Hey - its a race car! Pretty excited as this is really the culmination of 15 years now messing around with this old 52. I wrapped up some winter projects and finally felt like it was time to see what the car would do. Friday nights ar test and tune at 131 dragway. So I made the trek up there. Car ran great on the way up, no overheating problems like last year.
The car went through tech just fine, only had to pop off the hubcaps to run it. I ran it across the scales too, 3680 lbs with me in it. If you're not familiar with me bragging on this car, its a 52 hardtop with a 454 chevrolet. 9.3 compression, aluminum edelbrock heads, and a solid lifter comp cam. Turbo 350 with a mild converter and a 9 inch ford with 3.50 gears. None of this is serious race stuff really, just a quick street car. I ran it all night on 93 octane and through the mufflers.
So here is the fun part - the car runs really strong. On the street I can't get any grip to really feel it launch. But at track it stuck pretty good and man does it pull. I took a cautious first pass. The car generally steers good, but on a bad road it tends to wander a bit. The frame and steering is all stock Studebaker... manual saginaw box. Anyway that pass was a 13.29. But the car ran nice and straight and no trouble getting it slowed down at the far end. Next pass was a 13.21 but I was still a bit disappointed. I wanted 12s and the 60 foot times were slow. Traction problems.
So I started avoiding the water box entirely, and doing a few dry burnouts instead. Plus removed the air filter and got the air pressure down to 13lbs in the big MT sportsmans. Success! Pass 4 and 5 were 12.78 and 12.77. Right on the money, even mph was identical at 108. I cant tell you how good those runs felt!! A guy could make the car faster with some changes, but I'm super happy right there. Top it off my reaction times were pretty good and I cut a .0017 light on the 5th pass. Hell yea.
The rest of the story:
Instead of going home after that near perfect last run I went out for one more. .05 light was OK but the tires didn't get warm enough and spun. 13.00 for the last pass. On the way back to my spot I saw the temp gauge was higher then it had been all night. Something not right! I shut down and coasted into my spot. Temp was climbing like a rocket, 230 and still going. Sure enough, no fan belt. Apparently it didn't like 5500 rpm shifts and departed. I got the car cooled down immediately and i'm sure it's OK. But I had to send dad home for the car trailer. So it was a late night and I didn't get to triumphantly drive it home.
It's all back together this morning and i'm happy again. The car got a lot of attention even on a quiet friday night. People love the old Studebaker. There's nothing like racing for finding the weakest link in your car. But i'll be back again soon, now I know it's a legit racer. Sorry no better pics but i left the camera work to dad.
The car went through tech just fine, only had to pop off the hubcaps to run it. I ran it across the scales too, 3680 lbs with me in it. If you're not familiar with me bragging on this car, its a 52 hardtop with a 454 chevrolet. 9.3 compression, aluminum edelbrock heads, and a solid lifter comp cam. Turbo 350 with a mild converter and a 9 inch ford with 3.50 gears. None of this is serious race stuff really, just a quick street car. I ran it all night on 93 octane and through the mufflers.
So here is the fun part - the car runs really strong. On the street I can't get any grip to really feel it launch. But at track it stuck pretty good and man does it pull. I took a cautious first pass. The car generally steers good, but on a bad road it tends to wander a bit. The frame and steering is all stock Studebaker... manual saginaw box. Anyway that pass was a 13.29. But the car ran nice and straight and no trouble getting it slowed down at the far end. Next pass was a 13.21 but I was still a bit disappointed. I wanted 12s and the 60 foot times were slow. Traction problems.
So I started avoiding the water box entirely, and doing a few dry burnouts instead. Plus removed the air filter and got the air pressure down to 13lbs in the big MT sportsmans. Success! Pass 4 and 5 were 12.78 and 12.77. Right on the money, even mph was identical at 108. I cant tell you how good those runs felt!! A guy could make the car faster with some changes, but I'm super happy right there. Top it off my reaction times were pretty good and I cut a .0017 light on the 5th pass. Hell yea.
The rest of the story:
Instead of going home after that near perfect last run I went out for one more. .05 light was OK but the tires didn't get warm enough and spun. 13.00 for the last pass. On the way back to my spot I saw the temp gauge was higher then it had been all night. Something not right! I shut down and coasted into my spot. Temp was climbing like a rocket, 230 and still going. Sure enough, no fan belt. Apparently it didn't like 5500 rpm shifts and departed. I got the car cooled down immediately and i'm sure it's OK. But I had to send dad home for the car trailer. So it was a late night and I didn't get to triumphantly drive it home.
It's all back together this morning and i'm happy again. The car got a lot of attention even on a quiet friday night. People love the old Studebaker. There's nothing like racing for finding the weakest link in your car. But i'll be back again soon, now I know it's a legit racer. Sorry no better pics but i left the camera work to dad.
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