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What Hooley, Loyd Huffman, accomplished with his Stude in 2004 is truly amazing. Let me back up just a little. Hooley went to B'ville 2 years ago with John Kimbrough, myself and other friends as a spectator. This past year he decided to build a car with the hopes of running over 200. No records, just to run over 200. He started on the car during the winter.
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Come April he had a body (and not a very good one) on a frame and suspension he built himself along with the cage. He ordered a "glass" frontend/hood for the car. At this point no body work other than the chopped top roughed in, no wiring, no motor, no plumbing, no safety equipment not much of anything.
About then John Kimbrough got involved and did the paint and body work on the car over the next month or so as body and parts were available to him. He lives about 80 miles from Hooley's home in Oklahoma and is in Missouri.
As the deadline of leaving for the salt approached a bunch of Hooley's friends jumped in and helped him on almost a daily basis. Still the motor wasn't put together until about 2 weeks before departure time and wasn't fired until Friday the 6th of August 2004, 5 days before they were to leave, and then didn't have much oil pressure and wouldn't run over 4000. The oil pump was changed and that took care of the oil pressure. Also on that Friday John had to drive over from Missouri and get the car and take it back to Missouri and mount the glass frontend and hood that he had just painted and then return the car to Oklahoma so Hooley could fire the engine that night. This was the first time the car was painted and together. On the next Tuesday (Aug. 10th) the night before departure a friend came over and helped Hooley get the mech. fuel injection sorted out so the engine ran good over 4000.
The next morning (Aug. 11th) at 3 am Hooley, John and Jim Anderson left for Oak City where they made a stop at Stroud's at 7:30 a.m. in the morning to get a window net made for the door. From there they drove straight through to my place in Utah and arrived about midnight after a 1050 mile drive that day.
We spent the next morning (Aug. 12th) in my shop making tabs to hold the window net in place and finished up a couple other minor things on the car and left for B'ville around noon. It is 430 miles from my place to there and we arrived a little after 9 in the evening on Thursday.
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Friday (Aug. 13th) the car was unloaded and we took this shot, John Kimbrough is on the left, then Hooley and Jim Anderson is on the right. John did the paint and finish body work along with other odds and ends. Jim, who lives near Hooley, did a lot of work on this car and of course Hooley put in tons of time on the car from start to finish.
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Hooley, John and Jim towed the car to tech inspection while Benny & Lilly, Jim Rivers, George Hakes and myself set up the pits and the shelter. The car went through tech with no problems. That is an accomplishment right there.
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This is a picture of our pits. Friday went pretty smooth and wasn't that hard of a day.
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Sat. morning was driver meeting and rookie orientation for us rookies. After that we were allowed to take the car to the starting line. In the starting lanes you go to a pre-staging lane where the above picture was taken and then as cars leave the starting line you move up to the starting line group of cars.
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We were pulling the car to the starting line and back to the pits with 1FATGMC using a towbar. The hood was place on mounts on the towbar when we towed the car.
If you have ever seen my truck you know how low it is. Now look at how low the Stude is!! At the starting line when we were a couple cars from going down the course I would drive on down the course on the return road where we would pick up Hooley after his run. I would stop between the 2 and 3 mile and used John's camcorder to take pictures of the car at speed. We had my camcorder in the car and have some really nice in-car video of each run (if you are interested in a copy see the end of this page).
Jim A. and John K. would push the car the rest of the way to the starting line and fire the car. Since it was running on alcohol, gas had to be squirted into the butterflies in the air scoop. George, and Jim Rivers, would take still shots of the car leaving the line and at speed.
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............................................(Picture by Jim Rivers of Hooley at
the starting line.).
Hooley had to make a number of licensing passes. The first had to be between 125 and 149.99. Do a number higher or lower than that and you re-run till you do. I was in charge of figuring rpms to run and we almost blew this run as we ran a 127+ mph as the rpm charts I had made up were off. This run gave him his "D" lic. Hooley ran up to about 4500 before the 3rd mile and then just held it there for the measured mile. Hooley commented that there was "no sensation of speed"!!. We used our small tires in the back for this run. We had two 24.5" dia. tires and two 27.5" dia. tires. We started with the small tires in the back and the large diameter tires in the front.
Instead of pulling back to the pits we went back and got in line again on the short course. We checked the car over in line. We were in the last couple cars that got to run Sat.. This time we had to run between 150 and 174.99 mph for a "C" lic.. Hooley running on the small tires at 6000 posted a 173.4 mph run. That was almost too fast. Now the first problem surfaced. At the end of the run the oil pressure was down to 15 psi. He had a windage tray, but it appeared we were pumping the oil out of the pan into the upper end. He was running a high volume, high pressure pump.
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......................................(Picture by Jim Rivers of the final run heading down the long course)
Sunday morning the decision was made to get a stock oil pump from the parts store and try it. So a stock pump with a high pressure spring went into the car that morning and we went back to staging. We also put the large diameter tires on the back of the car and moved the small tires back to the front.
We went back to the short course (3 mile course). To move to the long course you have to run at least 175 mph in the first 1/4 of the measured mile, from mile 2 to 3 on the short course. Also to get his B Lic. he had to run faster than 175 and slower than 199.00. I had to re-figure the rpm's since the tire change and we had to make sure we went over the 175 in the first quarter. Hooley stepped up to the plate with a run of 189.3 in the first 1/4 of the 3rd mile and 190.7 in the mile. The car pulled great. He ran right up to 5900 in the second mile and just held it there through the 3rd mile. That gave him his "B" lic. and move him and the car to the long course. The car skated around a little on this run and he now admitted there was "some" sensation of speed !!
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..............(Picture by Jim Rivers of the final run heading down the long course just after being waved off.)
We returned to the starting line without going to the pits and got right in line again, but this time in the "long" course line. We couldn't believe how well things were going. The only problem was at the end of the run he again went to 15 psi of oil pressure, so we didn't know if the motor was hurt or not. I guess he wanted to throw a little drama into the whole thing.
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(Picture by Jim Rivers at speed going down the short course. The vehicles in the back ground are about 1/2 to 3/4's of a mile away)
Again we were one of the last cars to make a run on Sunday. Due to the oil pressure problem the decision was made to only run to the end of the 3rd mile and not through the 4th and 5th miles. At the starting line John mentioned to the starter that we would just run up over 200 mph and shut off after the 3rd mile. He said "do you think you can do that?". Well Hooley ran down the course and laid down a 198.433 in the first 1/4 of the third mile and averaged 207.485 for the whole 3rd mile . That was impressive.
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.( picture by Chris Nelson of Hooley as he popped the chute at the 4 mile on the long course at 207 mph)
I brushed up on my algebra a little and came to the conclusion to average 198 in the first 1/4 of the 3rd mile and to average 207 for the entire mile he probably entered the mile at 195. At the end of the first quarter he would have been running 201, at the half mile 207, at the 3/4 mile 213, and at the end of the 3rd mile 219 mph. He was running 6500 at the end of the mile and that comes pretty close to 219 according to what we had figured prior to running.
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.............................( picture by Chris Nelson of Hooley and Benny after the 3 mile 207 mph run)
The oil pressure problem was still there, so Hooley decided that he had accomplished his goal of running over 200 and the car was parked. This also gave him an "A" lic for over 200 mph.
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....................................(Picture by Jim Rivers of Hooley reading the "Long Course" speed)
Hooley has just been handed the timing slip from the 207.485 mph run on the "long course". In the picture is most of the crew. George Hakes on the left, I'm next (Sumner Patterson), Hooley is reading the timing slip, Jim Anderson is next and finally John Kimbrough. The remaining member was Jim Rivers who took this picture.
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Here is the timing slip from the last run.
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Here is a picture of the four lic. that he earned in 2 days in 4 runs. I really doubt there are very many people that have taken a new car with the driver being a rookie and gone through 4 licensing passes in 2 days and run over 200 mph. Hooley and the guys built a really impressive car. Other than changing the oil pump and pulling the plugs on one run no maintenance was done on the car.
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Next he needs a bigger gear and a better motor with a better oiling system. Did I mention this was a junkyard 400 sbc with a cast crank running swapmeet pistons and rods he picked up for $50 . This motor runs a flat tappet cam and he figured it was good for about 6500, which was the rpm on the last run. The rods are used aluminum ones that he got with used pop-up pistons. The heads are new 230cc Dart Pro 1 and he had Howard Cams grind a custom grind for him. He is running an Enderle mechanical fuel injection. The transmission is a Muncie close ratio 4 speed which transmits the power back to a 2.47 Ford 9 inch. The fuel was alcohol. We are looking for a quick change rear-end for next year. If you have a lead on one please e-mail me at sumner1@purplesagetradingpost.com.
I think with taller gearing and a dry sump he could maybe run 230 with this motor. It looks like if he would have had good oil pressure and been able to run the 4th mile wide open he might have averaged close to 220 for that mile.
Well anyway we all had a great time and thanks Hooley for getting us there.
The in-car video came out good or at least we feel it is good. The camera is at wide angle so you can see the mile markers go by and hear the motor. You can see part of Hooley's hands, the gauges and him operating the chute release. Because of the white salt conditions, the outside is a little over-exposed and the inside is a little under-exposed. It shows all four runs and a little time at the starting line and us recovering the car. We also have included video from a second camera with the car going between the 2 and 3 mile markers on 3 of the runs.
If you would like a copy of the in-car video we will send you one for $6.95, which includes shipping. The proceeds from the video will be used for upgrades to the car for next year.
Thanks for your support. Send a check for $6.95 or whatever you would like to donate to the car to:
Sumner Patterson --790 S. Main (78-11) -- Blanding, Utah 84511
Also please e-mail me ( sumner1@purplesagetradingpost.com ) so I know a check is coming.
c ya, Sum
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