legend Tim Putman has the Faithful Pursuit in his shop. While there I saw another buddy's street rod, a late model import pickup truck with a dual quad small Chevy block poking through the hood. Also, Tim had a race team in years past and built many professional road race cars. A photo of a 1954 Buick Skylark convertible hangs in his office along with a Shelby Cobra, a 409 Biscayne, and a few of his race cars. Dave Machuga of Machuga Chassis even raced for him years ago. I brought Tim a 1/18 Saturn Yellow GSX and a '70 GSX Spoiler and told him that I want this Electra to look like this, only blue with a white vinyl top. We reviewed the artist concepts of the Faithful Pursuit. He said something about after 40 years he ought to know what to do. Remember the painter who bailed and I said he was the best in the area? Well Tim is the man that taught him. Tims shop is about 20 miles out of town and there are no signs. He is that good. The body is stripped and Dents are pulled the rough body work is done. Tim has a guy on it full time. 4-5 weeks. Then the top goes on at "Flyboys" We just might make the 23 April deadline!

Smartin, Thanks for hooking me up with the mpeg connection! At 10mb It takes a little time to load but if your patient its worth the wait. The "QUICKTIME (NOT Outlook) from Apple" download tip from Big Fella helped too. http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/fpursuit/alive.mov BigFella, It would be great to show you the Faithful Pursuit when you are in this area again! We plan to have an unveiling at the National Warplane Museum at the Corning/Elmira Airport in New York State on April 24, 2004. She will still be a bit rough around the edges. We should have her painted and track prepped by the time you arrive in May! We probably will still have several months of development work and planning before the 2005 Silver State Classic Challenge in September. God Speed,

The rollback $$$ and painter downpayment were in hand, the gas was bought and mixed, the painter was standing by, the pipe bender was waiting, T minus 24 hours and counting, it was 9:00am Friday morning and all seemed ok . The painter backed out at 11:00am , pushed hard on an engineering project for work and frantic over lunch trying to find a replacement painter with equivalent skills , transmission fluid squirted everywhere at 7:30pm , the brake lines did not fit the proportioning valve 8:30p , Dave's blood sugar acted up around midnight , Several episodes of Speed Racer on Speed Channel later... By 2:15am when we set her down for the last time, we had a new painter, fixed the brakes, and she drove under her own power for the first time since 1982! I video taped the moment and it was awesome...! 8:30 am loaded up to pipe bender. Pipes were re-bent for the underbody mods and N-225, 9:30a Breakfast; 11:00am Rollback for other car to long term storage, 1:30pm pick up racer from pipe bender, drive 70 miles to Putman's Body shop..., Broke off at 1:00pm and let Dave handle the rest of the stuff including giving the painter the downpayment. Whew! That was just part of it! At 2:00pm I gave a presentation to a youth oriented Christian group on Black Inventor Extrodinaire, John Dove, who developed some technology for potential use in Faithful Pursuit but died unexpectedly. (This quiet 79 year old invented the technology leading to the creation CD & DVD as we know it today. US Patent 3,226,696 dated Dec. 18 1965. He did so at the Rome Air Development Center back in the 60's!) We met our schedule and goals, well most of them! Just thanked the Chief Financial Officer, wife, for approving the expenditures and took her out to dinner to show my appreciation. God Speed,

All, We had some delays along the way and I thank all of you for hanging in there as I put this stuff down. BuickRacer and BigFella, thanks for the recent additions. The Scotty Guadagno article is one of my all time favorites. The Electra site is really nice too! Here is the link to a Norweigan Electra crew! http://home.c2i.net/mopar56/1969_-_70_buick_full_size.htm Anyway, The braided stainless brake lines are on order and due tomorrow. The brake brackets are nearly completed. And you thought just because they were on meant we were done! Everything on this car is special. If I had a dollar for every blank stare I got when I told the parts guy I wanted a disk brake kit or sway bar, or headers... If this setup works, I'll be happy to sell Electra brake brackets that would allow you to put Willwoods on your 225! The steering column is hooked back up finally. The shaft got pushed in with all of our maneuvering of that massive body as we layed it on the chassis. We had to bust fingers jack hammering that thing back out! The rear anti-sway bar is giving Dave fits. It has to go in now because the exhaust has to be rebent because the bumper with the "N-225" has to fit, because the painter needs the bumper to fit...! Well, you know what I mean. The shop looks great! White tin all over everything, its much brighter than before. Still can't find anything because the tools and everything got scrambled, but we are gaining on'er. I talked on the radio yesterday about the Faithful Pursuit and what the Machuga guys are doing for us. We will be doing a few crazy things to earn enough cash to go to Nevada in 2005. We will have an auction of art work, model planes, model cars, whatever we can. I got 7 confirmed Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. members who will come to Corning to help out with the dinner on April 24th at the National Warplane Museum in Elmira. Last weekend was lots of travel handling the business side of this program. So, I drove to NYC to meet the Tuskegee Airmen, inc., Bethlehem CT to visit an old Navy ship designer bud, Syracuse 106.9 FM Clear Channel with Rick Wright., then back to Corning in 2 days. This morning I checked my milage at 7:17am, it was exactly 777.7 miles! My eyes were bloodshot and swollen from some infection as well. God Speed

BEWS3BYME, Thanks for the compliments man! Texas is nice, been to Dallas once. Y'all are really friendly folks! Keep Roll'in that big body Rivy and your cool '68 Electra sedan! I picked up my bumpers from Sandy's Bumper Mart yesterday. I've never seen Electra bumpers glisten like these. The rear bumper has 8 major modifications done by Machuga Chassis to accept the new placement of the strenthened chassis rails and my special "N-225" through the bumper exhaust modification! I just wish the boys from the old neighborhood in Brooklyn, NYC could see my "Deuce" now! More than 25 years ago, I ran with the 22nd Street "Holder" clan. We were young Buick fanatics and looked up to hard core Electra racers, including and 10.93 sec Joe Buiga, of the time. "Uncle Buddy" was the Buick racer of mythic proportions that old rodders still talk about as "hard to beat"! Scotty Guadagno was just getting started and would make a name on the street in the early 80's with his green 11.7 Second 4,700 lb nitrous oxide injected 1970 Electra 225 coupe! "Shock and Awe !!!" to borrow Tom Wagoner's favorite Big Buick racer expression. We had fun back in the '70s. We complained when gas hit 50 Cents a gallon. We had burn out contests from sewer cover to sewer cover. Spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Conduit, Redhook, and Columbia Street. John Holder introduced me to my wife who has cruised in Buicks with me for 25 years now! From humble beginnings... Per Aspera Ad Astra

All, Last Saturday everything was pulled out of the shop for the roof rebuild. We braced the fire weakened timbers and raised the cieling in the rear shop where the Faithful Pursuit was. It was great to see her on her tires again after several months up on jacks! Dave and I stood outside marveling at how low and mean that stance was. We are within 40 man hours of going to prep for paint paint. So close yet so far. The bumpers are due Saturday, the GSX spoiler came from Poston last week! Is this where the fun really starts, trying to finish the fine details that integrate all this funky stuff together? Well, the car actually wont be too much different from the stock bodied Electra 225. No chop, no shaving, or other radical custom stuff. The body is channeled slightly as we are dropping it on the chassis due to the Energy Suspension Body Bushings. I may go for some nosing. The prototype, Brown Convertible, was nosed and it does make it look cleaner but I want a "factory GSX" look. After the initial roll out in April, it will probably be another year of fine detailing where instruments, trim, rally electronics, computer, interior and exterior refinements are mated to the car. Roy Hopkins, will be doing the competition driving for us. He races hill climbs and does the One Lap of America with Brock Yates. Brock's son, Brock Jr. has been encouraging me to do the One Lap of America with this car. We may be able to get into One Lap after we have met our initial Silver State Classic Rally goals. As we form up our competition team we will have more drivers and support people. Everyone will probably turn a wrench and do whatever as this is still a poor man's effort (We have asked no sponsors to join other than spiritual ones at this point! Thanks Racers For Christ, "RFC"!) We will begin asking for sponsors after our GST Committee approves our strategy and advertising copy. Still lots of work to do before the unvieling at the National Warplane Museum on April 24th, 2004. Even then, there will still be the shakedown and lots of refining, road testing, and road racing before the Faithful Pursuit is actually "Show Quality".

Smartin. Thanks for putting on these photos. The fire damage was pretty extensive in the forward shop. However, things are returning to normal with lots more late nights, grinding, welding, cussin' and fussin. The rear firewall was worked on EXTENSIVELY to achieve optimal performance and safety. Proper fit for the TENZO R rear seats WAS SECONDARY! Machuga Chassis made some modifications to the 4 link to bring the seat floor down as far as possible. The 4130 Chromoly tube suspension and spherical ends require lots of room. Pinion angle is retained at 4.5 degrees through suspension travel. High speed regs require a rear firewall making the cockpit much safer, hence the EXTENSIVE work here. The welding and caulking is finally finished. EVERY MILLIMETER of the Faithful Pursuit is fabricated with FINE FINE FINE attention to detail. This is the high art of race car fabrication. This is not always "pretty" as we opted for racing functionality before aesthetics. My only belief is that American Luxury Grand Touring Cars, Buick Electras and others, were truely great cars, not the junky gas guzzlers people have made them out to be!

Hi, I am looking for the rubber gasket that seals the hood to the front bumper on my 1969 Electra. There are also some pieces for the rear bumper. Steele Rubber has some things but not this. Thanks!

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.

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!

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"!

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!

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!

Building a GSX and need a source for quality used spoiler. maj2nd@aol.com

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,

After looking into brakes a bit over the past few months I have found out many interesting things. A "Big" brake is good because it gives you more "moment arm" or a longer lever to apply braking force. (Note that cars with taller tires require more stopping distance!) You want "rigid" calipers that dont flex when you apply the brakes. Drilled holes are for outgassing and slots are for pad cleaning. There are certainly more things to look at than that but you get the picture. These brakes were offered in 1967-1969 as a pretty rare Electra option. They have 4 active pistons, weigh about 15lbs each and are built like they were made for a locomotive. Well, its a Buick so whats the diff? Anyway, typical brakes today offer 1.75 or 1.88 pistons and call them "massive" "Huge" , etc. The 1969 Electra Bendix brake calipers have 4 pistons that are 2.125" inches in diameter! So how would you advertise these today, "Humungus"?!?"Hulking"?!? I do not know what the actual road test results were and if anyone can get their hands on them I would be happy to take a look. The calipers may have been discontinued by GM perhaps due to cost, service issues, or even weight . The hardware stats are pretty impressive. Equally impressive is the rest of the option package including large 12" vented rotors and a large capacity 1" piston Master Cylinder. Bendix rebuild cost about $550 with Stainless Steel Sleeves. My Electra GSX Road Racer, "Faithful Pursuit" , featured in this site, will use Wilwood Forged Billet Superlite calipers . The Bendix units will be rebuilt for my '69 Electra 225 Custom "GS" Convertible.

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?

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 <span style="font-style: italic">BLUEBIRD</span> and had a small British "Union Jack" flag on the speedster's tall vertical tail. Enjoy! http://www.rumbledrome.com/campbell.html

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?

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 <span style="font-weight: bold">WW II P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter </span> 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 <span style="font-weight: bold">Gary Tyler Performance</span> 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 <span style="font-weight: bold">Machuga Chassis</span> and a six speed with a "Truck Medium Stall" <span style="font-weight: bold">ALLISON</span> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold">Motor State</span> offers a set of brackets. Over time we will determine the best braking solution once we get track time this year.

Hi, I own a 1969 Buick Electra 225 Custom Convertible. It is fully loaded including A/C. It has a GVW of 4,700lbs. I ran a series of mileage tests int he early 90's covering over 15,000 miles and several months. Her configuration has been mildly updated more recently as described on my link below: 21 mpg on race gas 19 - 20 mpg on 93 Octane Mid 15 sec. @ 90mph Top Speed 130+ Original unrebuilt 430, dual exhaust, & 2.56 non-positive traction rear. Here are some explanations that may help: * The quadrajet carb was more efficient AND consistent than most other carbs. * The late 60's Buick 400/430/455 series engine was more modern than 50's designed Hemi, LS-6, and W-30. * The new "crank stiffened thin web design" design allowed the block to weigh as much as the aluminum Z-L1 * When more power can be made with less cubes, the act is more efficient You will see this car on page two of my posting. It was used to help prototype my current Electra GSX project car called "Faithful Pursuit". http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/showflat....;o=&fpart=1 Happy New Year!!!

Hi, My 1969 Electra GSX uses the Star Wars Aircleaner. It needs to be re-finished. http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/showflat....;o=&fpart=1 Do you have a supply of parts?

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!

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!

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!