TURBO TAXI
WE SLOWLY GET TO GRIPS WITH THE ENGINE SWAP ON OUR TURBO TAXI PROJECT
Scotty slaves over an engine swap for our mighty Falcon
EVER since we announced our Turbo Taxi project, we’ve been flat stick making it all happen within a fairly tight video deadline. It’s been a busy few weeks. For those late to the party, here’s the spiel. We’ve bought a 2010 FG Falcon ex-taxi, and we want to make it run 10s on LPG. When we say it like that it all sounds easy, but we’re discovering that it’s anything but.
We paid $2750 for the 577,000km ex-cab, which was probably on the high side of things, but by spending a little more initially we ended up with a better car and it had no trouble getting a roadworthy certificate. On the other side of the ledger, the engine came with a fairly loud bottom-end knock, and while it wasn’t immediately terminal we knew we were going to have to replace the engine prior to any boost being introduced to the equation. On the chassis dyno at MPW Performance, the taxi made 191.2rwhp, before we headed to Calder Park and ran a very disappointing 17.29@83mph – and that’s where we left things last month.
We knew the taxi was capable of more, so we headed back out to Calder and immediately dipped into the 16s with a 16.82@83mph, followed by a pair of 16.74s, with me behind the wheel. Then Aiden jumped into the driver’s seat, and with a decided weight advantage, he reeled off a 16.71 and then a best of 16.70@83.4mph – almost six-tenths better than our initial foray onto the drag strip, and more in line with where we expected the car to be.
With all that out of the way, we started collecting parts for the taxi. First up was a new motor. We stumbled across a 142,000km petrol FG motor for $200 on the internet and foolishly jumped on it. The guys at MPW
Performance graciously loaned us a hoist for what was supposed to be a one-day engine changeover. It became a four-day marathon.
Having not been on the spanners for a while, we underestimated just how big a job an engine swap is in an FG Falcon if you’ve never done it before. We’re sure that the experts can probably do it in a standard workday with two identical engines, but we struck problem after problem after realising just how many differences there were between the petrol and LPG engines. Everything off the petrol engine had to be stripped and all the ancillaries from the LPG donk had to be added; this even included the rocker cover. We learned more about FG Falcon engines than we ever really wanted to know.
To make matters worse, we forgot that the new engine was from a manual and tried to bolt it in place with the input shaft bush still in the back of the crank. In many cars this isn’t really a problem, but with the FG Falcon it’s a major issue and the engine and trans wouldn’t pull together completely. That meant we had to drop the transmission out – we didn’t want to pull the engine out again – and Adam from MPW used his slide hammer to remove the bush so we could put it all back together.
So you can see why the whole job took us four days from start to finish, but hitting the key and having it fire up first go was a joyous moment.
So right now we’ve got parts piling up in the office, with a Garrett GT35/84R from GCG Turbos, plus a bunch of gear from Turbosmart and Haltech, including an Elite 2500 ECU. We’re also expecting a delivery from Plazmaman as well. It’s all getting bolted on shortly – in fact we’re hoping the car will be turbocharged by the time you read this.
IHAD a great evening recently when one of my friends invited me to drive their pale green and white 1957 Buick sedan in the Covered In Chrome Saturday-night cruise in Mackay. This was the first CIC event I’d cruised in – and the first time I’d ever driven a left-hand-drive car in Australia, which took a little bit of getting used to. It was also like travelling back in time to the 70s, when I had two ’57 Chevs – one a 396 big-block A/ MP drag car and the other a 235-cube Blue Flame-six tow car.
The first thing I had to get used to was starting the engine. Turning the ignition on is the same as many cars, but then you have to push your foot all the way down on the accelerator. When your foot gets near the floor it hits the start solenoid button and cranks the motor. I’ve never been in a car that starts this way. And even though this Buick had power-assisted drum brakes that were done up, they’re not like modern disc brakes. They reminded me of my ’57 Chev’s drum brakes, which could stop the big-block shoebox safely from 126mph at the end of the quarter every pass, but there was never any danger of flat-spotting the front tyres – and you have to drive in traffic accordingly.
Another thing was the radio. It worked perfectly, but took time to warm up. And there were no seatbelts. We’re so conditioned to putting our seatbelts on that it was noticeable not wearing them. Seatbelts do save lives, but it felt good sitting comfortably on the big bench seat unrestrained.
The all-original V8/two-speed Buick cruised along the highway so smoothly. It mightn’t have cruise control, but you could effortlessly drive this car from Mackay to Melbourne and back again.
The late-afternoon meeting place was the Mackay TAFE carpark in Wood Street, and just getting into the parking area had to be done delicately. The Buick had to be angled to stop the front bumper from scraping the ground going through the dip at the carpark entry. There were probably 20 cars there already, a couple of bikes and a coffee van. Many more arrived later.
The best part about the event was meeting other likeminded people who love their cars.
A local chassis builder brought his Russian partner to the event; she was tickled to have her photo taken in the front seat of the Buick.
Another local racer was running low 11s at 125mph on radials in his XD Falcon. It’s pulling the front wheels off the deck, but should be running 10s for the 125mph terminal speed. We bench-raced for a while, going over his combo. He had a 5000rpm stall converter sitting under a bench that he thought might be too much stall, but I suggested he try that next meeting. It’s such
IT’S BEEN AT LEAST 20 YEARS SINCE I’VE BEEN IN A GROUP OF CARS DOING LAPS. PEOPLE AT RESTAURANTS WERE CHEERING AND WAVING AS THE PROCESSION WENT PAST; THE PUBLIC WERE GETTING A FREE LIVE CAR SHOW!
a good feeling when you shave a couple of tenths off and jump into the next time bracket, like low 11s to high 10s.
After the sun went down, the group headed off to the main street of Mackay and did some laps. This should make a lot of you smile. Anyone – young or old – who has owned a custom car, hot rod or street machine will have at one time or another driven up and down the main street of a town somewhere. It’s been at least 20 years since I’ve been in a group of cars doing laps; people at restaurants were cheering and waving as the procession went past and many had their mobile phones out taking pictures. The public were getting a free live car show. It was really cool. There was no anti-social behaviour, just a feel-good time.
After cruising up and down the main street several times, many cars headed out to Mackay Harbour and back again. It took me back to the 70s, when that was what we all did on a Saturday night. The only thing missing these days is a drive-in movie theatre. And where we used to go parking down at the harbour is now full of high-rise apartments, restaurants, takeaway shops and bars. The ’57 Buick was like a time machine and flashed back to some great memories.
To top the night off, I got a phone call from a couple of friends who were having a few drinks at a local pub and needed a lift. They certainly weren’t expecting a ride in a 60-yearold Buick! It was handy having a bench seat front and back that could cope with six adults. The rest of the patrons at the pub all came to the door to watch us leave and wave.
There are a lot worse things you can do than love cars. There’s a really good social scene associated with owning, maintaining and driving cars like the ones we feature in
Street Machine. Life is short; get out there and enjoy it.
THERE’S a bit of a joke that goes ’round amongst the guys, and it sounds a little like a Confucius saying: ‘Every now and then, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn.’
This can probably apply to our experience at the ANDRA Grand Final meeting at Adelaide International Raceway on the weekend of 31 March–1 April. We made the final and finished second to John Zappia, who collected his 10th title. Any time we can be within yelling distance of him, it’s a good weekend.
It was great to come back to Adelaide. The fans were sensational like they were at Calder Park earlier this year; I had hundreds of fans coming to the trailer for a chat and to say thanks for coming back to Adelaide to race. I’m not sure how long it had been – one fan said it was five years, and it’s certainly been at least four, and that’s too long between visits. The main reason for such a long absence was that after Benny had his accident we had a couple of years off.
The crowd was incredible on both days, even Friday qualifying, which is a work day for lots of drag racing fans. Then on the Saturday they packed the place out – fantastic! I reckon every single one came around to the pit area; the place was really jumping. Even after all these years it’s still a real buzz to hang out with the fans.
Adelaide has always been a bit of a favourite for Team Bray. In many ways South Australia is a drag racing mecca. Pro Stock has been massive in Adelaide and over the years there have been a lot of memorable meetings at AIR.
Drag racing is alive and well in both Adelaide and Melbourne, and at the end of the day the sport needs to get its act together and present a single front. At least the two bodies are talking together, which they were not in the past couple of years, but the sport needs to be unified so teams can go ahead and attract sponsors. The Doorslammer guys would prefer one championship, as would all the Group One categories. Will it happen? Not sure. I think it will depend on the bigger tracks like Willowbank, Sydney and Perth; they’re the ones that have international-standard facilities. Darwin is a great facility and even Adelaide and Calder Park don’t really need a lot of money spent on them to get up to standard. I just hope that someone in their wisdom can get the parties together and work it out.
I can’t talk about the Adelaide meeting without mentioning the show that Santo Rapisarda and his pair of Top Fuel cars put on. He’s gottta be the godfather, or as I heard someone refer to him, Saint Santo of Top Fuel. After all these years he is so passionate about drag racing and has given so much in his life for the sport, and we all know what I’m talking about. Both his cars ran faultlessly. No early shut-offs, just good hard racing, and the header flames from the cars at night really had the fans on their feet. His two sons, Santino and Santo Jr, are getting so good at tuning the cars, they are world-class and from memory they’re still only about 23 years old; they can only get better and better.
Straight after Adelaide we were on the road to the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Expo in Melbourne – Australia’s version of SEMA or the PRI show. This year the show was fantastic, as it usually is. Every manufacturer was there and the big companies sent down their CEOS and marketing people to talk about and display their products. We had Ben’s car on the Century Batteries stand and my Chev in the foyer for Gulf Western. We also wandered over to the Gates Belts stand for their happy hour – and believe me, it was a very happy hour!
We’ve got a lot of stuff happening in the next few weeks too, particularly with Gulf Western sponsoring the Nitro champs in Sydney and then in June the Winternationals at Willowbank. We are going to really step up for both those meetings. We’ve got some new gear coming from the States, and I’ve gotta tell you, it takes months to get the stuff here; hopefully we get it in time and it works for what we want to do. We are hoping to make our engines more suitable to work with the converters and are testing a lot of the converter technology in both Benny’s car and my car, as well as working on engine combinations. Do we have the answers? Of course we don’t, not yet. Are we going in the right direction? Well, only time will tell.
A lot of guys want to run converters but have trouble with them. We did when we started, and for a couple of years after. We tried converters about 10 years ago, ran them for a while, then came back to a clutch. However, times change and we decided about three or four years ago to give the converter another go. We sold all our clutches and have run converters ever since. Full stop.
A quick update on the new car. Murray Anderson is very busy at the moment; he’s going to build the basic chassis. We are designing the body at the workshop, and when that’s done we will apply to ANDRA for certification. When the chassis is finished we’ll transport it to our workshop and put the car together. Stay tuned!
AT THE ANDRA GRAND FINAL MEETING WE MADE THE FINAL AND FINISHED SECOND TO JOHN ZAPPIA, WHO COLLECTED HIS 10TH TITLE. ANY TIME WE CAN BE WITHIN YELLING DISTANCE OF HIM, IT’S A GOOD WEEKEND