Project Fat Cad Update 1 

Project Fat Cad Update 2

Project Fat Cad Update 3

Project Fat Cad Update 4

Project Fat Cad Update 5

Project Fat Cad Update 6      

I feel like I’m weigh behind (get it? weigh?) OK, sorry
about that. It’s just that the promise I made myself of 10 LBS a week isn’t
happening because I’m running out of weeks, not out of ideas of where to remove
more weight, and the reasons are the exact same ones that I’m sure all of you
run into; Unforeseen, abstract and totally unexpected things come up.

And it’s a good thing they are unexpected and unforeseen, because
if they were, if we had a way of knowing ahead of time all of the crap that was
going to turn up during our journey to the Land of Hot Rod – we wouldn’t go!
 I bet no one would ever build anything (or disassemble, in my case) if
they knew in advance all of the crap that was going to happen to them if they
did.

So – here is what happened and why I’m so late on my Fat Cad diet:

The headers that were ordered from Kook’s along with the rest of
the exhaust tubing showed up a couple of days before PowerTour – too late
because the car was on its way to Florida.

After PowerTour, where we made good use of the Cad’s automatic
trunk opener (slated for removal…we’ll miss it), the car went to get
 flogged at The 2nd Annual Speed By Spectre 341 Challenge (the 3rd Annual
is slated for June 15-17, 2012, mark your calendars.)

Finally, the car came back, the headers went on and the two
remaining exhaust pipes that bolted on to the ends of the headers were
identical. Exactly the same. Two lefts. Bummer. Call Kook’s and they found a
kit on the shelf with two rights. So I saved someone else a hassle – I feel
good about that. There’s at least one week delay.

Then, the pipe shows up, gets bolted in – and guess what? With our
better flowing Spectre Air Intake in place and now combined with the better
flowing exhaust system the A/F ratios are not within the parameters programmed
into the computer. Long term, that’s good news as it means MORE POWER! Yesssss.
The bad news is, I gotta wait another week to get the car re-tuned – first for
WOT and all that, and then more tweaking to insure that drivability is the same
as it was before.

That’s why I’m weigh behind. I have to catch up, and I have an ace
up my sleeve. My lithium battery from Lithionics in Florida is here. It’s super
light compared to a standard battery. It’s expensive for sure, but not anywhere
near the cost of attending a Fancy Fat Farm for a long weekend- so I feel good
about that. And, it has a bunch of neat features and advantages over a standard
lead acid battery, besides just being ridiculously light.

The battery, the headers vs. cast iron manifolds, the Spectre Air
Intake Kit and the windshield washer fluid container and pump – I’m hoping for
at least a 65 LB savings for those parts which will put me at 130 LBS total
getting the car down to 4,230. That’s 25% of my goal of 520 Lbs. Man, that’s
still one heavy car (sigh). 

It feels like you started with a super slow car that did the 1/4
mile in 17 seconds and you worked and worked and got it to drop by 2 seconds (!) but it’s still a 15 second car……. 

We’ll see where we are next week when I can drive it again and put
it back on the scales.