The car is all ready for Okemo tomorrow. So instead of posting about working on the car here are some old photos I found of the previous modified I ran.
Start line at Burke.
I co-drove the car with my sister in-law Karen here we are getting the car ready at Okemo.
Check 1 at Okemo with Karen driving
Unfortunately the car died at Burke.
You can see the broken off frame rail here.
Ouch that looks like it hurt!
Also a non offset frame one? They seem hard to find!
java230 wrote: Ouch that looks like it hurt! Also a non offset frame one? They seem hard to find!
It had plenty of offset just not on that side. Old car. Supposedly it was a chassis that Geoff Bodine once ran but I don't have any proof of that. This hit was the end of it. Bent too much to be worth fixing. A couple years later I bought the Troyer I have now.
The Okemo event didn't go as well as it could have (see picture below doing a Jeremy Clarkson fix).
I had a minor off on the first run on Saturday. Corner speed was OK but the road had broken up pavement and loose stuff at the exit of the corner. I tried to put down lots of power and the rear end quickly went to the right. I over corrected and then went to the left. Decided I wasn't going to save it and just hit the brakes. I scrubbed off most of my speed before sliding off in a rare soft spot. I bent some sheet metal which is what the hammer is for. There is a ding in the tube that holds and protects the radiator but nothing that needs replacing. So the radiator support that I built (pictures earlier in this thread) worked great.
The rest of the weekend was mostly rain off an on. I wasn't interested in running in the rain. I hadn't even kept the car on the road in the dry! So I didn't get another run on Saturday. Sunday morning I made a fairly slow pass. I was mostly just trying to make it to the top. The weather was nice at that point and I figured I'd get a couple more shots at it. But rain came in and it never stopped long enough to dry out the course. So I ended up with just one run for the whole weekend.
But no fuel problems so that seems to be solved. And in spite of the off the car is in the garage and it is basically fine.
Here is a picture of that radiator protection again. If I had left this as the stock mount for the radiator I would have destroyed the radiator and not run on Sunday. If I hadn't made it super strong I probably would have had the same problem. I had several people question why the radiator support needs so much steel. Minor offs like this is one reason why.
And my weekend could have been far worse. This is Caleb Pocock who found a tree.
I've been quiet. On vacation and in the process of selling my house and moving. So not a lot of time for the car. I did find time to replace the body panel that got bent at Okemo. The old panel was made by John Reed and was made out of multiple pieces (one of which is barely hanging on in the picture). The new panel is one piece. Nothing special, I don't claim any sheet metal skills but it will cover the hole.
Okemo II coming up this weekend. I hope the weather is less wet than the last event.
You didn't look at the forecast did you?
sachilles wrote: You didn't look at the forecast did you?
No I hadn't. Now I have. Not looking so good. Oh well I may not be running much.
Turned out I wasn't running at all.
It rained all weekend. I couldn't get motivated to run slow in the rain while getting wet and muddy. So I didn't run the Troyer at all. I did borrow the Daewoo for a couple slow runs and that was fun at least. Hopefully Burke will be less wet!
Although I missed seeing you run that beast; thanks for not running! It helped me finish higher on the list than I've ever been. I may never see a 4th overall finish ever again!
Ryed wrote: Although I missed seeing you run that beast; thanks for not running! It helped me finish higher on the list than I've ever been. I may never see a 4th overall finish ever again!
You just need some power. That was an impressive drive. Did you even notice the road was wet?
KevinGale wrote: You just need some power. That was an impressive drive. Did you even notice the road was wet?
Thanks. In a few spots for sure. I drifted a little in the right sweeper below Check 1, which is a weird feeling in a FWD car... Traction was also a challenge especially pulling out of Check 3.
Ryed wrote:KevinGale wrote: You just need some power. That was an impressive drive. Did you even notice the road was wet?Thanks. In a few spots for sure. I drifted a little in the right sweeper below Check 1, which is a weird feeling in a FWD car... Traction was also a challenge especially pulling out of Check 3.
Just proof of what everyone should know. I've won some events and couple King of the Hill titles but I know I'm not even close to the best driver in the series. I don't even make the top 10, I'm just hoping for my ego's sake that I'm in the upper half of the list.
Driving a car with lots of power and grip hides a lot of shortcomings. Right now I am looking forward to a dry course so I can unleash the beast after two wet events.
I got my dry weather. You need dry weather to make hay.
Mowing at Burke Mountain.
Details!!!!
jfryjfry wrote: Details!!!!
What, you mean if you had this car you wouldn't use it to weed your garden???
Nothing too major. I came into check 4 a little too hot and got the apex wrong. So I went wide on the exit. I thought I was going to be OK but when I tried to put down power the back end went right and into the ditch. That then sucked the front in. I thought I was done but the car was still moving forward and other that lots and lots of tall grass and weeds hadn't hit anything. So I turned the wheel gave it a little throttle and it came back onto the road. a quick check showed I still had steering and brakes so I proceeded up the hill. It wasn't even my slowest run which means I had a good run going when I went off.
In hindsight the outside rear wheel was probably either partly off the pavement or on some mossy stuff on the edge of the pavement when it broke free. I should have been less aggressive on the exit after I screwed up the entrance.
Picture of the car in it's new temporary home. (Edit: Almost a year later and we about to start building so maybe not so temporary)
We sold our house and we are moving in with my wife's twin sister while we build a new house (and a nice garage!). Kelly's sister Karen has nicely given me half of her garage for the race car. But with less space and stuff packed away in boxes I probably won't be doing any major projects on the car for a while. Right now I'm thinking I probably won't be racing it at Mt Washington in 2017. But I'm still planning on making it to all of the NEHA events. Washington is a large extra commitment in terms on time and money. I'd also have to decide far in advance since you can't enter Washington at the last minute. It wouldn't be impossible to do it but I think my life is going to be complicated enough without adding it.
In reply to hobiercr: The OutlawModifieds are more 3/4 of the Troyer "tour type" cars , and a total hoot to drive ! I just wish the series ran road courses & dirt ! I may go back into the series in 2018 after doing the 2017 runoffs in my HP cars .... should have your old Wabbit ready soon and building a more extreme one to follow !! Here's my old OutlawMod
Got back from Burke II. Getting there was a bit more of a challenge than usual. First there was figuring out how to load the car where we are living now. This involved first moving the race car then parking other cars behind it so there was room to move the motorhome to load the trailer and then load the car.
But it worked and on the trailer it went.
See that spare trailer tire on the tire rack? Had to use it on the way to the event. The good news is if you have to change a trailer tire the time to do it is when you have a floor jack and a toolbox including an impact wrench. I was lucky it was on the left side so I didn't have to risk getting run over on the side of the interstate.
At the event I had a panic on Saturday. I had the low oil pressure light come on during my second run. It came on at the second to last turn then went out. At the top the car seemed fine. The oil temperature was very high but the oil pressure was OK. I let it cool then drove it down the hill. On the way down the hill the low oil pressure light came on again at the bottom and I could see the pressure was bouncing between 0 and 20 lbs. At my campsite I could see that the dry sump tank was empty. I was pretty sure someone would have noticed if I had dumped three gallons of oil on the course so it was clear that all the oil was in the motor. Strangely I knew exactly what had happened since I've had it happen once before. The screens on the scavenge lines from the oil pan were plugged so the pan couldn't drain.
I used the trailer as a lift so I could get under the car.
I then had to find a clean container to hold three gallons of oil so I could put it back into the car when I was done. Fortunately I had a bucket I was able to wash out. The screens were plugged with bits of old RTV. Turns on the type of RTV I used on the oil pan and other parts of the motor wasn't really rated for long term oil exposure. It is breaking down and the bits of it got caught in the screen. I had this happen once before although that time it was more about using too much RTV.
Anyway problem fixed I was able to make a couple more runs. Nice to be at the top of the hill.
Then the car started making funny noises when the clutch was engaged with the car in gear. I crawled under the car once again (I don't like doing this once at an event and this is the first time I'd done it twice!) this time to bleed the clutch slave cylinder (it has needed it for a while) but that didn't help. The general consensus was my throwout bearing was on the way out. But that was no reason not to run on Sunday. I ran it. It made horrible noises at the start line but other than that it was fine. I'll have to pull the transmission and bell housing so I can replace it before the next event.
I took third overall. I was hoping for second and was going to go for it on my last run but somehow I bumped the switch for the fuel pump when I was turning off the fan switch. So about 10 seconds into the run the car pretty much died. By the time I figured out the fuel pump needed to be turned on the run was a loss.
But a good time was had by all and the weather was great.
Oh and here is a clip of the car going by Checkpoint 1
I also was able to pull a plug at the top after shutting down and coasting into the parking lot. Trying to see how the new carb is tuned since I feel like I'm down on power a bit.
Ill show my ignorance....
Is that good or bad?
White is lean I believe?
wvumtnbkr wrote: Ill show my ignorance.... Is that good or bad?
I'll see your ignorance and match it. :-) My carb guy (John Reed) hasn't seen them yet.
Best I can tell looking at pictures on the Internet is that it is Good. But interpreting these things is a bit of a black art.
Rough Guide
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