HORSEPOWER & HEELS

Here's another update photo from Johnston Body Works & Bikes on the finished turbo inlets on the front end.

For a complete look at the build-up process, check out the Build-Up Photo Gallery

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Here's another shot of the front end with the molding done for the turbo inlets.



Thanks again to Johnston Body Works & Bikes and Dan Parker of Parker Chassis.

For a complete look at the build-up process, check out the Build-Up Photo Gallery

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: In the Shop, women in racing

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: In the Shop, women in racing

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

We're getting closer.....

And I'm getting really excited!



My A460 Trick Flow cylinder heads are done now, thanks to Chuck Ford and the guys over at CFH. They took the bare castings, worked their magic, and assembled them for me, so they're all ready to head over to Mr. Moody to put on the new Horsepower & Heels bullet... a stronger, more powerful engine program than the last outing.

The car is currently over at Johnston Bikes and Body Works getting prepped and painted by David Johnston. He's an incredibly talented painter, and had the tough chore of sorting out all the body work that had to be done to the car around the turbos, etc. Not an easy task for sure!

Once its done there, its final assembly time and then down to the PRI show to represent for Brisk USA! I'm so happy things are FINALLY coming together! I think 2009 will be an exciting year for Horsepower & Heels! New engine program, new look.... back with some attitude this time! Its been a long time coming, and hopefully it will prove worth the wait to all that have followed in the past 2 years wondering if I'd EVER race again.

Also, as a big thank you for Chuck Ford, I'll be building his new website... so look for http://www.cfhcylinderheadsandcomponents.com/ coming soon!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Remember this thing? >>>

Yea. THAT THING. My racecar. Almost forgot I drove one, huh?

Me too.


Well, its been ENTIRELY too long, and I've had enough. I'm on an unstoppable mission now to get this thing DONE and out there again. And I'm not letting even the crappy economy hold me back this time. Nope, I've got a PLAN.



The car will be done for the PRI Show this year. DONE. Complete. Ready-to-go. It might in fact, be IN the PRI show for Brisk too. (Waiting to see if they have the booth space to make it happen.) Its been soooo close for entirely too long. I just needed a little extra to make it happen, and life kept popping up in my way.



Well, I've been really busy lately. For once, I have a good excuse why I haven't been posting as much. I've been working. Yes, 10 years later, I decide to make a 2nd comeback tour at my high school employer, Target, right back behind the Guest Services counter. I've been picking up every available shift after work and on the weekends. My social life? Gone. But the extra cash will be used to get BACK TO THE RACETRACK.



In the last few weeks, I've worked my normal 40hrs at my day job, and then another 35hours at Target. I'm tired, and I haven't done a single thing but work in weeks, but those extra paychecks are starting to add up.

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Today, my boss Jas, coworker Bob, and I had a trip planned over to our Duluth, GA office. We had some marketing/branding work to discuss with the project marketing manager there. Duluth is in North Atlanta, and also an hour ahead on Eastern Standard time, so that meant we had to leave really early to get there.

Jas and Bob had never been to my place, and since I'm about an hour in the direction of Atlanta from Huntsville, they came to pick me up at 6am. They had programmed my address into a Garmin GPS Navigator, but somehow ended up on a detour in Grant that left them on a dead end road called Fish Trap and asking them to make right turns off the cliff of Grant Mountain. Needless to say, they were about 30 minutes late.

Since I had been trying to get over to my engine builder's in Atlanta, they were both gracious enough to allow me to make a stop on the way home at his shop to drop off some parts for the racecar. So, I loaded up the parts in the back of the new company van (a Toyota Sienna) and jumped behind the wheel headed for Duluth. (They designated me the trip driver since I am such a car nut and 3 hours is a trip around the block to me).

We arrived in Duluth with no problems, wrapped up a day there, and then jumped out at 3pm trying to beat Atlanta traffic rush. Mr. Moody's is just down I-285, so it was only a quick detour (so we thought).

I dropped off the parts and spoke to Mr. Moody, who said that we'd be assembling my engine very soon. I still have a few parts to round up, but they'll be there in the next week or so. VERY GOOD NEWS FOR THE RACING PROGRAM!!!!

Headed back, we decided to take I-20 home, since we saw a big pile up at the bottleneck returning to I-75. Big Mistake! We ended up stuck in construction traffic for about an hour. Oh well, could've been worse.

Overall., good trip! And even better, the miles weren't on my Mustang for a change!

Labels: In the Shop, On the Road

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I'm not a fiberglass specialist... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express one time!

This weekend I drove down to Columbus, GA to help with my car. The car is back down at Parker Chassis getting finished up and painted. Among the tasks were filling the cut outs for the door handles and extending the door edges to match/meet the body line. We also made templates around the turbo holes to get them fiberglassed and fitting correctly, so I could take the bare cylinder heads home to get assembled and over to Mr. Moody for the engine assembly.

Updated: WITH PHOTOS!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

With my racecar down in Orlando still getting painted, I have some idle time to try and prepare the "game plan" for the 2008 season. (Yes, it actually looks like we're on track to make it happen! FINALLY!)

• Pro Nitrous: Pro Nitrous also includes turbocharged entries. The cars are currently running low 4.00's, which is very tough to even qualify in the field for my combination. Hard work is what is needed, and I'm okay with being the underdog in the game to try and get that work in.


• Xtreme 10.5: Xtreme 10.5 rules are a good fit for my car, and might give me more of an even competitive playing field with my combination. It would require me dumping the safety of the bigger tires and strapping on some 10.5" wide tires, which would present an entire new tuning/chassis control learning curve. The cars are currently running in the low 4.30's, which is on par for my performance capabilities... provided I could get a handle on the much smaller tire.
  

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Its been a roller coaster lately, with the 2 week thrash-fest on the car, the terrible loss, and the far too brief family & friend visits, but I will be headed home to Alabama tomorrow.

We said goodbye to Aiden this morning in a beautiful service at Chapel Hill Cemetery in Orlando. I made some food for the family gathering at Dennis & Tina's house (arroz con gandules and pernil) and after staying for a little while with family & friends, we headed back to the shop to finish up all we could before heading back to Alabama: the mock up block back in place, the transmission installed, the trans-tunnel sheetmetal secured. Basically, everything we could secure before Josue takes it to paint the exterior. Since the PRI is less than 2 weeks away, we had to assemble as much as possible to leave the guys in FL with as little to do in my absence.

After a quick dinner at Friday's Front Row, where we watched Auburn beat Alabama yet AGAIN (Still can't figure out why all my obnoixiously BAMA friends didn't respond to any of my text messages after the game--War Eagle!), we went down to the "corner" to see what was happening on the street hotrod scene. The "corner" is the name given to the street performance car "hang-out" located at the corner of Colonial Drive & Orange Avenue, the main drags in downtown Orlando. There were a couple of quick mustangs, some vettes, a few camaros, and a bunch of bikes. It was a "small gathering" compared to usual "corner" attendance, perhaps due to the holiday weekend.... oh the things I miss about Orlando!

I'm sad that I'm leaving tomorrow, but excited to be going home to start my new job. More on that to come!

Labels: In the Shop, On the Road

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

With the interior of the car painted, today we decided to go ahead and start putting the interior back together. Normally, I'd wait until the exterior was painted, but since we have only 2 weeks until the PRI show, and since I'll be going home Sunday, we need to have as much done as possible.

I dropped off my sheetmetal at Central Florida Powder Coating in Orlando. We removed all the plastic and Robert blasted some fiberglass resin that dripped onto a few pieces before taking them up there so we could get them back quickly. Silver Vein powder coating was the selected color (to match the existing front trans tunnel. The owner Jeremy got parts and had them coated, baked, clearcoated, and baked again in about an hour and a half. Great guy, I really enjoyed talking to him and will be sending any future powder coating his way. Which will be soon, because dummy me missed two pieces of sheetmetal that were hidden under the parachute pile and didn't get coated to match.





Happy Turkey Day eve! Be safe!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Josue finished off all the cage/engine carriage painting. We'll be letting it dry overnight and tomorrow while we wait on the powdercoater and the front end to be done at the body shop. Then, we'll start assembling the interior of the car again while Josue starts prepping the body for paint.

Its getting stressful now. With the tragedy bringing down the entire shop, and the upcoming funeral, I'm just running out of time on the car. Josue will continue on next week without me, but I have to head back to Alabama this Sunday. I feel so helpless, and I don't like it.

Tomorrow will be a long day, so we're calling it an early night at the shop (10:30pm) and getting some rest.

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Amidst everything going on here in Orlando, we decided to try and get some more accomplished on the racecar while things were in "waiting mode".

This morning, we arrived and pulled the rear end and 4 link out from the car to get ready to spray the rear clip. Josue (painter), was not able to come until the evening, so we used the time to sand, clean, and prepare the surfaces. Once that was done, we starting cleaning the grime off the parts so everything will be like-new upon reassembly and getting the sheet metal ready for the powder coater tomorrow morning. That plastic they use on sheetmetal is a PAIN to get off!

Its 11pm, and I'm in the office while Josue finishes spraying the interior. I think I'm high on paint fumes, but I'm super excited because its actually starting to look like a decent car again! After the interior dries overnight, they'll be prepping the exterior for paint. I feel helpless right now, because there's not much I can do, but it'll be back at it once the paint dries trying to assemble it for the PRI!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Back at the shop by 11am to continue sanding and prepping for paint. I finished cutting off all unused tabs and grinding away old bar stubs left over from the many years of modifications. My good buddy Frankie came over to lend a hand with the sanding on his day off. Talk about a good friend! Sanding is about the least favorite chore of getting the car ready for paint, and having to climb through all the "monkey bars" isn't too fun either. By about 3pm, Frankie and I had the entire cage sanded, and decided to go grab a bite to eat.

Meanwhile, Eddie continued fabrication on fixing the seat belt mounting points and positioning the seat. The car never really fit me too well, so we lowered the seat, moved it as far right as possible so that my head no longer hit the roll cage and was centered in the driver's encapsulation. We shortened the steering shaft to get the steering wheel in a lower, more comfortable position. He also finished welding up the supports to the rear motor plate and tied it back into the chassis, and cut and modified the body for the tow hook to the top of the cage.

Josue arrived later to start getting ready to spray the primer. But first, I had to go back across all those bars and wipe them clean with lacquer thinner to make sure there was no grease or dirt left on any of the surfaces. Given that this chassis was built in 1988 originally by Gateway Racecars, there is a lot of gunk accumulated on the bars and the floor pan. I finally get it all ready, and Josue starts spraying the yellow primer all over the cage. Unfortunately, the gun we had here at the shop didn't have an air regulator, and the pressure was too high and wasting a lot of primer. So after the front clip was primed, Josue opted to wait until he brought his personal spray gun from home.

Tomorrow, I'll get to scruff up the primer and get ready for the paint to go on. Its progress! I'm so excited!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Well, the Lights, Motors, Action audition was a blast. The cars are little 1200lbs. fiberglass bodied cars with hiyabusa engines. They drive 100% different than anything I've ever driven before. As far as the audition goes, I'm pretty sure I bombed it, but personally speaking I think I did great. Considering that I have never done many of those manuvers before EVER, I was actually proud of myself for some of the attempts I made at left and right 90s, 180s, rollbacks and drifting. I absolutely blew the doughnuts, and the rest of the audition wasn't great either, but for me personally, it was a big achievement. I just hope my uncle doesn't get too embarassed that I didn't live up to any of the hype that they might have thought a "professional class" driver should.

Afterwards, I headed over to the shop, but since I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, and had sat in a fire suit and full nomex undergarments for several hours, I wasn't feeling that great. I rushed to Subway for a meatball sub and some soup, but it wasn't in time to stop the migraine that came with that hunger nausea, and I spent a few hours in the office with the lights off and my eyes closed.

After it finally went away it was back to finalizing fabrication to the chassis before paint. Eddie, Dennis and I fixed the throttle cable/pedal, added bars to the rear motorplate mount, remounted the seat, shortened and lowered the steering wheel, and ground off the rest of the old and no longer in use tabs, etc. Tomorrow, we'll make an aluminum cover for the firewall to help cover all the holes in the exsisting wall.

Exhausted, and still not feeling all that great, I arrived home around 2:33 am.

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Day One ending at 4:30am meant that Day two was already blurring together, and I was none too eager to see the good old Florida sunshine pouring through my window at 8:30am. So after some good conversation with Mami, I got up and dressed and headed over to Panera Bread to grab something to eat and work on some web business before I headed over to the shop.

Today wasn't as productive as the marathon that was day one, but I still feel good about the progress made. I was sanding the front engine carriage to smooth the surfaces, Eddie was busy fabricating a few changes to my seat mount and throttle pedal stop, and Josue had the unenviable task of working with the fiberglass again and finishing the strengthening and mating of the chassis to the body. Being that I had little sleep, and the prep work needed to dry, I called it an early night as I need to be up early tomorrow.



One of the other reasons I came down to Florida was to attend the qualifer audition session for Disney MGM's Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt show. My uncle, who was a stunt man for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at MGM for many years, was one of the people who brought this Euro-Disney based auto stunt show to Walt Disney World in Orlando. I've heard many great stories about the fun he has on the job driving these cars, and always wanted a chance to try and take part. Though drag racing is about the polar opposite from the induced chaos of drifting and stunt driving, drivers of any motorsport employ the same principals of vehicle control, so I thought I'd try something different and give it a go.



The qualifier starts tomorrow at 8am and lasts all morning and into the afternoon. I'll be suited up in a firesuit and driving their practice cars in a series of test moves. I'm really excited to see how it will feel to do a different style of driving. We'll see how it goes...

Wish me luck, please!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

After watching the season closing race for the TARE team this weekend in Holt, FL's Heads-Up Nationals, I headed down to Orlando with a pick-up truck full of racecar parts on a mission.

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I also decided that since my Road Trip Odometer was getting a little long and cumbersome for the blog, that I'd devote its own page on my PNN website. So here's a link to the new Trip-O-Meter home:

CLICK HERE FOR NEW TRIP-O-METER

Labels: In the Shop, On the Road

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Progress!

My chassis is now certified for 6.00ET & slower! Halelluiah! It feels great to have that checked off the mile long list. August is looking better and better!

I'm headed up to Mr. Moody's today to drop off some parts for John and to check in on progress of the motor. I should have a better idea on time frame after this afternoon.

Big cheesey thanks to Dan for putting in the rush job to get it cert'ed for me!

Project Update Photos

P.S.-- Hey Johnny, it didn't even take a 'Horsepower & Heel' to the backside! hehe

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So yesterday, I grabbed my monkey bar handbook (re: the SFI 25.2 spec book) and went to work figuring out what needed to be added to the chassis. Now, surprisingly, I had no problems figuring out the diagram for the transmission crossover, but I realized that I knew NOTHING about bending bars, notching them, and fitting them to the car. Dan just stood there laughing: me, tape measure in hand, trying to figure out how to measure the bar and mark where the notches go. Little did he know, I pay attention more that he realizes, and remember seeing him marking and using the notching machine. But of course, seeing and doing are two completely different things. So, I measured, and measured again, and then marched over to the tubing to pick up a section of tube to cut. I measure it out (Dan watching with a smirk...) and grab the handle of the chop saw, until it struck me....


CAN MY HAIR CATCH ON FIRE FROM ALL THESE SPARKS??!??

By this time, Dan and Biscuit are rolling on the floor laughing at me. Well, in my defense, neither of them have long hair. Laugh all you want, but the chop saw is mounted on the wall with a steel backer plate behind it to protect the wall from catching on fire. So, what exactly is stopping these hot embers from landing on my head and catching on fire? Despite mamed visions of a singed ponytail, I took my chances with the sparks and took my tube back to the car.

So, I mark at what angle the tube will attach to the current tranmission cross section, and head over to the notching machine. After a few trips to the notcher for fine adjustments, I made the cuts and my first bar without further incident. I will, however, be altering my shop work clothing to include a ball cap. Now I know why the guys are always wearing them!


On another note, I spoke to Mr. Moody, who has everything ready to assemble my motor. Right now, they are dyno'ing Gullett's stuff for Atlanta, then I promised to head up there to help him assemble the motor. After its done, we're going to put it on the engine dyno as well to tune it and get it ready. I've never had anything on an engine dyno before, but I've watched Gullett's motor being dyno'd last year, and it is absolutely incredible. Until then, though, its back to work....


Be Safe, Go Fast!
::Erica::

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Well, the weekend didn't go quite as planned. I didn't get out to see Mr. Moody, but I did spend all Sunday working on the car. All of the old bracket racing aides and wiring has been torn out of the car, and I removed one of the wheel tubs so that Dan has room to weld in the bars to complete the funny car cage. Dan welded up the pro-jack mounts and got the car up on the Pro-Jacks. He also took the plasma cutter to the inner transmission mounts and bars, making room for the required floor x brace to comply with 25.2 standards. Part of the steel floor pan will need to be replaced, and I've decided I want to take all the tin work and get it powder coated for a cleaner, more durable look.

My midplate will be here on Tuesday, so that will allow the drivetrain to be aligned and the transmission mounts fabricated. Then the rest of the cage and the double framerails will be added to stiffen the chassis, and the seats mounted and adjusted for yours truly.

Check out the Update pictures for a look at the bird gettin her makeover.

Be Safe, Go Fast!

::Erica::

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

It has been raining here in Columbus for almost a week. Not just your quick shower, but the dreary grey skied, constant drizzly kind. Rainy days are good for 1 thing... napping. (I take that back... its also good Mall shopping weather, provided you can get a good parking spot!) In any case, its not the best weather for working on the car.

Alas, rain or not, I am determined to make some serious progress on the BIRD this weekend. Saturday, I'm driving up to Mr. Moody's to get the intake manifold for the mock-up. Then Sunday, after the mock up motor is sitting between the frame rails, I plan to spend the day setting up the seat mounts (Yes, folks. Laugh all you want...I'm short. I can't reach the steering wheel where its at right now, and the pedals I can only press with my tippy-toes. I need a booster seat!) and getting the Lenco levers set up to reach me as well.

This stage of the project is the most difficult for me. Most all of the work that needs to be done right now, I can't do, and so I feel pretty helpless... a feeling I'm not used to. I'm learning how to weld, but obviously my safety is too important to risk trying the chassis updates myself. So, for now I keep myself busy on the little things... my time will soon come, and learning the characteristics of the new motor will be a fun challenge.

I'm still struggling on getting the site complete, but its slowly making progress. Almost 100,000 hits in less than 15 days "officially" online (The soft launch was 3/1, but the public's first view wasn't until 3/18). I'm amazed at all the responses I've received. In fact, the only ill comment was made by someone out of Orlando.... imagine that.

Oh well.... its back to the grindstone.

Be safe & go fast!!!

.:ERICA:.

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Finally! The PRO BIRD is here! Its in the shop and better than expected!

To catch everyone up to speed....

Last year, I made the decision to step up. While only making it out to 3 events in my radial car, and attending many Pro Mod events, I decided that I wanted to go faster and build another car. It started out as wanting an Outlaw car, but after looking at the expenses involved, it ended up that it would be more convenient and made more economic sense to instead look for an older Pro car that needed updating. In September, I put my radial car up for sale. Dennis had a Pro Street Maverick that needed finishing, so he spoke with the owner who agreed to let me campaign the car for 1 year in exchange for the upgrades that would be needed for it to compete. I picked up the car and went to work on it in late November. Put my motor, and my newly acquired Bruno/Lenco in, and got it ready to start fabrication. But after a month and a half of working on the car, the owner's wife decided she wanted to pick up the car, without caring that I had made arrangements, and had spent my own money & time on the car.

So, once again, I was left in a bad situation. My radial car had been sold, and I now had a complete drivetrain and no car to put it in. I looked around for another chassis that I could purchase for the small amount I had saved from the sale of my old car, with not much luck in finding anything in my price range. In February, when I had about given up hope of finding a chassis, Mike Herring saw my wanted post in the classifieds, and emailed me about his buddies T-Bird. Well maintained, and close enough to my price range, I contacted the owner, Charley Huff in Springfield, MO. Charley worked with me until I could gather the rest of his asking price, and a month later... HERE IT IS!

Labels: In the Shop

Posted by Erica Ortiz at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post