NHRA Chassis Certification

We had a major accomplishment this week. As you all know I have done a lot of modifications to the chassis to modernize it and make it safer. As always, I tend to critical of my own work and worry about my workmanship being good enough. I have been nervous about getting the chassis certified ever since I made the first weld on it.

When I started this dream, I had never done any TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding and not only was I concerned that my welds would not pass inspection, I worried that they might not even hold the car together. By the time I finished my modifications, my TIG welding skills had improved dramatically. Although I have good days and bad days, most of my welds look pretty good.

Yesterday, The NHRA chassis inspector came to my shop and performed the inspection process on the car and it passed! As of yesterday, there are no other barriers other than money and time that would prevent the dream from coming true! There were a couple of pieces of tubing that the inspector thought were not sized to spec, but after review of the SFI spec, those tubes were legal.

When the inspector was preparing the tag for the chassis I told him what a "Big Deal" this was for a rookie like me. He made my day when he told me "Your not a rookie, this is a good chassis".

Now the marathon begins to try and meet my goal of having "The Black Hole" ready for a test session in February.

We only got to celebrate our victory for about 1 hour  before I got a phone from my dad (who was in the house less than a 10 feet away). He told me had fallen and needed help. Unfortunately as I write this, we are at the hospital with him waiting for him to go into surgery to repair his broken left Femur. He is in good spirits and is ready to get the problem fixed. We do not know what the rehab process is going to look like or how it will affect our lives, but God will provide. Stay tuned to see if we can still meet our schedule!

We would appreciate all of your prayers for my dad. He wants to be able to see " The Black Hole" make that first burnout and run.

Here is the proof that I have an approved NHRA ProMod chassis:

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

Heavy Duty Anti-Roll Bar and 4-Link Bars

I just finished fabrication the new anti-roll bar and the larger 4-link bars. All of it  is tack welded but still needs to be final welded. This is the last thing that has to be done prior to the inspector coming next Thursday.

2inch diameter anti-roll bar. The old one is still attached and is below the new one. Look at the difference in diameter!

New larger diameter roll control links

1 1/2 inch 4-Link Bars

Old vs New

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

All welded up

In just a few days the NHRA inspector will be coming to the shop to inspect the chassis to make sure it meets the proper SFI safety specifications for the ProMod class.

As of tonight, I have everything welded up with the exception of a new larger anti-roll bar. This device prevents the chassis from leaning over in response to engine torque making the car move forward (Newton’s law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”).

The chassis already has an anti-roll bar but it is undersized for the amount of power the car will be making now.

Once that is done, God willing, it will be ready and have an NHRA certification! This will be a major milestone! Seeing my welds today vs my welds when I first started trying to TIG weld is like night and day. Practice truly does make perfect. There is no other way to learn this skill except by doing it.

The chassis has had a ton of changes made to it to meet the new requirements. I have touched almost everything!

I would appreciate all of your prayers that the chassis will pass the inspection. To not pass would be a show stopper!

Here are some pictures as it sits today. Everything that is bare steel was modified by me.

TIG fillet weld.

Another TIG weld.

.

Yet another TIG weld

My TIG welding is getting better!

Front frame work to house the oil tank and fuel tank.

Side view of tank brackets.

New adjustable front strut mounts.

Driveshaft safety loops and tube.

I welded 4-link mount doublers to add 1/4 inch of material for handling the extra horsepower

Transmission crossmember is removable now to make transmission service easier.

Oil filter and breather bracket.

The round tubes will house small LED lights so I can see to strap in the car and get ready to run in dark staging lanes at night races.

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

Midwest ProMod Nationals

Traci and I just got back from a 3 day ProMod race at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas. It was an amazing weekend and we learned so much about the racing process that we will have do when we race the "Black Hole".

This race was organized to be a very intimate race which gave all of the spectators 100% access to the racers, the track, the pits, etc. The promoter had grandstands set up less than 50 feet from the starting line. Traci and I staked our claim on two seats right on the starting line and never moved. We were so close that we could see every part of the staging process, how the cars reacted when they took off, and could FEEL the horsepower vibrating our bodies.

It was an incredible experience!

This was an 1/8th mile race (rather than the typical 1/4 mile) and the 16 car field was one, if not the  fastest 1/8th mile fields ever assembled. The fastest car ran a 3.61 second 1/8th mile while the slowest car ran a 3.71. They were all running well over 200 mph (in 660 feet!!!). That is crazy!

Traci and I left so excited about running our car but also with many questions. Some of them are:

• Will our car be able to compete with these guys?
• Who will we get to help out on a consistent basis who is focused, motivated, and available?
• How are we going to haul all of the stuff we will need at the track (we bought the wrong trailer)?
• Can we tune the car to not destroy itself every run while still being quick?
• Can we service the car quick enough to make each run?
• How are we going to afford to race on this scale?

I know these questions all seem like gloom and doom but Traci and I left knowing that we are smart enough to do this and both of us are excited to compete at this level. We were especially motivated by one team that only had the Dad (driver and crew chief), his wife (assisted in servicing the car), and their daughter( safety systems service and starting line process manager).

This team ran extremely well and broke very few parts. They won several rounds and qualified in the top half of the field. They were an inspiration to us and reminded us of how Traci and I work together. When they won each round, they got more excited the further they went. They made us believe that with God's help, we can do this.

This run has the car (in the far lane) that motivated Traci and I. Just a Dad, Mom, and daughter make this thing go!!!

We are working every waking hour on our car to get it ready for our test runs in February. Please help us pray that we can do it!

Here is some additional video:

Stevie Jackson in the far lane. He is a big time player in NHRA ProMod.

Ricky Smith in the far lane, another big player in NHRA ProMod. He finished second in points behind my friends, the Janis family.

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

Billet Steering Sector

I worked on upgrading the old Pinto style steering sector to a billet aluminum steering sector manufactured by Strange Engineering. It is a very precision unit and saves a few pounds of weight.

I am trying to get every system upgraded for the capabilities of the car. This should be the last major fabrication item on the car.

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

It has been a while

It has been pretty busy around the Harvey household lately so it has been a while since my last update.

Traci and I had a lot of fun at the races in Dallas but our friend Mike Janis went out in the first round. His main competitor went out in the second round so Mike is still leading the points.

I have been working on miscellaneous stuff on the car and continue to make progress a little at a time.

I learned a lot of stuff by looking at Mike's car and have been rethinking some of my placement of equipment, systems, etc.

I received my new billet 3rd member (rear end drive gears) and it is a work of art. It is super strong and should stand up to the abuse my engine will put on it!

"Billet Porn" 3rd member carved out of a solid piece of aluminum. Very strong and a work of art.

I also fabricated a new parachute brackets which spread the parachutes out and directs them into the air flow so they open quicker when I release them.

New parachute bracket and air cylinders to push the parachutes out of the packs

The stop sign shaped pieces sit inside the parachute packs (not on the car yet) and push the parachutes up and out of the pack so they open quickly. A late parachute opening will make you take a trip through the sand traps.

I also moved the location of the magneto to the front of the engine for two reasons. One is to get the magneto tucked in underneath the hood to reduce wind resistance. The second reason (which I learned by watching Mike Janis service his car) is to make it easier to prime the engine oil pump after servicing the car between rounds. When the magneto is in the stock location, you must pull the magneto out of the engine to prime the oil pump. This is because the engine oil pump is driven off of the same gear and shaft as the magneto. If you pull the magneto off between rounds to prime the oil pump, the magneto must be put back in exactly the same position to ensure the spark plug firing is at the right time. This leaves more chance for human error!

Magneto mounted on the front of the engine

Last but not least, I am starting to lay out all of the wiring and air lines so that I can weld tabs on the chassis to hold the wiring in place.

Air bottles, regulators and hoses hooked up. The car has 3 different sources of air to operate the shifters, transbrake, torque converter lockup, and parachutes.

Air distribution header and air filters to make sure the air supply is clean.

Air manifold and filters

Pretty boring stuff but forward progress!

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.

Or

Back to Home Page

From one extreme to another

I am doing this update because Traci and I have experienced yet another interesting weekend.

We have owned our lake house in North Texas since 1994 and it has not flooded since we bought it until two weekends ago. This is our 3rd major flood in two years! Yes that is right, The two houses that we own in Magnolia flooded two times each and now the Bonham house flooded.

I lived the first 55 years of my life and never had anything destroyed due to flood water. Statistically, we should have had all of the floods we should have for the rest of our life!

The house in Bonham wasn't as bad as the Magnolia houses but the two garages in Bonham got a LOT of water in them. Luckily, we were up there when it happened to do yard work and to have some relaxing time. We never made it to the relaxing part, ha! It was nothing but work cleaning up after the flood. Thank God it did not destroy the house like the two Magnolia floods.

This coming weekend we are going to offset that bad experience, we hope! We are going to see our friends (the Janis's) race their ProMod in an NHRA national event in Dallas. For those of you that don't know the Janis's, they are the current points leaders for the NHRA ProMod National Championship. They are also the guys who are helping me get my car put together. They are a good family and have worked hard for this championship. They deserve to win it. Traci and I have been praying for them to win this championship and I am sure they would appreciate everyone's prayers!

I cannot think of a more deserving champion. I know how hard they have worked for it!

Traci and I are taking our motorhome and will be camping right on the track. It should be a lot of fun seeing the Janis's and being able to just hang out in our motorhome while watching world class drag racing.

Please pray for Mike Janis to be safe and do well in the race to stretch out their points lead for the championship! Mike, God is in control!

Also, please pray for my cousin Deana and her family. Her daughter has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments as we speak. Please pray for her healing and strength during the treatments. Again, God is in control!!!!!

Here is a picture of Mike Janis racing.

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.

Or

Back to Home Page