Auto Meter Data Acquisition Review – Time for 200MPH+

Auto Meter STACK for Bonneville Salt Flats Racing

From the analog data of “Old School” and to accuracy, speed and ease of digital data logging. That’s the simple goal here. From there, the Volk Brothers Racing 1929 Model A roadster is looking to use the data at the race track to modify or update the engine setup to ultimately go fast and break a record. Then, the reality of salt flats racing steps in…

Photo courtesy of SCTA website

Backing up a step, Auto Meter Gauges, Volk Brothers Racing and MyRideisMe.com teamed up for Speed Week 2010 and World of Speed for some high speed runs down the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Our salt infested friends, the Volk family, run a Ford roadster with a fuel injected big block Chevy engine. They compete in the B/GR (373ci-449ci engine/Racing Gas, Roadster) class at Bonneville during Bonneville Speed Week and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Associations World of Speed.

The Volk family salt flat racing pedigree includes (what seems like) 200 mph club membership for everyone of driving age in the Volk family. To get in the two-club, you have to set a record and run over 200 mph. Starting with Dad, Larry Volk, he’s the outgoing president of the two-club, and sons Dallas and Pat, and daughter Alison, are also 200 mph club members running this roadster. With the success of the Volks family racing, it was a no-brainer for Auto Meter to team up.

The Volks and their roadster (aka “the brick that could”) have held various records, including the B/GR record in the past. The class record was and still is (for this year anyway) 232.346 MPH set by Wilson & Waters in 2003.   With a fresh engine, fresh black paint and the new Auto Meter STACK Pro Comp Data Logger, hopes were high for another record and a two-club “Red Hat” for drivers Brady Nish (yes, of the veteran land speed racing Nish family) and Chauncey Filler.

Review of Auto Meter Stack Pro Comp Data Logger

Below, Dallas Volk tells recaps the Auto Meter STACK gauge install, general review,  setup and advantages over their previous tuning methods.

Let me start with a little background: The Volk Brothers Racing team’s been running since the 60’s and we’ve set many records with a top speed of 250+ MPH.

Our tuning for the last 40 years has been “old school” using analog gauges for temperatures and oil and fuel pressure . After every run we’d read plugs to check air/fuel condition (rich or lean) then decide if we needed to retard or advance timing. We’d rely on the drivers memory of analog gauge readings to give us oil pressure and water temp data throughout the run and his/her feelings on whether the clutch is slipping all while trying to keep a 200 mph rolling brick on a straight line for 5 miles. Needless to say, the data’s not as accurate as an engine tuner would desire… This is an obvious advantage for a data acquisition system.

Keep this on the down low: As a driver, I used to lie about shift point rpm’s because one blower motor had a cam with a 200 HP nitrous shot-like burst at 5200 rpm. The car wanted to swap ends at speed and I didn’t!. The motor owner wanted me shifting at 7000 rpm’s which dropped me to 5000 rpm’s after the shift. To avoid the 200 mph hula I would shift at 7400 to keep after-shift R’s at 5400. The motor owner would throw a rod if he knew this.  Shhhhhh…

This photo shows what the Auto Meter gauges used before the data logger setup.  These gauges saw 20+ years of usage in the rough and salty Bonneville environment.

After much research, and some guidance from Auto Meter, we decided to go with the Auto Meter STACK Pro Comp Data Logger.  The high-tech data logging system should be great for tuning, but a sad day for hiding shift rpm’s from engine owners!

To get started, a new dash was fabricated from aluminum with the hole cut out for the STACK unit. (Thanks to our friends from Structural Steel and Plate in North Salt Lake City, Utah)  I can already see the benefit of  the single gauge because its one object to look at instead of four.  Imagine trying to look at four separate gauges while driving over 200 mph.

Why this Data Logger? First reason: The Auto Meter data logger interface. Starting with the classic Auto Meter tach, below is a simple and easy to read LED display where the driver can monitor up to four different inputs clearly. The data logger will also display alarms for anything you’re measuring such as low oil pressure. Again, an alarm or “idiot light” for critical info at speed was a huge benefit for the team.

STACK unit is installed, now time to wire it up with the various sensors.

Second reason: We reviewed many different data logging systems and knew that Auto Meter was a strong manufacturer of gauges (our previous set-up had all Auto Meter gauges) but Auto Meter wasn’t well known in the data logging world. I had heard from some people that Auto Meter didn’t put out a very good product for data logging. What these people didn’t know, and I actually found out from a “techie” of a competitor, is that Auto Meter teamed with a company called STACK. STACK made the Auto Meter data logging systems as reliable and user friendly as the gauges Auto Meter’s known for.

The backside of the dash showing the wiring for all the sensors.

The Install
Once we received our data logger and sensors we started the install. The sensors we decided to go with for now (we will be adding more)  were  two pressure sensors, one for oil and one for fuel at the nozzles, one water temp sensor, drive line RPM, and two O2 sensors, one for each collector. The install went great! With the new 3/8″ aluminum dash, we slipped the data logger in and started stringing wires and connecting sensors.

Oil Pressure sensor plumbed and wired up.

Fuel Pressure sensor hooked up at the intake manifold.

The install was very easy and the only thing to be cautious of is documenting which sensors go to which ports on the race data logger.

This is a screenshot showing how each sensor is programmed into the STACK.

Programming the sensors to the data logger was equally easy. Auto Meter and STACK did a great job on their GUI in the setup program. Just grab the picture of the sensor type you want on the screen and drag it to the input you want. I couldn’t be happier with how easy the install was.

The STACK unit and the associated wiring and converter next to the potent Big Block Chevy.

Using the Race Car Data Acquisition

OK… here’s where we ran into a little trouble. The user instructions for operation of the STACK are pretty weak . The instructions  explain how to setup the programming but oddly enough I couldn’t find how to start the actual data logging! At first then, we used the laptop connected to the data logger on the starting line to start and stop data logging. It was by accident while our driver was resetting the low oil pressure alarm that he held the reset button for three seconds and the display read “logging run”. We already mentioned this to Auto Meter and they’re checking into it.

Larry Volk wearing his 2-Club Red Hat while installing sensors and bundling the wiring along side son Pat.

Other than the simple problem of actually recording the race data… the system performed flawlessly! After the first run at 218 mph, we were amazed at how much the data helped. We could see air/fuel mixture, oil pressure, water temp, fuel pressure, and clutch slip recorded side by side throughout the entire run.  Our driver also noted how easy it was to read the display in the darkness of the cockpit.

All the data were were getting was cool, but we all thought about how much we’d been missing using old school tuning and troubleshooting. I don’t know how we made it without some of the other functions too. We programmed an alarm to go off at a certain temperature so the driver knew when to turn on the water pump without having to monitor the temp gauge, and another alarm for low oil pressure, a potential engine saver!  Having these alarm features and the improved visibility of the tach allows the driver to focus on driving. That’s great for both safety and performance.

Conclusion

I highly recommend the Auto Meter Pro Comp STACK. It was very easy install, and overall, very easy to run. The data mining and configuring is easy and has the ability to stack one run on top of the other for comparison which is really cool to see the improvements (or not!) your tuning work did. For the future, the data logger can handle many sensors so we plan on adding O2 sensors on each exhaust pipe rather than just at the collector so we can tune each cylinder. We’lll put another fuel pressure sensor at the pump too so we can compare between pressure at the pump and the nozzles.

I wish we would have gone this route years ago.

Thanks Dallas!  Sounds like the Auto Meter STACK gauge and data logging setup is perfect for land speed racing.  Thanks to the Volk Bros Racing Team for sharing this info with us at MyRideisMe.  See below for more photos of the install.

Bonneville Dreams of the 200 MPH Club

Land Speed Racing History at the Bonneville Salt Flats

[Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird, Land Speed Record setting car, circa 1927. Photo courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection at http://ibistro.dos.state.fl]

I think ever since engines were invented, men across the globe were seeing how fast they could get them to go. Eventually this became known as land speed racing. It was in 1898 that the first documented attempt for land speed racing was recorded. The man was the Conte de Chasseloup, the street was a long road outside of Paris, and the whooping speed that set the record was 39.24 mph! Since then we’ve been seeing how fast any sort of engine-powered, wheeled contraption would go…from empty roads, to Florida beaches, to Australian dry lakes, and of course… to salt flats in Utah.

Why would so much effort be put into seeing how fast you can go? Quite apart from such factors as national prestige and technical advancement that are bound up inseparably with this Land Speed Record, there is satisfaction in knowing that you have driven faster than any other human being without any possible question of dispute. [p.13, The World’s Land Speed Record by William Boddy, 1951]

While the “Land Speed Record” is a little bit different then the variety of class-records that most people go after, the underlying passion is the same in all of land speed racing. And for quite some time now, it could be said that the mecca of land speed racing is the Bonneville Salt Flats –with the event of the year there being Speed Week.

Since the whole purpose of land speed racing, Bonneville, and Speedweek is namely, “speed,” it only makes sense that there’s a special club to recognize the people and cars that go fast. It’s known, simply, as the 200 Mile-Per-Hour Club.

Although SCTA/BNI officially began to sponsor land speed racing at the salt flats in 1949, it wasn’t until a few years later in 1953 that the 200mph Club was established. Upon first hearing of the 200 MPH Club, I thought it seemed pretty straight forward …people going 200mph or over, right? Well, yes and no. Back in 1953, 200mph wasn’t being reached too often. With nearly sixty years of engineering advances since then, 200 mph is now a very attainable goal. So now, no…you can’t just run at 200mph and get in the club. Now you have to break a record over 200 mph to gain your lifetime 200 MPH club admittance.

Do you realize that driving 200 mph means covering 293 feet per second?! That’s almost an entire football field’s distance every second!

Not only is there the 200 MPH Club, there’s also the 300 MPH Chapter for those breaking a record over 300mph. You can tell these special members apart from the rest by the color of their hats. While 200 MPH members get a red hat, the 300 MPH Chapter has a blue hat. There are also different 200 MPH Clubs for whatever location you’re racing at. In the US you’ve got Bonneville, The Texas Mile, El Mirage, Maxton, Maine, and Muroc. These tracks vary according to racing surface and length. Bonneville is the only salt-covered racing surface. El Mirage is dirt, thus dubbing their club the “Dirty 2s”. The others are held on runways. Only five of these 200 MPH Clubs is admitting members, as Muroc is presently shut down.

As of 2009, there were 665 total members in the Bonneville 200 MPH club (with only 76 in the 300 MPH Chapter.) Some are big names, others less so. Some are young, others old. Some have been chasing the dream for decades before being admitted, others are newer to land speed racing. Most are men, a few are women. In fact, I’ve had a chance to talk with a handful of the approximately 17 women who are in the 2-club and I’m excited to share with you more of their stories!

Last year during Speedweek 26 new 200 MPH Club members were admitted. This year 22 made it in. I don’t know about you—but even though I’m still just learning about cars, creating something that will one day get me into the 200 MPH club is definitely on my bucket list! Hmmm….what racing category will it be?…I can already guess what body type I’ll choose!

Hemi Powered and Strange-Shifted Speed Seeking Studebakers #3

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Studebakers

I’ve already covered the two record-taking Studebakers for this 2010 Speed Week in previous articles of this Speed Seeking Studebakers series (#1 1953 Studebaker Coupe & #2 1949 Studebaker Pickup). So before looking at more racing Studes, I wanted to show you some of the fine Studebakers that spectators were driving around on the salt!

To begin with, is Bob Weaver’s 1953 Studebaker Coupe.

I’m not sure color has as much to do with speed as the aerodynamics body of the Studebaker coupe – but in this case yellow=fast! My 5-year-old nephew exclaimed “Yellow cars are the fastest” while wandering around Gene Winfield’s shop a couple of months ago, and in this case I’d say he’s right!

It isn’t just the yellow color and aerodynamic body that’s making this Studebaker go fast. This special Stude has a Chrysler Hemi powerplant! I was amazed at how snugly it fit in the engine compartment. This hot rod sure looks just as pretty under the hood as above it!

Any Studebaker-fan knows that us Studebaker owners are a quirky bunch of folk! So I wasn’t overly surprised when I saw this 1950 Studebaker convertible coupe roll up.

If the airplane-nose isn’t enough to make this old car stand out, then the fishnet & high-heeled leg sticking up out of it is! Of all the strange and original shifters I’ve seen, this one takes the cake!

From hot rod, to quirky, and now to round it off in the more rat rod category is this chopped up truck seen at the nightly car show at the Nugget Casino in Wendover.

I loved its custom airplane-styled windshield and lime-green accents. Its nice rusty patina is offset nicely by that touch of chrome on its wheels too!

Lastly, of course I was there on the salt with my own 1955 Studebaker Champion Coupe. (Note: Did you know that a “coupe” is differentiated from the “hardtop” by the B-pillar in between the front and rear-seat windows?)

Stude liked it out on the salt!  We had tons of fun meeting new friends… like this sleek blue #653. Continue onto the next story to read more about this #653 Studebaker Race car with a Flathead!

Speed Week 2010 Getting Schooled in a Jeep

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Truck

I met Pete and his son (the driver) at Speed Week 2010, but we had been talking through email the last couple months.  I was cruising through the pits at the Bonneville Salt Flats on day 1 when I saw Pete and his Comanche heading to the Tech Inspection area to check in.  I followed behind them and then went over to say hi.  Before we get into the Jeep’s performance at Speed Week, first, let’s see what it took Pete to get there.

In Pete’s own words:

“At this point I have more time than money. The Bonneville truck was to be a budget build but that didn’t quite work out…  I consider myself to be a good mechanic and a reasonable engineer.  I have worked on my cars my whole life  and was a mechanic in the Army.  All of that said, I had never built a race car. I had re-built engines, but never built a race engine.   So what made me think I could build a record setting race truck?  Maybe it was more balls than brains.  And why a Jeep?   That question I know the answer to.  I could have built an S10 using 4.3L parts.  They had a NASCAR series that used the V6, so a whole bunch of speed parts are available for that motor. But what fun is that!?  Building something from a catalog was not me. Like most car guys I wanted something  different.”

Hmmm… sounds like My Ride is Me!

“I finally found a 2WD Comanche with a 4.0L engine and manual transmission on Ebay in Texas.  We won it for a top bid of $930.00    It had 256,000 miles on it, but my son was able to drive it home to Illinois from Texas with only 1 roadside repair.

In the production racing class that the Jeep fits in you have to use a version of the engine that originally came in the vehicle.  So I had to build a Jeep/AMC inline 6.  Some street performance stuff was available to give you a 20% or 30% gain, but for Bonneville we would have to at least double the horsepower.  We were in uncharted waters.”

Check the blacked out look of this Jeep… Looks like Darth Vader!  Mean!

“We had a Plan, we had a vehicle, we had a date we had to meet (Bonneville Speed Week 2009).  The weeks and months that followed were crazy.   I was doing the engineering and project management.  My (23 year old) son was doing most of the fabrication.   As Speed Week 2009 got closer everybody was wrenching.  We did make it to Speed Week, but were unable to run due to a lubrication issue.  Also I probably over did things and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia during Speed Week.   We did get the truck through tech, and a good time was had by all, even the guy in the hospital.

The story does not end there.  Over the winter the engine problems were resolved, things were fixed on the car. We attended Maxton in May and found a steering issue.  The next stop was to be Bonneville Speed Week 2010 in August.”

“To say the least this was a challenge.  Maybe we should all challenge ourselves a little more, like the President that thought we should go to the moon.   I could say I am doing this for myself, but I think that’s not completely correct.  I think I wanted to show my son that we are surrounded by opportunity and that in many cases you don’t know what you can do until you try.  Our goal for this year is to go 185 mph at Bonneville, and in the next year or two to join the 200mph club.  Hey! why not?”

Here’s a close up of that sexy inline 6.  I love the snakey header.  It’s a one-off custom piece of course.  If you’re gonna go 200 mph Pete, this engine looks like it is a great base to reach your goal.  I was blown away when Pete mentioned that he didn’t think he had enough compression to get the record.  I asked him how much he had and it was like 13-14:1.  Whoa!  Talk about a serious motor!

I chatted with Pete for a few minutes, snapped some pictures of the Jeep and headed off.  Pete later shared his Speed Week 2010 experience and related it to getting “schooled”.  I’m sure his experience at Speed Week is not unlike most at Bonneville.

“It was the first time on the salt for the truck, and for my son and myself as competitors and we learned a lot.   We did go 155 MPH, but the record is around 173 MPH for the D/PMP class.   I guess you have to have a pretty big ego to think you can just build a car and go out and set a record (guilty as charged!).  If we changed the rear end gears we could probably get it to 163, but that is still 10 mph shy of the record.   One thing I learned is that it is not just about the engine and setting a record.  I saw lots of spins. I met people that had all kinds of problems, ignition, handling, fuel problems, etc.   I saw they had the engine out of the Blowfish.  Not sure what the problem was.   My point is that people with a whole lot more money and resources had trouble just getting a car down the track. We got through tech without a problem, the car did everything we asked it to do, it went straight, the chute worked.  We just didn’t have the right gears and enough horsepower.  We have a whole year to work on that.

All and all we are proud of ourselves, we did not achieve our goal of setting a record, but we understand now exactly what it takes.  We get a passing grade on “Salt Flats 101″.  The next course is harder.  For “Salt Flats 201″ you have to set a record to pass.  For “301″ you have to get into the 200 MPH Club.  I’m not sure what you need to graduate, maybe the big Hot Rod trophy for the fastest run of the meet.   All I know is I went to Speed Week 2010 and got schooled.”

A big thanks to Pete for sharing his Bonneville story with us at MyRideisMe.com.  I felt inspired by his comment that life is full of opportunity and that we should just go for it.  The Hechtspeed family is in the planning stages to build a Belly Tank Lakester and if we follow Pete’s advice, I know we’ll get there.

If you missed Part 1 of this Bonneville Racing Jeep, see it here

For the Best of Bonneville Speed Week click this link.

1949 Studebaker Farm Truck-Speed Seeking Studebakers #2

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers

#898 obviously isn’t a coupe, but it’s still Speedy. And most importantly, it’s a Studebaker! This 1949 Studebaker farm truck out of Kansas took the second of the two records for this years Speed Week.

And break a record did it ever! With Chevy power under the hood in it’s AA/MP class, the old record was blown away by nearly 18 miles per hour! Norris Anderson definitely knows how to build one, as he powered this truck down the line at 219.331mph!

And you know what that means, its a record-breaking run over 200mph… so Norris Anderson gets his well-deserved Bonneville 200mph Club admission. He’ll be a happy man wearing that red hat. In fact… he was already wearing it, even as he did broom duty around the pits!

It looks like Norris Anderson and his Broom Crew have a lot of fun out on the salt! It was in 2004 that Norris first found the old farm truck and began building it into a salt flats racer in 2004. Their motto? “Safe Trucks Travel Fast.”

Start here for All Speed Seeking Studebakers

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