Houston Partners:
Don is a career pilot with extensive powerplant & airframe experience/knowledge.
Karl has strong back, weak mind, Founder of TFA, retired w/lots of time, i love spreadsheets & roadtrips & short walks to my car.
2012 Karl & Don retired from MC LSR (asphalt & some salt), noobs to cars on salt.
26-Jul-13 Don called Karl and broached the idea of starting up a "Lakester Project". Karl jumped at the idea
Aug-Sept Several good candidates, alot of help from KiwiPaul, Stainless, Joe Timney, Sparky, Scott Horner, Sumner, others
23-Sep-13 Stainless sent KDG a link to a V-8 bellytank lakester, beautiful work in 2007/2009, but never run
http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,3011.0.htmlsept, 2023 detailed advice from Tom Burkland, Rex Svoboda, others
27-Sep-13 KDG flew to SLC, a BUNCH of advice from Tom Burkland.
28-sep-13 Karl drove to Missoula (i didn't know they had airports in Montana?
), met with Owner Chuck and Rex. B Lakester is done, motor running, looks great but never thru tech. Cabin too short for Karl or Don (TFA charter members), but fixable.
30-Sep-13 Don & KDG met for 3.5 hrs, did "plus-delta" of blue CC in Dallas vs Chuck's car, very thorough analysis, Chuck's car won if we can make a deal. We subsequently made a deal. Chuck is GREAT to work with!
26-Oct-13 car delivered to Pearland, Texas
Don's wife Krys, Don, Karl, Karl's wife Helena celebrating.
Karl's wife Helena is a perfect fit in the cabin!
TFA Charter member Don doesn't fit as well as Helena
Karl's daughter Jessie making motor sounds
Car going into it's new home/rehab facility
Basically we plan to make whatever safety & reliability mods are necessary:
1. To arrive at a state of "no compromise" safety & handling (yes, Tom Burkland has been talking to us
).
2. For Don & I to be comfortable in the cage / cabin
3. Tweak lil stuff to assure adherance to current rules
4. Add data logging
5. Other stuff
Our objective is to have a fully functional, reliable, safe car for Don & Karl to license/run at Speed Week, 2014.
We are not concerned about hp (yet...
)
I gotta say Slim's Site and it's members are 110% AWESOME!
The outpouring of help as we looked for a car and considered mods has been unbelieveable.
I love the great MC people, forums, events, but it seems the salt/car guys take this to another level.
Thanks to everybody!
(does anyone know what Tom Burkland's typing speed is?)
Karl