Blog Entries

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

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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

Start of the fuel cell mock up


A bit further


Almost there


Back half carpeted
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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...

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...

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.
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