gsxkid81
15+ Year Contributor
- 140
- 1
- May 18, 2005
-
warsaw,
Virginia
Man its awesome to see Dave and Sean chime in.I used to love reading about these guys in the few import mags then. maybe John Shep will chime in also.
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Man its awesome to see Dave and Sean chime in.I used to love reading about these guys in the few import mags then. maybe John Shep will chime in also.
Welcome to the thread Sean! I was at VMP and saw your 8.63 pass. I've got a bunch of pics of your Talon I was planning on posting once Phil got us up into 2005 on this thread. I believe it wasn't long after that that the Talon disappeared and Shep took over and went into the 7's. Before that though it was extremely exciting watching you and Shep trade record passes. The good ole days for sure!
I agree, this thread needs Shep! That would make it even more epic!
Welcome to the thread Sean! I was at VMP and saw your 8.63 pass. I've got a bunch of pics of your Talon I was planning on posting once Phil got us up into 2005 on this thread. I believe it wasn't long after that that the Talon disappeared and Shep took over and went into the 7's. Before that though it was extremely exciting watching you and Shep trade record passes. The good ole days for sure!
I agree, this thread needs Shep! That would make it even more epic!
What's better then DSM stories? DSM secretes!
There were three things that plagued the Talon: transmissions, transfer cases, and driveshaft yokes. Of course fast forwarding a decade which will mark the anniversary of the Talon breaking into the 8's..... if I had a PPG gearset like I have for the Evo, it would have been only two things to worry about. I had run transmissions from Shep and TRE as well as bone stock units with a welded center diff--- when they worked, they worked but never with any amount of consistency. I had arguments with both Jo(h)n's over it and we never had a real solution. I finally decided to stop running the car until I had a solution for everything. The transfer case is simply small... and the yoke is also in the same boat. Sometimes they would last three passes, others for ten. Not good at all. Usually I would twist the yoke 2-splines worth in two passes.
There was one point when running NIRA that the Talon was going to undergo a huge transformation: still AWD, but with a complete R33 Skyline driveline with a Hollinger or Hewland dogbox. That was until NIRA made one little rule that killed that: you couldn't change the orientation of the engine in the engine bay. I figured that at the rate that I was going through driveline parts, that would solve it and a lot of parts were already available.
Engine was always fine and well underutilized, and you wanna know about it....
To date, only two people know what turbo size I had run. Tons of speculation, but I never let the cat out of the bag.... until now. The "T4 Secret" that is listed was a 70mm compressor wheel with a GTQ turbine wheel in a .70 T4 turbine housing and the last one was from PTE--- even for then it was old school, but it worked. Now, the best part. 33psi + 150hp shot of nitrous. Yes 33 PSI. I had never run any more than that for one reason: it would shift even less consistent than it did. So I had capped the boost that I was running until transmission woes were sorted out. And you're wondering what the engine combo was--- another part that is fun as well and never fully let out. The last combination was Arias 8:1 pistons, Groden rods, Moldex custom billet crank that I had on the shelf for over 4-years , and for the head was Ferrea valvetrain, Hyperdrive solid lifters, Crane cams, and the head was done by an awesome friend--- Dave @ Headgames.
I also had tried automatics back as far as 1999 all without luck as everyone that promised they could make something work, could not and I backed away from that three or four times. I even had a transmission company call me and say they could solve the problem of the manual transmission.... they did make the first one on their dime and in the end it lasted 3-passes before it grenaded. Then they bailed.
The only thing that I have never mentioned is the fastest pass the Talon ever had. It was a test pass locally and one small problem was that I blew the transfer case on the second pass to the point there was nothing left under the car except two bolts. The pass was an 8.23.... and it was every part of it, but I HAVE to have a backup run to make it count in my book, so without that I never really counted it. There was also one other pass that was on track (I believe) in the same season at Englishtown. We got rained out on Saturday and Sunday they ran round robin. I went through the traps sideways, chute open, and in a cloud of smoke as an Integra had blown its engine the run before and they never cleaned the track because they were rushing...... needless to say, to see the side of the car next to you out your windshield is not comforting. And when you're sliding at 160mph on oil.... pucker, pucker, pucker... That pass after all of that drama? 8.77.
Wow, I thought you'd might post after we spoke yesterday. It's great to hear your knowledge on what actually worked for you. it's a lot different then all the 42r's 70mm or 74mm that is so common on big turbo setups of today. Was that with the hks 272/272cams in the car when you broke into the 8's
?
I could write a book about all the "adventures" over the years, nobody would read it but I could write one!
Nothing to settle, all this crap is just old "history". I don't want to be insulted by him but beyond that I don't really care about it all..........too many years have passed and it just makes for good stories now.
I could write a book about all the "adventures" over the years, nobody would read it but I could write one!
BTW, speaking of cams. Those old HKS272's ran 7.8's in my car and are still in Albert's car running 7.60's now. I'd love to go back and build another tube chassis car to run again with what I know now.....
Nothing to settle, all this crap is just old "history". I don't want to be insulted by him but beyond that I don't really care about it all..........too many years have passed and it just makes for good stories now.
I could write a book about all the "adventures" over the years, nobody would read it but I could write one!
BTW, speaking of cams. Those old HKS272's ran 7.8's in my car and are still in Albert's car running 7.60's now. I'd love to go back and build another tube chassis car to run again with what I know now.....
This is exactly it... definitely nothing to settle as it is all for fun and good stories. The where and how "then" is so different than the "now" that looking back it is amazing how fast we actually went with what we had to work with. The biggest thing to date for me is that with all of the new technology and advancements over the years and how few have actually been able to faster. I had gotten glimpses of some serious DSM and Evo projects from here and over the pond--- none ever came to fruition and in the end, we paved the path to which many follow and try to go.
Thanks for the great stories!
Dave, Sean, can I ask you guys something?
Back when you were getting into the low 11's and breaking into the tens, did it seem easy? Or was every tenth a struggle?
And when you hit tens, did it seem like you were reaching the limits of the DSM platform?
Did you ever think you'd eventually get into the 8's?