Thank you for all the interest and excitement!! My phone and emails have been non-stop! I promise I will continue to respond to everyone! Again thank you everyone for the overwhelming and positive response! Also I apologize for it taking a little bit of time to respond to each inquiry, I am doing my best to stay on top of this so please be patient if it takes me a little bit to get back to you! Thank you again everyone!

Another awesome article written about the team!
http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/local/article_0d459dca-0c13-11e3-b6e5-0019bb30f31a.html

Thanks for visiting with us and putting this together Kelsey Keller!  She is also the one who did this piece about us last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdJtBiLUJjs

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been a little bit since the last time we had time to update the blog. Getting ready for the event was hectic and with me getting hurt it really slowed us down.  We have also been swamped busy since we got back as the media has been excited about what USU has been doing.  We were hoping it would be an exciting story and it has.  The event turned out fantastic with us qualifying for the record (72.569 mph on the existing 72.102 mph record) and then besting that time running B50 (50% algae biodiesel 50% petroleum diesel) and running the fastest the car has been to date with a speed of 73.977 mph!  Without help from the Jack Rogers team and Sue and Steve Christophersen (http://www.christophersenracing.uncle-earls.com/) we wouldn't have been able to get our setup flogged out and setup to be able to set a record here at the World of Speed event in September.  Sue and Steve had to leave the morning after her runs making it so that we couldn't set the record at this event.  Super grateful for their willingness to help and for being fun to be around!  Utah Chassis and Machine helped us out by letting us borrow their pickup as well as helping us get the car setup to fit Sue in the car while we were out there.  Many thanks to them!

The new transmission worked excellently and did exactly what the engineering students were hoping their changes would do.  Awesome to see the exhaust black smoking all the way down the course!  Also cool was to see that with B50 algae biodiesel that the exhaust cleaned up to a gray color!

We are still putting together photos and we will be uploading them here in the next few days!  A big thanks again to Terry D Call Photography for helping us out with the entry fee and a lot of physical help after I got hurt.  He also towed our "No Dollar Hauler" down to the salt and also back home with the car on it.  Check out his blog at http://terrydcall.wordpress.com/

At the bottom here I will add a few of the photos Terry took for us. 

Here is from the SCTA website showing the first run out this year! This is the pass I made before Sue took over for us!

 Here is our other three runs from the SCTA website. After the pass I made we found out we were a little off for the gearing so we made a couple changes and we also put Sue in the car since I had hurt my hand. She's a natural and it all figured out and down pat in no time at all! We would also really like to thank the Jack Rogers team for allowing us to borrow a couple sets tires/wheels of different sizes that helped us get our setup flogged out and run fast enough to qualify for a record!!! The first run was with a shorter set of tires and got us closer but a little to far the other way. The next was with a midsize tire and we had her run through in a different final gear and it was good enough to best the current record and qualify us. The last run is the same setup as pass number 2 but with 50% algae biodiesel in the tank (B50)! The last pass is our fastest to date! Super grateful for everyone involved in helping us get the setup worked out and to debut our algae biodiesel at SpeedWeek!! It helped us keep a lot of promises!!!!

 Check out some of these links to us racing out there at SpeedWeek 2013!
http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=52583
http://www.utahrides.com/articles/view/82/Bonneville_Speed_Week_2013%2C_a_City_on_the_Salt
http://www.utahbusiness.com/articles/view/usu_team_sets_record_with_algae_fueled_racer

 Steve really enjoyed pushing the car for the takeoff even though the car didn't need a push.  He had a big old grin and told us he liked doing just because he could and nobody else out there had a car that easy to push!  On the last pass Sue spun the tires for a good 2 feet and flipped a good bit of salt at him.  It was pretty fun!

 

Been a lot that has happened this event!!!  Check out our Facebook page for some of the info! Been very busy especially with me getting injured. We did qualify for the record today AND ran faster on B50 with our algae biodiesel today with a backup driver in the car. When we get back I will update the blog here much more fully!

We added new photos from the Cruise-In taken by Terry D Call Photography to our facebook page. Check 'em out!  Utah State University Biorenewable Fuels Project on facebook!

Last year at the World Finals event we met the Jack Rogers team as we pitted next to them.  They were awesome and helped us out with tools etc. and even another set of tires/wheels that we tried when we were working on gearing last year.  This season we will be pitting with them starting with the SpeedWeek event!  They will be fielding multiple cars and we will be helping them out where they need and we are grateful to them for getting a hold of us this year and inviting us to join them!  Just look for their beautiful 18 wheeler and our USU trailer parked along side! 

Come see us at the salt!




Check out the Jack Rogers 757 Camaro at the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx20WFKFnvE

SPEEDWEEK IN ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!!

Hey Followers!!!!!!

Sorry it's been a little bit since we have added more here!  We have been digging in deep to get the car and everything needed for the car ready so we can get ourselves out to SpeedWeek to set another record! ;) 

As I write the vacuum distillation is happening on our algal biodiesel so that it is pristine, perfect, beautiful, ready to rock, etc. etc.!!  We should be in the 1.35L ballpark for algal biodiesel ready to go to Bonneville!! 
 

We have also been bust our hides to get a transport trailer done as last year was miserable flat towing the car especially with it being so wet last year.  We ended up being able to get the trailer done for pennies!  It has a winch that lifts the trailer so the car will load easily and the same winch also loads the car on for us!  This year is going to be 1000x nicer!  We will also be able to use the battery on the trailer to start the streamliner as we do not run a battery on board the car rather than having to use the pickup anymore.

Last week we were down at Utah Chassis and Machine working on the streamliner getting things finished up and ready to pass technical inspection and be ready to run down the salt!  We were able to get the firewall back in the car and modified to work with the changes over this past winter.  The flywheel shield has also been modified and is remounted in the car.  We also were able to get the throttle and manual fuel shut off finished for the car.  Still a little bit left to do to get the clutch handle etc working smoothly and nicely and we also have to make some modifications to the fire system to get it back in place.  Still some work to do but we will get back down to SLC and get it finished up so we can see you all ON THE SALT!

We also really want to thank Sunrise Designs for all their help in getting our vinyl done and in our hands!  They have been awesome to us and have taken care of everything we have needed!!  Please check them out if you are needing vinyl done!  We will get the vinyl put on the car next week and we will be ready to rock!