Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The Other Woman

I put clothes back on the “Black Hole” after spending months working on that beautiful framework! It is almost sad to cover up all of that beauty. It has been a nice relationship but it is time to go to work now and it is not legal to work with an exposed framework!

Wait, that did not come out right! That almost sounded "X" rated. Traci has always kidded about my crazy hobbies being like the other woman in my life. When we thought the dream was drag racing boats, we were actually going to name the boat "The Other Woman".

Those of you that know me, know that there has never been and never will be another woman that could replace my Sunshine! She has NEVER had to worry about those kinds of things. She has however had to worry about me most of our married life about being a passionate gearhead that exposes myself to dangerous hobbies. She has also sacrificed a lot of time and money for me to fulfill my dream of doing "this" or "that"over the years. The "Black Hole" is the dream of all dreams. I am not sure I can ever top this one at my age. I guess there is a Top Fuel dragster or flying a military fighter jet, neither of which are likely to happen at 58 years old without robbing a bank!

All jokes asside, the "Black Hole"is starting to look like a car now. The body is on (hopefully for the last time) and the car looks sharp with the black body, black anodized parts, billet parts, and carbon fiber.

The body is completely mounted for the first time with all of the screws (hundreds of them) in the firewall, door jambs, rear spoiler, and so on. The doors are adjusted and fitted with the door latches working like a real door! These cars are often referred to as “door slammers” because they are required to have functioning doors like a street car. That is about the only thing that resembles a street car!!!

As more and more gets added to the car, the more confined it feels when you are in the drivers seat. There is not much vision with that big ole Hemi out front, safety net on the door frame, full face helmet, limited movement of your head, etc.! You pretty much are wearing the car like a garment. That is by design! You do not want to be loose in the car if something goes wrong at 250 mph.

Traci and I did some dry runs of how difficult it is to get into and out of the car with all of the safety gear on. The best way I can describe it is; "It is like stuffing a giant marshmallow into a Coke bottle". Think about that for a minute! It was enlightening to say the least! We had to do several dry runs to figure out the correct position and sequence to get into and out of the car. We will do many more before we ever go to the track. You want getting into and out of (especially out of) the car to be using muscle memory without having to really think about it.

I still have a ton of work to do to put the rear tubs (fender wells) and fabricate all of the carbon pieces that will seal the back of the car and prevent smoke from filling the car during a burnout.

When you compare where we started 2 1/2 years ago, we are so close you can smell it, literally. Yes, those methanol exhaust fumes are awesome and make you cry with tears of joy 😂. God is awesome!!!




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