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Project 64 Wilson <projectsixtyfour@gmail.com> |
Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 6:13 PM |
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To: projectsixtyfour@gmail.com |
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Hello and welcome to the first email update from the Project '64 Bonneville Speedweek Record Attempt. We're not on the Salt yet but we wanted to make contact now before we're all in the USA. The first of the team members are in Los Angeles picking up the Cooper S from Maersk Line who carefully shipped it to LA for us. Others will be following in the next few days. We'll be driving from LA to Salt Lake City, Utah where pick up our RV's (camper vans and caravans) before heading on to Wendover, Utah where we will set up camp on the flats next to the Salt Flats. (Here) On the 9th and 10th of August we'll be going through Tech Inspection and sorting out any fine tuning of the car before Rookie Orientation on the 11th just before racing begins. We'll try to send an email update each day, hopefully with photos from the day if our internet signal is good enough. You can also follow our progress from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectSixtyFour We'd like to say thanks to our sponsors and all our supporters, without whom we would never have got this far. We greatly appreciate you help. Special thanks to: World of Wearable Art & Classic Cars Museum Talleys Group Ltd Maersk Line Victory R Alltrax NZ Swift Automotive Radio Sport Minis In Nelson Inc.and lastly, our newest sponsor, Total Oil. Thanks for your interest and support. Please feel free to get in touch and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Mini in Nelson, April 7, 2012 (photo by Bob Schmitt)
Project '64 projectsixtyfour@gmail.com
Hi everyone! Automotive
Vision in Nelson for the superb, too-flash-for-a-race-car Engine Control
Systems in Christchurch for the brains controlling the MSE Turbos NZ for the bloody big hairdryer that's strapped to the motor. And of course we
should thank again all those members of Club 150. |
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Hi all, apologies for no email for a while. It's been an interesting and tiring few days (plus we've struggled with getting the internet working out here on the Salt).
We've been here properly for three days now and in someway it feels like 4 times that. This is a crazy place, full of a huge variety of people and vehicles. The Mini has been extremely well received here and has a surprisingly large group of similarly small vehicles keeping it company, like 3 cylinder Saab Sonnets and Honda 600s plus a huge number of older vehicles.
Many of the conversations we had with old hands here included the words: "don't be upset when you don't pass tech inspection the first time" as virtually no-one new ever does. Somehow, on Thursday, we managed to. In fact, credit has to go to the incredible preparation that has gone into this car, something that the Bonneville tech inspectors also commented on.
Friday was spent fettling and tuning the car, working on making it easier to get off the line and adjusting for the altitude in preparation for the start of racing on Saturday.
Saturday started with the driver and crew meetings, followed by the rookie driver and crew meetings, which included a drive on course 2 and 4 for all involved followed by the start of racing.
Our first run of the day was the rookie run. Nelson needed to run down course 4 (3 miles) under 150mph (not too hard for us) and demonstrate he could follow the safety instructions and handle the car without pushing it to record attempt speeds. His timed run (average speed between mile 1 and 2) was 113mph and the car was working well.
For run two we moved to course 3 - 1 mile of run up, two mile long timed sections and 2 miles to run down, with the ability to turn out from mile two. We had a long wait in the queue, partly due to an accident on course. When the run did happen the Cooper got off the line well and disappeared into the distance. Top speed (peak) according to our onboard GPS was 210kph (130mph) and the timed run was 126mph (203kph - average over a mile).
One of the things we're learning is how long everything can take out here on the Salt, mostly because of the distances between things but also because of the extra complications of being so far from home.
One thing we do know is the Cooper has shown its potential and so long as the gremlins can be kept under control, we may be in with a chance.
August 13, 9:30 AM (10 minutes ago)
Persistance and determination.
These were the two key qualities my father always told me were the most important for any person. You may disagree, but from my personal experience here on the Salt they are all that matters. Every racer we have talked to has it in bucket loads. Thats why they come back every year, often traveling thousands of miles to test their vehicles and themselves.
From the outside it looks easy - all you have to do is point a well prepared car down the straight and accelerate right? Sadly it is harder than it looks. The stresses on a car are huge and relentless during the run.
So why the lecture about how difficult it is? Because today after a huge effort to get things working as we want, we still have more work to do. Because despite being praised again and again for an immaculately prepared car we are still learning how to race on the Salt.
The good news though: On Nelson's run on course 2 today he was timed at 138.7mph at the 2 1/4 mile point. Showing again we have the pace to break the record which is around 131mph*.
August 15 2:06 PM (1 hour ago)
Impounded!
Hi all, just a very quick message to let you know we have just qualified for a record run after averaging 142.103mph on mile 2 of course 3. We're now in the impound. In the morning after 7am we'll have another run. If we break the record again on the same section of track and pass another tech inspection we will be the new record holders. The previous record is around 131mph and is held by "The Hudson Boys" who are parked in the impound next to us (they're running in another class this year). The car is looking good with no signs of the reliability issues we were dealing with now the motor's plumbing has been redesigned and rebuilt.
Thanks, Mike Wilson - Project 64
Please feel free to phone me at any time at +1 661 609 7391 while the team is in the US (until August 18) or on +64 21 149 7047 once we have returned to NZ (after August 20).
Project '64 projectsixtyfour@gmail.com
We've just got through tech inspection after backing up our record run - we did 142.103 and 151.087 so the record is 146.6mph.
We are now lining up again to see if we can break our own record. The run was completed on mile 2 of the course and the times are the average speed over that mile. The tactic for these runs was to run for only two miles, accelerating quickly then to shut down after the 3 mile makers to conserve the engine. On both runs the car still had spare speed at mile three so we are now going back to see how it will go over mile 3. If we break our own record then the car will go into impound overnight and then attempt to repeat it on the same section of course in the morning.
It's pretty nice to be lining up knowing we've got the record. Everyone is a lot calmer! Will get some photos to you later today.
Listen out this morning for another Radio NZ National interview with Nelson Hartley on Morning Report and tonight's news on TVNZ.
Project
'64 Update: Job done.
Project
'64
August
18
 8:11
PM (12 hours ago)
Well it been a busy few days since our last update. Sorry for letting it drift. You may have heard the news already but things have gone well.
I just checked back and it looks like when we last sent an email we had just qualified for a record run. The next day we were on the Salt before dawn and had about 45 minutes to prep the car. All the cars in impound were then towed to the start lines and began their gave it a good go.
On our qualifying run we recorded 142.103mph on mile two. Our record run we recorded 151.087mph to give us an average of 146.6mph. A new record. Needless to say we were stoked, especially so when Nelson said the car was still accelerating at the end of mile 2. All that remained was the formality of a post record tech inspection.
The car was in good shape so we lined up again. This time the thinking was to run to the end of mile 3, giving more time to get to the car's potential top speed. It worked, with the timing ticket showing 156.045mph! As far as we know, thats the fastest speed ever recorded for a classic Mini.
The Cooper went straight back to its parking spot in the impound and after checking the car over we went back to the campsite, again pretty stoked.
The next day was Friday, last chance for record runs. We were there before dawn again and did our prep but soon discovered another wee gremlin that we weren't able to fix in time to do the run. We were disappointed of course but we were still going home with a record, plus we still have the timing ticket that shows we broke 150mph, a crazy speed for a vehicle designed to be a space and fuel efficient city car. Given an extra hour or two we might have had a record over 150mph. Thats not up to us though, that's up to the gods of speed.
So, what next? Firstly we're all heading home, some towing the Cooper to a container in LA, some taking the long way and taking in the sights, others flying out of Salt Lake City today.
We'll be getting together all the images, deleting all the rubbish ones and putting them up somewhere for everyone to see, plus we've got enough footage to make up a wee film of the whole experience. If theres enough interest, we might put together a book. Let us know what you'd like to see.
Finally we'd like to say thanks to all of our amazing sponsors, crew, 150 Club members and supporters, including the 1400 plus supporters who joined us on Facebook.
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