What I learned quickly is that a drag car has a lot more systems on it than a drag boat. When I made the trade, I thought I was closer to having the car finished than it really was. I started making a list of things I needed and it was almost overwhelming.
I got to keep my boat engine but the classes that the car should run in all require a different engine setup. Right away, lots of things in the engine had to change. The fuel system, oil system, induction system, magneto drive, pistons, rods, etc. Other than the block, crank, heads, and manifold, everything had to change.
The chassis was no better! Turns out, the front wheels were the wrong bearing size and the rear wheels fit too close to the body. This alone added several thousand dollars to the completion costs.
A car has to have a transmission, data aquisition system, fire supression system, and a myriad of other things.
The cost to complete the car very quickly added up to big dollars. This is somewhat depressing after being so close on the boat (but yet so far away).
At this point, I had no choice but too finish the car before I am too old to drive it, ha!
Here is a summary of the major items the I needed or still need:
- Engine rebuild for alcohol, $7,500. We ended up buying a complete AJPE Hemi engine with BAE 8 heads, $40,000 DONE
- Fuel system upgrade for methanol, $3,000 Being built by Mike Janis now - MIKE SAYS IT WILL SHIP IN THE NEXT WEEK OR SO
- Magneto drive to move the magneto to the front of the engine, $1,250. No longer needed with the Hemi. Ended up moving it back to the front to make it possible to prime the engine oil pump easily and clean up the aerodynamics _ DONE
- Induction system upgrade (Kobelco Blower, Carbon Injector hat) $11,000 - DONE. Blower and injector hat are currently at Mike Janis's shop in New York getting modified for higher performance Took delivery of this earlier this year. Mike did an awesome job and fixed some issues the blower had - DONE
- Jacks to lift the car, $2,000 - DONE
- Front and rear tires and wheels, $8,500 - DONE
- Transmission and torque converter, $15,000 - Partially done, need to freshen up the tranny. Ended up buying a more durable and modern transmission to handle the extra horsepower $15,000 - DONE
- Drive shaft, $1,000. Just received an awesome PST brand carbon fiber driveshaft. It is so tough that it has a lifetime warranty. That says something about heir product. $1,900. - DONE
- Data acquisition system, $7,000. Ended up with a system that monitors 30+ channels of data and has its own programmable logic controller for switching all of the electrical systems in the car. All of the switching events are also logged in the data. Very Cool. $17,000. - DONE
- 3rd member, $2,000. Ended up using my original purchase as a backup. I recently purchased an all billet 3rd member with a larger gear setup to handle the extra horsepower. $5,000, $7,000 total - DONE
- Fire suppression system, $2,000 DONE
- Dry sump oil tank, $1,250 - DONE
- Seat or custom foam poured seat insert, $700 to $1,500 - DONE
- CO2 system, $1,000 - DONE
- Air launched parachutes, $1,600 - DONE
- Hoses, belts, bolts, accessories, $3,000 - MOSTLY DONE
- Fire suit, boots, gloves, head restraint, and fire resistant underwear, $2,500 - DONE
- I ended upgrading the following because I am ridiculous and I wanted to modernize and make the car as fast and safe as possible:
- Replaced original steering gearbox with a billet gearbox made by Strange Engineering. $1,000 - DONE
- Rebuilt the parachute brackets on the back of the car so the parachutes attach to a higher point on the very back of the car to make it safer. $400 - DONE
- Rebuilt the firewall and modified the frame to comply with current rules. $2,000 - DONE
- Rebuilt the entire front section of the frame to accommodate the dry sump tank and the fuel tank. $2,000 - DONE
- Installed air powered parachutes to make them deploy quicker and more consistently. $1,500 - DONE
- Installed a high tech air shifting device to shift the new transmission. $1,000 - DONE
- Installed a lockup style converter transmission drive to put more power to the ground and eliminate torque converter slippage. $15,000 - DONE
- New larger diameter 4-link suspension components to support the extra horsepower. $1,000 - DONE
OLD OUTDATED STUFF - UPDATED STUFF BELOW
As you can see, there was/is $65,000 to $70,000 of expenses before I can even crank up the car, Yikes!!! I guess nothing worthwhile is easy!
As you can see from the items that I have marked as DONE, About $80,000 to $90,000 worth of parts have been purchased. We have spent way more than we originally planned but as usual, we decided to do everything right so we can go fast!
UPDATED STUFF
As you can see, most of the stuff has been purchased and I am nearing the completion of the car. As you can also see, I have been my usual ridiculous self and gone overboard in every way. I think it would have been easier to have started from scratch, ha!
In 1 1/2 weeks the NHRA inspector will be coming to the shop to inspect the chassis and certify it to race in the ProMod class running in the 5 second quarter mile ET. This is a major milestone for me. As of right now, the car is completely disassembled and I am finish welding all of the new stuff I have done. Once I get the certification (Please pray for me that it passes), I will begin final assembly of the car.
We are truly getting close now! There will be lots of late nights for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2019 to be ready for testing in February. I cannot wait to hear the "Black Hole" run for the first time. I don't even know what my total spend is to date and I probably don't want to know!!! All I know is that God has blessed me beyond belief with my best friend, family, friends, and business to enable me to fulfill my drag racing dream!
Click on the Blog Archive hierarchy on the right hand side to see my posts in order. The ones at the bottom are the newest posts.
As you can see, there was/is $65,000 to $70,000 of expenses before I can even crank up the car, Yikes!!! I guess nothing worthwhile is easy!
As you can see from the items that I have marked as DONE, About $80,000 to $90,000 worth of parts have been purchased. We have spent way more than we originally planned but as usual, we decided to do everything right so we can go fast!
UPDATED STUFF
As you can see, most of the stuff has been purchased and I am nearing the completion of the car. As you can also see, I have been my usual ridiculous self and gone overboard in every way. I think it would have been easier to have started from scratch, ha!
In 1 1/2 weeks the NHRA inspector will be coming to the shop to inspect the chassis and certify it to race in the ProMod class running in the 5 second quarter mile ET. This is a major milestone for me. As of right now, the car is completely disassembled and I am finish welding all of the new stuff I have done. Once I get the certification (Please pray for me that it passes), I will begin final assembly of the car.
We are truly getting close now! There will be lots of late nights for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2019 to be ready for testing in February. I cannot wait to hear the "Black Hole" run for the first time. I don't even know what my total spend is to date and I probably don't want to know!!! All I know is that God has blessed me beyond belief with my best friend, family, friends, and business to enable me to fulfill my drag racing dream!
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