Dirt Missile rebuild begins
 

So after Thanksgiving - I went up to get the Secret Sauced and Optimized $200,000 “Track Warrior” so I could haul it over to SpeedTech in St. George, Utah

Within a minute of lifting the hood off.... The guys start seeing the mess they have to deal with.

The front brake line had about 2 or 3 more laps before it was cut thru - they’re rubbing on the inside of the wheels because they’re in a bad location.

Almost all the Plumbing is wrong. We’ll discuss this in more detail later.

PCV vent isn’t used with a dry sump - but that’s what Sutton and crew did

Wiring will be redone....it looks like kindergarten class....

The 2000* header coating is burnt completely off a couple cylinders

The power steering pump (KRC) is toast - and the fluid looks like a milkshake. There is NO P/S cooler.

The steering stops apparently are the shocks

The rear axle bearings add camber when loaded

The serpentine belt system is out of alignment - the belt has ground all the black anodizing off the water pump pulley - and is slipping out over the crank pulley.

So — worse than imagined - and I had imagined pretty pee poor workmanship.

Mind you - they’ve only had the car a couple days - so this is just the beginning.

For those of you still thinking Sutton is “the man” — good luck with that.

I don’t understand the rear bearings adding camber...is the id or od of the bearing incorrect or in 15 laps has something failed?

Is this an assessment of how bad or a rebuild regardless? Either way I’m glad this is at a reputable shop with guys that know how things work. I’ll be curious to see what happens with the suspension with everything that’s been learned in the last few months...lower control arms design, 3 link ****ery, craftsmanship.

Hopefully the ****show can turn into something enjoyable on track.
:thumbsup:

Wow, sorry to hear that Greg.
Sounds like the SpeedTech guys are experienced enough to get it fixed properly.

I'm in for part two of this saga.

Car uses a FULL FLOATER rear end —- my guess is —- just one more part that neither Sutton nor the “assemblers” knew anything about..... So my guess is —- wrong assembly or wrong spec (suttonized dog crap)..... But I haven’t asked all these details yet — to me — it’s not important what was wrong (everything) — it’s only important that SPEEDTECHS guys know what they’re doing and are even good enough to spot the issues to begin with..... Something Sutton nor the dickheads were.

HE was brilliant and knew everything about every aspect of every part ever made —— just ask him —— well - never mind — he told you whether you wanted to hear it or not. LOL

Still optimistic about being able to salvage most of whats there GW...?

That's a brave group of guys willing to step into something with so many issues.


Jeff-

Whew, this will be interesting

Greg, you always amaze me with your positive attitude in times of... extreme adversity. I try to maintain the same attitude myself and I really respect that trait in a person.

:thankyou:


If SpeedTech's work is remotely as good as their pictures are (sadly I've never knowingly seen one of their builds in person) you are in great hands. ...now if they would just hurry up and post up some destruction / rebuild pictures so those playing at home can learn how to build a proper car. :D

Greg, I’ts hurtful to find out that it’s worse than you thought. Honestly, I thought that the car was already over there. As you already know, it’s in good hands now, and I’m looking forward to seeing progress being made. Hopefully come spring you’ll have a capable, race ready rocket.

Good deal, Greg. I'm glad it's in good hands with Blake and his crew. St George should be closer to you now too, correct? Keep us posted.

Holy crap I can’t believe it’s that bad. That’s just nuts and how the hell did he Scan so many people.

I’ll be the first one to say Hay, I build my cars with a army of people that know what there doing and if I don’t know what I’m doing I don’t try to convince myself or god forbid someone else that I do.

Till this day I still lean on my car friends for help when I get stumped or just go way off in never never land with my crazy ideas.

I hoping you can get this car back to being a race-car as you have a ton of nice parts that just need an intelligent group of guys to get it running and I’m confident the guys at speed tech are the guys.


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Yeah Jeff —- I think the basic “bones” are okay — thank god a real shop did the cage work.... We’ll look at every weld on the chassis part (done by Suttons buddy - Randy)...... and all the gusseting etc will be checked...... The transmission is okay..... Motor goes to Kurt Urban for rebuild — wiring will be redone — they used the nastiest cheapest stiffest crap you could find at O’Reilly’s..... rather than quality automotive stuff.... Rear suspension will (MAYBE) be converted to a simple 3 link..... They’ll look to see if we can save any of the front.... and have it be SAFE and effective.... The body will be the LAST thing on the list.... and that will be a “just attempt to clean it up a little - rip off the crap wrap - and scuff it and shoot it white with blue stripes..... cheap and race car dirty...... We’ve talked about laying the radiator over and building some venting thru the hood.... and taking the oil cooler OUT of the radiator (plug it off) and adding a real actual oil cooler..... So mostly all simple little fixes — but it’s all TIME and $$$$...... and a complete and utter waste of both of those commodities. Thank you dickhead “mister race car” —- The more we find the madder I get.....

Lucky for me Blake and Roger and Jay have been friends for a long time..... and they DO build sweet cars!! And build sweet subframes and suspension parts..... and Blake is a drag racer — Jay is a road racer.... so they know what they’re doing and have some great guys in the shop.

While I’ve never had them build a car for me — I originally asked Sutton to use them to build this car - as they were one of the listed builders in the catalog — but like EVERYTHING Sutton ever did — that was all just smoke and mirrors — since he’d never really actually discussed with them what’s what.... and when the time came — they were very upfront about “can’t build it for that” and “can’t build it in that timeframe”. Well — IMHO — Sutton NEVER intended for anyone to build his crap except his one buddy (Randy)..... and Randy had NEVER built a car like this...... or anything even close. It shows. LOL


I can assure you that if they (SpeedTech) had built the car — we wouldn’t have these issues.... because they would have never built such junk. They’d have either refused to build it “his way” — or we would have had behind the scenes discussions about what it was that “I” wanted etc. Water under the bridge now.....

LOL Peter! It’s been “interesting” since the POS was “finished”..... Interesting in the sense that this is a showcase for Suttons BS / Lying / Lack of knowledge / And his Hucksterism at it’s finest!!



Yes St George is about a 6 hour drive — or a short flight!

Hoping for the best with the rebuild. Sorry for the problems and lesson learned the very hard way as has been discussed. I hope others learn from it and can avoid him and be more vocal about others.

SpeedTech guys are “on the job”..... It WILL take a bit to fix the Sutton built pile of crap.....


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Nice expensive Suttonized motor is sauced..... in other words —- a complete POS....https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0d60d82457.jpg


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How about the 2000* Header coating —- also Optimized and Secret Sauced JUNK.... On top of a couple tubes need to be whacked so we can actually change plugs...... you know — secret stuff that just needs to be done on occasion.



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Those theaders look just like plain ol rattle can.

Ya don’t say!!! LOL

Sutton “Mister I won every race I ever entered” — wouldn’t cheat and lie would he????

Those headers say a ton...

Greg I know you're content over her but the folks over on pt.com have been informed and are discussing mister special sauce himself . So rest easily knowing the word is out and everyone is aware .. special sauce is right up there with his nascar training program lmfao ..what a twat

Hey Greg, did you ever get to drive it at all before you dropped it off at Speedtech?


It's in good hands over there, as you already know!! Can't wait to see the Missile Reborn.

When I was 16...I saved up for a new set of headers but couldn’t afford the fancy ceramic coating. Ordered up an Eastwood coating kit, cleaned the black paint off, meticulously prepped the bare metal and sprayed on a rattle can of their high temp header coating. Man did it look awesome!! Then within 10 miles, looked just like the ones Greg pictured. I was devastated!!!

So yeah, looks EXACTLY like a 16 year old-applied rattle can job, lol

Greg,

I have been distracted by other issues for several months and just checked back in here. So sorry to hear all this lord knows you don't need the stress. The interesting thing is I was at VIR a couple of months ago and we were bench racing in the pits when Ron's name came up. One of the guys said he had heard some negative things but did not elaborate. I have spent two hours reading both threads and all I can say is WOW. I'm glad to see the car at Speedtech!



If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me more about your transmission. I really hate the Tremec shifter on my T56 Magnum and I'm considering installing one of the S1 sequential shifters. They say the S1 sequential can be installed on a stock T56 Mag with no mods. Just curious about your T56 and how it works.


https://www.s1sequential.com/product.../?currency=USD

I drove it around the block at their shop before loading it up —- guess what — it had to be pushed back to the shop because the throttle (DBW) wires were melted thru.......

I have not driven it at the track — because it was too much of a mess.... and all they did was thrash on it....

I’ve seen video of that shifter and it appears to work great! My transmission is an actual sequential transmission — it just uses a T56 case. These conversion trannys are about $20,000 plus or minus depending on whether or not you already have a case to use etc (I did not).

The only part of the car that worked - and funny - wanting a sequential was what started the whole build.

Oh yeah ——- and they’re just the beginning....... If they touched it - or it was a part spec’d by Mister Sauce — it’s messed up.

What sequential build did you have? PPG? I was originally looking at one for my camaro but the cost was prohibitive for this simple street car setup.

They take some abuse though and I will one day have one in a vehicle!!!

Yes — they’re not giving these away!

Yes on the PPG....

Skip the first 3 minutes of warming up and fussing around in this video — but here’s how cool they work!!

So waiting to see how this turns out the RIGHT way, so you can feel good about it, Greg!

it’s only important that SPEEDTECHS guys know what they’re doing and are even good enough to spot the issues to begin with..... Something Sutton nor the dickheads were.


Ouch !!!!…….. Well....It's on the path to recovery now !!!!

Well the good news just keeps coming..... here’s the wiring and what was the shielding around one of the battery cables —- DEI heat shield melted — wire cover melted — in other words a fire waiting to happen..... I’m glad Benny Moon didn’t or hasn’t seen what his good buddy built and put him behind the wheel of.....


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And here’s what we’re going to reuse of the wiring.... LOL

NOTHING!!




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Thank you for sharing all of this Greg. For those of us with projects with the same suspension, we are definitely looking forward to seeing what changes might be made. From a financial standpoint, I hope not a lot has to change in order for it to be safe. We have all spent far too much already, on parts we thought would be the greatest ever, and had assumed that previous testing had been done, and that our safety should never have to be questioned. Thanks again for bringing this all to light. It would be great to see this thread be used as a guide on how to redo what’s wrong with all of the RSRT parts.

Maybe it's a good thing it could only run 2 laps at a time. Anymore, and the the damn thing may have burnt to the ground on the track.
Just trying to guess who would have been blamed if that had happened...

It was already Benny's fault the watt's link mount broke because he dropped a wheel off. Not like regular roads have pot holes, speed bumps, etc...

I missed where he said that. We NEVER have get offs on the track, do we?

Honestly though, honesty.

Do they sell honesty at WalMart? or reputation?

No but apparently you can get ya some SECRET SAUCE....... CHEAP!

Struck a funny bone with me..... just sayin

Read the very last line on the front page of his (Sutton’s) catalog!! LOL —- I should have heeded the warning!!


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:lol:

Lol, oh nooo...that’s too funny.