Cuda at SEMA

[Bill Howell]

Man that little red neck has a real following..he had a line the whole time..you know what has 36 teeth,24 arms 24 legs..12 people in line to get Cooters autograph..

And just think, You are the "Real Cooter", which in your own interpretation of poor "Real Bob Johnson", is just an imposter, so, now how you feel? Look what you have to look forward too in your retirement years.....

[Bob Johnson]

And just think, You are the "Real Cooter", which in your own interpretation of poor "Real Bob Johnson", is just an imposter, so, now how you feel? Look what you have to look forward too in your retirement years.....

Goldberg is getting upwards of $20K for a 4 or 5 hour autograph session. Hey, I can handle that..don't know what Cooter gets..make me famous and I'm in...I've been asked about 10 times for an autograph..I felt like paying them..I always think one of my friends is putting someone up to it so I don't know how to act...kinda wonder why anyone would impersonate Cooter or me

[Bob Johnson]

or the front row of a Willie Nelson concert. I'll post a joke about him on that joke thread..it's funny

[Bob Johnson]

Guy at The Silver State Classic called me back after I had complained about normally aspirated cars not being able to run nitrous..They talked with Baer Brakes and now will allow nitrous in the unlimited class in the Big Red Challenge..0-200-0

This will level the playing field with the turbo and blower cars. They will not run 0-200-0 in May..just a one mile acceleration test..braking not included..they will have a 0-100-0 in May. In Sept they will have the 0-200-0.

[Steve1968LS2]

Guy at The Silver State Classic called me back after I had complained about normally aspirated cars not being able to run nitrous..They talked with Baer Brakes and now will allow nitrous in the unlimited class in the Big Red Challenge..0-200-0

This will level the playing field with the turbo and blower cars. They will not run 0-200-0 in May..just a one mile acceleration test..braking not included..they will have a 0-100-0 in May. In Sept they will have the 0-200-0.

The problem with this competition is that they run it at 7000 feet elevation.. with the correction factor last year it was almost 9000 FEET!!!

Gonna be hard for any car, especially NA cars to run 200mph in a mile. Big Red didn't even hit 200 and it has a ****load of horsepower.. In fact nobody hit 200 in the alloted space.

How big a shot are you running!

[Bob Johnson]

she's direct port.. we're setting it up with 2 stages..It's a NOS system and has a controller that we can bring it in how we want, up to 10 seconds per stage.. We're doing 300 h.p. at first..but out there we could put in a bigger pill. I think it was about 6700 ft. or so and corrected about 7400 ft. I've never heard nearly 9,000 ft. Big Red did it normally aspirated..He finally did about 185 or so but not in the time alloted. The K%N Viper hit 185 or so too and in the alloted time. But Big Red stopped much faster than the Viper. We'll see how the Cuda does at Maxton..it's 1 mile..not a good surface at all..but much better altitude.
We'll probably have some teething pains..hopefully we'll be able to sort them out

[Rick Dorion]

Bob, any chance of onboard filming during your run(s) for our viewing pleasure?

[Bob Johnson]

Bob, any chance of onboard filming during your run(s) for our viewing pleasure?

we're talking about putting in a Camera..I'm going to be real green in that car. I don't know if I'll have over a few hours in it by then..

[MarkM66]

The problem with this competition is that they run it at 7000 feet elevation.. with the correction factor last year it was almost 9000 FEET!!!

Gonna be hard for any car, especially NA cars to run 200mph in a mile. Big Red didn't even hit 200 and it has a ****load of horsepower.. In fact nobody hit 200 in the alloted space.

How big a shot are you running!

I compared the power ratings as stated in Hot Rod on the Big Red 540 build, to Bob Johnsons Hemi build in PHR. HP were very close, but the Hemi had about 100 more ft. lb. of torque. That and I would assume lighter weight and better aero, along with the 300hp shot of nitrous, 200 shouldn't be a problem, .

I think Big Red did upper 180's last year.

[Bob Johnson]

I was surprised to see Big Red was running a 4 speed if I remember correctly..Hard to get an acceleration/or top end gear to work real good with only a 4 speeds in my opinion..You can do it with an overdrive 4th but the drop in RPM somewhere in the 3 shifts is going to sting you..Obviously the Gotleibs have their sh*t together but that surprises me). We can raise the pill size in the nitrous and get more..but this motor wasn't built for a big shot of nitrous. We can gradually bring it in (up to 10 seconds)with the NOS controller that Holley/NOS furnished with the kit. It's also 2 stages to boot. This should minimize the shock on the motor. We shouldn't have to bring it in until well into 5th gear anyway. I would think we also have better weight distribution than Big Red.. I would be pleased if the Cuda made anywhere as big a splash on this hobby as Big Red. I was absolutely in awe when I read about them in the early 90's..Cool guys to say the least.

[Bob Johnson]

Had to change the Monday date for the Dyno Pull.. forgot the previous commitment to Center Force for a commercial shooting in Nashville..

[Bob Johnson]

I'm here at Alans..We have the Cuda ready..going to drive it in a few minutes..Sounds great..the 3.5 chambered exhaust are cool sounding..not that tinny raspy sound you getr from some mufflers. Alan plans to video the dyno pull later this week when we do it. Got the new door panels/window combination pieces he's made for the Cuda to use when we run it. No way to secure the glass on a hard top car and keep it clean looking..we'll just roll the windows down, take the door panels off and replace the door panels with the aluminum door panel/glass/with 1/4 " tubing frame work on the glass.. 1 piece combo unit..New bolt in supplemental roll cage is fabricated with the head restraint/seat attachments fabbed in...for use when Cuda competes.

[Steve1968LS2]

For those in love with this car.. we just put the downloadable wallpaper online..

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/freestuff/

(it's at the bottom of the page)

[Bob Johnson]

drove the Cuda..The program we have isn't working well..We looked at the fuel delivery on the computer and it was up and down continuously and very quickly..wasn't accepting the throttle very well. It rode magnificent..smooth as glass..it rode over bumps like a Mercedes..Very solid and tight..sounds great..Alan is going to try and get a better program from Fast where we can put some more miles on it..Sounds great..looks even better going down the road. got to adjust the shifter some more..2nd gear was hard to get..reverse a little tough..everything else worked great. The Center Force LM aluminum twin disc set up is smooth as glass..light pedal feel..no chatter..smooth engaging..

[Bob Johnson]

I compared the power ratings as stated in Hot Rod on the Big Red 540 build, to Bob Johnsons Hemi build in PHR. HP were very close, but the Hemi had about 100 more ft. lb. of torque. That and I would assume lighter weight and better aero, along with the 300hp shot of nitrous, 200 shouldn't be a problem, .

I think Big Red did upper 180's last year.

Those last few MPH are tough to get..187 to 200 is like light years away..doesn't sound like much until you try and do it. I didn't realize it but Doug Dwyer who handles the PR, and advertising for CenterForce also does the Same for Silver State. He is very active in Silver State. I was complaining to him about them not running the 0-200-0 in May. The temperature should be better in May than in Sept. Last year in Sept. it was in the 90's. That doesn't do the adjusted altitude numbers any good. getting into the 8,000 and 9,000 ft. adjusted numbers on altitude make it difficult to make any horsepower. They didn't have many participants last year. That's why they dropped it to 0-100-0..no one made the 200 so I guess they think it's too much. The Cuda should run 200 at Maxton..not sure the first time out, but it should be able to do it with a correct set-up. Nasty bumpy surface makes it difficult. We need to look into Moultrie..Get the Borens to pull some of their clout down there..or the entrance to Talladega..

[Bob Johnson]

Thursday we took the Cuda to Youngs Performance in Decatur, Ala. to chassis dyno the Cuda. Took awhile to work thru the newly released software and the edis distributorless setup on the Cuda. They were able to get it better but we kept running into a problem that was diagnosed as one of the LS1 coils interfering with the FAST computer. Trying to make the motor pretty and hiding those ugly coil paks made this possible. Much easier and more effecient to put those babies right on the valve cover just over the corresponding cylinder they're firing...but they sure are ugly.. We couldn't get down to a hard pull since the timing was jumping all over the place. We took it back to the shop and worked on it moving the 4 coils that were located on the left side with the computer. We found the offending coil and now it's running pretty good considering it hasn't been fine tuned. They should be going back the first of next week. I'm going to Detroit this week-end so I don't know if I will make the second dyno pull..The car sounds fantastic..Drives marvelous..smooth as can be. Alan is taking the video camera so we should have some good video of the next pull (unless it makes puny power..then we'll have to fake something)

[Bill Howell]

Call me when you get here, cooter.
I took this picture just for you today.

[F70t/a]

Thanks for the updates Bob!!!

[Bob Johnson]

Call me when you get here, cooter.
I took this picture just for you today.

damn, ol Cooter is looking pretty rough in that picture..This autograph signing stuff is working on him..I want to see if he has as big a following up there as he did down here. Goldberg is supposed to be up there Sunday too.

[Bill Howell]

Is this your new top secret project?

I am not sure how you are going to turn the front wheels.