Just got word from Mario Velotta from thedubshp.net that I'm scheduled for a dyno session on Friday!! WooHoo!! I finally get more than an in-car tune and I'll get the fuel and spark properly tuned. It's going on an eddy current dyno so we will be able to get it tuned under virtually any load/RPM combination and not just WOT. It's really close now but I need to get the acceleration enrichment dialed in better especially with the muffler off.

Tomorrow, I'm installing a switch and wiring that I'll need to start using what's called "table switching" What this will allow me to do is when I go to the track and pull off the muffler and install the straight pipe, I can flip that switch and the Megasquirt will switch to a completely different VE table (and possibly spark & ARF table, but I can't remember exactly), so with that loss of back pressure, the motor will be perfectly tuned for it. Then when I replace the muffler, I can switch back to a street tune that's optimized for the added back pressure of the muffler.

I'll also be adding launch control switches too to aid in getting off the line better.



^^^^^^^^^

That's me doing the happy dance

ARF?? So you're saying it will be a dog? After all the work you've put into this build it oughta scream like a banshee once you get that AFR figured out! Finally put down some real numbers and hit Bonneville running great!

I can't wait to see this in person finally at WCR Nate! So damn cool

Oh man! Some things can't be unseen...even if they're just mental pictures.

So,. . . You're saying to DO fantasize about about big, ugly, middle-aged guys and what sets you off is seeing a banana in a sailor hat?????



I still like hanging out with you.

See...this is the problem...

Click to view attachment

I'll never get to sleep again.

Yesterday I headed down to Ozzy Motorsports for a dyno day event they were having. Pretty cool time. It was a very un-nerving experience though since one of their shop yahoos had to operate the car on the dyno and not me. I've only had my son and 2 of my closest, most trusted friends ever operate my car and I was in the car with them. . . Anyway, it passed pre-run inspection no problem and they got it strapped-on.

It laid down about what I thought it would. 150 RWHP with a calculated 180+/- at the crank. I ran it with the muffler removed and the straight pipe on. Since the dyno was in the center of the shop, it was freaking loud!! 6500 rpm goodness. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO5z8WabXZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO5z8WabXZ8

nice

Sounds like about 120 on The Salt to me.

Exactly!

Must force-feed, must force-feed. . .

60lbs of bottled n2o

Yesterday evening the weather was so beautiful around here with temps in the upper 70s, so Josh and I just had to go for a cruise. He's learning to drive a stick, so what better way to learn than with the Squarsche. We traveled the back roads of north Whidbey Island from Oak Harbor down to Greenbank and back enjoying the views. Here's a few shots that will make it easy to see why I live up here in this area. . .

At Flintstone park, Oak Harbor looking toward the Seaplane base:


At City Beach in Oak Harbor:


At the north end of West Beach looking toward the San Juan Islands:


At a random park on West Beach Drive:


At Ebey's Landing:

Wow, Josh is rally growing up. How long before he can take you?

Great scenery BTW. I'm almost ready to fire my rebuilt Subie so I can get the Westy out for some cruising. Maybe I'll come see you during the break-in.

Take me?? He probably could now, but don't say nuthin'. I've got him convinced it's never!! He's right about 6'+ 200# now. . . Man I'm old. . .

I doubt that the rear seat will ever go back in. Nobody ever sat back there and you really needed to be either under 5y/o or a double amputee above the knee to fit anyway. . . So I boxed it in.



I had enough extra carbon fiber from my door panels to make a matching box. I used 1/2" foam core to give it rigidity and still keep it light. I think the whole box weighs around 6#. Compare that to the seats which are somewhere in the 40-50#+ range.

It's actually not finished yet. I plan to cut about 6' from each side and hinge the middle from the rear to access everything underneath. I have it all one piece for now since I won't have that finished before Springmeet on Sunday.

Josh & I finally got a chance to get the Squarsche out on a true and legendary road course this past Friday. We signed-up for the SCCA Track Night out at Pacific Raceway (it'll always be Seattle International Raceway or SIR to me) and had a great time.

The night was uneventful for us, but was very expensive for a couple folks. A guy in a late model Porsche 911 GT2 skidded off and ruined a set of wheels and tool out his front bumper, left-side radiator and lots under the car. Fixable, but it'll cost him. A guy in an '05 Z-06 Vette right behind me lost it in the first 200 yards (!!) on cold tires and impacted the wall @ around 75-80mph before bouncing across and OVER the other wall and coming to rest in a heap on the drag strip. Paddy-wagon came and he was fine, but the car was a total loss. Anywho. . .

We needed to run this event with our full muffler on which meant we were down a bit on power plus it was running a bit lean @ WOT and you could feel the car hesitating in places, but overall it ran good. I ordered a set of race tires (Hankook Ventus R-S3 V2s), but they didn't come in time for this event, so I ran it on my ragged-out Sumitomos and they worked fine, but I was extra cautious in areas because of them. I was fully expecting brake fade to set-in, but it never did and was very happy about that.

On the last session, I told Josh to hop in and we'll let them tell us that he couldn't ride along,. . . No one did!! So he got to have some fun too!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdAGGP_fN4I

Great video--thanks for posting. Looks like you had a great time!

Also looks like the track has stayed about the same over the years (a good thing)--is there still a bump at the end of the long straight going into that left turn?

Thanks again!

Yes, the rise is still there. The down hill run to the back section still results in carnage too.

Nasty series if bumps @ turn 9 coming onto the straight is a car killer as is turn 1. 5B is sneaky too since you get light @ the apex and there's no real run-off. The Vette lost it on 9 and the GT2 lost it on 5B. I was getting a big light in the ass-end out of 1 which is pucker-time since you're well north of 100mph.

Super good time!!

In the old configuration, where the course USED to dump onto the drag strip and the drivers had to cross the starting line, I watched a real gt40 get loose on some oil laid down by a previous car. The gt Driver almost saved it. Almost. Broadsided into one of the jersey barriers. The collective groan was sort of funny.

thats pretty damn good! I dont want to go back through the entire thread but what are the specs on your motor?

Love the whole concept of this car

Thanks. It's a 2316cc (80x96), CW crank, H-beam rods, KB pistons w/ custom Webcam Ported/polished 914 2.0L heads w/ big valves, custom 4into1 header w/ lots of other little details along the way. All built by my son Josh when he was 14 y/o (his first motor build). Induction is MS3X w/ 45mm ITBs LS2 coils w/ fully sequential fuel & spark.

Can't wait!! Hotel reservations are in. The car is running awesome. I've got a final dyno day set to get the race tune dialed to the max. so far, the salt is in great condition. We're going back to World of Speed @ Bonneville September 9th - 13th with the Squarsche to defend our record and raise the bar a lot higher!! My son has to get his driver's license 5 days before we leave. If he does, he'll be racing for the first time co-driving!!

I've got it marked on my calendar, right after I come back from RRC! It'll be great to see you again - tune it up and give er hell!

Awesome! I love this thing.

What a great story.
I'll bet this years event at B'ville will be awesome.
Many regulars have been building and waiting over the last two years just like you.
I hope it exceeds your expectations.
Good Luck, be safe.

Got with Mario Velotta of www.thedubshop.net yesterday and converted my car from MAP based enrichment (speed density) to TPS based enrichment (Alpha N). The reason was that with the higher lift and longer duration cam, the motor doesn't make a ton of vacuum @ idle (about 72kpa)which can make MAP based tuning tricky. He also discovered that my map sensor had been malfunctioning and needed to be replaced anyway. This would explain my going lean @ altitude problem I noticed last weekend on a drive up the mountains, so. . .

He got it dialed-in and it runs awesome!! Instant throttle response at any RPM now. I'll be going to Bonneville this year with about 70 more HP at the wheels over last year (2014). Now I'm off to get a 4-wheel alignment. After that, I just have to pull the passenger seat out and remove the un-necessary stuff out of the car and we're ready for the trip next Thursday. Maybe this year we'll gain entry into the "130 Club"; we'll definitely be a lot faster than 2014!!

Here's the final dyno pull from yesterday. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bReOErRtRxE...eature=youtu.be

What were you using as a MAP sensor and where was it located?

I have a board like this with one engine MAP and one atmospheric MAP.

https://www.diyautotune.com/product/mapdadd...ic-correction/#

They are located on my ECU. Of course he had one in stock and soldered it on in minutes and we were back in business.

70 hp? ZOIKS! I can see a fancy plaque hanging in the shop. Then you make the local news and you have 70 hour weeks. Go get em' Nate!

We made it back down for round 2 @ Bonneville. This year we have the motor we should have had back in 2014. Also, my son Josh will also be driving the car too!! He literally picked-up his drivers license 4 days ago (Tuesday) and will be making his racing debut today out on the black line on the short course. If there's time, we'll re-tech, re-number the car and I'll take a crack at it

Going through tech


Josh pre-race photos


This years crew- Josh, me & Robert

















7

Nate, Thanks for the great thread and the updates. Good luck.

Looking at these recent photos of your car, it appears there may be a gap between the top of the front bumper-spoiler and the body work. At 100+ mph there might be a lot of air pushing through that gap creating lift and drag. Just a thought.

We're going to be trying it with and without the front bumper/air dam to see which is faster. Last time, we did run our fastest w/o it.

Today was the first day of racing. Josh kicked @$$!! I'm one super proud dad!!

On his first run (the qualifying run), he sandbagged it in 4th gear and ran a 104mph revealing me of my previous 2014 VW Challenge record. It wasn't a clean run, but it was good enough with the new motor.

His second run was mostly clean and the fastest of the day @ 115.4mph!! He's definitely raised the bar. What makes this even better is that he only recieved his drivers license 4 days ago and this was literally the first time he drove any car on his own w/o either me or his mom in the car with him!! I'm super proud of him!!

We're running just a little rich which will hurt power, so I e-mailed a datalog and tune to Mario from thedubshop.net and he's making positive changes to the tune. So tomorrow we should be even better. You just gotta love technology.

I ran my fastest w/o the front air dam and bumper assembly back in 2014, so we're going to run it removed and see how if that helps. We're also going to be taping all the seams and vents with duct tape too. :wink:

Getting ready to run getting last minute advise from Dad:



Carlos Wheeldon checking his belts and safety gear before his first run:



Away he goes. . .

What is redline with the new config? Sounds like a completely dif car on the dyno.

I've got the rev-limiter set at a fairly conservative 6.5k. The motor begins to drop off on power @ 6.2k, so there's no real reason to rev more.

Josh's fastest run (115.4mph) from 9/10/16. You can hear his excitement!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFYlj9ijO7Q

Congrats Nate and to your son Josh. I've been following this thread, awesome
stuff. Just so cool. Keep going and be safe.

Better make sure it's some of that special 130 mph duct tape!

Congrats to you and Josh...that is just huuuge!

Good luck on your runs Nate.

Today, first thing we partook in the HotVWs Magazine group photo shoot. This is always fun. Then we headed out to the start line for racing. Mario from www.thedubshop.net worked up a pair of tunes that made 10% fuel correction and 20% correction. The one that worked the best was the 20% leaner correction.

Josh finished-up the last 3 of his 6 runs. He improved with runs of 116.7mph, 117.4mph and his top speed was 117.786mph!! I still can't believe how fast he went with only 6 solo drives under his belt!!

After lunch, I went through tech and began my runs. Even though it was hot, I wanted to at least make the slower qualifying run before the cool morning tomorrow. I completely sandbagged the run and went 107mph. I decided to make one more run in the heat and ran a 117.5mph. So Josh currently still holds the record, but I suspect I could best it in the cool morning air if I get a clean run.

If the weather holds up I'll cruise out and hopefully see you run. Just got back from RRC so I'm up for a short road trip!

We had an amazing trip down to World of Speed 2016!! We got there and back without incident, the car ran flawlessly and we returned home closer friends/family than when we left. That makes for a WIN, WIN, WIN in my book.

First off, I cannot express my pride in words for how my son Josh drove the car!! He only received his license 2 days before we left and his first 6 solo drives without myself or him mom in the car were all 104+mph passes!! On his 6 passes, he made 104 (qualifying run), 115, 116, 115, 117.8, 116 & finished out with a 117.4 and then stayed in the throttle to 120 indicated by our GPS.

Josh's best launch on his last pass (like a pro):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rlOVH2mTH4

Josh stays in it to 120mph and celebrates with a few dabs @ speed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7dNkHSA6Uw

We re-teched the car and I began my runs. I pulled a 107 (qualifying run), 116, 117, 119.0, 117, 117 and then kept my foot in it all the way through the 2 and then 2.25mile traps. I found that terminal velocity for the Squarsche as currently set-up was 123mph!! That's all she's got in it @ 4200' on salt. Clearly, we have our work cut out for us over the next year to make it into the 130 club by the 1 mile.

Then it was my buddy Roberts turn at the wheel. He ran a 116 (he blew-off the qualifying run Laughing ), 115 and another 116. We were going to finish his final 3 runs the next morning when it was cool, but Mother Nature had her own plans. A rain storm blew through in the night and the track was under 1/8" of standing water in the morning. Sad So Robert has some unfinished business for next year.

I cannot recommend enough coming out and at least spectating one time at WOS and check out the VW Challenge racers. See the enthusiasm, smell the race gas, check out the amazing cars and take in the true spectacle of racing that is Bonneville Speedway.