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Plymouth Barracuda Bracket Racer - The B3 BomberOur Barracuda Project Gets Some Finishing Touches And Heads To The Track For Testing From the October, 2007 issue of Mopar Muscle By Dave Young Photography by Dave Young, Greg Clark, Patrick Hill
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As you can see, our project... As you can see, our project car has already been to the track for testing. in fact, the B3 project already has a winning history. Read on as we complete our project and head to the track to see if we can achieve our goal of 10-second elapsed times in the quarter. Project B3 has come a long way since we began our build several months ago. If you've been following our project, you'll remember our goal was to build a bracket race car that would run consistent 10-second elapsed times in the quarter on a budget of about $10,000. In previous issues, we've shown how to stiffen the car up with frame connectors and torque boxes, installed a legal rollcage, built the engine, and lightened the car by adding fiberglass body components and polycarbonate windows. We've also finished the front and rear suspension of the project, getting the car ready to hook hard and run consistently. In this issue, we'll finish the car by plumbing the fuel system, wiring the electrical system, finishing the interior, and installing the engine and transmission before heading to the track for some test passes. When building a race car, or a street car for that matter, expenses can easily get out of hand. We've stuck pretty close to our budget so far during this build, but the finishing items, such as wiring, braided fuel lines, a fuel cell, and the rest of the components needed to complete our car, were going to quickly add up and blow our budget. While we were hunting for used parts to finish our project, we ran across a deal we couldn't pass up. While we don't take any pleasure in benefiting from someone else's misfortune, when friend and fellow racer Rebecca Mendito suffered an unfortunate accident and totaled her Duster, we purchased the remains of the bracket car to salvage the fuel lines, fuel cell, wiring, switches, and other components needed to complete our Barracuda. Luckily, the transmission was unhurt in the accident, so we pulled it from the wrecked Duster to freshen up and use in our project vehicle. we purchased the wrecked Duster for just over $1,000, then sold the rollcage to another local racer for $250, and the rear ladder bar suspension and 831/44 differential to another racer for $850, leaving us the rest of the car to salvage, along with a little spare cash to help our budget.  We hated hearing that friend...  We hated hearing that friend and fellow racer Rebecca Mendito had wrecked her '70 Duster bracket car after a blown engine oiled down the slicks. Fortunately, she walked away with only minor injuries, and we bought the car to salvage parts for our Barracuda.  Since our transmission came...  Since our transmission came from a wrecked vehicle, we had Tod at Inline Performance check it thoroughly before installing our Dynamic 8-inch converter and putting it in the car.  NHRA rules require a flexplate...  NHRA rules require a flexplate with an SFI safety rating so we installed one in our car. This is another used part we inherited with the Duster. Though the wrecked Duster will provide lots of used parts for our Barracuda, there are some areas where we feel only new parts will suffice. In the fuel system, we'll be using a new Holley high-volume electric fuel pump and regulator along with the fuel lines, filter, and fuel cell we salvaged from the Duster. Though the transmission from the wrecked car looked ok and already had a manual valvebody, we'll have Tod at Inline Performance Specialist freshen it up and check it before installing it with a new Dynamic 8-inch converter with a 5,000-rpm stall speed. This converter, along with our 4.30-geared Dana 60 rear differential and the suspension components we installed in previous issues, should provide hard launches and the sub-1.50-second 60-foot times we'll need to get our car into the 10s.we had our hands full in the interior of our Barracuda. The door panels and dash were shot, and the carpet was nonexistent. Additionally, we stripped the car of its heater box, seats, factory gauges, and other unnecessary equipment to save weight. Since we want this car to have a finished look, we'll be installing new carpet, door panels, and door sill plates from the Paddock. To make the dash presentable, we decided to have Emo at Emo's upholstery recover the dashpad, and we painted the dash black to match the rest of the interior. The fiberglass race seat was salvaged from the Duster and used as well.  Since the flexplate and converter...  Since the flexplate and converter only install one way, we painted them before putting the transmission in place, ensuring we get the bolts aligned correctly the first time.  The heart of our fuel system...  The heart of our fuel system will be this Holley HP 150 electric fuel pump. This pump will deliver more fuel than we'll need for this application, so fuel starvation won't be a problem, even if we add nitrous later.  We'll be mounting the fuel...  We'll be mounting the fuel cell we got with the wrecked Duster in the spare tire well of our Barracuda's trunk, so we welded a frame for the fuel cell between the car's original framerails. Don't forget that a plastic cell, like ours, must be grounded and have a metal skid plate to meet NHRA rules.  We mounted our Optima red-top...  We mounted our Optima red-top battery in the trunk of our race car for better weight distribution. The more weight over the rear tires, the better the car will hook up. the battery needs to be held down with 31/48-inch minimum diameter threaded rod to be NHRA legal. A quality dry-cell battery is mandatory since we won't run an alternator on this car, so we chose Optima.  Since our battery and fuel...  Since our battery and fuel cell are mounted in the trunk, we fabricated a rear firewall out of .032-inch aluminum to meet the NHRA rules.  For convenience and to keep...  For convenience and to keep our MSD Digital 6 electronic ignition out of the heat, we fabricated a panel out of the spare polycarbonate material we used for the windows. This panel is affixed to the rollcage near the floor of the passenger side of the driver's compartment. To get the car to the track, we'd need wiring, an electronic-ignition system, and gauges. Since we had the salvaged Duster at our disposal, the wiring was easy. We simply stripped the wiring from the Duster and transferred it over to our Barracuda, cutting or lengthening wires as needed to fit our car. For ignition, we decided to use MSD's new Digital 6 electronic ignition controller with an MSD billet distributor. The Digital 6 is one of MSD's latest ignition controllers and incorporates a built-in, two-step rev limiter that can be adjusted quickly with a small screwdriver and doesn't need the removable "chips" common to other MSD ignitions. It also has the feature of an ignition retard, which we'll utilize if we ever run nitrous oxide on this car. To keep track of the engine's vital signs, we chose Sunpro gauges and mounted them in the factory dash that we modified ourselves. The Sunpro instruments are accurate, less expensive than most gauges on the market, and the black face gauges really fit the retro-look we're going for with this car. The tachometer incorporates a shift light as well-a necessity for accurate shifts in a car that will be bracket raced. Speaking of shifts, our shifter will be a Hurst Quarter Stick that we salvaged from the Duster.  Since the rules state we must...  Since the rules state we must have a neutral safety switch, we wired a factory starter relay into our electrical system.  When wiring a car, be sure...  When wiring a car, be sure to protect each circuit with a fuse. We picked up this fuse block at the local auto parts store for less than ten bucks.  We wanted the interior of...  We wanted the interior of our race car to have a finished look, so we ordered new door panels, sill plates, and carpet from the Paddock. With the parts accumulated to finish our car, we got to work assembling our Barracuda. This is always a time-consuming part of any build, but don't get in a rush. Taking your time during assembly, cleaning and painting each part as it's installed is what separates an average car from a nice one. Once our car was assembled, we started the engine and tested the functioning of all the car's systems. Since everything checked out ok, we headed to Bradenton Motorsports Park to test our bracket car on their quarter-mile dragstrip. Any time you test a new car at the track, it's a good idea to take it easy. For our first test session, we simply eased the car down the track for a couple of passes to seat the transmission clutches and bands, check the steering and brakes, and get a feel for the car's handling. Once confident everything worked properly, we made some hard 60-foot passes to check how the car launched. During our first hard launch, the car drifted left, meaning the left rear tire was spinning. We corrected this by tightening the right torsion bar, which loads the left rear tire. With our car launching straight and pulling hard, it was time for some full passes. While we had an idea that our car would run somewhere in the 10s in the quarter-mile, our first pass had us pretty excited. The car not only ran in the 10s, it ran low-10s as it clicked off a 10.39 at over 128 mph on its first pass. By bumping the ignition timing to 36 degrees and jetting the carburetor to 96 jets front and rear, we achieved a best pass of 10.28 at 129 mph during our first test session, achieving our goal of 10-second timeslips. During our next test session, the car's owner and driver, Amy Coleman, stepped in and clicked off a string of low-10s in the quarter. A week later, Amy entered her first bracket race at the Lakeland dragstrip, winning four rounds to earn a win and a $500 paycheck in the Pro class! That's what we consider a successful project. While this project definitely exceeded our performance goals, we aren't finished with it yet. Look for future articles on the B3 as we make chassis and engine changes to optimize this bracket racer. And if you happen to be bracket racing in the southeast, look out for Amy and her 'Cuda, they've already proven to be a winning combination.  Carpet will reduce noise inside...  Carpet will reduce noise inside the cockpit of our race car, as well as improve the aesthetics. Our carpet from the Paddock fell right in place, though we had to cut relief holes for the rollcage bars.  To mount our gauges, we first...  To mount our gauges, we first removed the original instruments from the back of the dash, and then painted the dash panel with silver and black spray paint. We then cut a piece of polycarbonate panel and affixed it to the back of the dash panel where the original instruments mounted.  To mount the racing seat we...  To mount the racing seat we salvaged from the Duster, we fabricated seat tracks from pieces of steel L-angle.  Seat position is extremely...  Seat position is extremely important in a race car, so we had our driver sit in the seat to ensure she could reach all the car's controls while driving. We then mounted the seat permanently to the car's floor.  With our car nearing completion,...  With our car nearing completion, we decided to do the rough bodywork and get our car in primer before our first test session. After cutting the rust out of the driver-side quarter, we fabricated a sheetmetal patch and welded it in place.  Since we'd just built the...  Since we'd just built the car and really didn't know if it would go straight or not, we decided to test it at Bradenton Motorsports Park before taking it to the paint shop. This way any suspension tuning could be performed prior to putting paint on the car. Also, just in case of a mishap, we didn't want to scratch the new paint.  Timeslips don't lie, and this...  Timeslips don't lie, and this one is from our very first full pass. We were pleasantly surprised that our combination easily achieved our goal of 10-second elapsed times, and with a little tuning, we managed a best pass of 10.28 during our first test session.  Since our car met its goal...  Since our car met its goal of 10 seconds in the quarter, we deemed it worthy of paint and took it to J.D.'s Paint and Body for a race-quality paint job.  J.D.'s crew quickly went to...  J.D.'s crew quickly went to work straightening the panels of our Barracuda, prepping it for the '06 Go Mango color that Amy picked for her car.  Since tire clearance at the...  Since tire clearance at the front of the rear wheelwell is always an issue on A-bodies, we had J.D. cut and radius the front of the wheelwell for more clearance.  With the quarter-panel cut...  With the quarter-panel cut away, new metal was added to form the lip of the wheel opening. This modification gives our 28-inch-tall Mickey Thompson slicks plenty of room to grow during the burnout, and probably gave us enough room that we could run a 30-inch-tall tire if we wanted.  With the bodywork complete,...  With the bodywork complete, the car is rolled into the booth where J.D. applied multiple coats of Diamont paint, transforming the car from a primered wreck to a stunning race car.  After the paint cured, J.D....  After the paint cured, J.D. wet-sands and buffs the finish to a mirror gloss.  Knowing we needed to get back...  Knowing we needed to get back to the track for testing, J.D. and his crew got our car back to us in record time (for J.D.).  For the rest of our second...  For the rest of our second test session, Amy practiced her burnouts and reaction times, and made multiple full passes down the quarter-mile. The best elapsed time of the day was 10.26 at 130 mph in the 85-degree Florida heat, and the car ran very consistently. All of Amy's practice paid off. The week following our test session, she entered a bracket race at Lakeland Motorsports Park and ended up earning $500 by winning the Pro class!  When we got to the track,...  When we got to the track, we decided to optimize the tuning of our car by making several jetting and timing changes. This combination loves fuel, and every time we increased main jet sizes the car went quicker and faster in the quarter-mile. We eventually ended up with 98 jets in the front and rear of our Holley 1050 Dominator.  Another important part of...  Another important part of tuning a race car is trying different tire pressures. Amy found that 12.5 psi in the 28x10.5-inch Mickey Thompson slicks optimized 60-foot times. Her best 60-foot time during this test session was 1.44 seconds.
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