What a season for Superchargered Outlaws will be with more new cars. The class is bigger than ever which means the competition will be more fierce and all teams will have to race smarter and harder to get those round wins to gain points for championship honours.
The CFR team returned from the winternationals with some confidence for the 08/09 season after over coming our new engine woes (bending connecting rods, every pass and braking blower belts, every second pass). By now I had some good consistant data from the data logger and #7 cylinder was cold at the launch. I made a change to the fuel system to try to over come this problem, which worked, but worked too well. We hadn't started the car since the Winters, as we had no need to. I planned to warm the car up first thing in the morning (nov 1) set the logger going while we held the engine at launch rpm for about 10 seconds and see how #7 temperature had changed. Unfortunately our old data logger had one of its tantrums and couldn't retrieve the data.
Normally we could have let the engine cool down and tried again, but when we were cranking the engine over Dad (Lindsay) noticed a unusual noise coming from the driveline. On investigation a transmission oil leak was found promting a thrash to pull the trans out, disassemble down to nothing, reassemble and reinstall. By the time we finished Outlaws had already started the first Qualifying round.
We raced around to the staging lanes to tag on the back of the field. We fired the car up and Dad did a nice shake down skid. He staged the car with a nice and warm cylinder head temp. On the step the car got straight up on the tyres and shook, as all the other high powered clucth cars did in the first session. With a big pedal, the car run a lazy 7.56 @ 200.
On return to the pits we pulled the plugs and found #7 melted. The leak down was 75% and I made the call to pull it down. So off come the blower, manifold, sump, cylinder head and pulled #7 piston and rod. The crown off the piston had sunk and due to the lean detionation bent the rod, now 5 passes old. We had spare pistons and spare second hand rods, but of the brand that bent in 1 pass with a good tune up. We could have it back together for 6 o'clock but elected not to, as it wasn't a big meeting and had family commitments Sunday so we packed up and left early.
The data logger told the story. Before #7 was about 400 degrees F at launch. With the fuel system change it was up to 860 and got up to 1240 on the pass, Chenobyl!
So next week down come the engine and in with a new piston and a new set of rods. Unusually I test run the engine before heading to the track and for the first time I got to sit in the car with the engine running, which was quite an experience. So we're all set for the Goldenstates and yes I have put the fuel system back to our base line tune up. But fear not, we have fuel system tricks still to try to make this thing run harder.
See you at the track, Shane Catalano
2007 / 2008 race season reports
APRIL 2008
Hi race fans, I know its been a while since my last report, but there has been so much going of late. We have many projects on the go at the moment, probably more than usual. Dad is in the process of filling an area for a new shed to be built, hopefully this summer, to keep the trucks in, and more importantly, race car trailers. We will more than likely move our chassis jig to the new shed and try to keep the current shed a little cleaner and free from fabrication work. We have also scored a four post hoist off a mate. It needs a little work, but couldn't pass it up. The hoist will also go into the new shed. I have quit my job of 12 years at Westrac and now are self employed as a mechanical contractor. It would be no suprise to most, I have named my business "CFR Mechanical" The move will hopefully allow me to be a little more flexible and be able to do some fabrication work for fellow racers when they ask instead of having to knock it back, and put more time into our racing program as needed, which has been all season with the dramas we have had with car.
Speaking of which, two sets of bent connecting rods, two burnt pistons, burning top gear clutch pack twice, blowing the diff up and zinging the engine to 10100rpm. But it hasn't all been doom and gloom, we have run some awsome ETs and top speeds (6.49 & 216.86) which is what we like to do, and laid down many spectacular passes. We haven't won many races, but we knew before the start of the season it would be an R and D year. We have learnt a lot and have got the car handling the extra power well now. I'm reasonably confident we have got most of the dramas sorted and will get some of our old reliability and consistancy back. As you would expect, going that extra half a second quicker with a 3000lbs car, the maintenance has gone up and are finding a lot of things aren't lasting like they used to, and the attention to detail gets more important. It is really quiet absurd tring to bracket race this fast, I often ask myself why we keep pushing the envolope, but every time the car runs hard, it's such a high, and being within 2 100ths of the quickest Charger in the world, there's no slowing it down.
I am flat out piecing a spare engine together ready to go to the Winters, as well as freshening up the "A" engine with new rods (hopefully they won't bend) new rings and have had the pistons ceramic coated. We still have to deck out a 20 foot container to ship the car in. We picked up a sponsor this year, Quick Brick Cartage, which has allowed us to get to the Winters. It is a buzz to be part of such a big meeting and really appreciate the help from John at Quick Brick Cartage.
My poor race car is still on the back burner, with Powercuise coming to W.A. I promised myself I would get my ute going if it came over the border. So when I'm not busy(ha) I mounted a 440 in the engine bay, built a set of headers, fitted a front mount fuel tank, recessed the firewall to miss the 14/71 and have smoothed the engine bay a little, which is ready to paint. Then after the Winters I "just" have to build an engine from scratch, fit it, plumb the fuel system, cooling system, complete rewire, cut the hole in the bonnet bigger to suit the blower and hat and if I get time, fit a chute.......by October?
See you at the track.......Shane Catalano
29th December 2007
With four weeks between the meetings, we finally got the chance to pull the engine down. We found two bent rods and no idea of the cause which is a worry. Luckily we have a spare rotating assembly, which I fitted and reassembled the engine. The B & J Transmission was freshened up and we finally decided to make a suspension adjustment to try to keep the front end on the ground.
Race day, I left the same tune up in the engine even though the displacement had dropped from 526ci to 482ci and the day was hotter than previous meetings. First pass netted a lazy shake down 6.91 @ 207. It was pretty fat and a soft launch. I leaned the motor off a little and told dad to try some more launch rpm. That he did, the data logger showed 5600 launch rpm, but the good news was the car left flat, straight and hard, recording a 1.10 60 foot time, second best ever, and ran 6.70 @ 209 to top qualify.
I was pretty happy with that number considering the weather and the "little engine". We got back to the pits and once again another dead belt. I have decided to buy another new bottom pulley as it is the
only thing different from last season. Apart from that the car was good, or so we thought. We dialled in 6.63, thinking the would get better. We drew the Chapman brothers with their beautiful Mustang. The pass was going well, within one
hundredth of the previous pass, until about three quarter track when a pinion tooth in the diff decided to part company, punching the spool and crownwheel left out of mesh causing the engine to go from 7000 to 10400 rpm in about two tenths of a second. The car rolled to a 7.18@151 and the win due to Chapman breaking out. Ironically we made the B final but were unable to contest.
Unfortunately we can't make the next meeting, or two, due to running out of parts and money. We have had a good start to the season, running PBs, top qualifying three out of four meetings, making three B finals in a row and are a close third in points. We will now be out of the points race, again, damn it, but I think Ian Foster will be hard to beat this year, he's got an act going at the moment. Fear not we will be back ASAP. All the best for the new year everyone.
See you at the track.
Shane Catalano
1st December 2007
What a turn around from last meeting, the car gave us no trouble at all. Well almost, it's still killing blower belts, so more head scratching. First run Friday was a nice 6.67 shake down and equalled our PB mph, which was a good start for the weekend. I had tightened the clutch back up after last meeting and the car was wheelstanding hard again. We prepared the car for the second session, but the rain came. By the time outlaws come out again, we had decided the track would be too cold and with the good pass earlier, we would save the car for race day and packed it up for the night.
Saturday morning we roll up to the track and prepare the car again. We headed out for our first run of the day hoping to back up the number from Friday night, as we are still trying to find the consistency you need in group three. We ran 6.62 at only 203mph, but it had to be one of the wildest passes I have ever seen. The car wheelstood several times, went from the fence to the centerline and back for the whole pass and best of all hoisted the front end about a foot in the air on the top gear change. Needless to say I was jumping up and down on the startline excitedly, more so than usual. We pull up at the end of the track and the first thing dad says to me is, "sorry Shane, I cocked something up, I don't know if it was a gear shift or what". I replied, "mate you did well just to get to the other end, that was @#&king wild", and described to him what I had just seen.
We were all pretty happy with ourselves at this point. We got back to the pits, jacked the car up and found the blower belt was dead again. So fitted another new belt, this is starting to get expensive. We decided to try another 1000 rpm launch as the track seemed good. This probably wasn't the smartest idea we have ever had, as the car doesn't want to keep the front wheels on the ground anyway, but when did good sense ever come into drag racing. So out we go and the old man let it rip. The car hooked up and wheelstood but drove to the right. The front wheels weren't going to touch the ground any time soon, so dad had to lift which resulted in a 7.03 @ 214mph
. Later dad tells me that was the first pass this season that he has smashed the throttle hard on the hit. So I'm thinking we really need to tame this thing down, but we'll worry about that later. There's that good
sense again.
We had top qualified with a 6.62 and dialed 6.60 for the elimination round. We had a tough draw as we had Bushdog, current champ, but he red light. Dad was a bit gun shy after the last pass and only squeezed it off the line and run a 6.90, but cut a good light. Our package was good enough to make the B final for the second meeting in a row. With a mad thrash to turn the car around for the final, we made it back to the staging lanes in time to take on Ralph Kometer and his killer monaro dial in at 6.75. Kometer cut a .002 rt to have us on the ropes but only managed to run 7.00. Mean while dad cut an average light, and he said only just caught him in the lights with our 6.67et for the win.
See you at the track.
Shane Catalano
16th & 17th November - Top Alcohol & Top Bike
After a start to the season like we had, there was only one way to go, and that was down (it wasn't that bad) but you know what I mean. The only change we made to the car was lowering the wheelie bar to try to tame down the wheelstands. We went out for the first qualifier Friday evening the car shook, rattled and skated its way all over the track, forcing Dad to pedal it and do quite the driving job. It ran 7.01 at 203
which turned out to be our best qualifing effort.
When we got the car back and up on the stands, one of the boys noticed a cracked weld on the fuel tank. Allan, who crews for Mahnkoph, gave us some Selleys Knead It, to patch up the tank, which worked a treat. The good news was the headers were holding up after much re-engineering. I backed the clutch off a little and lifted the wheelie bar back up to try to get the car down the track.
When we got the car back and up on the stands, one of the boys noticed a cracked weld on the fuel tank. Allan, who crews for Mahnkoph, gave us some Selleys Knead It, to patch up the tank, which worked a treat. The good news was the headers were holding up after much re-engineering. I backed the clutch off a little and lifted the wheelie bar back up to try to get the car down the track.
When we got the car back and up on the stands, one of the boys noticed a cracked weld on the fuel tank. Allan, who crews for Mahnkoph, gave us some Selleys Knead It, to patch up the tank, which worked a treat. The good news was the headers were holding up after much re-engineering. I backed the clutch off a little and lifted the wheelie bar back up to try to get the car down the track.
The second pass on Friday was no better and yielded a 7.28 at 198, but our low oil pressure problem reappeared. We came to the conclusion that the oil we have been running loses it's viscosity when it gets hot. We were pitted next to Steve McGuiness and he kindly gave us 30 litres of the oil he uses, and this has seemed to fix the problem.
We turned up at the track early Saturday, to drop the sump and check the bearings as insurance. The bearings were good, no damage done. I backed the clutch off a little more to try to soften the launch. We went out at 3.30 and Dad was fired up after not yet being able to do a full pass. He did a great skid, but it was wasted, as he couldn't get into forward after backing up, and was forced to shut down. Darren White(Extreme Darren) and Mal Wilhelm(Horse) then pulled the reverser off the trans and found the splines burred. We repaired the reverser and refitted. After the meeting I found an issue with the clucth, causing it to drag, which is why the reverser got damaged.
We had a non kevlar blower belt on the engine that we had planed to only do a pass or two with, to see if we had fixed the belt issue, but with all the other dramas, we didn't get to change it. About 1000ft in the compulsory qualifier the belt broke and the car rolled to a 7.32 @156, another wasted pass. But the car only shook a little on the hit, and went straight, we were on the right track.
We had to then come up with a dial in, which isn't easy at the best of times, and even worse when we hadn't done one representive pass all weekend. Dad and I had an in depth discussion (about ten seconds) and agreed on 6.80. We drew Craig Classby for the elimination round. Classby's Commodore looks great in it's new orange duco. Luckily for us, Craig left a cherry on the tree. Our car again shook on the hit, but wheelstood as it got out and knew it was going pretty good. Dad jugded the pass well and rolled off it to run 6.88 at 172. Coupled with a .086 light, it was good enough to get a berth in the B Final.
Luckily for the first time all meeting, we only had to do a normal, between round maintainance, as that was all there was time for. The weekend was finally starting to turn around for us.
We got Al McClure for the Final. He and his family are some of the nicest people and the among best competitors you'll find at the track, and I don't think it will be long before Al is as hard to beat in Outlaws as he was in Super Sedan. We dialed a 6.70 and with two clean greens, the race was on. Al got a bit out of shape, which hurt his ET and Dad was able to again get off it to save the breakout.(6.95 at 169)
I can't thank enough, all our friends and the competitors, that helped us to get through the meeting. There was more than once I was ready to give up, your assistance and moral support allowed us to make something out of nothing, and end up with a good result.
See you at the track, Shane Catalano
3RD NOVEMBER - GRAND OPENING 2007 / 2008 SEASON
What a weekend! After screaming like a teenage girl at a Justin Timberlake concert, I have trashed my voice and now sound like my voice is dropping again. It started Friday night with my workmate, and new crewman, Paul Bowen running his immaculate black VH Commodore for the first time and ran a 10.79 @ 126mph on his third ever pass down a drag strip. The car is powered by a Vic Donis built efi 383 stroker Holden and runs the usual powerglide and 9 inch combo. Moving on to Saturday, we carried out our usual pre-race car prep with reasonably high expectations with the new engine showing promise at the test and tune. The only issue we had was oil pressure, or lack of, but we fitted a dry sump deal and had run it up at home and all seemed good. We went out for the 1.30pm pass as usual and Dad (Lindsay) was back smoking the track out as if he hadn't missed a meeting. He staged the car without a lot of head temp, but when he dropped the clutch all hell broke loose. The car picked the wheels up and as it drove out the clutch locked up. It got up hard on the wheelie bar and got higher as the tyres grew. Not used to the car running like this, Dad short shifted trying to get the front end down, which didn't seem to help a lot. Luckily with the bigger tyres and stiffer rear springs the car ran straight as an arrow. By now I was getting excited and was cheering the car on and running down the track after the car as usual, but I didn't expect to see a 6.76 @ 214mph and the first stage of my voice damage occured. We got the car back to our pit, removed the front clip, windscreen and jacked it up. All the crew got stuck into their routine and Dad noticed the new headers were looking very second hand. The rear pipes had bent down about 2 inches and the flanges were all bent. We jacked them back up and hoped for the best. The blower belt had shreded the rear edge, so I spaced the idler pulley out and fitted our only spare belt. Apart from that all was well. I gave Dad an ear full about not revving it up enough, as I often do, and we waited for the 6 o'clock run and had a cup of tea, as the 3.30 round was cancelled. We ran the next pass the same as the rest, as we try to do, but the Old Man was ready for the wheelstand and with confidence in the car's handling, he revved it up through the gears and reeled off 6.53 @ 216.86 mph to smash our PB from the pass before. Then my voice lunched itself. I couldn't believe it, we had already achieved most of our performance goals for the season. The only one left was a 1.0 60 foot time. Again the crew did their between round duties, and the headers were worse. We found 2 spare ratchet straps in the trailer and tied the the headers up to the chassis. Luckily the blower belt faired better. We decided the 8 o'clock pass would be the last pass for the night even if we made the finals as we were worried about running over our own headers, which wouldn't be good. With no changes to the car, we dialed in at 6.50 and let it rip.
The car launched hard, but unfortunately started to drift to the right about 100 foot out, and Dad had to pedal it to get the front wheels back on the ground so he could steer it away from the fence. It ended up running 7.05 @ 205 mph, but it gained 55 mph over the second half of the track, which impressed me. But the big news of that pass was the 1.07 60 foot time which was over a tenth quicker than the 6.53 pass. The headers were trashed, the second blower belt shreded, but we were bloody happy. We have spent every spare minute in the shed since the meeting, performing the usual maintainance, which includes dropping the sump, checking all bearings, removing the clutch and resetting, as well as repairing the headers and sorting out the blower belt issue. We have our work cut out for us to get the car turned around in less than two weeks, but with the help of another new crewman and welding guru, Ray Green, working on the headers, we will be back for the next meeting.
See you at the track.....Shane Catalano
The car launched hard, but unfortunately started to drift to the right about 100 foot out, and Dad had to pedal it to get the front wheels back on the ground so he could steer it away from the fence. It ended up running 7.05 @ 205 mph, but it gained 55 mph over the second half of the track, which impressed me. But the big news of that pass was the 1.07 60 foot time which was over a tenth quicker than the 6.53 pass. The headers were trashed, the second blower belt shreded, but we were bloody happy. We have spent every spare minute in the shed since the meeting, performing the usual maintainance, which includes dropping the sump, checking all bearings, removing the clutch and resetting, as well as repairing the headers and sorting out the blower belt issue. We have our work cut out for us to get the car turned around in less than two weeks, but with the help of another new crewman and welding guru, Ray Green, working on the headers, we will be back for the next meeting.
See you at the track.....Shane Catalano
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