PROJECT FALCON cont.

March 29, 2003: We built a new third member with a new ring and pinion, Strange billet aluminum pinion support and large bearing Strange nodular iron case. On Thursday this week David decided he wanted to run the car at The Clash of The Titans in Easy Street. We decided to use Friday night to tune for the event on Saturday. The weather was cool and dry both days.

Friday March 28, 2003

Saturday March 29, 2003

April 19, 2003: The drivers side rear shock developed a small leak at the adjuster. We talked to Dave at QA1 and Denny at D&D Race Technologies about the way the car acts at the starting line and decided to have D&D rebuild and modify the internal valves in the rear shocks. Dave and Denny both agree that the car should 60' in the 1.40 range. We are preparing for a nostalgia drag race on May 3 and will see how the new setup works.

May 3, 2003: The Falcon ran another 10.71 the first pass down the track. After that it could not get off the line without major tire spin. We noticed the car was sitting lower in the front and discovered the right side coil spring was collapsed. It looks like we will be adding new race springs and adjustable shocks to the front.

June 1, 2003: David has been considering finding a driver for the Falcon for a while since he is so busy. One day while tuning the car at the local track he made a comment to Tracey Stapp about having someone drive the Falcon. Tracey was very interested in taking over driving duties immediately.

June 28, 2003: With new springs and adjustable shocks up front and MT 28 x 10.5 slicks on the rear and Tracy Stapp behind the wheel we headed to Houston Raceway Park for The Clash Of The Titans Race. The Falcon ran well in the heat and humidity with the 60' times dipping to 1.51 on a 10.81 pass in the middle of the day. The corrected altitude was 3100' above sea level with outside temperature in the high 90's. This is the first time David was able to sit back and watch the class and his car run in it.

The Clash Of The Titans event is heads up racing and the class the Falcon is legal for is Easy Street. The index is in the mid to low 9's so something will have to be done in the horsepower department to be more competitive.

photo courtesy of www.racepics.net

July 1, 2003: The 429 in the Falcon has been sold to make way for a new power plant. David has decided to change to a Yates headed 351 windsor to make the car lighter and improve the front to rear weight ratio.

July 9, 2003: With the 429 sold and the new motor going together we decided to sit out of the rest of the season and take our time making the change. Then a long time friend stops by and wants to drop in his aluminum headed 477 just to see what it will run.

July 30, 2003: The 477 is in and running. We should be able to go out to the track and start tuning the car next week.

July 31, 2003: We are still gathering the pieces to build the Windsor motor. The heads are CNC ported and flow right at 400 on the intake and 300 on the exhaust. We will be running titanium valves, locks and keepers with a Jesel valvetrain.

August 8, 2003: We took the Falcon to the local track for a few shakedown passes with the burrowed engine. The first pass was 10.25 et at 131 mph and the second pass was 10.15 et at 132.98 mph. The corrected altitude was 3200'.

August 23, 2003: We went back out to the track to tune on the chassis a little to see if we could make the Falcon run in the 9's. We got it down to 10.08 et at 134 mph.

August 30, 2003: Our best qualifying pass was 10.12 at 133mph. 3500' above sea level, 95 degree air temp. When we were sitting in the staging lanes on Sunday for the first round of eliminations it started to rain and never let up. The race was called so we will come back in October for the last race of the year.

photo courtesy of www.racepics.net

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