Nostalgia drags on today 7th Dec , hope Mike makes it out and plays safe .

Hey dude,
that was mike's plan (7th dec).
Cant wait to hear how he goes.

Word was a few weeks ago that he had it running much better than its initial fire up at warwick.

He DID have it on the dyno rollers to check the initial mixture settiings,
and at 4000rpm(max it saw) it had some ungodly torque figure,
but not yet full throttle.

As Pete said,
good luck, and stay sf guys!

yes hes susposed to be there today
but its shitty weather this morn here in sydney

hope it fines up 4 them to run

Heard , first burnout was super stronght but had to turn off with a fuel leak . Also was told ,car came in very ,very light but like to check it .
Hope phone will ring soon .

Mike and "The Twins" are home and safe. After the burnout and minor fuel leak Mike then completed a full pass before and after the rain hit.

Typical Nostalgia meet at WSID, just would be the same without the heavens opening up.

So 2 full passes, and a trip to the weigh bridge saw the day completed.

Come On ,Is that It !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't read between the lines .

Pretty big gap between the lines and sooooooooo much info to be filled in.........

OK,
Car weighed 607kg, plus Mike at 80 kg = 1511lbs ready to run.

Mike said he was only taking it very esy, but the chassis rails were dragging on the launch,
so kept it just down to part throttle and 6000 limiter.

I did not get specific times, but mike did say he ran a 12 on the first run
and a low 11 at 118 on the second run,
again with only just enough throttle to keep it hooking up.

Mike was very happy to get back on the track and described the part throttle power as simply awesome.

This first outing was just to familiarize himself with the left hand drive,
and to get some use of the engine and trans(cluthless shifts),
before a full check over of all mechanicals.

Hot Rod Matt was there among others,
so photos an vids should roll in over the next cople of weeks.

Thanks Matt, that will be great!

Good to here , anyone have video so we can see and hear it . Matt , can't wait for pic's .
How light is that car with blowers and big trans ,heard it was a little more (1519lbs) but that doesn't matter .
118mph is a steady start with all that power on hand .
Good one Mike .

good to hear guys
i'm sure with these kind of signs
some pretty quick times are sure to come

Well USA gets pics first ! Go to page 5


http://ultimateaircooled.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=1132.msg2400...

Awesome update Matt,

and thanks for the link Pete.

Bring on Portland '09

great pics Matt please put them on here

Mike got the car to Western Sydney International Dragway and was able to give the Ghia it's first shakedown passes at the Nostalgia Drags.

Mike was very disciplined with the power on hand, using only enough throttle to keep the car hooking up. Even with just part throttle Mike was astounded at the power. A thorough check of the mechanicals and the chassis will follow.

The sound of the engine is something that can only be experienced. At an event (and in a class) dominated by big capacity blown 8s, the car sounded far healthier than many of those around it. And plenty of dyed-in-the-wool V8 fans are just as eager to see Mike piloting the Ghia under full power.




First attack at the strip saw a straight burn out procedure - just a little bit of throttle to get the wheels spinning, but not frying.
The car kept straight and gave Mike an initial idea of how the car was going to feel.





After backing up and bringing the car in to stage a small fuel leak was discovered from one of the injector nozzles on the hat. Back to the pits for the 5 second fix. And wait for the next round.

The 2nd qualifying round saw Mike run the car conservatively down the quarter mile.
The burnout procedure was again sensibly restrained, and saw the car keep a good line while warming the tyres.



Getting away with just a part throttle launch the Ghia lifted up and shot out of the hole.



Keeping things easy and on and off the throttle, Mike cruised through for a 12.757sec @ 83.06mph getting his first feel for the handling of the car, sitting on the left hand side and shifting with his right hand.

Mike got in one more pass in the 1st round of eliminations.
The Burnout again was conservative, however the butterflies did open up a bit more and it looked like Mike was prepared to lay a little more power down.



The launch gave us our first indication of what the Ghia is going to be like out of the hole. The enormous torque slingshotted the Ghia away from the start line. From then on, Mike still kept a tight lead on the power further familiarising himself with the car. This run produced an 11.924 sec @ 118.22 mph result.

Outstanding, it's good to see the Yanks are drooling for a change, i hope this thing sets new records world wide.

Congrats to the CBB boys and Mike for all the hard work up till this stage. Guess now some of the fun begins.....

Well done Mike and CBB crew - the ghia looks fantastic on the track and I'm sure performance to match will be soon to follow.
AL

Nice pics and writeup as always Matt. Well done to Mike and all the CBB team.

Great pics Matt. This car is a credit to Mike and the guys at CBB.

You can tell it's all business (apart from the launch) by the fact in the photos everyone has their fingers in their ears.

Any vids?

Thanks for the positive feed back to all who have posted on the Ghia's first outing.

This the first of many more to come, proved to a real eye opener. Myself and the crew had a great day and have the information that we need to set the car up for its next outing.

The twins as we have named the Ghia really has exceeded my expectations in the weight and power department. The car was set up with a 6000 rpm chip in the MSD to hold me back as much as the car.

We have learnt that we need a lot more spring and probably a little more tyre to get the power to the ground.

The engine sounded great and ran perfect all day along with all the mecahnical like mendeola tranny and vertigate shifter and my new twin plate black magic clutch set up which Dave from LMS and myself have been working on for quiet some time.

Well plan is to get the twins out to a Friday night ANDRA meet at WSID and then down to Portland for some 1/8 mile passes with a whole bunch of VW's to kick off the 09 racing season.

Thanks to all the CBB crew for helping out once again and most importantly to my wonderful wife and kids for supporting me through the last 3 years with the twins build up.

Hope to see you all at the track soon.

Regards

Mike

Once again Mike congrats on the car's appearance and performance. This thing will make the US boys stand up and take notice!!

It looked pretty awesome out there and its good to see Mike driving again ,

Just out of curiosity , has the car been dynoed yet ?

I found another nice Pic of Mike and crew . Looking very Pro fellows .

great work. Mike certainly puts his money where his mouth is.

can't wait to see how it goes in the future. I'd be keen to see some vids too.

That thing is tiny,or they are just monsters