Rupunzell
Bernice Loui
We finished up getting the X ready for this LeMons mid week with new adjustable struts on all four corners. This was some what risky, if they did not work out, we would need to remove it all and install the old struts and re-set up the chassis to what it once was.
After some chassis tuning by Chris and the other drivers, we got the new suspension to work well enough for this event late Friday afternoon, but there were still various chassis dynamics problem, which we will work on at future track days. At the end of Friday, the car ran great. For those who had seen this car before, they will note the car is now noticeably lower than before. Due to the increased performance of the X, tires were more of a factor than before. So we decided to run the car with our spare set of 14" wheels and tires in place of the 15" we saved for Sunday when the speed of the race will increase significantly.
Day one of LeMons tends to be a sorting out day, the race tends to be slower with more cars breaking down and drivers getting the feel of driving at LeMons.
We rolled the X into tech for the usual checks in costume, six chefs and one wrench fairy..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUF4xvlTMn8"]YouTube- Sears Pointless Tech BS 1.mpg[/ame]
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/2/93RoxQLf_Wc
Jay liked our rolling Italian restaurant and gave us a zero penalty laps before we got to BS judging. The car ahead of us got bounced in tech for a problem with the roll over cage. This caused us to be held up until they were moved out of the tech area. We rolled into the BS judging area with chef’s a serving and Italian music a blarinn. We served Jay, the Judges and all the LeMons staff Meatball sandwiches that were well received.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/1/4UAN9nbxMP4
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/0/KM0uRJjbiIQ
Jen and I went up to the control tower to check if the transponder for our car was working properly. We had transponder problems at Thunder Hill, which could have affected our results for that race. The track timing and scoring folks were having software problems, which caused the cars to roll under yellow for over ½ hour. Jay just stood there and stared at the timing and scoring folks who were arguing over what to do about the problem. They eventually started the race on a back-up timing and scoring system. This is why the results for Saturday were weird.
We headed up to turn two where the green flag was finally dropped.
The X started the race on our spare set of 14” wheels and tires knowing that day one is basically a shake out day where cars die and new LeMons drivers and teams get initiated to LeMons racing.
The X ran without incident until mid-afternoon when I got a call that the transaxle lost 4th gear. During the driver change and re-fuel, I had a look see at the transaxle linkage and all appeared well. The X still ran, so we sent the X back out on the track with the transaxle basically stuck in 3rd gear. The X ran on track for about 3 hours stuck in 3rd gear until the end of day one. Adding insult to injury, the engine developed a mis-fire at high RPM…
That was when the decision was made to try and find a spare transaxle locally with no success. So, I decided to drive back home and put together a spare transaxle and another transaxle of unknown condition (for parts if required) and bring it back for installation later that night. The drive home took about an hour and a half. Once we got home, I dug out the spare, opened it up and made it right. When this was done, we looked and looked for the box of spare ignition parts.. an hour passed and that box of parts were not where to be found. I did find a spare dizzy and only a few other bits required which had to do for now.
We loaded everything in the SAAB, drove up to Sears Point and arrived just before 10:00 PM. The newly put together transaxle was unloaded from the SAAB where the rest of the crew began the installation process.
I began to figure out why the engine was mis-firing and not revving.
The crew suspected Cam timing culprit, but that checked out to be fine.
The problem turned out to be a broken connector to the dizzy magnetic pickup. We had spare terminals, but not the special crimp tool required for these terminals. I considered pliers crimping the terminal on for a moment. That passed quick knowing that if that connection were to fail, the X could end up dead on the track and any chance of finishing this LeMons. It was good thing that brought a spare set of already crimped and shrink tubed dizzy wires. These were spliced into the ignition wiring harness. Once this fix was done, all that remained was to set the timing and verify the fix is good. We finished installing the transaxle after mid-night. That was one long day..
Sunday’s race began just as we arrived back to the track at about 9:30 AM. The X was running well again and our usual race wheels and tires back on the car. For the entire day, the X ran flawless and fast. Driver changes and re-fuel went problem free and the X simply hammered on the track. As of 2:20 PM, we were in 7th place overall and 3 laps behind Eye Sore Racing’s turbo Miata. There is no question this is one of the fastest cars at LeMons on Sunday, Steven was cranking 2:17:xx per lap, that is about as fast as anything running that day.
Later that morning, we got curious and wondered what failed in the transaxle. I got the guys to drain the transaxle and took it apart on a folding table. This is where 4th gear failure was revealed to the light of day.
It is interesting to note the “Members Only” Porsche 928, built by Evil Genius Racing (a pro-race shop) chased the X for 5 laps until the end of the race.
At the end, we finished 15th overall, missed winning in class (the Bad or L2) by one lap.. again. I’m a bit amazed we did this well considering the X ran stuck in 3rd for so long, mis-firing and transaxle change.
I watch some of the race from turn 7 while spotting for our drivers and LeMons has some of the very best racing anywhere. This is due to the differences in the cars, drivers and all else that happened at LeMons.
The race was red flagged when the Cadaviler Wagon rolled and caught on fire. This was a terrifying moment for all involved, as the chance of an explosion was very real. The ER crew should be given a medal for their quick work at putting out the fire and taking the injured driver to the hospital. The driver is OK, but suffered broken vertebrae. The tone of the race changed after this event. It was a reality check for everyone at LeMons. Other cars went off, there were cars that crunched and broke but surprisingly few for the number of cars racing at Sears Point.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2QTjjheyGE"]YouTube- 24hoursoflemons-ONSET-SearsPointCrash.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h01Enj8zHTY"]YouTube- Sears point, Cavalier crash, Saturday.avi[/ame]
The car that won IOE was the Air Prance Citroen DS.. IMO, a LeMons legend in the making.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwAKnXJwEw"]YouTube- Team Air Prance IOE Award[/ame]
http://jalopnik.com/5487906/and-the-real-winner-is
Link to the results:
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=110315...I9W1rEor45Pnq4D4-hrIvXUuTHxWgi9x5TQak6b323A==
After some chassis tuning by Chris and the other drivers, we got the new suspension to work well enough for this event late Friday afternoon, but there were still various chassis dynamics problem, which we will work on at future track days. At the end of Friday, the car ran great. For those who had seen this car before, they will note the car is now noticeably lower than before. Due to the increased performance of the X, tires were more of a factor than before. So we decided to run the car with our spare set of 14" wheels and tires in place of the 15" we saved for Sunday when the speed of the race will increase significantly.
Day one of LeMons tends to be a sorting out day, the race tends to be slower with more cars breaking down and drivers getting the feel of driving at LeMons.
We rolled the X into tech for the usual checks in costume, six chefs and one wrench fairy..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUF4xvlTMn8"]YouTube- Sears Pointless Tech BS 1.mpg[/ame]
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/2/93RoxQLf_Wc
Jay liked our rolling Italian restaurant and gave us a zero penalty laps before we got to BS judging. The car ahead of us got bounced in tech for a problem with the roll over cage. This caused us to be held up until they were moved out of the tech area. We rolled into the BS judging area with chef’s a serving and Italian music a blarinn. We served Jay, the Judges and all the LeMons staff Meatball sandwiches that were well received.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/1/4UAN9nbxMP4
http://www.youtube.com/user/jmarsh4441#p/u/0/KM0uRJjbiIQ
Jen and I went up to the control tower to check if the transponder for our car was working properly. We had transponder problems at Thunder Hill, which could have affected our results for that race. The track timing and scoring folks were having software problems, which caused the cars to roll under yellow for over ½ hour. Jay just stood there and stared at the timing and scoring folks who were arguing over what to do about the problem. They eventually started the race on a back-up timing and scoring system. This is why the results for Saturday were weird.
We headed up to turn two where the green flag was finally dropped.
The X started the race on our spare set of 14” wheels and tires knowing that day one is basically a shake out day where cars die and new LeMons drivers and teams get initiated to LeMons racing.
The X ran without incident until mid-afternoon when I got a call that the transaxle lost 4th gear. During the driver change and re-fuel, I had a look see at the transaxle linkage and all appeared well. The X still ran, so we sent the X back out on the track with the transaxle basically stuck in 3rd gear. The X ran on track for about 3 hours stuck in 3rd gear until the end of day one. Adding insult to injury, the engine developed a mis-fire at high RPM…
That was when the decision was made to try and find a spare transaxle locally with no success. So, I decided to drive back home and put together a spare transaxle and another transaxle of unknown condition (for parts if required) and bring it back for installation later that night. The drive home took about an hour and a half. Once we got home, I dug out the spare, opened it up and made it right. When this was done, we looked and looked for the box of spare ignition parts.. an hour passed and that box of parts were not where to be found. I did find a spare dizzy and only a few other bits required which had to do for now.
We loaded everything in the SAAB, drove up to Sears Point and arrived just before 10:00 PM. The newly put together transaxle was unloaded from the SAAB where the rest of the crew began the installation process.
I began to figure out why the engine was mis-firing and not revving.
The crew suspected Cam timing culprit, but that checked out to be fine.
The problem turned out to be a broken connector to the dizzy magnetic pickup. We had spare terminals, but not the special crimp tool required for these terminals. I considered pliers crimping the terminal on for a moment. That passed quick knowing that if that connection were to fail, the X could end up dead on the track and any chance of finishing this LeMons. It was good thing that brought a spare set of already crimped and shrink tubed dizzy wires. These were spliced into the ignition wiring harness. Once this fix was done, all that remained was to set the timing and verify the fix is good. We finished installing the transaxle after mid-night. That was one long day..
Sunday’s race began just as we arrived back to the track at about 9:30 AM. The X was running well again and our usual race wheels and tires back on the car. For the entire day, the X ran flawless and fast. Driver changes and re-fuel went problem free and the X simply hammered on the track. As of 2:20 PM, we were in 7th place overall and 3 laps behind Eye Sore Racing’s turbo Miata. There is no question this is one of the fastest cars at LeMons on Sunday, Steven was cranking 2:17:xx per lap, that is about as fast as anything running that day.
Later that morning, we got curious and wondered what failed in the transaxle. I got the guys to drain the transaxle and took it apart on a folding table. This is where 4th gear failure was revealed to the light of day.
It is interesting to note the “Members Only” Porsche 928, built by Evil Genius Racing (a pro-race shop) chased the X for 5 laps until the end of the race.
At the end, we finished 15th overall, missed winning in class (the Bad or L2) by one lap.. again. I’m a bit amazed we did this well considering the X ran stuck in 3rd for so long, mis-firing and transaxle change.
I watch some of the race from turn 7 while spotting for our drivers and LeMons has some of the very best racing anywhere. This is due to the differences in the cars, drivers and all else that happened at LeMons.
The race was red flagged when the Cadaviler Wagon rolled and caught on fire. This was a terrifying moment for all involved, as the chance of an explosion was very real. The ER crew should be given a medal for their quick work at putting out the fire and taking the injured driver to the hospital. The driver is OK, but suffered broken vertebrae. The tone of the race changed after this event. It was a reality check for everyone at LeMons. Other cars went off, there were cars that crunched and broke but surprisingly few for the number of cars racing at Sears Point.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2QTjjheyGE"]YouTube- 24hoursoflemons-ONSET-SearsPointCrash.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h01Enj8zHTY"]YouTube- Sears point, Cavalier crash, Saturday.avi[/ame]
The car that won IOE was the Air Prance Citroen DS.. IMO, a LeMons legend in the making.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwAKnXJwEw"]YouTube- Team Air Prance IOE Award[/ame]
http://jalopnik.com/5487906/and-the-real-winner-is
Link to the results:
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=110315...I9W1rEor45Pnq4D4-hrIvXUuTHxWgi9x5TQak6b323A==
