Here is my '71 after the final weight & balance adjustments and ride height adjustments at Shelton's shop in Carson City, NV. Bob Whited, my engine
builder/project manager/alternate driver is in the black t-shirt on the left.
Yours truly on the right. Notice how low it is. 50" to the top of the roof vs.
54" stock. The oil pan and engine crossmember clears the ground by about 1/2
inch. But there's no bumps on the salt flats!!!
In the staging lanes at Bonneville Salt Flats at the USFRA "World of Speed" in
Sept 2008. This is the configuration that got 182+mph. In this shot, we're
replacing the numbers on the door. It takes so long to move up in the staging
lanes that we opted to do it here, rather than in our pits where we wouldn't be
moving up.
And here's a peek inside the engine compartment. "Slightly modified"!!! It's a
14:1 compresison 505 cubic inch roller cammed-stroker that dyno-ed at 692 hp to
the flywheel and 595 at the rear wheels. The suspension is "slightly modified"
too, as the new coil-over tower on the driver's side can be clearly seen. Note
the custom "single-carb tunnel ram" intake manifold? You don't see those babies
"on the shelf". Accu-sump oil accumulator adn remote oil filter ont he
passenger's inner fender. We took at least a half a dozen steps to solve the
Buick's oiling problems, but the engine still blew. (?)
Bill Inman
More story.....
Carson City will be well represented at the Bonneville Salt Flats next week, as
a local team attempts to set a class speed record on the salt. Not only are the
drivers from the area, but a number of Carson City manufacturers have
supplied speed equipment to aid in the effort.
Bill Inman says he has always
thought that going really fast would be neat. And now he has taken a 1971 Buick
Riviera that he has owned for 30 years and turned it into a speed machine that
will go for a class record at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats.
“I always
enjoyed going fast on back roads with the car, and a few years ago I read about
Bonneville and thought I’d like to go really fast with the car, and legally,”
says the retired NDOT Surveyor.
It took him a while to get motivated, but two
years ago Inman attempted to join the Utah speed organization’s 130 mile per
hour club. After a one-way run of 128 mph and change, a blown engine prevented a
return run and Inman didn’t make the cut.
Undeterred, he enlisted the aid of
fellow NDOT employee and engine builder Bob Whited, as well as the car
preparation expertise of Tom and Robby Shelton, of Shelton Racing and &
Fabrication, to make a serious run at a record.
“We did some research and
found a class we could qualify for that had a record of 152 miles an hour,” said
Inman, “and we thought we could beat that.”
Unfortunately, a malfunctioning
overdrive unit prevented him from getting into top gear and after reaching 160
mph on the first pass the engine blew again, throwing him into a wild spin and
ending the attempt.
This year he’s prepared, but has a much loftier goal to
shoot for. He missed Speed Week earlier in the year and the former Hot Rod
Magazine entry in his class set a new mark of 225 mph.
“I know our car can do
200, but 225 is going to be hard to beat,” Inman said.
But with 600
horsepower at the rear wheels (80 hp more than the old engine), a new foolproof
overdrive unit, and a suspension revamped by the Sheltons, he’s ready to go for
it. The car, incidentally, has lots of speed parts provided by local performance
equipment manufacturers.
The engine is a factory cast iron Buick block bored
out to 505 cubic inches, with custom aluminum heads. T&D of Carson City
supplied the custom roller rockers, sports Carson City-manufactured KB pistons
and an Erson cam designed and ground in Mound House.
The car also sports a
roll cage, coil-over suspension and quick-change rear end installed by Shelton
Racing & Fabrication, and Sierra Mold brakes made in Carson City. Engine
machine work is by Auto Marine Machine, and the car also has a custom-made
manifold and headers. The car runs specially mandated Goodyear Eagle Bonneville
tires, which are much narrower than most race tires due to the lack of grip on
the salt.
The crew will leave Carson City on Sept. 15 and travel to the salt,
beginning qualifying runs on Sept. 17. Depending on conditions, the organizers
will have either two or three courses available. The “short” course is three
miles, and the “long” course 6-7 miles long, again depending on
conditions.
Cars have to qualify on the short course in order to make record
runs on the long courts. Bob Whited will make the initial runs while getting his
175 mph license, then Inman will take over and go for his 200 mph license. If
all goes well, by Saturday they will have topped the 200 mark and had a run at
the 225 mph record.
The Riviera going to Bonneville is one of four similar
cars owned by Inman, but it is by far the fastest. Whether he sets the class
speed record or not, he wants to go on record as the fastest stock-bodied Buick
anywhere.
“A turbo Buick-powered Indy car went 236 back in the 80s at
Indianapolis, and a Buick Grand National did 204 in the quarter mile on a drag
strip,” Inman said. “The Indy car doesn’t really count as pure Buick, so if I
can beat the Grand National’s top speed, I might just have the fastest Buick
ever.”
Yeah, that's the article that came out in the local paper right before we left.
So far, I've kept my "record" intact - - that is, 3 years in a row and 3 blown
engines in a row. 
First year I was going for the "130 mph Club", which is basically a 1 mile long
drag race on the salt, and if at the end, you're going between 130 and 140, you
get into the "club". Over 140 and you get disqualified. That's due to the lax
safety rules for this particular event. Over 140 is no longer safe without roll
bars, etc. Anyway, my effort at the 130 club in 2006 ended with a time of 128.8
and a blown engine. That was basically a stock engine that had been rebuilt 20
years ago. Before the salt flats attempt, we installed TA roller rockers,
headers, Edelbrock manifold, Mallory ignition system, and an 850 CFM Holley. We
got around 250 hp to the rear wheels on Mallory's wheel dyno. (It was great
having Mallory's R&D headquarters about 3 blocks from my house!!! They've
now moved out of town though - sigh.)
So for 2007, Bob built me a 508
cubic inch stroker with 11:1 compression, TA Stage-2 Track Eliminator heads,
SP-2 manifold, Dominator carb, block girdle, lifter bore girdle, roller cam,
Accu-sump oil accumulator, Mike Phillips AM&P oil scavenger kit with balance
tube, enlarged oil pan, custom windage tray, and oil drainback lines from the
back of the heads. It dyno-ed 517 hp to the rear wheels. At the salt flats, the
overdrive unit (which I'd had installed 20 years ago) decided to stop working. I
qualified for my "class-D" competition driver's lcense with a run of 149 mph,
and then took it back the next day for my "class-C" license, and maybe a
qualifying run at the record (which was 151-something at the time.) Bob told me
to go 155 and call it good unless I could get the overdrive to shift. Well, I
couldn't get it to shift, and like an idiot, decided I wanted to go over 160.
Well, I did, with an official time of 160.8, but doing that took the engine to
7000 rpm, and it blew to smithereens as I was exiting the speed traps. It did
get me my "class-C" license, though.
And by the end of the meet, the
"competition" raised the record to 188.
Well, for this year (2008) Bob built
me another engine - even more "bad-ass" with 505 cubic inches and 14:1
compression. It made 692 hp on the engine dyno, and 595 on the wheel dyno. We
had a new overdrive, and a new set of gears for the quick-change rear end just
in case the overdrive didn't work this time. I let Bob drive it the first time
to get his licenses, so he did an uneventful 146.692 mph run for his "class-D".
Then he did a 175.610 run for his "Class-C", although he was supposed to keep it
under 175. They actually ended up giving him a "class-B" though, so that was
good.
Then it was my turn. See, I had a fire suit rated to go as fast as
I wanted, but his gear was only approved to 175. And he told me that if I wanted
to get it to over 175 in the first measured quarter mile (which is actually 2
miles from the start), I'd have to "really get on it". Well, I got on it all
right, but was pushing a little too hard and spun out near the 1 mile mark. See,
it's kinda like driving on an icy road or parking lot. You wanna move, so you've
gotta give it some gas, but it's really easy to spin the wheels, too. And if the
wheels spin, it's really easy to "lose it" and spin-out.
After a
spin-out, there's a mandatory re-inspection, so I had to do that. But
afterwards, I was calmed down a bit, and also reminded that you've gotta pay
really close attention to keeping it pointed straight ahead - like trying to
drive uphill on that icy parking lot!! So my next run went much better. I took
it a little easier, and didn't give it full throttle until I shifted to 3rd. Hit
overdrive at about 149 and then stood on the gas. I could see the 2-mile sign
coming up, but still had time to accelerate. Things were going pretty good, but
then a tremendous amount of smoke started entering the cockpit. - oil smoke.
Checked the oil press and water temp, and they were both all right. Engine
sounded good and was still accelerating strong, so I kept going. Bob had said he
got some smoke in his last run, but didn't say it was too bad. In fact, he
thought it might have been salt coming in. Anyway, as I entered the traps, the
smoke was getting really bad, but oil pressure was still good and the GPS was
showing that I was over 170 mph. So, as my view finally became totally
obliterated by the smoke, I made one of my famous decisions and decided to ride
it for the whole mile. I just held the wheel really steady and kept the pedal
mashed to the floor. If nothing else, I wanted to at least qualify for
"class-B"!! In a few seconds, I saw the big orange marker "3" flash by my
window, let up on the gas, and pulled the parachute handle (my first time ever
using a parachute in a car). After a couple second delay, the 'chute opened, and
at about the same time, the smoke cleared. We towed it back to the pits,
examined it, Bob questioned me, and basically couldn't figure out that anything
was really wrong. I'd spilled a bunch of oil all over everything awhile earlier,
so we thought it might just be burning off the hot surfaces. The GPS has a thing
on it that records the highest speed attained, and it was reading 183.9 - and I
could feel that it was still accelerating. Bob said he'd gotten it to
180-something on his previous run, so we knew this baby could fly. So we decided
to go for 200 on the next run.
The plan was to take it a hair easier,
since we were now qualified for the "long course". To qualify, you had to hit
175 in the first quarter of the first timed mile - which is between 2 and 2 1/4
miles from the start. I'd made that with a speed of 175.988. This also qualified
me for my "B" license, and my measured mile time was 179.896. I was going to do
the same as before - partial throttle in first and second gear, then open it up
in 3rd, then hit the overdrive switch and stand on it. If smoke happened, I was
to let off the gas a little and see if it cleared. If so, press on the gas again
and see what happened. Well, that's exactly what I did. Hit the measured mile at
around 170, as it started to really howl in top gear, the smoke started, so I
let off a bit and the smoke cleared. So I pushed down again. Now, at 170 mph
there is one big difference from freeway speeds - - the miles are flying by
FAST. About as fast as you're reading this, it's happening, and now we're at the
3 mile point - - and I'm still only going 179 or so. If I want to hit some
serious speed, I've gotta get with the program!! So between scanning the oil
pressure, temp, mph on the GPS, and keeping 'er straight and on course
(remember, this is like driving uphill on an icy parking lot), the next thing
you know, here comes the "mile-4" sign. I rememeber seeing 182-something on the
GPS and thinking, "Gee, I'm no faster than last time." Another thing we'd
discussed was that if it got to where it obviously wasn't accelerating any more,
not to torture it, but back out and end the run. But I was thinking that maybe I
didn't actually have it floored - or at least didn't have it floored long enough
(remember, I'd let up due to smoke awhile back), so I stood on it until it was
bending the throttle linkage!! I remember seeing the GPS reading 181, and
thinking that I was actually slowing down, and then seeing the "5-mile" sign
coming up fast. So I'd decided to drive through the 5-mile and then shut it down
(actually, the timing traps only went to 5 miles and the course literally ENDS
at 7-miles!!). Just as the 5-mile sign is upon me and I'm starting to lift my
foot, all hell breaks loose. HUGE billows of smoke enter the cockpit and as I
flash a glance at the oil pressure gauge, I see it plummeting below 40. So I
reach up and "karate-chop" all the switches - main power, ignition, fuel pump,
etc. - and pull the 'chute lever.
I was completely enclosed in smoke and
couldn't see a thing. It was so thick it was actually choking me and making my
eyes and lungs sting like when the wind shifts at a camp fire. I made an
ever-so-gentle move with the steering wheel to pull off to the right - the
"emergency" side of the course, opposite the spectators, and then un-did the
full door net to gain access to my power window switch. Yup, it still has the
stock power windows - I had to retain some remnants of the luxury car it was in
it's previous life!!!! Anyway, that engine was gone, too. As yet, I still
haven't removed it or taken it completely apart. Bob took the carb and intake
off and found that two lifter bores had broken - even with the TA lifter bore
girdle in it!! One spark plug (the #4 cylinder) was smashed and had flakes of
aluminum all over it. And there is a hole in the driver's side of the block
across from the #4 cylinder. We figure a rod came loose and thrashed around in
there. My offical speed for that run was 182.206 in the last mile. The timing
slip makes it look like a nice, gradual acceleration through the whole run, but
it really wasn't. The times were: 1/4 - 168.596; first mile - 170.149; middle
mile - 179.445; final mile - 182.206. They can be viewed at the USFRA web page
"saltflats.com" for "2008 World of Speed results - Sept. 19th". My earlier
qualifying run was earlier the same date. The car number is 5280 - which I
thought was appropriate, since that's the number of feet in a
mile!!!!
Well, that's the story of the first 3 years of salt flats racing
with the thing. All the chassis/suspension mods are extensive, too. After
letting my typing fingers rest-up a bit, I can go into that too if anyone's
intersted. I notice a lot of posts here are MUCH shorter than what I've been
writing (there's more in the "kill stories" section, or whatever they call it),
so if I'm being too long-winded just let me know.
Bill
