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Reaching 200 MPH in three miles meant that we had to take advantage of every inch of course. By the two rubber patches off the starting line, you can tell that we meant business. There’s no doubt that with over 600 horsepower at the wheels, our 5523 Motorsports built SR15VET 20V was producing enough power to surpass the 200 MPH mark. Getting it done in three miles wasn’t completely unreasonable either, even on the salt.
Upon passing the two mile marker, I knew that I was incredibly behind pace. At this rate, I was in danger of not even surpassing our previous record, let alone pushing it above the 175 MPH we needed to get on the long course. As I pushed harder, Project 240SX LSR continued to oversteer wildly, with the rear end sliding out to the right sending the car shooting left across course. It was a careful balance of applying enough power to continue accelerating while not spinning the car. We managed a 177.492 MPH pass and qualified for the record.
A couple weeks earlier, we had tested at El Mirage. She was definitely faster than ever and with the help of Steve Mitchell from M-Works aligning and corner weighting the car, she was also notably more stable. Something was different, something had definitely changed.
With highly active LSDs or welded/spool type rear ends like we run, a difference in rear tire pressure can cause a car to over steer. While the rest of the team packed up the car and prepped it to be towed to impound, Sean Rossi did a quick check on the tire pressures which revealed a leaking valve stem on the right rear wheel. With the culprit seemingly identified, we removed the tire in impound and had the valve stem assembly repaired that evening.
