Darryl, Aric, Dan, and I descended upon Infineon raceway today for testing out and breaking in the new motor. The car ran great! We were keeping up with the V8 volvo Lemons car out there like we're usually able to do at Lemons events (depending on drivers). The rain this morning made it really challenging but really educational. We racked up quite a few spins between us. We had to get towed back onto the track twice (a first for me) after going off into the mud.
After lunch it dried out for a little while and we got some really fun session in. My "best" one ended with a spin coming out of turn 8 and going sideways and backwards into a tire wall. The right side is banged up, but nothing another $5 can of spray paint can't fix! Well, that and the sledge hammering we had to do the rear fender to re-flare the rear fender away from the tire (it was originally flared by sledge hammer too).
This will be a race of attrition...and serious numbers of black flags racked up! I hope we can drive clean. Today's practice will really help that...if we got the spins out of our system!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Motor back in the car! Goin' testing at Infineon!
Well, long story short, we sent the new JY rods to a shop to have them resized after putting in ARP rod bolts and the F'ing Post Office screwed up and we didn't get them back until last Wednesday. We re-assembled the motor Thurs & Fri evenings and got the motor in the car on Saturday. When we went to start it that evening we saw a shower! A Golden Shower to be specific... The fuel injector O-rings were all leaking so badly that they were spraying fuel in streams across the top of the motor. I guess that's a good thing instead of a non-obvious leak that resulted in fire! We replaced the O-rings the next day and she started up great!
We replaced the front hub bearings (that we bought during the last race at the track but could not install them w/o a press) on Sunday but even that had drama as we overlooked the bearing circlips buried in the grease. Oh well, after breaking that hub we got another from the JY and got it fixed up.
We took the car parking lot testing Monday night and she runs fine. We're going go to Infineon for a track day this Saturday to break her in and learn the track ourselves. Should be a blast!!
We replaced the front hub bearings (that we bought during the last race at the track but could not install them w/o a press) on Sunday but even that had drama as we overlooked the bearing circlips buried in the grease. Oh well, after breaking that hub we got another from the JY and got it fixed up.
We took the car parking lot testing Monday night and she runs fine. We're going go to Infineon for a track day this Saturday to break her in and learn the track ourselves. Should be a blast!!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Getting ready for Sears Pointless!
The first Lemons race at Infineon Raceway will be on March 6&7. Our car is in pretty good shape for the race. Except for the fact that it has no engine in it and I tore down our "good engine" to replace the rods. After our last race when we blew our third engine I did some more research and found that the previous model year's connecting rods were beefier and should help us not break them so easily!
Here's the difference between our current rod size (silver here) and the ones we just pulled over the weekend in the junkyard:
Hard to tell the difference? Well they're ~.1" thicker and wider (~20%).
We're going testing!
Assuming we get this thing back together in the next 3 weeks, we're doing a track day at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey to "break in" the new motor! My fingers are crossed!
Here's the difference between our current rod size (silver here) and the ones we just pulled over the weekend in the junkyard:
Hard to tell the difference? Well they're ~.1" thicker and wider (~20%).
We're going testing!
Assuming we get this thing back together in the next 3 weeks, we're doing a track day at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey to "break in" the new motor! My fingers are crossed!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Long overdue update!
I haven't made the time to post here in a few months and it's long overdue. We just completed the 2009 Arse-Freeze-Apolooza race at Thunderhill just before Thanksgiving. Or, at least we tried to complete it! The engine blew up 2 hours before the finish. :(
We had taken the time to tear down a "new" junkyard engine and machine the head and block and replace all the bearings, rings, and gaskets. However we just finished assembling it the weekend before the race and didn't have the time to install it. We also never took the time to at least inspect the bearings in the engine that was in the car (and was in for the Buttonwillow race after they did the Friday night swap). We finished in 70th place out of 152 cars.
The drivers this time were Mark, Tim, Mike, and Alex who flew in from New Mexico. Here's a link to our album of pictures:
Now we'll get the rebuilt engine in and decide which 2010 races to enter! Hopefully we'll finish more than one to better our 2009 record!
We had taken the time to tear down a "new" junkyard engine and machine the head and block and replace all the bearings, rings, and gaskets. However we just finished assembling it the weekend before the race and didn't have the time to install it. We also never took the time to at least inspect the bearings in the engine that was in the car (and was in for the Buttonwillow race after they did the Friday night swap). We finished in 70th place out of 152 cars.
The drivers this time were Mark, Tim, Mike, and Alex who flew in from New Mexico. Here's a link to our album of pictures:
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| 2009 Thunderhill |
Now we'll get the rebuilt engine in and decide which 2010 races to enter! Hopefully we'll finish more than one to better our 2009 record!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Buttonwillow Belly Flop!!!
Well, Team StimPack's core drivers wanted a break and decided not to enter the Buttonwillow LeMons race on August 15-16. So, we let our rookie driving crew members take the car and enter the event to try out the LeMons scene out. (We sent two drivers to "chaperon" and help them out.) Driver Terence was filling in as the team leader as yours truly was in Hawaii. :-) Terence said he'd give me a more complete write up soon, but I'll give the short story here.
Friday test day: boom! The engine blew first thing in the morning. They rip it out and await Mark's arrival that evening with the spare motor. They finished the swap at ~4:00 am. The car ran briefly and they went to bed.
Saturday: The car wouldn't run well when they tried again. They weren't able to get it running again until and hour or so into the race. Things went downhill from there... *Every* driver out spun the car (mostly going off into the dirt) and got black flagged to come in for a penalty. I'm told they were almost not allowed to continue into Sunday!
Here's a video clip that shows a really close call (skip to 8:00 to see TSP):
Sunday: It went *further* downhill from there... The every session spin rate continued, and by the end of the day they had their wristbands clipped early and were told to pack it up... Here's a video summary that driver Aric put together:
And, lastly, here's how Judge Johnny felt about TSP and another "notable" team after the event as posted on the LeMons forum:
C.Plavan wrote:
Is there anyway to post how many Black flags each team recieved? It would just be for pure shame...and laughs....
Judge Jonny, Justice of the Court, responded:
Worst offenders this last race were car #5 (the Blue 944) and #78 (Team Stimulus Package in the gold Civic).
The #5 Porsche was so awful they ran up SEVEN black flags on Saturday. In their defense (why am I defending them?) one of their drivers went four off, spun, passed under yellow AND ignored black flags for an hour. So, they got four at once.
Still, I had a nice talk with them and explained that the record of 9 black flags (set by the Sharks, of course, in Houston) will never be equaled or broken. They had to drive the rest of the race as angels.
Late in the day on Sunday, after they'd been driving very well all day, they pull into the pits. Metal on metal with car #78. Honestly, I shouldn't have let them back on the track. HOWEVER, it was car #78, in all honesty the worst team we'd seen in a while. And from all accounts, car #78 was at fault.
Taking a risk (one more black and #5 would tie the Sharks!) I sent both cars back. Within three minutes #78 was back for hitting a car, and I cut all of their yellow drivers bracelets off their wrists.
Well, there you have it. A Buttonwillow Belly Flop by TSP! Now we're going to up to LeMons HQ with our tail between our legs, and bribes under our arms, and let them know that this was just a fluke!
Friday test day: boom! The engine blew first thing in the morning. They rip it out and await Mark's arrival that evening with the spare motor. They finished the swap at ~4:00 am. The car ran briefly and they went to bed.
Saturday: The car wouldn't run well when they tried again. They weren't able to get it running again until and hour or so into the race. Things went downhill from there... *Every* driver out spun the car (mostly going off into the dirt) and got black flagged to come in for a penalty. I'm told they were almost not allowed to continue into Sunday!
Here's a video clip that shows a really close call (skip to 8:00 to see TSP):
Sunday: It went *further* downhill from there... The every session spin rate continued, and by the end of the day they had their wristbands clipped early and were told to pack it up... Here's a video summary that driver Aric put together:
And, lastly, here's how Judge Johnny felt about TSP and another "notable" team after the event as posted on the LeMons forum:
C.Plavan wrote:
Is there anyway to post how many Black flags each team recieved? It would just be for pure shame...and laughs....
Judge Jonny, Justice of the Court, responded:
Worst offenders this last race were car #5 (the Blue 944) and #78 (Team Stimulus Package in the gold Civic).
The #5 Porsche was so awful they ran up SEVEN black flags on Saturday. In their defense (why am I defending them?) one of their drivers went four off, spun, passed under yellow AND ignored black flags for an hour. So, they got four at once.
Still, I had a nice talk with them and explained that the record of 9 black flags (set by the Sharks, of course, in Houston) will never be equaled or broken. They had to drive the rest of the race as angels.
Late in the day on Sunday, after they'd been driving very well all day, they pull into the pits. Metal on metal with car #78. Honestly, I shouldn't have let them back on the track. HOWEVER, it was car #78, in all honesty the worst team we'd seen in a while. And from all accounts, car #78 was at fault.
Taking a risk (one more black and #5 would tie the Sharks!) I sent both cars back. Within three minutes #78 was back for hitting a car, and I cut all of their yellow drivers bracelets off their wrists.
Well, there you have it. A Buttonwillow Belly Flop by TSP! Now we're going to up to LeMons HQ with our tail between our legs, and bribes under our arms, and let them know that this was just a fluke!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
autocross video footage
I got the video clips together from Sunday's autocross. I didn't get a chance to film on Saturday as I only got two runs in before the low pressure fuel pump revealed that it had previously siezed... The video clips totaled about 12 minutes so I had to break them into two parts. (Note: the resolution is allegedly better if you hit the HQ button after it starts playing. It will take you to YouTube directly.)
It was a lot of fun to huck a toilet equipped car around the course! FWIW, I only got a 0.1 sec better time around the course in my Subaru WRX with lots of suspension mods!
It was a lot of fun to huck a toilet equipped car around the course! FWIW, I only got a 0.1 sec better time around the course in my Subaru WRX with lots of suspension mods!
Monday, June 29, 2009
time to flog the car around some cones!
We're going to head down to Marina, CA, this weekend for a two day autocross. Come on down and play if you're in the area!
http://www.americanauto-x.com/
http://www.americanauto-x.com/
Saturday, June 13, 2009
We're in for Buttonwillow!
We got the news this week that we've been accepted into the next West Coast LeMons race, the Buttonwillow Histronics! We'll be sending a fresh crew of drivers (aka Rookies) so that will keep the other teams on their toes...hopefully they won't get the car crushed! We do have several open driver spots still, so let us know if you want to drive!
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| From Team Stimulus Package |
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
event uber gallery
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| From Team Stimulus Package |
There is now a massive number of photos available here:
http://jalopnik.com/5273328/the-24-hours-of-lemons-reno-ber-gallery
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