Gary Perkinson

Just wanted to post an update on my land-speed HHR's progress. After a long fall and winter of getting the car caged and having the auto trans swapped out for a GM F40 six-speed, I finally ran the car at last week's Ohio Mile in Wilmington, Ohio (due to work commtments, I could only run on Saturday). Made a 125 mph licensing run (you have to stay within 5 mph of 125) and ran 126, then took a shot at 150 but only ran 136. There's a lot more power in there (the car has a 2.0 LNF with a Bullseye turbo, and made 360 whp on the dyno two months ago), but I just shifted terribly and will need more passes to get used to keeping the car in the powerband. But it was a lot of fun, and I'm happy that the car ran great and made two clean passes. Will run again in July at the one-mile Maine Event in Loring, Maine. I've attached a shot of the car going through the traps on the second run.

843de

Its looking good Gary, are planning on lowering it or going with a deep splitter and side skirts if allowed.

The more air you keep from going under it, the lower the overall drag number, and you'll see a difference in the top end and stability.

Gary Perkinson

Hey...yeah, I'm thinking about coilovers as one off-season upgrade, and then possibly a simple rubber skirt around the front to take up whatever space is left between the bumper cover and the ground. The last couple of months have been such a thrash to get all the safety stuff ready that I'm currently taking a small break :-) I've still got more interior stuff to work on (door panels, etc.), so this will pretty much be how the car's going to be for Maine in July and then Ohio again in September. But it's a long-term work in progress, so things will gradually (or, if I get impatient, quickly) change in the coming years...

black Tara

Hi Gary, I'm sure you have much more experience in land speed record then me.
Do you use any kind of tuning software?
I've heard that at these top speeds the engine can actually run lean, which is a problem getting up to the speeds that this car is capable of getting to.
have you changed the injectors or tuned for this. Just curious cause I have had my hhr ss up to 130 and just backed out cuz on the freeway it got scary to me, but I felt there was more to go.
Good luck
Tim

Gary Perkinson

Hey, Tim: Yeah, I have HP Tuners, but I'm totally in the baby-steps stage. The guys at ZZP (after they installed the six-speed) tuned the car for 93 pump gas (which I requested, but which was probably a waste of time, since the car will never see the street). On the one dyno run we made, the car made around 360 whp at roughly 23 pounds of boost, which was great, but I started to get a little paranoid about running that much boost on 93 gas for a mile at WOT. So at the track I threw in five gallons of VP Fuel's C10, which is a nonoxygenated unleaded blend of roughly 96 octane and a stoich point of around 14.5 (I also could have used C9, which has a lower octane but higher stoich point). I was hoping that the higher octane and higher stoich point would keep the engine from running lean at WOT, and it seemed to do the trick--I didn't hear any knock or anything strange. Then again, as I said, I didn't shift very well, so I was all over the powerband. Once I get better acquainted with HP Tuners, I'll probably tune the car for 110 race gas or E85 (which may require bigger injectors).

I don't know where you live, but if you're interested in running your SS at an ECTA (Ohio) or LTA (Maine) event, you can go up to 135 without any non-stock safety stuff other than a full-face helmet and 1/2-inch lug nuts. It's a lot of fun, and there are no cops or other cars to worry about... Check out landracing.com--it's the go-to site for land-speed racing...

black Tara

Gary I forgot to ask is the 6 speed an auto?
Tim

DrLoch

Most people with LNF's have had good luck with E85 and adding a 5th injector in the intake. You can get most of the details on the HPTuners site. That 360 was that at the wheels or the flywheel? BTW you wouldn't hear it knock, the computer would detect and adjust the timing. Log the next run you make, it will show and tell you everything that's going on. Has anything else been done to the motor?

black Tara

I totally agree DrLoch, I know when I had my tune done, I asked them to check on the dyno on WOT that my car wasn't running lean. That will kill a motor so fast at WOT running lean. And your right the computer will adjust, so your butt dyno will never know and it won't knock.
Tim

Twistedtat

Thats pretty awesome, an HHR doing a mile run event. Keep it up, and best of luck.

breds2k

If I can do 150mph EASILY on GMS1 tune with bolt ons you can do better! LOL at the parachute.