We met with the Regional Executive of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Dan  Halloran.  Dan is also on the board of Rose Cup evets for PIR.

Meeting items discussed:

- Honorary Pace Lap - to precede official pace lap.

- Use of PIR facility for initial car testing/Course testing

- Addressing all safety concerns of the board

- Sponsorship concerns

- Future SCCA events

After meeting discussion:

- Financial needs

- Documentory concerns

-  Additional sponsorship

The over all feel of the meeting was very posative as Dan openly voiced his support for this project. He will be meeting with the Rose Cup Board Thursday December 4th and will discuss all our h.

So Ron has asked me give a weekly update concerning out search for a place to make this historic run.  Ron began our search with an organization on the Bonneville Salt flats,with  the USFRA.   They took a while to get back to us so we felt they were really spending some time trying to find a way to work with us but in the end they decided the rules were the rules and they were unable to make an exception.  But they didn’t leave us empty handed.  They gave us several other leads that they felt had a better chance of working out for us.  I will be looking into each of them if my current inquiry to PIR fails to work out.  This week I sent out a couple Emails to folks at PIR that I am hoping will work out.  Ron mentioned he had spoken with a high ranking guy at PIR that seemed very excited at the idea of helping us out.  We are hoping this is the same guy.  I will look for a response early in the week and if I don’t hear anything back I will move on to the next name.  Keep up the prayers and if you have any ideas please let Ron know so he can pass them on to me.

The Firebird boarded the car hauler on Monday bound for Arizona to recieve its master control system by Dignified Motors. (See departure videos on the Monster Garage page)

As I am typing this Blog I have recieved word via Mike Peters our procurement guy,  that the car has arrived safely at Dignified Motors.

We will not rest but generate a new punch list to prepare for the cars return in February;

 - E-stop installation

 - Body & Paint

 - Interior

 - Brakes & Tune-up

 - Sound system

 - Ron Heagy options (To be determined)

Once Dignified Motors starts on the car, we will conference call with Dave Aitchenson at our next meeting (TBA) to get an update as well as any items he may need to add to our list.

The BWI parts arrived ahead of schedule as promised and we were able to install the proto type e-stop. This saftey system is used to kill power to the vehicle in the event Ron has an emergency during his run.

 We installed the prototype system and did some short range testing then removed it so as to rebuild the final system on the bench while the car is down in Arizona getting its master control system.

Curt mocked up a protoype of his design and with help from Jay they installed it on the car, then I test drove it on a beautiful sunny fall day ( See Monster Garage Page for photos)

 With my foot mashed to the floor the acceleration is severly de-tuned but over the course of a 1/4 mile, the car was still able to acieve a maximum speed of 50 mph.



 

We have scheduled a conference call at US Digital between the Quad Squad, Dignified Motors and Ron Heagy to go over the three punch list items as a final push before shipping the car to Arizona the first week of November.

1. Seat fabrication

2. Governor Bracket

3. Long Range Remote E-Stop

SEAT: Thanks goes out to Ed for his huge effort on the seat modification (looks great Ed!) and to Jay for hooking in the relay circuit for the 'seat hand pendant' so that the seat can be operated outside of the car with the ingnition switch in the off position.

GOVERNING BRACKET: Curt Buchanan has created a plastic 'Govenering Bracket' based on his design and will be testing fit and clearance prior to our prototype. Once the prototype is complete we will test the cars 25% accleration intervals. (It will be funny and we will capture it on video)

LONG RANGE REMOTE E-STOP: We found out that like most company's these days, the parts we ordered from BWI Eagle begin their construction as soon as we place our order....this ment that it would take up to 3 weeks to include shipping to recieve are parts. Thanks to BWI and Mike Peters our procurement guy, they were able to speed up production of our parts and ship UPS ground. Thanks guys you saved us $$ and time, we hope to have parts in hand for our next meeting at US Digital October 2nd.

Note: Car scheduled to ship 1st week of November

See Partners Page for this Blog... 

Thanks goes out to Quad Squad members Dave Vickery and Mike Peters for their work in securing a long range transmitter/receiver system needed for our remote E-stop.

Through both Dave and Mikes passion for the project we now have found a very hearty remote system that can be used for shuting systems down in the event Ron has trouble during his run. Through generous discounts from Dave Festog owner of BWI Eagle we now have a line of site range of up to 25 miles!

 Additionally, BWI has partnered with us to provide technical support to ensure  their product  is maximized to provide the very best remote E-stop for the 'Heagy Bird'.

See Monster Garage page for photos of this Blog

Once a gapping hole was created, Ed and I set out to gain a 4" drop with out dragging Ron's butt on the ground. Our first goal was to establish a strong outer frame with a 4" depth from the original seat position. Additional width was also added to the new seat frame due to transmission tunnel to seat clearances. We were happy at the end of the day as we saw the frame welded into its new location - 4" inches lower and wide enough for the seat to fit!

 Please see Monster Garage page for photos of this Blog

After placing Ron into the car we could not get enough vertical placement of Ron before his head began to touch the headliner. In order to establish good visability of the road (Salt) Rons driver seat will need to come down 3~4" to include his crash helmet.

In classic Ed Tolon fashion the seat was removed and the floor board exposed in a timely fashion to reveal a very rusty floor pan. Time to cut out the cancer and add a dropped floor pan.