After my failed dyno session, I ran a new wire from the ECM to the Dakota box and that seemed to work. I road tested the car and it made really good power and suddenly the clutch stopped clutching. I pulled it out and discovered this:
After my failed dyno session, I ran a new wire from the ECM to the Dakota box and that seemed to work. I road tested the car and it made really good power and suddenly the clutch stopped clutching. I pulled it out and discovered this:
Ever since I installed the new parts, the car has had a strange idle (goes up and down) and when revving up, the vehicle speed sensor would be erratic. I had to abandon a dyno test because I couldn't solve the problem with the VSS. Yesterday I spent the entire day trying to solve the problem. I replaced wires, I soldered crimped wire ends, replaced the battery and nothing worked. I even unplugged the VSS wire that goes into the computer and the vehicle speed would jump from zero to 250 mph when I revved the engine up. At this point I was beside myself and just started jiggling wires then just like that, I jiggled a wire and the engine died. Turns out one of those flat blade connectors on the fuse panel was loose. I tightened it up and the problem went away. I wonder how long this has been affecting the car? My wife thinks it goes back to 2019 when we had some strange power dips. All I know is I can't wait to get it out and drive it. I will be replacing the fuse panel with one that has screw-on connections.
In honor of my birthday today would please do a hot lap at the kart track?
In reply to 759NRNG :
Happy Birthday! I can't do it today but I'll try to get one in this week and get video of it
Wow! It's been two months since I've updated this thread. The crazy VSS signal landed up being a loose blade connector on the fuse box but fixing that did not solve the erratic idle (more on that later). I could only do illegal road testing to get any sort of data to see if things were working because the local dyno is broken. A little test revealed that the car was running out of fuel above 7400 rpm so that's where I set the rev limiter. This last weekend, our Covid numbers were low enough that the government has relaxed the rules and we were able to have an event.
Briget came along and I was thrilled about that because she hasn't raced locally with me for years and hasn't been in the car since 2019. Right out of the box, the car felt amazing and went wherever I pointed it. The new tires and suspension set up worked a treat. However, it had a bad misfire above 15 psi boost and still had the erratic idle speed. I leaned out the whole fuel table 5% and that cleaned up the misfire (maybe not completely but enough to go pretty fast). The course on day 1 was simple, open and fast with brake zones in a straight line, perfect for knocking off the rust. We both spent way too much time bouncing against the 7400 rpm limiter (still 78 mph, though) but still managed to get 1st and 2nd in overall times (6th in PAX). I wish I got it on video but Briget clipped a cone with the left rear tire and somehow the fender came unfastened and went flying up in the air. It's very badly damaged but we used Gorilla tape to put it back on and it held up for the rest of the weekend.
For day 2, the course had a decreasing slalom, pinch elements and hard braking and turning at the same time-it was really tricky and tons and tons of cones were mowed down. Not sure anyone had all clean runs. I had two runs that would have been good enough for top PAX but they were dirty so I slowed down significantly so I could get a clean one. I still managed FTD and 7th in PAX but I'm bothered that I didn't get a clean, fast run. Briget had a miserable day, she kept hitting cones (like me) and finally just slowed down a bunch to get a clean run.
Yesterday I decided to tackle the fuel problem and it involved changing the intake cam to one with a more aggressive lobe for the mechanical fuel pump. I should be able to rev to 8000 rpm next weekend! While putting things back together, I discovered a broken wire on one of the coils so I fixed it and when I started the car, it idled smoothly without the erratic up and down. I am wondering what else the broken wire affected.
We had our last two events before Nationals last weekend and it went pretty well. On Saturday, the only glitch was when my throttle pedal disconnected but otherwise the car ran well. I would have liked a little more oomph at the start and coming out of the hairpin and those changes were made for Sunday. I was 1st in raw time and Briget was 2nd and in PAX we were 7th and 11th. Saturday night I went over the logs of the engine and made some changes to increase the power down low and have the boost come up quicker. I also noticed high intake air temperature and tried a couple of things to cool that off on Sunday. I made some tweaks to the tune between runs on Sunday and the car ran great for my last couple of runs. click for video EPISODE 266 AMAZING RESULTS 
Are you and Miss 'B' in Lincoln Nebraska ?
759NRNG said:Are you and Miss 'B' in Lincoln Nebraska ?
Just got back from Lincoln. There will be a full report and video coming soon. The car never missed a beat, even with 50 runs in the hot, hot Nebraska weather. It was hugely fast, I mean REALLY fast but our set up and driving were not up to the standards of the leaders and we finished 6th and 8th out of 12 cars. The 3 events we did this year prior to Nats were just not enough to sort the car and knock the rust off.
The video is out, click on the link Episode 267 2021 SCCA Solo Nationals
That's a great photo. Did you take that?
This car has always been impressive. Cool to see you still beating on it and making it better.
This is and always will be my favorite 'funny car B' Also, if all you had to do was build 'custom guitars' you too would have plenty of time to shake the 'rust off'. Not to mention that socal has a way better weather pattern than Edmonton.... I haven't been over 'there' have you sold the atomic blast wagon(me thinks not cuz i member that Brigit was kinda fond of it)?
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:That's a great photo. Did you take that?
This car has always been impressive. Cool to see you still beating on it and making it better.
No, there was a guy named Brendan Sobers took pics from the test course and a friend sent me the link. Brendan does not ask for compensation but I sent him $50 anyways. Link to 2021 SCCA test course pics
In reply to 759NRNG :
I have plans for the Pink Panther this winter. I have learned that posting videos/pics of car updates only opens the door for my competitors to copy or possibly protest something so I will not be making detailed videos of those changes, but there's some things I can do to make the car better. We still enjoy driving the car but we have given up on the goal of winning Nationals with it (unless it rains) because we simply do not have the resources to do all the testing on concrete on Nationals level style courses that winning would require. This is supposed to be a fun sport, after all and it's no fun getting your ass handed to you again and again, even though you have improved the car a lot
Not sure if you've seen this, but I was watching a video on YouTube and noticed something somewhat familiar:
Last event of 2021 for the Pink Panther and I edited it down to only 3 and a half minutes Episode 268 Short and Sweet
This is not the end of the Pink Panther but I changed the name of the YouTube channel so I can also post videos of other builds and racing. New video here: New year, new name, new project
The new body revisions have begun. I lowered the front of the car for better visibility of cones so the fenders had to be trimmed. Instead of using aluminum like before, I am fiberglassing it. 
So........is the nose so scrunched that the MG emblem no longer fits in the grille opening? 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
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In reply to loosecannon :
Hey LooseCannon. Great build. I often get asked why am I putting a 400 HP Ford EcoBoost in my 79 Ford Cortina GT road racer. My and my son's answer"because we can". Here I am 75 years old , disabled with Muscular Dystrophy doing a complicated project like this , after 54 years involved in Motorsport. And loving every minute of it. Keep up the good work . Maybe after this Covid is over we can get a chance to race against your MGB-V12. Be fun.
The rules allow canards this year so I got Kyle Forster ( former Mercedes F1 aero guy) do some CFD work to guide me in the right direction. Here's an image of the cfd pull. 
In reply to loosecannon :
Obviously, CFD makes a big difference, but are there any generic "lessons learned" from your research with the canards that you can share? General things that might help the rest of us who don't happen to have a Mercedes F1 aerodynamic engineer in our Rolodex.
Canards = increased slow speed downforce....or just every speed?
In reply to Gimp (Forum Supporter) :
Go as big as you are allowed to go and as steep as you can without stalling. At the speeds I go, I can get away with a lot steep angle of attack than someone who does track days where average speed is a lot higher. Believe it or not, the canards only add 9 lbs downforce at 55 mph-pathetic!
So ....more precise turn in...in theory?
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