,
 |
| Annie was somehow able to source decals for the car the day before leaving for Bonneville. The decals were important because they were our way of saying thank you to all of the companies that chipped in to help make Project 240 LSR happen. This also made the primed out car look more presentable. Her work with very little actually made a huge difference! |
 |
| The famous MotoIQ Nerd Alliance crest made a cool window sticker. |
 |
| A critical part of tech inspection is passing the bailout test. You must demonstrate that you can get out of the car in a reasonable amount of time fully suited. We had never tried to see if this was possible. Don't laugh, with the full containment seat, floor to roof safety nets and a cage designed to withstand violent multiple rollovers, we realized that this was not going to be easy. Add a bulky and restrictive SFI 20 fire suit, gloves, boots, plus a HANS device and this was going to not be easy. At first we thought the rules might be the same as road racing where you have to show that you can exit the car within 10 seconds. A few practice runs showed that Chuck was going to be in trouble if that was the case. Chuck gets stuck, I time and Annie laughs. |
 |
| Chuck wiggles out limbo style. With a lot of practice he was able to get out in about 12 seconds without the gear. We thought that we might be in trouble but looking at the rules more carefully we discovered that it was just “a reasonable amount of time”. |
 |
| A days work in the field turned the S13 into a mean looking race car. |
 |
| The parachute was a big concern to all of us. Previously we had noted that a lot of high speed spins and crashes seem to have resulted from improperly placed chutes. Chuck calculated the CG of the car and placed the chute in line with it to prevent an upsetting moment on the chassis. On the salt you are supposed to use your chute to do most of your slowing to prevent the surface from getting brake ruts so proper chute function is critical. Plus slowing down from 200 mph with your wheel brakes on the slippery salt would not be much fun. The other concern was proper packing of the chute. Surprisingly the chute came with no instructions on how to pack it. Christa was given the assignment of figuring it out but Wendover Utah has no Internet, hardly any phone connectivity and no data, not even in town! No one wanted to be responsible for Chuck's death so we were at a loss for what to do. We ended up watching smarter guys and using some common sense to figure it out. Chuck is still alive so we did OK. |
