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You might wonder why race on the salt flats? Well the salt flats are one of the longest flat places to run in the world. You have a 6 mile long straight to try and go as fast as you can. Due to the commercial pumping of brine to produce salt, the salt flats have greatly shrunk in size since their heyday in the 60's. Because of this the ultra fast record attempts by jet and rocket cars are now run in the Black Rock Desert or Tunisia but most of the attempts to break other speed records are held here. We are attempting to break the H/PS record which is for forced induction totally stock bodied sedans with a displacement of 1000-1500cc.
We arrive to find that Chuck's car has suffered a major electrical glitch right on the starting line. The car stalled and won't restart. We jump right in to try and help get the car back out on track. We think this is something simple…
The car is putting, not quite starting and pumping out gobs of black fuel smoke. We turn off the fuel pump while cranking to get it lit off and it starts and sort of runs. The engine is blubbering and pig rich like it is in limp mode but the ECU is not throwing any DTC codes. Two master techs and a couple of ME's are now on deck trying to figure the problem out.
Chris Allen checks the ECU for codes while George Peters tries to start the engine. Both of these guys have years of SR20 experience.
I note unusually high airflow meter voltage. I also note high ground voltage in the MAF circuit so I rig up an external ground to fix that. We also clean the MAF sensor element. None of this helps. The car is set up to run a big Ford Cobra MAF and we have a friend in Salt Lake City about 150 miles away that has one. We send Sean Rossi out to fetch it.
The LSR car engine is a pretty cool piece. The block is a Silvia SR20DET. It is destroked to 1500cc with a SR16DE crank that has been worked over by Castillo Cranks. The bottom end has K1 connecting rods and JE forged pistons. The top end features a rare SR20VE 20V head which is the highest flowing SR20 head ever produced. Its flow rivals that of the Honda K motors. The head has SR20VE N1 cams. John Kuchta of Specialty Cars Fabrication built the intake manifold and surge tank. The exhaust manifold is a twin scroll part built by Full Race Motorsports. A Borg Warner EFR turbo is used with twin turbosmart wastegates controlling boost pressure. The boost is fed into a Spearco water to air intercooler with the charge pipes using a Turbosmart BOV to vent excessive surge pressure on shifts. Nick Hunter of 5523 Motorsports assembled the engine and Jim Wolf Technology did the tuning.
