Having raced @ SIR numerous times I can tell you that a typical day there is 3500' corrected elevation. My cars run almost the same times at SIR as at Medicine Hat because the 60's are better in the Hat.

Someday I will come out to Mission & race at sea level with you and experience sea level. When we still had a track in Calgary at typical day was 6000' corrected!

 

Hey Dave, I won't be making it to the Hat this weekend. To much going on here work wise and the W-30 needs a little repair. A major oil leak came up this spring and haven't had a chance to work on it yet. Would have been a great weekend to run the two Olds side by side. And yes I did complete my licenceing at SIR, just waiting for it to show up in the mail. Now I can start playing with the beast. Might even bring it over for Wayne and the chassis dyno.

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SIR in Washington State? It might be called something else now as I have not been there in so many years. SIR is a sea level track and was a place to set records as is Mission. Ashcroft would be about 3500'.

New name is Pacific raceways

http://pacificraceways.com/Index.aspx

 

NO. SIR is SASKATCHEWAN INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

 

Hey fellow Vancouver guy here, whereabouts are you located? I'm out in Surrey I'll have to keep an eye out for this car. Its absolutely stunning.

 

I am in Tsawwassen BC part time. My principle residence & my cars are all in Cochrane AB.

How is that Omega working out for you?

 

Goin good! Just put 3 months insurance on her today. Just waiting till I find another job or have another one of my income tax/gst cheques come that I've been waiting for to do the front shocks, front brakes, and fix the leaky cooler hardlines on the tranny, after that she will be good as gold.

Ah you're not too close to me then, still I'll keep an eye out haha.

 

Dave does it work out to be about a tenth per 1000 feet elevation?

 

Yes that is a reasonable approximation. 3% hp loss per 1000' elevation.

The car is in the trailer & I am ready to roll down to Medicine Hat. Leaving right after lunch.

Look for some updates tomorrow. Fingers crossed I can sneak into the 13s.

 

Got to the track and unloaded. Got thru tech and was warming up the car when the rain came. Rained out tonight so no passes.

Fingers crossed for a sunny and warm Saturday.

 

After a rain out on Friday the weather on Saturday was better but we had some of the worst air I have ever seen in Medicine Hat on a race day. Temps were good at 78-82 deg F but the corrected altitude ranged from a best of 4526' to a worst of 4961' with most runs in the 4850-4950' range.

1st pass 14.71 @ 98.76 mph with 2.374 60'

2nd pass 14.66 @ 99.05 mph with 2.355 60'

3rd pass 14.64 @ 98.49 mph with 2.360 60'

All these were in qualifying. 17.5 lbs air in the 255 60 15s MT ET Streets

4th pass 14.62 @ 98.89 with 2.330 60' (eliminated by a faster car)

Went to test & tune & thought to add 3 lbs air to rear tires now 20.5 lbs

5th pass 14.48 @ 99.12 mph with 2.285 60'

raised air pressure to 22 lbs

6th pass 14.47 @ 99.72 mph with 2.320 60'

drop air pressure back to 20.0 lbs for one last run

7th pass 14.55 @ 98.89 mph with 2.312 60'

no more T&T available. Load for home.

Driving this car is very different than any of my big block cars or the stroker small block. It leaves very soft but really comes on thru 2nd gear. I was very frustrated by the poor 60' times & feel it was a combination of bad air & lack of low end TQ. The car really screams for 3.91 gears to be put back in as the 3.42s do not get it done at the track.

As far as mph I was very happy with the car. It almost made it to the 100 mph mark missing by only 0.28 mph.

Corrected to sea level the 14.47 would be a 14.0 flat & the mph would be closer to 102. I can live with those numbers. I did not have a chance to weigh the car as the track did not make the scales available for this street car event.

I have had 3 different carbs on the car & there is an off idle stumble @ 1800-2000 rpm that is not carb related. The issue is in the distributor which is the original piece with pertronix installed. It is time for a drop in ready to run MSD or to have that distributor gone thru & rebuilt & re-curved by an expert with a SUN machine.

This car will not be going back to the track this year. I will have my 87 442 back in a couple of days & my 72 442 will be track bound for the balance of this season.

The car drew lots of looks & some nice compliments. The older crowd (50 plus) knew what the car was & were happy to see it running. I was proud to be there carrying the flag for Team Oldsmobile & feel I represented very well.

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Dave how was the traction?

 

I heard from my fellow racers that it was not as good as normal. I spun the tires on the 1st couple of passes for sure.

I think the right tire for this car is a 275 50 15. Swapping tires is easier than swapping gears. If the car goes back to the track it will be with 275 50 15s (wide 26" tall tire - the 255 60 15s that I ran are too narrow & tall for this car with the current 3.42s).

 

There are a set of 4:66's and a set of 5:00 on ebay...just in case!

 

Thanks for the heads up. A buddy of mine has a set of 4.66s here if I want them. A switch to either of those gear sets would mean the car is useless for anything but the track. 4.33s would be silly too for how I use the car.

3.91s is what it came with & what it should have. I will find a set as time & money permits but even if I aquire the gear set I likely will not put them in the car any time soon as the car won't be track bound again any time soon.

 

my small block leaves kinda soft too, but if you get the revs up past 3500 it starts to pull hard and wont let go till you start to float the valves,my budds cant believe the revs it will pull and the cool sound it makes compared to the chevs and fords around here. i guess that explains the massive balancer that should be hanging off the front of your motor, get the revs up and let the momentum pull at the front wheels,
also dave havnt had any luck with campbell river parts guy,

 

3.91 would be perfect we ran 4.11's in our clone 69 w31 and it is boarder line gear for the street with a 3 speed auto. The 3.91 would really bring your times down. I think the exhaust system hurt your et as well. I know it is not as fast as your race car's but it sure is a cool car. I think the fact it came from the factory with 3.91 rear and manual brakes and steering adds to cars cool factor. It will be nice to see how quick it is when you have returned it to its original build specs.