Followed by an ESP win at Fairfield County Sports Car Club.
Maybe GFab's slowest member is finally stepping it up.
Gah. That means I need to find someone slower than me to hold down the fort in DFL.....
Monday, April 23, 2012
I beat Cox. Hard.
Maybe GFab's slowest member is finally stepping it up.
Gah. That means I need to find someone slower than me to hold down the fort in DFL.....
Friday, April 20, 2012
2012 DC Not-Amateur Alone Event
Let me tell you something....
3 am comes VERY early. Especially after a massive, greasy burger and a few beers.
Despite all this, we went forth and hopped in the mighty Armada and began our trek to the nation's capital.Thankfully, the way down was more or less uneventful, and we arrived on site around 10 am. G-Fab's newest members, Big Bear and Tim, saved a stretch of paddock, and we set up camp.
Prior to practice, we decided if only one GFab Nissan could run, it would be mine. PJ and Dave set to taking the muffler off. It's a lot louder, sounds a lot better, and I get a lot more high while driving to work with the windows down.
G-Fab secret #825: The way to Big Bear's heart is through Chick-Fil-A. Or maybe through a giant trash bag.
Here's another tip: Ladies' class is not the fun little playground/easy walk in the park you boys think it is. It's highly competitive, highly stressful, and if you're in the wrong one, it will make you cry. Fortunately for yours truly, L2 (the former L1), while hyper-competitive, is very nice, and we had a good time in impound.
Day 1 went more or less ok for me in the newly christened GFabGrandPotato (so dubbed by James Newman), with $1525 worth of new shoes. It's been years since I've been on Hoosiers (and never been on fresh ones), and the two times I've raced this car it was below 50 degrees and the tires were corded. So I guess the only place I could go was up.
The AM was for feeling out the car, and the PM was to try to get a little faster. I pushed it in the second session: I had a great launch on one side, and then promptly redlit on the other for my first pair of runs in the afternoon, so after that my RT's and 60's were pretty pathetic. I finished Session 1 in 6th, and stayed there for Session 2.
On Day 2, things went better, aside from the car understeering and pushing terribly in one corner, which resulted me plowing through a cone wall. I sent the workers scrambling. Sorry Justin. I felt like each Day 2 run was successively slower, but PJ was making little hearts with his hands when I drove by, and beaming, so maybe I didn't suck as much as I felt? Especially after Todd came up to me and said "nice pickup." You know boys, it's not nice to be mean to girls.
Apparently they weren't being as mean as I thought, because I picked up a total of 0.85x.
A word to the wise: If there's a time that should be protested, do it then and there. Don't let it wait, because new pro-solo rules say you can't change anything after you're released from impound, even if the competitor herself wants it done. In impound after the first session, a fellow driver said one of her times was clearly wrong, but no one said anything to the impound workers. She did try to get it changed after impound on Sunday, because she didn't feel right about it, but alas. It was too late. Instead of removing the time, she had found a second cone on said run that was never called in, and they were supposed to add it before final results came out. Unfortunately, they didn't change it, and final results show me in 6th instead of 5th. It's my own fault - I'm the only person it affected, and it's just ONE measly Pro Solo point, but still. :( However, I really appreciate her trying, even if nothing came of it.
There was also wing pong, drinking, giant spitball launchers, and it was a lot of fun. Mancuso even brought his big boy pants.Those are 3 double shots of vodka. He even drank one to "see how it tasted raw." GFab has never been so proud of an affiliate before.
New England brought back a total of 12 or so trophies, with 6 being from GFab. Yay us! Next time maybe I'll get one too!
3 am comes VERY early. Especially after a massive, greasy burger and a few beers.
Despite all this, we went forth and hopped in the mighty Armada and began our trek to the nation's capital.Thankfully, the way down was more or less uneventful, and we arrived on site around 10 am. G-Fab's newest members, Big Bear and Tim, saved a stretch of paddock, and we set up camp.
Prior to practice, we decided if only one GFab Nissan could run, it would be mine. PJ and Dave set to taking the muffler off. It's a lot louder, sounds a lot better, and I get a lot more high while driving to work with the windows down.
G-Fab secret #825: The way to Big Bear's heart is through Chick-Fil-A. Or maybe through a giant trash bag.
Here's another tip: Ladies' class is not the fun little playground/easy walk in the park you boys think it is. It's highly competitive, highly stressful, and if you're in the wrong one, it will make you cry. Fortunately for yours truly, L2 (the former L1), while hyper-competitive, is very nice, and we had a good time in impound.
Day 1 went more or less ok for me in the newly christened GFabGrandPotato (so dubbed by James Newman), with $1525 worth of new shoes. It's been years since I've been on Hoosiers (and never been on fresh ones), and the two times I've raced this car it was below 50 degrees and the tires were corded. So I guess the only place I could go was up.
The AM was for feeling out the car, and the PM was to try to get a little faster. I pushed it in the second session: I had a great launch on one side, and then promptly redlit on the other for my first pair of runs in the afternoon, so after that my RT's and 60's were pretty pathetic. I finished Session 1 in 6th, and stayed there for Session 2.
On Day 2, things went better, aside from the car understeering and pushing terribly in one corner, which resulted me plowing through a cone wall. I sent the workers scrambling. Sorry Justin. I felt like each Day 2 run was successively slower, but PJ was making little hearts with his hands when I drove by, and beaming, so maybe I didn't suck as much as I felt? Especially after Todd came up to me and said "nice pickup." You know boys, it's not nice to be mean to girls.
Apparently they weren't being as mean as I thought, because I picked up a total of 0.85x.
A word to the wise: If there's a time that should be protested, do it then and there. Don't let it wait, because new pro-solo rules say you can't change anything after you're released from impound, even if the competitor herself wants it done. In impound after the first session, a fellow driver said one of her times was clearly wrong, but no one said anything to the impound workers. She did try to get it changed after impound on Sunday, because she didn't feel right about it, but alas. It was too late. Instead of removing the time, she had found a second cone on said run that was never called in, and they were supposed to add it before final results came out. Unfortunately, they didn't change it, and final results show me in 6th instead of 5th. It's my own fault - I'm the only person it affected, and it's just ONE measly Pro Solo point, but still. :( However, I really appreciate her trying, even if nothing came of it.
There was also wing pong, drinking, giant spitball launchers, and it was a lot of fun. Mancuso even brought his big boy pants.Those are 3 double shots of vodka. He even drank one to "see how it tasted raw." GFab has never been so proud of an affiliate before.
New England brought back a total of 12 or so trophies, with 6 being from GFab. Yay us! Next time maybe I'll get one too!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
And So It Begins....
Somehow, blogging took a backseat in this offseason. My bad.
Our trip out to Nationals was a bit more than eventful - I'd try to explain it, but you'd have to be squished into a baby seat, have fumes blowing in your face, and be stuck facing a giant white screen for 30+ hours. I can't figure out how the guys made it to Lincoln in under 24 hours last time. Once we got there it was ok, but I'm pretty sure we might not have made it if we didn't make a pit stop in Ohio for a load leveling hitch. Note to self - if you're following an enclosed trailer, make sure you have a walkie talkie so you can tell them they're about to flip over.
Upon getting to the site (and Wiley drove most of the way, so thanks Wiley!), we were about 60th in line at 3am...wtf? After some much needed shuteye, we got in and managed to save a bunch of (yet somehow not enough) paddock spots, and ended up across from my WDCR friend, is somehow unable to ride a bike. As I was not participating in the Pro Finale, I took the opportunity to say hello to our friends from far away.
I can't comment much on the Pro Finale - I didn't participate and ended up kicking myself. I was a one-eventer, and one is the loneliest number, so I sat cheering on the rest of the team. G-Fab's own Atlantic States Champion didn't fare so well either, but he can tell you about that.
We took Monday off of car stuffs so we could go and get married - yes, we took the plunge, and no, nothing is different. Aside from the fact that my name was changed at registration on Tuesday and it was broadcast that all over the SCCA Ustream.
I'm now fully convinced that a) you need to be 300 lbs+ to drive CP, and b) CP stands for Casualties Probable. I never want to run with CP or CPL again. I could stand running 5th heat again, but running with them is like just ASKING for a delay, an oiled down course, whatever. There was a huge delay on Day 1 when a CP car grenaded itself, so we sat in the shade trying to survive the hours before we were able to run again. 5th place after Day 1 wasn't too great - At least I was ahead of two people, but let's face it. Being that far off the leaders is no fun.
Day 2 was just as poor, with the Baby problems starting during second heat. The new water pump, with roughly 2000 miles on it, proved faulty and we were forced to take several mechanicals. While the impressed audience gathered around us ("I can't believe you got all those parts out, fixed it, and put it back together in 20 minutes!"), G-Fab and its affiliates pulled the best teamwork since Dover and Panda's wire-harness-eating. Unfortunately, we couldn't run with the water pump seal being blown, so Wiley missed out on his last runs, and Todd jumped into a nearby Corolla for his third run.
I had to work during third heat, so Big Bear and Tim Kong went to the local auto parts store and got a new water pump. PJ worked like the sweatshop Filipino that he is, and the car was back together and in grid, waiting for me, by 5th heat. All I can say is that I was very impressed, and super lucky. Luck ends there though, because there was another CP casualty, and another delay. When you're hot, sweaty, and tired, you don't drive well. I am a prime example. The standings from Day 1 didn't change, so I have a standing 5th place record with Nationals.
Our return home brought the Annual Team Challenge. There was some sneaking around, but I ended up driving a Honda CR-Z on Direzzas in FSP - imagine my surprise when I actually won, by a few seconds! Of course, because PJ is also sneaky, our teams tied for points but his team was overall higher in PAX standings, so I was jipped out of my first place trophy :( It was a good end to a good season.
Photo courtesy of Ed Savage.
We took the off-season to do some things like installing new fun parts on Panda, play around with Baby, get the G35 ready for DS, and buy a house and stuff. Yep, we're homeowners. We've had several small get-togethers since we've moved in, and it seems to handle company well. Now we just have to figure out where the turbo goes.
With LOTS of help, we got the G-Fab tire mounter/balancer in the basement, and experimented with Panda's old shoes on the 18x8" stock-size wheels for the G35. The experiment went well, and 315's on all four corners is just how we roll.
We decided that Baby just might need some rest after such an intense season, and with the G35 being reclassed into DS, it makes sense to at least try it. I'm hoping we can figure out a way to get more legal front camber, but if not, it will still be a really fun car to drive. We're in the process of upgrading the brakes (yay Porterfield). My birthday was earlier this month, and I got something every girl dreams of: A front swaybar.
The season has already started (where did the time go?!) with the first non-points event at Fairfield County Sports Car Club in Stratford, CT. Four spins, corded tires, and a new appreciation for warm weather later, I'm feeling more confident about driving a car with 120 more HP, two more cylinders, and about a square foot of more (and stickier) tire. I'm praying to the weather gods that April 7 will give me more of a feel of Hoosiers that actually stick - it's been years and it's not quite like riding a bike. After that is the DC Pro, where I'm going to embarrass myself again, but still have a great time. I'm actually super excited about the season, so I hope I don't suck. More to come....
Our trip out to Nationals was a bit more than eventful - I'd try to explain it, but you'd have to be squished into a baby seat, have fumes blowing in your face, and be stuck facing a giant white screen for 30+ hours. I can't figure out how the guys made it to Lincoln in under 24 hours last time. Once we got there it was ok, but I'm pretty sure we might not have made it if we didn't make a pit stop in Ohio for a load leveling hitch. Note to self - if you're following an enclosed trailer, make sure you have a walkie talkie so you can tell them they're about to flip over.
Upon getting to the site (and Wiley drove most of the way, so thanks Wiley!), we were about 60th in line at 3am...wtf? After some much needed shuteye, we got in and managed to save a bunch of (yet somehow not enough) paddock spots, and ended up across from my WDCR friend, is somehow unable to ride a bike. As I was not participating in the Pro Finale, I took the opportunity to say hello to our friends from far away.
I can't comment much on the Pro Finale - I didn't participate and ended up kicking myself. I was a one-eventer, and one is the loneliest number, so I sat cheering on the rest of the team. G-Fab's own Atlantic States Champion didn't fare so well either, but he can tell you about that.
We took Monday off of car stuffs so we could go and get married - yes, we took the plunge, and no, nothing is different. Aside from the fact that my name was changed at registration on Tuesday and it was broadcast that all over the SCCA Ustream.
I'm now fully convinced that a) you need to be 300 lbs+ to drive CP, and b) CP stands for Casualties Probable. I never want to run with CP or CPL again. I could stand running 5th heat again, but running with them is like just ASKING for a delay, an oiled down course, whatever. There was a huge delay on Day 1 when a CP car grenaded itself, so we sat in the shade trying to survive the hours before we were able to run again. 5th place after Day 1 wasn't too great - At least I was ahead of two people, but let's face it. Being that far off the leaders is no fun.
Day 2 was just as poor, with the Baby problems starting during second heat. The new water pump, with roughly 2000 miles on it, proved faulty and we were forced to take several mechanicals. While the impressed audience gathered around us ("I can't believe you got all those parts out, fixed it, and put it back together in 20 minutes!"), G-Fab and its affiliates pulled the best teamwork since Dover and Panda's wire-harness-eating. Unfortunately, we couldn't run with the water pump seal being blown, so Wiley missed out on his last runs, and Todd jumped into a nearby Corolla for his third run.
I had to work during third heat, so Big Bear and Tim Kong went to the local auto parts store and got a new water pump. PJ worked like the sweatshop Filipino that he is, and the car was back together and in grid, waiting for me, by 5th heat. All I can say is that I was very impressed, and super lucky. Luck ends there though, because there was another CP casualty, and another delay. When you're hot, sweaty, and tired, you don't drive well. I am a prime example. The standings from Day 1 didn't change, so I have a standing 5th place record with Nationals.
Our return home brought the Annual Team Challenge. There was some sneaking around, but I ended up driving a Honda CR-Z on Direzzas in FSP - imagine my surprise when I actually won, by a few seconds! Of course, because PJ is also sneaky, our teams tied for points but his team was overall higher in PAX standings, so I was jipped out of my first place trophy :( It was a good end to a good season.
We took the off-season to do some things like installing new fun parts on Panda, play around with Baby, get the G35 ready for DS, and buy a house and stuff. Yep, we're homeowners. We've had several small get-togethers since we've moved in, and it seems to handle company well. Now we just have to figure out where the turbo goes.
With LOTS of help, we got the G-Fab tire mounter/balancer in the basement, and experimented with Panda's old shoes on the 18x8" stock-size wheels for the G35. The experiment went well, and 315's on all four corners is just how we roll.
We decided that Baby just might need some rest after such an intense season, and with the G35 being reclassed into DS, it makes sense to at least try it. I'm hoping we can figure out a way to get more legal front camber, but if not, it will still be a really fun car to drive. We're in the process of upgrading the brakes (yay Porterfield). My birthday was earlier this month, and I got something every girl dreams of: A front swaybar.
The season has already started (where did the time go?!) with the first non-points event at Fairfield County Sports Car Club in Stratford, CT. Four spins, corded tires, and a new appreciation for warm weather later, I'm feeling more confident about driving a car with 120 more HP, two more cylinders, and about a square foot of more (and stickier) tire. I'm praying to the weather gods that April 7 will give me more of a feel of Hoosiers that actually stick - it's been years and it's not quite like riding a bike. After that is the DC Pro, where I'm going to embarrass myself again, but still have a great time. I'm actually super excited about the season, so I hope I don't suck. More to come....
Thursday, September 15, 2011
2011 SCCA Solo Nationals Street Modified WORLD CHAMPIONS
That's right. We're kind of a big deal.
(more to come. this is about as far as I get on break.)
Armed with an Armada and an arm full of hopes and dreams, we set off on our journey to the 2011 TireRack SCCA Solo National Championship and Pro Finale with high hopes of hopping to the top of the Street Modified class. The last time we visited Lincoln, our Pro Finale finish wasn't so fantastic, and our final day on Friday of the National Championship was filled with F-bombs of F-modified failure on top of a freaking monsoon. Dave's single cone on his last run prevented the G-Fab team from fulfilling its goal of finally sitting at the top of the class as champions, but that was all last year, and last year was behind us. This year, we came packing. In fact, we were packing so much, we had to acquire a new enclosed trailer (thanks Ray!).
The trip out was pretty horrible. To really fill you in on how horrible it was, I'd have to strap you to a chair for 30 straight hours and shake you every time you were about to fall asleep. I'll spare you the details, but we made it to Lincoln alive.
(more to come. this is about as far as I get on break.)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
STupid Late: MSNE, Engines, NE Divs, RAL.
This entry is stupid late...and stupid long.
PJ finally installed the Nistune board after getting the base image changed:
After some tuning, it is far better. At least he didn't ruin the ECU in the process!
He also swapped the Greddy EVO TT exhaust from Panda to the red car. It looks as though it fits the general location, with only a few minor modifications to the brackets and hangers.
We decided that Dave should try for the Triad Award...I mean, he accidentally won the Northern States Championship by winning the Toledo Tour, so why not try for the Triad? However, that meant he would have to drive SM at Divs....Panda + Divs = waste of time and money. That means Baby would inherit some 5-year old Hoosiers from the Sentra's former GS life.
Of course, Dave would need to test how Baby handles, and I needed to familiarize myself with the Toyo R1R's. GFab trooped down to the Dirty Jerz (again) for an MSNE event at the Meadowlands, the week before Divs.
Then, disaster struck.
MSNE Sunday: Meadowlands is great. Rod knock is not.
Quick tire review: Toyos have interesting grip compared to the Kooks. It's not instant -- It's kind of like "OMG WHERE IS IT? I AM GOING TO SLIDE....Ah, ok now it's sticking." The shorter sidewall means faster acceleration, and the light tune means more power, so overall it wasn't bad. The course was long enough (and laps were hot enough) to make it so the tires would overheat and drop off by 3/4 way through the run, which sort of sucked, but at least it was good indication of how to take care of the tires.
Despite the tire problems, the car felt great, probably due to the new front ball joints and bushings. Also probably due to the fact that we greased the crap out of the swaybar; it was binding as all the grease had squeezed out. We were considering dremmelling out a channel in the bushings, but it hasn't gotten that far yet.
Because of the setup (Dave + me in the same heat, and 8 runs each), I took all my runs at once, instead of switching tires between us, which would not have been possible. I might not have been pushing as hard, but the car felt good, despite the 95 degree weather and 100% humidity.
We pulled a pit stop with F1-enviable tire changing times (<7 minutes), considering we had one impact gun and one jack. Dave went out for two runs and the ancient Hoosiers were not so bad after the first run. They were actually pretty sticky. In the first two runs, Dave went fast enough to take top time in class. By Dave's third run, I heard something not so good from the grid (500' away?), and our friends working the course heard it too -- which is worse. After he pulled back into the spot, he stalled, and then tried to turn the engine over....which sounded like pain.
PJ was already sprinting in from his corner, having heard the noise while Dave was running. It was unmistakable. And unfortunate. AAA stranded us for 2.5 hours, and after getting a little feisty, the flatbed finally came and towed us home.
We pulled the engine Monday night. We were a bit low on oil, but not THAT low, so we have a few theories as to why it happened. Perhaps the sweepers were just too big? Perhaps the heat thinned the oil too much? Who knows. All we know is that the bearing was TOAST:
The other half of it seems to be fused to the connecting rod. The block looks like it is ok, but the crank is all scored. Sigh, oh well.
Also, a weird little round cap was rattling around in the oil pan:
Engines! We had purchased a freshened up block and head a while ago in preparation for this season. The motor was already bored 0.020" over (first overbore and legal limit for Stock class), new rods, pistons, bearings, oil pump, timing chain, and of course, all new seals. We put the bottom end together on Tuesday, overnighted more parts from Japan than should be legally possible, and decided Wednesday would be "Assemble the rest of the Engine" night.
I think we forgot how long it takes to rebuild an engine...
Wednesday started off with the bottom end mostly assembled, but PJ ended up loosening and re-tightening everything to spec. Since he didn't have a degree wrench handy, I ended up guessing the angle for the rods and head bolts, with all bolts at least to the alternate torque spec.
Getting the new timing chain and front cover on were easy enough, since it's all relatively bolt-on:
Things slowed down after that, with all the old RTV to remove off of the PCV, upper chain cover, and removing the gaskets from the intake and other accessories. Removing the rear main seal from the old engine was a pain with it still on the stand, but it eventually came out and a new seal was tapped in. The finished product isn't as shiny up top, but oh well.
Divs Recap: I hit lots of cones, which put me solidly in 3rd place in STL. Without them I would have been ahead of 3rd by 0.7. I also had the worst DNF of my racing career. It's on video somewhere. Awesome.
We had exactly 3 miles of break in on the engine before my codriver, Solo Mom Kathy Barnes, took her first run. And you know, it wasn't half bad! We are admittedly the slower of the 5 drivers in the car for Divs, so it seemed ok...but the gentlemen were quite unhappy.
The car on Toyos requires a completely different suspension setup. The guys used day 1 to figure it out, and it was better. Though, my codriver (in ST) said that he felt he needed to drive the piss out of the tires, which shouldn't be happening.
By Day 2, it was much better. FYI, Toyos like to be run at stupid low pressures.
Good thing Toyo pays out to third place (stupid cones....), and Kathy ended up in 4th. The guys in open class were 2 and 3, so overall, we won $400 and learned some valuable lessons. With 55 miles of break-in by the end of the weekend, the engine felt pretty good. It's only been getting better since then, too, which is encouraging.
ST*L had a pretty good showing, too. 1 in STSL, and 5 in STL:
Even Nationals only has 6 in STL....
Despite the driving failures, it was a pretty fun weekend. Probably the only one where it's acceptable (and fun) to attend, and not drive:
Fast forward to the NER annual charity event, Racing Against Leukemia. G-Fab was able to raise over $1700, and I think as a program, Solo raised nearly $7000. We raised more than the other divisions, and though I don't have a total for the entire weekend, I'd say NER might be on the UMass Memorial Foundation's list of favorite organizations.
We returned to stock sways, since the 30/27 mm ones were binding like crazy. The car feels a little more controllable with them on, but I don't know if it's due to size or lack of grease. Or the fact that we were testing it on a 28 second course on a postage stamp of a lot.
We datalogged the Toyos vs the Hankooks, and there isn't much difference. Codriver #1 says he doesn't feel a difference, but the Toyos were run in the rain/drying, Hankooks were run in the dry and overheating. It's hard to say which is actually faster overall, but given the time constraints, financial constraints, and the supply/demand issue, the ST team will be purchasing a set of full-tread RS-3's for Nationals.
Personally, I prefer the Kooks (as does codriver #2). The response is instant, and when at temp, the grip is incomparable. I think the car accelerates and brakes slightly better with the Toyos, which might be due to the lower amount of grip and the shorter sidewall, but in the rain they're absolutely better. We'll be bringing the Toyos out for rain, but I don't think they can compete with Hankooks if it's going to be hot out.
We ran into some fuel pressure issues again, but PJ threw a new pump in, and it's far better. The car definitely pulls a lot harder, as illustrated by our THIRD double header in a row...Wiley was able to take first place in ST over two EF Civics. In the rain. On Hankooks. Yay for us!
Right now, we're just taking a bit of a breather, only doing "comfort and convenience" modifications yesterday. Baby now has working rear speakers! They play the Glee Pandora Station quite well. I feel like this season has really been quite the learning experience, both in driving, assembly, and just how expensive shipping costs are.
PJ finally installed the Nistune board after getting the base image changed:
After some tuning, it is far better. At least he didn't ruin the ECU in the process!
He also swapped the Greddy EVO TT exhaust from Panda to the red car. It looks as though it fits the general location, with only a few minor modifications to the brackets and hangers.
We decided that Dave should try for the Triad Award...I mean, he accidentally won the Northern States Championship by winning the Toledo Tour, so why not try for the Triad? However, that meant he would have to drive SM at Divs....Panda + Divs = waste of time and money. That means Baby would inherit some 5-year old Hoosiers from the Sentra's former GS life.
Of course, Dave would need to test how Baby handles, and I needed to familiarize myself with the Toyo R1R's. GFab trooped down to the Dirty Jerz (again) for an MSNE event at the Meadowlands, the week before Divs.
Then, disaster struck.
MSNE Sunday: Meadowlands is great. Rod knock is not.
Quick tire review: Toyos have interesting grip compared to the Kooks. It's not instant -- It's kind of like "OMG WHERE IS IT? I AM GOING TO SLIDE....Ah, ok now it's sticking." The shorter sidewall means faster acceleration, and the light tune means more power, so overall it wasn't bad. The course was long enough (and laps were hot enough) to make it so the tires would overheat and drop off by 3/4 way through the run, which sort of sucked, but at least it was good indication of how to take care of the tires.
Despite the tire problems, the car felt great, probably due to the new front ball joints and bushings. Also probably due to the fact that we greased the crap out of the swaybar; it was binding as all the grease had squeezed out. We were considering dremmelling out a channel in the bushings, but it hasn't gotten that far yet.
Photo courtesy Perry Aidelbaum
Because of the setup (Dave + me in the same heat, and 8 runs each), I took all my runs at once, instead of switching tires between us, which would not have been possible. I might not have been pushing as hard, but the car felt good, despite the 95 degree weather and 100% humidity.
We pulled a pit stop with F1-enviable tire changing times (<7 minutes), considering we had one impact gun and one jack. Dave went out for two runs and the ancient Hoosiers were not so bad after the first run. They were actually pretty sticky. In the first two runs, Dave went fast enough to take top time in class. By Dave's third run, I heard something not so good from the grid (500' away?), and our friends working the course heard it too -- which is worse. After he pulled back into the spot, he stalled, and then tried to turn the engine over....which sounded like pain.
PJ was already sprinting in from his corner, having heard the noise while Dave was running. It was unmistakable. And unfortunate. AAA stranded us for 2.5 hours, and after getting a little feisty, the flatbed finally came and towed us home.
We pulled the engine Monday night. We were a bit low on oil, but not THAT low, so we have a few theories as to why it happened. Perhaps the sweepers were just too big? Perhaps the heat thinned the oil too much? Who knows. All we know is that the bearing was TOAST:
The other half of it seems to be fused to the connecting rod. The block looks like it is ok, but the crank is all scored. Sigh, oh well.
Also, a weird little round cap was rattling around in the oil pan:
Engines! We had purchased a freshened up block and head a while ago in preparation for this season. The motor was already bored 0.020" over (first overbore and legal limit for Stock class), new rods, pistons, bearings, oil pump, timing chain, and of course, all new seals. We put the bottom end together on Tuesday, overnighted more parts from Japan than should be legally possible, and decided Wednesday would be "Assemble the rest of the Engine" night.
I think we forgot how long it takes to rebuild an engine...
Wednesday started off with the bottom end mostly assembled, but PJ ended up loosening and re-tightening everything to spec. Since he didn't have a degree wrench handy, I ended up guessing the angle for the rods and head bolts, with all bolts at least to the alternate torque spec.
Taking time torquing things down - Check out the veins in PJ's arm!
Getting the new timing chain and front cover on were easy enough, since it's all relatively bolt-on:
Things slowed down after that, with all the old RTV to remove off of the PCV, upper chain cover, and removing the gaskets from the intake and other accessories. Removing the rear main seal from the old engine was a pain with it still on the stand, but it eventually came out and a new seal was tapped in. The finished product isn't as shiny up top, but oh well.
Divs Recap: I hit lots of cones, which put me solidly in 3rd place in STL. Without them I would have been ahead of 3rd by 0.7. I also had the worst DNF of my racing career. It's on video somewhere. Awesome.
We had exactly 3 miles of break in on the engine before my codriver, Solo Mom Kathy Barnes, took her first run. And you know, it wasn't half bad! We are admittedly the slower of the 5 drivers in the car for Divs, so it seemed ok...but the gentlemen were quite unhappy.
The car on Toyos requires a completely different suspension setup. The guys used day 1 to figure it out, and it was better. Though, my codriver (in ST) said that he felt he needed to drive the piss out of the tires, which shouldn't be happening.
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Photo by Dan Boudria
By Day 2, it was much better. FYI, Toyos like to be run at stupid low pressures.
Good thing Toyo pays out to third place (stupid cones....), and Kathy ended up in 4th. The guys in open class were 2 and 3, so overall, we won $400 and learned some valuable lessons. With 55 miles of break-in by the end of the weekend, the engine felt pretty good. It's only been getting better since then, too, which is encouraging.
ST*L had a pretty good showing, too. 1 in STSL, and 5 in STL:
Even Nationals only has 6 in STL....
Despite the driving failures, it was a pretty fun weekend. Probably the only one where it's acceptable (and fun) to attend, and not drive:
Fast forward to the NER annual charity event, Racing Against Leukemia. G-Fab was able to raise over $1700, and I think as a program, Solo raised nearly $7000. We raised more than the other divisions, and though I don't have a total for the entire weekend, I'd say NER might be on the UMass Memorial Foundation's list of favorite organizations.
We returned to stock sways, since the 30/27 mm ones were binding like crazy. The car feels a little more controllable with them on, but I don't know if it's due to size or lack of grease. Or the fact that we were testing it on a 28 second course on a postage stamp of a lot.
We datalogged the Toyos vs the Hankooks, and there isn't much difference. Codriver #1 says he doesn't feel a difference, but the Toyos were run in the rain/drying, Hankooks were run in the dry and overheating. It's hard to say which is actually faster overall, but given the time constraints, financial constraints, and the supply/demand issue, the ST team will be purchasing a set of full-tread RS-3's for Nationals.
Personally, I prefer the Kooks (as does codriver #2). The response is instant, and when at temp, the grip is incomparable. I think the car accelerates and brakes slightly better with the Toyos, which might be due to the lower amount of grip and the shorter sidewall, but in the rain they're absolutely better. We'll be bringing the Toyos out for rain, but I don't think they can compete with Hankooks if it's going to be hot out.
We ran into some fuel pressure issues again, but PJ threw a new pump in, and it's far better. The car definitely pulls a lot harder, as illustrated by our THIRD double header in a row...Wiley was able to take first place in ST over two EF Civics. In the rain. On Hankooks. Yay for us!
Right now, we're just taking a bit of a breather, only doing "comfort and convenience" modifications yesterday. Baby now has working rear speakers! They play the Glee Pandora Station quite well. I feel like this season has really been quite the learning experience, both in driving, assembly, and just how expensive shipping costs are.
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