So I hope to generate some excitement to get more Terminators out to open road race.
This year's 2011 Big Bend Open Road Race was my eighth open road race as either a navigator or driver. It was the Cobra's fourth event.
Basically, it's an excuse to drive fast with lots of support from course workers, highway patrol, fire trucks, ambulances, life flight, and aircraft. It's also a fantastic way to spend a week with a bunch of car guys who share similar interests.
This and the previous event were in the 140 mph class , where you average 140 mph with radar-enforced speed limits of minimum 110 and maximum 168. The race involves two legs of 59 miles each, 60 turns each. Trophies are determined based upon coming close to your target speed.
I overheated the engine halfway through the second leg two years ago and thenfinished the engine off while on-track in March of last year. I rebuilt the engine, boxed the radiator/heat exchangers, installed a remote oil cooler, opened the heat extraction vents, and installed gauges, among other things. This event was going to put the brand-new engine (500 miles) and all of the modifications to the ultimate test.
As typical with racing, nothing goes smoothly. I decided to trailer the car this year given the uncertainty in it getting to the finish line in one piece. Sometime after midnight on the way out there, the trailer caught fire. My dad and I jumped out of the truck, I crawled through the Cobra's trunk into the passenger compartment, and grabbed the car's fire extinguisher. My dad and I got the fire out before it could spread past the trailer wheel area and damage the car. The hub assembly were toast, so we removed the wheel, disassembled the broken brake assembly, and removed the remains of the trashed wheel bearings. All of this done in the middle of the night parked on I-10 where we had to jump off into the road every 30 seconds to avoid traffic. We unloaded the car from the trailer and limped the truck, trailer, and car 135 miles to civilization.
This year, there were more Mustangs than I can recall at BBORR. Three of us ended up at the same hotel and had a great time.
Next issue of the week was on the first practice run, I blew the top coolant hose off of the car, losing all visibility out of the windshield at 150mph. I was fully convinced that I had blown my brand new engine, but thankfully that was not the case.
I got the car pieced back together, removed the spring clamps on the cooling system, and successfully had four sessions in practice.
A wicked storm rolled in Thursday night, parking itself on the race course and flinging rocks all over the road. There was an unconfirmed report of a tornado touching down. The storm then rolled into Sanderson while we were having the race picnic. We got out of town, but many got hit with high winds and hail.
Fast forward to race day. Seeing 160 cars lined up on the highway ready to rock-and-roll at dawn is an awesome sight and one that cannot be captured in a single photograph well.
On the first leg, I stabbed the brakes hard going into the course's harshest turn (long curve with decreasing radius), losing my engine, power brakes, and power steering. That was not so much fun. In restarting the car, I also lost my navigation system which was critical since I didn't have a navigator this year. I drove the rest of the course by feel, and finished the first leg 6-7 seconds slow.
After getting my navigation system sorted out in Sanderson, we lined back up for the second / final leg north back to Fort Stockton. Thankfully, things went much smoother. The major excitement was 48 miles into the leg as we came out of the curvy section and into the straight section, a Corvette decided to blow off their time and pass me while I was doing 161 mph.
Fast forward to 0:58 in this video to see a drive-by of the pass
[youtube_browser]pUKuN2l4cnE[/youtube_browser]
Here is in-car video of the pass
[youtube_browser]0bWJ_ffGohY[/youtube_browser]
Final results?
Next up: Sandhills Open Road Challenge in August.
This year's 2011 Big Bend Open Road Race was my eighth open road race as either a navigator or driver. It was the Cobra's fourth event.
Basically, it's an excuse to drive fast with lots of support from course workers, highway patrol, fire trucks, ambulances, life flight, and aircraft. It's also a fantastic way to spend a week with a bunch of car guys who share similar interests.
This and the previous event were in the 140 mph class , where you average 140 mph with radar-enforced speed limits of minimum 110 and maximum 168. The race involves two legs of 59 miles each, 60 turns each. Trophies are determined based upon coming close to your target speed.
I overheated the engine halfway through the second leg two years ago and thenfinished the engine off while on-track in March of last year. I rebuilt the engine, boxed the radiator/heat exchangers, installed a remote oil cooler, opened the heat extraction vents, and installed gauges, among other things. This event was going to put the brand-new engine (500 miles) and all of the modifications to the ultimate test.
As typical with racing, nothing goes smoothly. I decided to trailer the car this year given the uncertainty in it getting to the finish line in one piece. Sometime after midnight on the way out there, the trailer caught fire. My dad and I jumped out of the truck, I crawled through the Cobra's trunk into the passenger compartment, and grabbed the car's fire extinguisher. My dad and I got the fire out before it could spread past the trailer wheel area and damage the car. The hub assembly were toast, so we removed the wheel, disassembled the broken brake assembly, and removed the remains of the trashed wheel bearings. All of this done in the middle of the night parked on I-10 where we had to jump off into the road every 30 seconds to avoid traffic. We unloaded the car from the trailer and limped the truck, trailer, and car 135 miles to civilization.
This year, there were more Mustangs than I can recall at BBORR. Three of us ended up at the same hotel and had a great time.
Next issue of the week was on the first practice run, I blew the top coolant hose off of the car, losing all visibility out of the windshield at 150mph. I was fully convinced that I had blown my brand new engine, but thankfully that was not the case.
I got the car pieced back together, removed the spring clamps on the cooling system, and successfully had four sessions in practice.
A wicked storm rolled in Thursday night, parking itself on the race course and flinging rocks all over the road. There was an unconfirmed report of a tornado touching down. The storm then rolled into Sanderson while we were having the race picnic. We got out of town, but many got hit with high winds and hail.
Fast forward to race day. Seeing 160 cars lined up on the highway ready to rock-and-roll at dawn is an awesome sight and one that cannot be captured in a single photograph well.
On the first leg, I stabbed the brakes hard going into the course's harshest turn (long curve with decreasing radius), losing my engine, power brakes, and power steering. That was not so much fun. In restarting the car, I also lost my navigation system which was critical since I didn't have a navigator this year. I drove the rest of the course by feel, and finished the first leg 6-7 seconds slow.
After getting my navigation system sorted out in Sanderson, we lined back up for the second / final leg north back to Fort Stockton. Thankfully, things went much smoother. The major excitement was 48 miles into the leg as we came out of the curvy section and into the straight section, a Corvette decided to blow off their time and pass me while I was doing 161 mph.
Fast forward to 0:58 in this video to see a drive-by of the pass
[youtube_browser]pUKuN2l4cnE[/youtube_browser]
Here is in-car video of the pass
[youtube_browser]0bWJ_ffGohY[/youtube_browser]
Final results?
- First place in the 140 mph class out of a field of 10
- Coolant never reached 210, so the cooling mods worked awesome
- Car was a bit unstable over 160, which is going to require attention if I want to move up to 145 next year
Next up: Sandhills Open Road Challenge in August.
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Rock on...
