Mr. Skip Holbert 
Mr. Skip Racing
Summer 09 Spring 09 Winter 2009
July 1, 2009 - The converter arrived, along with the turbo shaft and bolts. Everything fits, so far. I am changing the tail shaft oil seal to take care of the approximately one drop per day leak.
After I finish overhauling Bert Reilly's 750 Holley Dominator, I will finish my work on the converter and the body work. I want to be ready for the next Doorslammer Race on July 18th.
Everyone have a happy 4th of July celebration!
June 29, 2009 - My converter shipped today. I rewired my tail lights to come off of the light switch. I did have them coming off of the power to the fuel pump, but I always turn every switch on each power panel on each run anyway, so there was no reason to introduce a possible fuel system problem caused by the tail light circuit. Otherwise, I am just waiting and taking care of house, yard and family items.
The next Top Doorslammer race at State Capitol Raceway is on Sat., July 18, 2009. I hope to be able to run at least 8.99 for that event. If not, I will run in Super Pro again.
June 26, 2009 - After cleaning the rear end and the back underside of the car, I realized the only place for the rear end to vent was where I had plugged it off. I constructed and installed a vent with a hose that goes above the rear end housing. I also checked all my accessible bolts on my oil pan and all the header bolts for tightness.
I called Brandon, who did the scaling and setup of the chassis, and thanked him for making the car go straight. Houston Hawkins, who drove the car on Sunday, commented that only once did he have to "drive" the car, when it got out of the groove one time. He said he could have turned the steering wheel loose after the slight correction to bring it back. He said driving this car is kind of boring! During my 4 passes on Sat., I was very happy with the way it drove, but not bored in the least! I was too much aware of everything working and paying attention to gauges and listening for something to go wrong. Thank God, nothing did.
June 25, 2009 (late) - Went under the car and fixed a couple of small leaks. Valve cover leaks and a plug out of the rear end was missing, which I replaced. I drained the 10W-40 break-in oil (11 passes + startup) and replaced it with Lucus Synthetic 10W-30. A sample was sent to a lab for analysis. Everything seems to be burning just fine. The end of the plugs and the outlet of the headers are about the same, light brown, color.
Coan says the stall should be approximately 56-5700 rpm. The converter ships Tuesday of this coming week.
I removed the old converter late this evening, having to cut all my neat tie-wraps and undo my good looking runs of wires and hoses under the hood and car.
June 25, 2009 - The winner is Coan! Talked with the present converter company and I talked to Coan. That was as far as I got. The new converter should last a lifetime behind my engine. They have all my engine, cam, tire and rear end specs, along with my dyno sheets.
Coan is deciding on the correct stall after they finish going over the data. The converter will be their 9", Max Performance, $teel $tator, $pragless unit.
I should have the new unit by the end of this coming week. This converter will have a turbo input shaft, much stronger than the last one. If I can get 3 tenths out of the new converter, I will be very happy.
June 23, 2009 - After much discussion with "My Technical Staff and Advisors" (Houston, Van & Marcus), we decided there are some things that need answers.
I have a new aftermarket converter that I purchased over two years ago. The past two weeks were the first runs on the converter. I called the converter company and told them what was going on (crossing at over 7800 RPM). The technician said I had the wrong converter and this one cannot be reconfigured to something that I can use with my combination. I was very disappointed because when I ordered the converter, not directly from them, but through a mail order company, they were given all the specs. on the car, engine and dyno sheets. Now I have to start my hunt for the correct converter all over again.
I have decided to look at the following companies: ATI, Coan, TCI and TSI. Marcus likes ATI, I like Coan and TCI, Van has a TSI spragless converter that he likes.
I have an old 9" TCI which is configured for a SBC 4500 stall. My 9" TCI has no runs on it. Due to the economy (my deflated pocketbook) I hope to get TCI to rework this unit to match what I need for my present BBC engine. If not, I will make a decision based on which company $ound$ the be$t.
Yesterday I reset all the valve lashes and checked a lot of other items under the hood. So far, all is well. I have a lot of other maintenance to do and some cosmetic items to fix around the rear fender wells where the tires made the room that they needed on the top end.
June 22, 2009 - Today, I am extremely happy! We never made it to 8.99, but there were so many positive things that happened with the car that I can't help being very pleased. We ran in Super-Pro on Sunday. We lost in the second round on another red light. We ran 9.24 for out best pass.
We took the hood off one time on Sat. morning after the first pass and never took it off again!
I would like to thank Mr. Houston Hawkins and his wife Marva, for taking over the driving and handling of the car on Sunday. I was just too beat and exhausted to drive. I really enjoyed seeing the car go down the track. I could get use to this! My grandson, Jeremy (19 years old), wants to drive and I may just give up the seat to him.
Houston pointed out some issues with the car, namely the wheelie bars being too low, the timing may be off a little, the converter is very much in need of more stall and we are still trying to find the correct starting line RPM and shift point. Each time we changed something Sunday, the car got quicker, our MPH went up and the 60' came down. Houston ran and 9.24 @ 143.28 MPH on his last run. Almost a tenth quicker and 2 MPH faster than I was.
Houston had nothing but good things to say about the way the car handled, the power of the engine and how good everything worked. As I said before, I am very happy! That was a lot of work. Now we can concentrate on becoming consistent. With consistency comes winning!
I shot some real nice photos of the car and I have a video clip that I am trying to edit. The video uncut version has a lot of ground, guardrail, sky and other junk in it.
June 20, 2009 - Everyone is happy except me!
The car, off the trailer, ran a 9.336 @ 141.11 MPH, and that was the best run of the day! I expected at least a 8.99 at over 150.00 MPH, but that never happened. The car went straight and everything worked, but there is not enough power to go where I want it to be. At least not right now.
Track surface temps. were rumored to be over 130 degrees, and my weather station said the temp. was 103 degrees at 45% humidity.(we can take about 7-8 degrees off of that number, just because my weather station always reads high, and still get about 95 degrees). My tires only had 4 runs and I had 9 PSI in them. This was at 1:13 pm, and it got hotter into the afternoon.
I did compete in Top Doorslammer because the track relaxed the rules to allow all the cars that ran at least 9.50 in time trials, and paid to be in the class, to compete. I lost in the 2nd round when I had a red light (-.027).
After losing and getting back to my pit, I felt very dizzy and had to get into the truck with the A/C and some water. The heat had gotten to me.
Tomorrow, Houston Hawkins will drive "Mr. Skip" in Super-Pro for the Father's Day Race. ("If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!")