1979 Malibu

[Basement Paul]

Good luck. I am not going.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

I get it -- I just want to make some passes, shake off the stink of last week.

[Basement Paul]

And I think if you show up around 6:15-6;30, you'll still get a couple passes. The weather doesn't look too good though as the day progresses.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

After 2 years worth of Drag Week, I got a collection of pics with all the track names..

Drag Week 2024

[TireSmoker]

Drag Week 2025

[Basement Paul]

That's really cool, especially in 25 with your plate.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

Yeah, once I started putting them all together, it was pretty cool. Actually, all of them are just screen captures from the videos that Scott took.

I need to get some similar shots at Thompson and 42. I have a pretty well-traveled race car!

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

Maliboost made it's 2026 debut at Kuhnle last night, and things could not have gone better. First pass, 9.999 @ 135!! I love seeing 9 second timeslips.

I wanted to see if i could slow down the ET a little, but keep some MPH, so I took some boost out (45 -> 40), but raised the rev limit from 6700 to 7200.

Next pass was 10.006 @ 135. EXACTLY where I want it. A third time run against one of the Corrigan's in their newly acquired '65 GTO 6.0 turbo netted a head-scratching 10.26 @ 131. 60' was the same, but MPH at the 1/8 and 1/4 were both down by 4mph. I had no good reason for why it slowed down, so I just ignored it.

For eliminations, I dialed a 10.05, but lit the red light, -.02. I was running against a Camaro dialed 13.97. I caught him before the traps, and would have had time to lift.. but I ran it out and went 9.992 @ 136.

Reaction times were all solid -- .06, .02, .06, -.02

A very successful season opener. My goal is to win Street Machine Eliminator at Drag Week this year.

[TireSmoker]

I took the car out to Thompson this past Saturday 5/30 to run the car again. After Wednesday, I was feeling pretty good. (I'm writing this up waaay late)

However, right from the start it was a challenging day, I backed the car out of the trailer, I couldn't move the seat forward, and the adjuster bar just came right out. Of course, the seat is too far back. Fortunately, not ALL the way back. I was almost just gonna pack up and go home, but I knew they woudnt refund my $75. I decided I had comfortable reach for the brakes, but I was straight-legged and on my toes for the gas. Alright, whatever, let's do this.

First pass, I run a 10.18 @ 133. Next pass 10.25 @ 133.. wtf? Why so much slower than Wednesday, with better air? Checked the datalog, and I was only getting 7-8 psi, not my expected 10-11. Further, it showed it wasn't even commanding the boost controller (0% duty cycle) until 3/4 of the way through my run. It should be 40% the whole way. I had played with one setting called "Launch Boost Duty %", which I thought was how much boost duty cycle it should command when the transbrake button is in. It had been 0. I changed it 30, thinking it might spool the turbo faster when I'm staging. For some reason, when set to 30, it totally delayed my boost coming in. I set it back to 0 and went 9.95 @ 135. I followed it up with a 10.00. Head scatcher. I posted a question in the megasquirt forums about it. I feel like its a bug. https://www.msextra.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=615221

I dialed 10.05 for 1st round. I accidentally rolled into both beams, instead of just the first, before the other guy was even close. I felt like a dick, but oh well. He was dialed 9.25 and he red-lit against me.

I kept the same dial for round 2. I was up against another low 9 second car, but I think he off his dial, I won what felt like pretty easily.

Round 3, I was now against a slower car, an 11-second purple Duster. I'm writing this so long after the fact, that I forget the details of this race other than I won.

We are now down to the semi finals, 4 of us left. The 1/4 Mile Hot Rod class was originally going to pay 1500/500, based on a 50 car field. But we didnt have 50, so it was pro-rated to 750/250. One of the racers proposed a split, $250 for everyone, with the actual winner taking home $30 extra in round money.

I proceed to fuck up during staging, my finger slipped off the transbrake button and I ended up way too deep. I ended up red-lighting. But my opponent cut an .008, so I was probably going to lose no matter what. But I still wen't home with $250!! It's the first time I won more than $50 from Animal on Wednesday (which I only won a couple time)

[TireSmoker]

So after the race on May 30th, I had to fix my seat adjuster. The adjuster bar just fits/stays in by the springiness of the steel pressing outward to stay engage on a couple pins. After 2 seasons of me using my foot on the adjuster, it tweaked enough to fall out. The fix ended up being pretty simple. I got a thread coupler and two pieces of threaded rod and used them to hold outward pressure.

A week later on June 6th, I went out for just to test n tune a little, but also to finally get Scott into the car. We asked about the rule for passengers, and they said you couldnt go quicker than 13.99. So he got in the passenger seat, we made a full launch and a few hundred feet, then coasted to a 15.xx. I then put him in the car solo and he made a couple passes, his best being a 10.78.

For the final pass, I turned up the boost control higher than I'd ever set, 55%, AND set the rev limiter at 7200.. I was rewarded with a 9.86 @ 137.8. My best MPH ever, and right there for my quickest pass. (9.80). It was a successful day.

On June 13th, I headed back out to Thompson to try my hand at an 1/8 mile race, The Lake Effect Showdown. I entered the Baby Gangstas class, which was a 6.30 index. I had run 6.34 my previous times out, so I thought I could maybe hang. There were only 10 cars in class too.

For this race, there is a chip-draw to determine matchups each round. My 1st round competitor didnt show up, so I got a competition bye run. The next round I was up against an S10 and manged to take the win. This put in the semi-final round. Now familiar territory.

I was up agsinst a 4th gen Firebird driven by a 50-something woman. They were pitted right next to me, so we had been chatting across the afternoon. She just crushed me. She put a big holeshot on me and then womped the throttle twice before the finish line. I'm gonna guess she had at least a 6.10-6.0 tuneup in there. When I looked at the replay,, I'm not sure I got tree'd too bad, but she definitely got out on me. So I lost again the semi-final. Going back to Drag Week '25, this is 3 events in a row where I've lost in the semi-final.

[Basement Paul]

Every time you go out, you get more experience. It's only a matter of time...

-BP

[TireSmoker]

After the Lake Effect Showdown, I had the familiar tick-tick-tick of an exhaust leak and found another bolt missing and two that were very backed out. I decided I've had enough decided to take action. I had already ordered some 1/16" drill bits from amazon and went to work.

I'm going to pull the headers soon to re-wrap them and replace the gaskets, and at that point I'll safety wire them.

At the Lake Effect Showdown, it became obvious that I needed a staging/bump button when running on a Pro Tree. I can't build boost quick enough. The good news is that Megasquirt natively supports transbrakes and a staging button (bump button). It was a little more work than I thought at first, as I ended up redoing some work from when I first built the car. But in the end, I added a new solid-state relay to control the transbrake, and a physical staging button. It works as expected in driveway testing.

Every time you go out, you get more experience. It's only a matter of time...

-BP

You're right -- it just frustrating, DW was a 32 car field, the next race was a 20-something car field, and this was only 10.

[MostMint]

More reps with the car might help too. Uncover any other chances to improve it, learn it under more different types of conditions.