Black Diamond Motorsports GXP

Well the car is done being painted. Since Kevin is in the coal blending/washing/shipping business, he wanted a tribute to the coal miners painted on the car. There was supposed to be a scene of a city with a large coal miner under the city supporting the city painted on the rear deck. Jeff painted it on and sent Kevin pictures of it, and neither of them liked it. So Jeff sanded it off and added stripes and flames. The car is at Jerry Haas' this week for finish wiring and assembly and the fellows are going out Monday to bring it home.
Jeff took these pictures at his shop in St. Louis and said the day was cloudy and the paint really didn't have the ''pop'' that candy paints have in the sun. I'll post some pics next week of the completed car and hopefully the sun will be out. The car was started on in September of 2010 and it's finally done. It's about 3-4 weeks late from the original completion date, but Jerry has contracts to repair the cars that are still racing and get wrecked during the season.

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it's looking pretty good Dan!! Thanks for the update!

NICE !

Lookin' like a car....can't wait to see it all assembled!

looks like King of the Hill material to me.lol

Well, the car is done and ready to rock.
Dan

Ain,t she a beauty !!! Looks fast just sitting there.

wow that looks awesome

make sure you can see around the hoodscoop, we dont want anyone running into a fire extinguisher or cone, o wait even a dragster lol.

It actually looks like seeing the tree when Kevin is in the left lane might be easier than the Cobalt was. And for safetys sake, we now have a bar that attaches to the front of the golf cart and the back of the GXP so we can push the car back from making a run. Kevin can see better and and so can we and now we don't have the worry of us stopping the cart and the car running into the back of the cart.

looks sweet!

I got a call from Rob this morning. They're down at Rockingham, NC to test the GXP. Apparently the track is junk and the high hp cars are going up in smoke at the hit. The track folks said they'll do better today and the weather is supposed to be in the 70's too. I'll keep you posted when I hear back from Rob today.

Car is looking saaaweeeeeeeet! Hope to see some videos.

Nice car Dan, green tracks suck.

Thanks Don. I didn't say anything, but I thought since it was the first a car has been down the track since the fall, the surface might not have any real rubber on it. The guys felt the prep was put down too early and when the sun started beating on the surface, the water was being pulled up to the surface. I realize they're anxious to see how the car performs, and maybe they just needed to get out and get the winter stink blown off themselves. And boy did they need that !! lol

I thought I'd try and post the progress of the Black Diamond Motorsports GXP over the season on this board. We went to Sonny's last Saturday and picked up the new 828 Sonny's hemi Chevy. The decision was made that we'd go ahead and install it instead of testing with the older 828. Since the new motor makes more power, we figured we better get our ducks in a row and get ready for racing in the ADRL. We pulled the old motor yesterday and after some modifications to the front motor plate (in and out 4 times) we finally got it in and bolted down. We changed the stator in the Coan TH400 to a 7100 rpm stator since the new motor likes rpm's. We hooked everything back up except the throttle linkage and adding a puke tank for the oil tank. Today the guys were going to finish up what needs done and test fire it. They're planning on going down to Farmington, NC along with 4 other local teams next Friday and Saturday to test. I'll try and let you folks know how it all turned out when I hear from Rob.

I've been somewhat lax in my updates of the GXP, so I'll try and get you up to speed.

Farmington had the same problems as Rockingham with a somewhat ''green'' track. We had good 60' and 330' numbers, but after that point the tires started spinning.

The guys towed down to Florida to race in the ADRL race at PBIR. We're trying new carbs that a fellow from New York has been building for many cars and has had a lot of success with. But this is his first attempt building a set for a big inch car with a automatic. The carbs worked well on the dyno, but in the car and behind the automatic, they were tempermental. We did make one good pass and went a 4.171, but not quick enough to make the field. But the car did win Best Appearing Car, and that helped.

Next we raced at Maple Grove near Reading. We had the old Holley/Sonny's/BLP carbs on since the others were still in the shop. Again we went a 4.17. We had put in a 7100 stator when we made the engine swap and the car was hitting that rpm around the 600' mark, so we lost et and speed there. The computer data showed the motor wants more fuel, but we have the largest jets and we have to put them in with our fingers since the wall thickness of the jets are so thin. But all in all a good learning weekend.

This past Friday and Saturday Kevin was invited to race at MIR in their Mountain Motor and Pro Mod show. This would be 1/4 mile racing so we changed the rear end to a 4.10 and made some other changes so we didn't run her too lean at the 1320' mark. A new transmission was installed between Maple Grove and the MIR race along with a tighter stator. The car was like a bracket car and all the runs were in the 6.44 to 6.46 range and Kevin went the fastest he's ever done at a 217 mph. Again, it was a good weekend and we're learning more and more.

The new carbs were shipped Friday and will be put on soon. A tighter stator will be installed along with putting the 4.30 rear end back in and some other changes will be made. Having that computer data is invaluable and tells us so much.

Once all these changes are made, we'll do some local (PRP) testing. We might run the Asphalt Wars race on June 11th, depending if the new motor is done. We're limited to 25 burn-outs on the motor before it has to be pulled and sent back to Sonny's for a re-fresh. Once the new motor is done, that should give us more time to race at the local events. The next ADRL we're racing at is at US131 in Martin, MI in July.

And with that, we're all up to date.

Here's some pictures that Tim Lewis on yellowbullet took at the Promod race at PRP this last weekend.

nice

Looks great Dan!!!!!!!

Thanks for posting them Don. We went a 4.22 in the test session, but shook the tires in both qualifing sessions. We ended up #9, but the #8 car broke and we were the first alternate and got in the program. We won the 1st round with a 4.18, but lost in the 2nd round. We got greedy and bumped the timing 2* and that did us in. Al in all it was a good test session and that how we look at these local races. The new Braswell carbs. seem a lot better than the DamBests so that's a positive sign.
The next race will be the ADRL race in Martin, MI at US131 dragway.

Hey Dan the next time the jets get so thin you have to use your fingers just leave them out and run through the metering blocks LOL That car is the cat,s meow!!!

Skip, believe me, we actually tossed that idea around. That was with the original Sonnys/BLA carbs but we don't have that problem now with the Braswell's. At some point in time we're going to try the DamBest's again. The potential is there for them, but we don't want to be doing the R&D on them at this point. The Braswell's are 4 circuit carbs and hopefully will keep us away from the rich-lean-rich condition we were seeing with the 2 circuit DamBest's. Since we're the only car in the XPS class with a automatic transmission, we have to do our own research. Thank goodness for the Racepak. If we didn't have any means of gathering this kind of data, we'd be lost.

Yeah that slushbox puts a whole different load on a motor and that car is flying with it, it is just a matter of time and you guys will find her sweet spot then hang on LOL

We had a Glide in the Cobalt to begin with and the small 540 to Kevin seat time and learn procedures. When the first Sonny's hemi became available we went ahead and used the Glide with it, again just to let Kevin learn and get comfortable with 1800 hp. That motor didn't like the Glide one bit. With these motors you have to keep them in the torque band as close as possible. Just when the motor was in it own comfort zone, the Glide would shift and the fight was on ! We'd like to go with a clutch and we discussed it at length. But when everyone except Kevin put their Social Security cards on the table, the decision to go with a converter was made.