Project "What was I thinking?"

After a bust dyno session last week. We headed back to the dyno at ZipTie Dynowerks last night. T. Talon ran awesome and put down 602hp/474tq at 36 psi. I'm still running the evo maf so we didn't push the boost any higher because of maf overrun. Yes, I do plan on going speed density. The car just hasn't been up and running long enough this season to get it done. The last race of the year is tonight...

Quick summary:

• Fifth gear broke in Par dog box.
• Installed fifth gear delete
• Drove car around the block, roll pin broke in dog box
• Bent the rods, cracked 2nd gear in the dog box and twisted the input shaft
• New motor installed - went to Eagle rods, built the head, added Kelford 280 cams
• Been waiting five weeks for Par to make me new internals
• Sick of waiting so I sent Shepherd

...

Going back to May 6th, I had a camera crew come out and film me for an online project. Anyway, after a day of filming at home, they followed us to Rocky Mountain Raceway. First run was a bust, can’t exactly explain why. Second run I got all setup with in car cameras. Launch sucked, again – unsure what happened – slamming gears didn’t go well, then fourth went in and stuck. Limped down the return lane...

Finally getting the hang of shifting the Dogbox.

Bogged the launch a bit. A clean run "should" get me that 9 second pass.

YouTube - Eagle Talon running 10.35 at 139 mph

Finally T. Talon is running again. Now if it would only stop snowing here in Utah. The noise of the dogbox is going to be hard to get used to!

YouTube - Starting up my Eagle Talon

In February, I came across a Magnus dogbox for sale on a message board I frequent. I tried holding out as long as I could, but temptation won. Videos like this from my local track don't help (Casey was running a PTE 6262 and a Shep Dogbox!) The Magnus dogbox is now at my house waiting to be installed.


...

Start of the fuel cell mock up


A bit further


Almost there


Back half carpeted
...

After waiting patiently for about a month, my Wilwood front brake kit finally arrived from Summit Racing.



When we ordered the brake kit, we also ordered a set of scalped rotors from Speedway Motors.

Gotta love the ease of swapping out brake pads.

...

New year, new goals, new parts.

2010 was a good year, but I’m hoping 2011 will be even better. I’ve got a lot of room to grow with parts. I would like to click off a few low 10′s before going to a bigger turbo. But for now, here’s the upgrades currently in progress: Magnus sheetmetal intake manifold, Wilwood front brake kit (backs will probably be the same kit,...

The Midnight Drags last Friday night at Rocky Mountain Raceway turned out to be a good night for me! I ran a new best of 10.6 at 137 mph.



If you follow me on Facebook you would have seen my post about losing the tranny last Wednesday night. I guess you can only expect so many passes out of a stock...

We’ve been working on T. Talon since April 2008 and had her track ready by late 2009. We took her to Las Vegas in November and then again this past March. Been to Wendover several times and monthly to Rocky Mountain Raceways. Photo shoot in St. George for my Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine interview and another photo shoot for my CAM Auto Magazine interview.

We’ve been through one motor...

After a disappointing trip, scratch that – trips, to the racetrack a few weeks back we were stumped as to why. Ever since the motor swap (read about my over rev that resulted in spun bearings) a few months back I lost about six mph on the top end. Previously, even if I bogged the launch I could trap 130ish in the quarter mile. Now I haven’t been able to get above 124 mph. We thought we had the timing...

This has been a long process, but the roll cage, installed by Ben Hanks Racing, is finally done (crossing fingers - going to try and get it inspected on Friday).

What did I learn?

1. It's probably best to have someone who is familiar with the rules of IHRA install your cage. Yes, Ben Hanks Racing has built cages previously, I was referred to them by Vince Lung of Lung...

Recently, Dustin Jacobson designed a new logo for Girl in the Black Car. The first time I saw it I knew I wanted it on the hood of my Eagle Talon. We checked into hood wraps, but they're pretty pricey so I figured if someone was going to do it, let a local person get the credit. So I enlisted Shae Petersen and asked if he would aerosol (yes, it's hand sprayed) the logo on.

He asked...

I was giving the opportunity to be part of a new online magazine launch.

CAM Online Auto Magazine launched today and my Talon is on the cover.

Read the feature - http://camautomag.com/issues/CAMIssue1.pdf

We've been busy the last few weeks between installing a new motor in the Talon, ten year anniversary BBQ for UTDSM, having the roll cage installed and a photo shoot for an upcoming feature on the Talon (and me).

We finally brought the Talon back home from Ben Hanks Racing last Thursday. We had a photo shoot scheduled for the following Saturday night so we had to hustle to the interior...

We spent the last two weeks trying to get the new motor swapped in after my little mishap at the track. Last Saturday we got her running again.



After putting a mile on her we needed to get the windshield out for the roll cage to be installed. That is where Harbor Freight comes in. $17 and 15 minutes...

Second race into the season at Rocky Mountain Raceway and I put my Eagle Talon on the trailer, and not by its own power this time.

We've been playing with the shifter length and I've been having some issues getting into fourth gear. Well, this run I missed 4th and the motor rev'd up to about 10k-11k and hung there awhile. Motor stopped, I pulled over and was pushed off the track. We...

As if I needed more proof that my husband is awesome . . . He topped himself by coming up with the idea to engrave the valve cover on my Eagle Talon.



Here's a video of the CNC machine in action.

YouTube - CNC Machine Engraving 4G63 Valve Cover

It's not completely...

Finally got a real 10 second time slip in my Eagle Talon. Yes, I did run a 10.75 and a 10.8 at Wendover Raceway, but we don’t really count those.

Anyway, started out the night on a bad foot . . . first qualifying pass was 11.7, then a 11.3, 11.1 and then the 10.9. I stopped running after that because I’m leaking some oil from somewhere. We’ll have to get that figured out before I hit...

Picked up an Energy Suspension bushing kit for my Eagle Talon



But realized it didn't come with all the bushing we wanted so we made our own.



Shrinking them in liquid...

Over the weekend we took my Eagle Talon and family down to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for their Midnight Mayhem event. Car ran the same as last time - 11.2 @ 128ish (was hoping for a quicker time) but this time we got an in car video.

YouTube - 11.2 in car video from Las Vegas

I think I have my Christmas card picture for this year! This is my family showing some Girl in...

We packed up the Talon and headed out to Wendover Raceway on Sunday. We meet up with a few other DSM'ers from UTDSM along the way.



I managed a 10.75 and a 10.8 with crappy driving and little tuning, actually none, sliders...

I have a few extras and can only wear one at a time!

Sooo upload a picture with you and your DSM to my Facebook fan page. I’ll pick my favorite and send you a hat!

Girl in the Black Car is on Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and now Facebook. I know, I know there haven’t been many updates lately, but winter =’s the suck here in Utah. It’s to dang cold to do anything! I hope to have the new bosch fuel pump and DSMLink V3 installed by March 7th. That’s the first race of the year at the Wendover raceway. Here are some videos from my trip last year to Wendover.

I’ve been slacking this year, it’s already January 26, 2010 and I’ve only purchased two things for my 1995 Eagle Talon.

First on the list – Bosch 044 external fuel pump



I’ve been running lean up top so I’m hoping this will help with that. Currently, I’m only running a single...

Recently, I posted about a new online magazine called Mitsubishi Gearbox. Well, I was lucky enough to get myself and my Eagle Talon an interview. During our recent trip to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we stopped in St. George to take some photos (blog post coming soon and thanks Jet Snow for taking the pictures!) for the article. Read my complete interview at Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine.
...

We loaded up the truck and trailer last weekend and headed for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After an uneventful drive and stopping in St. George to pick up Jet Snow we arrived in Las Vegas. “The Strip” puts on Friday night Midnight Mayhem events similar to Rocky Mountain Raceways midnight drags. I’ve never raced anywhere but Rocky Mountain Raceways and Wendover Raceway so I was excited.
...

We loaded up my 1995 Eagle Talon and headed out to the racetrack in Wendover, Utah last weekend. The track isn't official nor do we take any of the times for "real". It's just a place to get some seat time and I need all the seat time I can get!

Here's a solo run I had. I knew I wasn't keeping the RPM's up while launching, but can really tell how bad I was doing when I listen...

Well, my heart was unbroken for a few days and then my RS65 turbo went. Seriously, is this my punishment for building another one of these? Previously, I couldn’t get the car to go above 6k under load. Well, after a few weeks of troubleshooting one part at a time we said screw it and started throwing parts at her. What fixed it? It was either a TPS (third one), speed sensor or the baffle in the fuel...

A years worth of long hours in the shop and money I should have been putting into retirement brings me to my heart break of today. How does my new 1995 Eagle Talon run? She runs like a champ . . . until 5500-6000 rpm. Then that smile brought on by my hard work turns to a frown. Why? Because at 6k if feels like I just ran into a freakin brick wall!

‘95 Talon
6 bolt swap w/1g...

The title of this post sums up the last year of building my 1995 Eagle Talon and now actually driving it. Paint was sprayed last Friday and we’ve been tinkering every since. I’m waiting for a small blue Tial spring to show up so I can double up the wastegate springs. It’s coming from Iowa so we said, “screw it” and threw the 38mm Tial back together with just the big blue spring. I hopped in and took...

We FINALLY painted my 1995 Eagle Talon on Friday night.

Here is a before picture


And here is a shot from Friday night. It’s still a little wet so it’s still kind of glossy.


I’ll have some...

My 1995 Eagle Talon is getting closer and closer to running everyday! We have almost everything we need, we just need time to install it. Here are some near completion engine pictures.

I picked up a set of Hoosier QTP’s for my 1995 Eagle talon. Previously, we bought some for Adam’s 1993 Eagle Talon.



Only bad thing (not that it’s even bad) is they also came with Rota Slipstreams. Those are probably my all time favorite rim. I had them on my 1997 Eagle Talon.

...

I’m getting mixed reviews on going wingless and sideskirt-less. Haters I know in her current state she isn’t much to look at, but when she’s done she’ll be a looker! We had to put her on the ground to get one of our lathes out. Those aren’t the wheels I’ll be running. I had some powder coated flat black with a red ring recently.

...

Put them all together and what do you get? Well, I don’t really know yet. But I’m hoping to get some 10’s down the 1320 when it’s all said and done! But for now, we had to fab up an elbow for the Tial off the manifold because of fitment issues.

(The elbow is part of my pile getting ready to go back to Stanley Distribution for ceramic/powder coating)

...

We traded some shocks/springs for a set of roll-up doors. I know the weight savings isn’t much compared to the power doors, but the original doors on my 1995 Eagle Talon had been seriously stripped. Windows that roll down would be nice on a 100 degree day here in Utah.

Drivers door off

...

I picked up an Evo maf for my eagle talon project. It flows a bit more air then the 2g maf so I thought I’d give it a try. Years ago, I was using a 3″ gm maf + maf translater on my 1997 eagle talon. Here are some comparison pictures:

2g maf vs. evo maf

...

We still need to pickup some brake pads for the front, but the rears are all put back together.



Fronts waiting for pads



We had the fittings welded to the fuel rail. It was “dirty”...

I took my Turbonetics exhaust manifold, turbine housing and some five star DSM rims into Stanley Distribution for ceramic coating/powder coating a few weeks back. We picked everything up last night. Everything looks great!


...

I worked all weekend, but Adam was able to get most of the work done on my twin 255 walbro setup. Of course I have pictures!




...

Kinda depressing, but I wanted all my fuel line/fittings black and silver. I figured I’d saved enough money on other parts, I could splurge. Granted, it doesn’t look like much because similar fitting have been put in bags together. The blue NOS fitting was the only one in stock at the time. It will be sandblasted to remove the blue and red and used to run my twin Walbro fuel pumps.

...

Adam picked up some aluminum last week and made us some inserts for the front and rear mounts on his South bend lathe. They still need to be drilled, but that should be happening today. We’ll also sand blast the mounts and paint them. What color? Flat black of course!



I posted yesterday that...

We’ve been going out to the shop as much as possible the last couple days. Things are slowly coming together. I’m getting pretty excited! I picked up some Tein coilovers, new in box, but for a used price (love that).



On my 1995 Eagle Talon:

...

I’m in love with flat black. If flat black asked me to marry it, I just might.

After the “Oh yeah, shift perfect!” tranny comes a little bit of good news. Luckily, the 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse parts car I bought had an almost perfect tranny in it. We tore it down over the weekend and had a peek inside. Looked really good. After getting it back together, it was painted . . . . flat black....

Well, project “What Was I Thinking” is coming along nicely. We got the new carpet installed. I know this is a budget build, but there is nothing more I hate then nasty, dirty carpet. Ok, there are a few things more I hate, but those can wait until another post.

I’m loving the budget build. I just picked up a used 2g awd 3″ exhaust for $150. The downpipe flange needs to be fixed, but otherwise it’s great! I’m hoping the Magnaflow muffler doesn’t sound to ricey.

Well, the Rocky Mountain Raceway 2009 season will begin on April 11.

I’m waaay behind on my build. My 1995 Eagle Talon is still sitting in the shop just like we left it late last summer.

I did pull out the old Excel spreadsheet and take a look where I am in my budget build. I hate to say this, but I don’t think I’m going to hit my 6k goal. Something I just can’t go cheap...

Well, we didn't get a ton done, but we got some of the motor assembled and painted.

The block/head is painted flat black (as is everything else). Here are some picture with the ARP head studs, Felpro head gasket and progress. We also painted the rear hatch jams.