24 Hours of Lemons - Page 5

FC · 04-04-2013, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

Who is he? Is he related to Dirk Diggler?

Has to be.

FC · 05-13-2013, 09:34 AM

So that was fun. I don't have time for a full report, not pics or video - yet. But here are the cliff notes.

Very awesome experience. Someone forgot to re-attach a clamp and the car overheated after two laps. We brought it it and kept trying to send it out, but the temp just kept rising. Car also felt very weak when it was out there. We were probably one of the slowest 3 cars. Eventually we made the call. Either the engine is busted and/or head gasket shot and we go home, or we try to fix it. With two days to spare and having paid for a garage, I ran down to Autozone and picked up a gasket. With the head out, we figured no time like now to throw in the slightly hotter cams we had, so 3 hours later the car was running - roughly. after some debugging, we realized we did not get the timing set up right. We finally had the car running with 30 minutes to spare on day one. No issues with temp, so we were eager to run it day 2.

Came in to realize the rear strut had gone trough the upper rubber cone, so we fixed that with wider washers. Also the front left wheel had hand-loose lugs. Later on day two trying to correct the overly aggressive camber (maxed out) we saw that the strut bolt tying it to the hub bolts were all loose and a nut was missing. Then we snapped a wheel lug. All fun stuff. But that was part of the fun. In the end we completed about 170 laps. I drove for about 2 hours total.

Yeah, the driving. I had a "moment" before I went out there the first time. I had to just sit in the car and do nothing for a minute. Belts were too tight, the noise, the sounds, the limited view, the concern about not crashing, watching for high temps, working the comm, looking at flagging stations - it was all a bit much. Remember, I had not driven this car ONCE, and had never driven or walked the track other than through youtube. A bit scary merging in, but after that I sort of got the hang of (some of) it. Day one sucked 'cause it was all new and the car being so slow meant everyone was passing me VERY aggressively (that's the downside of Lemons, people don't worry about contact, so it happens). Also, some people have shitty lines and just dive in wherever. Day two helped because out car was now middle-of-the-pack-fast, so not everyone was on my ass quickly. I passed a few people, there were some nice battles, and I had a blast. My co-worker used to race professionally (mostly bikes) and he was in the 1:33-1:35 range. I managed to crack 1:40 a couple of times, but was basically at 1:42 or so. Truth is, I was a big wuss, and pretty much just let people pass me. I also waited for the two spots on the track where I was comfortable passing, and there was a tricky part of the track that I never seem to get right. So with practice, on that car, I can see being in the mid/upper-1:30's in a clean lap. That's the other thing about Lemons: with the cars being what they are, there are lots of cautions (reliability/damage/etc).

But it was tons of fun. It was also surprisingly fun constantly fixing the car to keep it running.

Old 240 Volvo's ran well, as did several E30's and an E36 318ti.

JST · 05-13-2013, 09:37 AM

Awesome. When's your next track event?

FC · 05-13-2013, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JST

Awesome. When's your next track event?

October, I believe. Still unsure how things will play out. Remember, one guy sat it out because of financial reasons. I expect they will still let me be part of the team if he opts in again and have a team of five, but that does cut into the seat time.

Ideally eventually I will convince enough people at work to have our own team, but that may take some time.

JST · 05-13-2013, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FC

October, I believe. Still unsure how things will play out. Remember, one guy sat it out because of financial reasons. I expect they will still let me be part of the team if he opts in again and have a team of five, but that does cut into the seat time.

Ideally eventually I will convince enough people at work to have our own team, but that may take some time.

You should do a few DEs over the summer just to get more comfortable on the track. Probably don't want to use the Turbo, though that would be hilarious fun, and one of the only ways to truly enjoy that car.

Maybe Watkins Glen in August? I am trying to figure out which events I can do this year, and am looking at that one.

05-13-2013, 09:34 AM	#42
FC Solving problems Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: M5 / 718 GTS / Cooper S / GTI / LR4 Location: Metro Boston Posts: 25,287	So that was fun. I don't have time for a full report, not pics or video - yet. But here are the cliff notes. Very awesome experience. Someone forgot to re-attach a clamp and the car overheated after two laps. We brought it it and kept trying to send it out, but the temp just kept rising. Car also felt very weak when it was out there. We were probably one of the slowest 3 cars. Eventually we made the call. Either the engine is busted and/or head gasket shot and we go home, or we try to fix it. With two days to spare and having paid for a garage, I ran down to Autozone and picked up a gasket. With the head out, we figured no time like now to throw in the slightly hotter cams we had, so 3 hours later the car was running - roughly. after some debugging, we realized we did not get the timing set up right. We finally had the car running with 30 minutes to spare on day one. No issues with temp, so we were eager to run it day 2. Came in to realize the rear strut had gone trough the upper rubber cone, so we fixed that with wider washers. Also the front left wheel had hand-loose lugs. Later on day two trying to correct the overly aggressive camber (maxed out) we saw that the strut bolt tying it to the hub bolts were all loose and a nut was missing. Then we snapped a wheel lug. All fun stuff. But that was part of the fun. In the end we completed about 170 laps. I drove for about 2 hours total. Yeah, the driving. I had a "moment" before I went out there the first time. I had to just sit in the car and do nothing for a minute. Belts were too tight, the noise, the sounds, the limited view, the concern about not crashing, watching for high temps, working the comm, looking at flagging stations - it was all a bit much. Remember, I had not driven this car ONCE, and had never driven or walked the track other than through youtube. A bit scary merging in, but after that I sort of got the hang of (some of) it. Day one sucked 'cause it was all new and the car being so slow meant everyone was passing me VERY aggressively (that's the downside of Lemons, people don't worry about contact, so it happens). Also, some people have shitty lines and just dive in wherever. Day two helped because out car was now middle-of-the-pack-fast, so not everyone was on my ass quickly. I passed a few people, there were some nice battles, and I had a blast. My co-worker used to race professionally (mostly bikes) and he was in the 1:33-1:35 range. I managed to crack 1:40 a couple of times, but was basically at 1:42 or so. Truth is, I was a big wuss, and pretty much just let people pass me. I also waited for the two spots on the track where I was comfortable passing, and there was a tricky part of the track that I never seem to get right. So with practice, on that car, I can see being in the mid/upper-1:30's in a clean lap. That's the other thing about Lemons: with the cars being what they are, there are lots of cautions (reliability/damage/etc). But it was tons of fun. It was also surprisingly fun constantly fixing the car to keep it running. Old 240 Volvo's ran well, as did several E30's and an E36 318ti. Last edited by FC; 05-13-2013 at 09:53 AM.

05-13-2013, 09:37 AM	#43
JST 195 Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 24,651	Awesome. When's your next track event?