Doug, congratulations on a great year & an even greater El Mirage meet. 2-bills
is a great accomplishment for any vehicle/engine, but is a work of art for an
Ardun! BTW, great interview in this issue of Bonneville Racing News!
Ed
ARDUNDOUG@aol.com wrote:
> LSR List, Friends, and Crew,
> This diary is going out to a wide spectrum of people so bear with me on
> its content.
> Most of you know that my consuming passion is Land Speed Racing, the 5
> mile straight-away speed trials at Bonneville, UT Salt Flats, the 1.5 mile
> Muroc Reunion at Edwards AFB, and the 1.3 mile El Mirage Dry Lakes meets held
> in the Mojave Desert 6 times each summer.
> As you know from earlier messages the year has been good to our crew
> consisting of Son Brian, Ed Weldon, Kent Walton, Mike Gorvad, and Elon Ormsby
> whom we drafted at Speed Week 2000.
> The year began on a mixed note at the June El Mirage meet with the
> magneto going sour during a 174mph attempt on Don Ferguson's 184 mph record.
> Later that month we ran on 2 open (no minimum speed) records at the
> Edwards AFB Muroc Reunion, turning 172mph on gas and 192mph in the unlimited
> fuel class. In the process the bellypan on the car ruptured from the
> aerodynamic down force it was designed to create. About that time we started
> experiencing problems with the exhaust valve seats in the Ardun/Merc
> migrating around and spoiling the compression leakdown, a problem we later
> attributed to inadequate valve spring pressure.
> Late June saw us on the chassis dyno in Visalia, CA producing 327hp on
> gas and 425hp on 55% nitromethane.
> By Bonneville Speed Week in mid August we had fabricated a more rigid
> bellypan, shimmed up the exhaust valve springs to the proper tension, and
> tucked the spare Ardun/Merc engine in the support-truck "just-in-case" the #1
> bullet failed us.
> I was fully expecting the #1 engine to self-destruct early in the meet
> but was pleasantly surprised when it made a total of 6 runs without us as
> even pulling the rocker covers or changing the oil. The week netted us a
> 210mph fuel record, Brian a 181mph gasoline record, membership in the
> Bonneville 200MPH Club for me, and licensing runs for two of the crew
> members. The engine was sealed after the first record.
> Back home in the shop the engines "vital-signs" checked within acceptable
> parameters so we started test-n-tuning on the supercharged Ardun/Merc in the
> Dragmaster Dart drag race car.
> The November 2-day El Mirage meet was to be the season finale. I had
> originally wanted to run one day against the 160mph gasoline Vintage Modified
> Roadster open minimum and one day against Don Ferguson's 1983 class record of
> 184mph. SCTA rules, however, prohibit changing classes at El Mirage meets so
> we decided to concentrate on the XXF/FMR fuel mark.
> Tech inspection is the day before the meet so instead of electing to
> leave home at 4:00am Friday, arriving at El Mirage by noon with plenty of
> time for Tech, for some reason I left Thursday morning, still arriving on the
> lake bed after dark. After dinner I realized that I had neglected to bring
> any reading material, leaving me no choice but to hit the sack at 7:00pm.
> Lancaster weather was showing 29 deg. as the daily low but in reality it was
> closer to 10 deg. that night.
> Friday afternoon I got my Tech inspection from fellow Vintage Engine
> racer Jim (J.D.) Tone. By then the pit area was starting to look like a
> "happening" was in the forecast. My crew wasn't scheduled to arrive until
> Friday night or early Saturday AM, so it was the same routine, dinner at
> 6:00, sack time at 7:00.
> Saturday AM we started preparing the Roadster for the first run only to
> find that the mag was dead after 6 runs at Bonneville and the water pump was
> frozen solid in the 10 deg. weather despite the antifreeze in the system. The
> record holder in the class, Don Ferguson, was on hand helping us prepare the
> car. Where else but in Land Speed Racing can you find the record holder
> helping prepare the car that's challenging his record?
> We were #98 to run but they were up to #125 when we finally got to the
> starting line a little after noon. The temperature (60's) dictated a
> density-altitude of approximately the elevation of the dry lake, somewhere
> between 2000' and 3000'.
> The Roadster launched pretty well, pulling hard in low and second. In
> high gear the engine was willing, but ran out of real estate about 5500rpm,
> netting a new record of 188mph. By then the course was getting pretty chewed
> up and the normally docile Roadster was a handful the last 1/2 mile. A couple
> of times I thought that I was about to drift off the course or spin while
> overcorrecting. To add to the problem, the chute failed to deploy at the end
> of the run. The pin pulled out of the cord OK but the pilot chute spring
> couldn't overcome the friction of the cord going through the eyelet's of the
> chute-pack. I was hoping for 200+mph but it looked like the combination just
> plain didn't have the "grunt" to do it.
> Anyway, a record is a record. We towed back to Dan Warner in Impond to do
> the paperwork. Since the engine was still sealed from Speed Week we were on
> our way in short order.
> The spark plugs looked about right so we decided to give the engine some
> more "grunt" by upping the nitro percentage from 55% to 65%. We mixed some
> fuel, richened the bypass pill (.012), and started trying to figure how to
> keep the thing from freezing that night.
> That night McCain & Houtz (XF/BFL) had a barbecue at their pit so the
> evening went a little faster.
> At 4:00am Sunday Crew Chief Ed Weldon stuck his head in the RV door and
> said that I'd better fire up the pan heater. The temperature was below 10
> deg. I hit the Onan starter switch (the generator was hard-wired to the oil
> pan heater) and went back to sleep.
> At about 8:00 Roy Creel (SCTA Vice President, owner/driver of the only
> Model "A" engine (V/4) powered car in both the Bonneville Two-Club and the
> Dirty Two Club) stuck his head in the RV and asked what quick-change gear we
> were pulling on the previous days 188mph run. When I told him that we had
> left the 2.48:1 Bonneville gear in it he suggested that we remember that El
> Mirage was nothing more than a long drag race and that we drop the gear to
> what will make the engine scream at our target speed, 200mph. Son Brian said
> that he'd change the gear if I wanted to, so we calculated that the 2.70:1
> gear set would net 205mph and Brian set about removing the rear belly pan and
> making the change.
> The coolant tank that gave us so much grief at Speed Week was developing
> new leaks, probably caused by the overflow line being too small and
> pressurizing the thing when the engine steam was introduced into it. The crew
> removed the filler cap gasket, taped up the leaking seams, and wedged a
> plastic covered pad around the tank to keep the hot water off of the driver
> in the event it leaked more during the run.
> Sunday was a little warmer than the previous day, reaching 60 deg. by the
> time were in line at 11:00am. The course had been moved to fresh dirt and
> there was no significant wind blowing.
> The launch was a little more slippery due to the lower gear, second gear
> got a little loose as usual right after the 1-2 shift, and the engine quickly
> accelerated back from 4500rpm to above 5000rpm after the 2-3 shift. A glance
> down the course told me that we had a pretty good amount of real estate
> before passing Glen's timing trailer. The new course was much better than the
> marbles I was running on the previous day, but the car still was spinning the
> wheels enough to need constant attention and small steering corrections. The
> Ardun engine was really liking the extra 10% nitro and the lower gear,
> pulling really hard and showing 6500rpm as the finish line flew by.
> I hit the parachute and fuel shutoff levers together and this time the
> chute deployed, instantly slowing me nearly 100mph. As the car slowed to
> about 60mph I started a slow left turn off the course toward the Patrol guy
> and his big helium filled yellow balloon, knowing that he would be able to
> give me my speed since he was listening to the "party-line" CB channel. It
> turned out to be Keenan Tatro, the ever competitive SCTA motorcycle
> competitor. He said that I'd gone 200+. Boy was I happy!
> About that time Roy Creel came roaring up in his car and presented me
> with my brown "Dirty-Two-Club" hat. The actual time was 202.44mph, breaking
> the 188mph record I'd set the day before.
> Back to Impound we did the paperwork again with Dan Warner and were
> presented with the official "Dirty Two Club" tee-shirt, decals, hat, etc.
> What a weekend!!!!!! What a year!!!!!!! Four meets, five records (okay,
> okay, two of the records were open with no minimum speed), and two 200mph
> club hats. I am one happy and lucky guy.
> If it weren't for the support and encouragement of my wife Mary Lou (aka
> the Queen Mum), my son Brian, Crew Chief Ed Weldon who's been with me from
> the beginning in 1988, Kent Walton, Mike Gorvad, Luke Taylor, and 2000 Speed
> Week draftee Elon Ormsby none of it would have happened. I keep telling Brian
> that someday he'll tell his grandkids "you wouldn't believe what your Great
> Granddad and I used to do with some contraptions they called
> internal-combustion-engines on the dry lake beds and salt flats that are
> covered with houses now".
> Thank you for all of you that have had the patience to read this missile.
> Ardun Doug King
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