Hard Limit – The curse of the black primer

With the car in black primer, Master S. gave the car a good flogging. He wanted to work out any issues before making the car pretty. To our dismay, a lot of people liked the car in black primer. To put it kindly, we question their judgement.

Here’s the car at Union Grove.

Photo by DLR Imaging. Thanks, Dave.

As it turned out, there were a few things to be changed. Craig had to add the support behind the Lexan windshield to keep it from caving in at 150MPH. Additional Dzus fasteners were needed on the hood because the air flow bent the tabs, despite gusseting. The front bumper was brutalized when Craig’s race trailer was sideswiped on the highway. A few pieces of trim departed the vehicle, probably out of fear.

Craig has turned an 8.27 with the car. It has potential for quite a bit more, but the clutch has been a puzzle. After one clutch, which turned into dust, Master S. got it rebuilt with different discs, heavier springs, etc. That clutch also turned into dust. Then he went to a Boninfante dual 9″ clutch. That was clearly better, but still had some issues. So, he got more aggressive discs for that clutch. It seems to “mostly” work now.

Then, late in the 2019 season, Master S. made a run at Great Lakes with a lot of wheel hop, which is unusual. He was preparing for the next run, when Dan Hardisky, Master S’s guardian angel, asked Craig about his shocks. Dan crawled under the car and said “You better look at this”. After a look, Master S. knew the next run would have been disaster.

Bent brackets
Broken Heims on the four link

So, that ended the season for Master S. with mixed feelings. Busted parts don’t make him happy, but his next run would have been very exciting. He’s lucky for sure.

Winter of 2019-2020 saw a beefier four-link setup. The rear frame rails were beefed up. New brackets, with doublers welded in place, and a wishbone instead of the always-irritating diagonal track bar.

With the repairs complete, the car was torn down for paint. Finally, we will be rid of the black.