A team with no name goes racing.

Saturday morning dawns bright and fair. There's some rain in the forecast but for now it's the least of our worries. I get to the track at about 7:30, well in time for driver's meeting. Our other drivers are nowhere to be found. With about five minutes to spare they roll in and we are able to just make drivers meeting at 8.

That's a lot of drivers.

After driver's meeting we are basically waiting for Jay to save us. We talk to the organizer and they are fine with us missing qualifying, we are already class C and unless our car proves to suddenly be really fast and reliable during the race, we won't be reclassified.

We sit through qualifying but the good news is that the car in the junkyard still has both front hubs. Jay has a fun time freeing the tie rods but is ultimately successful. I enjoy some of the race, turns out I have a really nice view.

The junkyard opened at 8 and by 11 the car was back together. I know by the timestamp on this photo:

It's alive!!

Since I had the only time in the car the day before, it was very important to me that everyone else had at least one stint. Everyone else did a short stint, nobody bent the car or had contact, the hubs were holding up well and then... it broke again! Ian pitted with the car stuck in gear. I was pretty certain I wasn't going to get to drive the car with a transponder on it. I went and sat in the stands for a bit and watched cars go by. When I came back to the pits they had fixed it, a cotter pin had gone missing and allowed the linkage to come apart. 

I put in a fairly quick stint and got out of the car. I was trying to strike a balance between making up a bunch of laps and pushing too hard and breaking the car. I did feel a little bit of vibration from the front right in a long left sweeper (after turn 3) during the 2:11 lap. I don't trust that old hub on that side. 

It started to rain but we were doing great. Kept moving up places while we kept putting in laps. A lot of laps were done under safety car which helped us get in laps while our drivers learned the track.

We got through almost a complete rotation of drivers before... it broke in more permanent manner. It's stuck in gear again, but the linkage is fine, we have to pull the gearbox. Without a spare gearbox we were done for the weekend.

On the one hand, I'm sad that I didn't get a chance to move us into the 50s with a last stint in the car. On the other hand, I can't believe that we did this well. We ended up 64th overall with a car that had no business really being on track at all. We didn't bend the car, we avoided contact with a really messy, full field of people with very different levels of experience, filled with much, much faster cars, and everyone seemed to love the car.

Oh and none of us have any wheel to wheel experience. So there's that.

I'm hoping we can beef up the car for the next event and actually be running at the checkered flag. Compared to what we've achieved so far, it doesn't seem like that much of a reach. Our team might suffer from analyis paralysis, but I'm really impressed at our ability to solve problems on the fly.

So, yeah. It was good. All I can think about is doing it again.

Thanks for doing the race recap. In addition to the mental exhaustion in the days immediately following the race, I've also been struggling to put my thoughts into words. As much as I had been able to expect about this experience, there was at least as much that was unexpected.

I've done enough autox and track days (albeit mostly longer ago than I'd like to admit) to believe myself a still respectable driver. And yet I felt wholly unprepared for the actual intensity of wheel-to-wheel racing an unfamiliar track with 75 other cars on track that were as much as 20 seconds a lap faster than my best. It was equal parts awesome and terrifying. When you're trying not to be the one to cause a wreck 2-wide through the corner promptly proceeding into being blown past on both sides tracking out on corner exit, things you once thought were simple and easy, like 'the racing line' and 'holding your line', suddenly become anything but. The cars 'active' (sketchy) handling certainly played a part there too.

I also knew enough that mechanical issues and repairs were an inherent part of the experience, and have been involved in events where a large effort was cut short by mechanical failures as well. Maybe it has jut been too long or I'm getting too old, but I was still also largely unprepared for the mental toll that the roller coaster we went through all day Friday and into Saturday morning getting the hub repaired or replaced would take.

Despite not running Sunday, I think we all can be proud of what we did accomplish. I know that I, for one, also can't wait to do it again in July... And I'm looking forward to doing it in a more reliable, better handling, and better mirrored car. Speaking of next time, Jeremy will have some seat time to make up at the next race.

And since pics make every post better, here is a gratuitous shot of our chief mechanic and resident gear crusher in his natural environment...

Yes, Jeremy absolutely needs more time in the car. I want to do timed stints next time.

I feel weird posting the video, but the video Jay uploaded shows exactly what you're talking about. Lucky Dog drivers seem to think the racing line belongs to the faster car, which is exactly the opposite of all the pro endurance racing I've seen. Pretty weird. Basically if someone pushes you off the line, you just have to hold whatever line you can until they are past you. There's no lifting by the faster cars and then shooting by at the next straight or even around the outside. Nope, none of that, just barging by on the inside. Pretty weak.

I loved everything else about it. I felt safer on track than driving home in the street miata, with no cage and huge pickup trucks and SUVs driven very poorly and aggressively. I think a two hour stint would be just fine. I'll get used to people pushing by me and then crashing at the next corner, it's kind of funny if you think about it. I feel like I didn't lose too much time by having to go off the line, but sometimes it's hard to stay on track once you've been pushed wide.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113176779428

Hmmmmmmm.

dr_strangeland said:

Lucky Dog drivers seem to think the racing line belongs to the faster car, which is exactly the opposite of all the pro endurance racing I've seen. Pretty weird. Basically if someone pushes you off the line, you just have to hold whatever line you can until they are past you. There's no lifting by the faster cars and then shooting by at the next straight or even around the outside. Nope, none of that, just barging by on the inside. Pretty weak.

The more I've reflected on it, the more it seems that there is a significant component of perception here too.

When I let myself get stuck behind the Tercel as a mass of much faster car mass of cars caught me at the same time I caught it, I saw most drivers appearing to at least try to adhere to reasonable levels of race etiquette working their way past. Watching how they passed the Tercel didn't look as bad as how it felt like I was getting passed, even though we were probably being passed in much the same manner. Many passes may have been more aggressive than I am prepared to do yet, or may ever be, but I'm not sure that more than a few could have been objectively considered 'overly' aggressive.

I think there are a few contributing factors that make it feel worse than it is. For starters, there is the shell shock of how much more mundane these things look on a screen than it is to experience first hand. Then there is the reality that the pros who have a rapport with each others' driving still get it wrong plenty often, and we're dealing with a bunch of other stranger amateurs that we don't want to wreck with even if we're technically not in the wrong. Since we don't know them, and which one are/aren't the primary offenders, the default survival instinct becomes to assume it's any and all. And finally the speed disparity of being in one of the slowest cars while being passed by some of the fastest cars exaggerates the experience.

So even if they let off, drove entirely around us taking the 'racing line', and had a wide open 'safe and easy' pass from their perspective, that might not all transfer through to us novices.

I expect that more race experience will help this, and I'm hoping that better rear/side visibility may as well. I also plan to post up for additional feedback from those more experienced both on GRM, as well as direct from the LDR racers.

dr_strangeland said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113176779428

Hmmmmmmm.

If you want to spend money, let's get some solid LCA bushings and replace everything with play in the steering system... Admittedly though, I have been eyeing the 'elephant ear' towing mirrors on my truck for how similar could be fitted to the Scirocco. LOL

Welp, that was a thing. The best part is, you dear reader, get to hear about it from 5 different perspectives. It's up to you to decide if that is a bug or a feature.

I took Thursday off from work to handle any potential crunch and try to get on a normal human schedule. No such luck as we ended up wrenching until about 1:30. Run home shower, fall asleep on the couch watching YouTube, wake at 5:30, cram the C30 full of whatnots and jam my way down to the track. Track opens at 7 and with much shame I roll in at around 7:15. The team is not there. I eat a breakfast sandwich.

Henry arrives with the same sorry I'm late expression a few minutes later. We receive a message that the car is just leaving. The previous night's wrenching had taken a heavy toll on all of us. An energy drink called to me from my cooler but it's siren so was drowned out by pure adrenaline. I was at a race track, with a race car. Though I wouldn't be driving myself I was still part of the team. A spear is mostly shaft after all.

We got the car on track for a few laps, it came in, we sent it back out, it came back in. You heard this already. We suffered for our lack of organization. Important lessons were being learNed the hard way. The most effective way.

When we heard that the spindle was junk our hearts sank. We're we finished before we could even begin? Maybe.  We started exploring our options. We asked other VW teams for spares, Ian pestered friends, I started searching junkyards. At the end of the night as we drove home we didn't have a solution.

It doesn't matter though. We advance. Always forward. I put on my best mom voice and told them to make sure they were in the driver's meeting.  I had found an 80 Cabrio in a junkyard a half hour south and was going to be there when it opened. The car had been there for 9 days already so who knows if it would have the parts or not, but we had to try.

This isn't drag racing, this is endurance racing. You may not win, but you only lose by giving up.

I hit the yard at a run with SWIMBO at my side and a wheelbarrow full of tools, I spotted the car. Someone had taken the driver's side strut but the spindle was there. I messaged the team that we had a spindle and got to work.

Now, dear reader, if you have been on The fence about getting an electric impact gun, do it. I bought a Milwaukee for $300 less than a month ago and had never used it before. Worth every penny. The spindle was free in no time.

Well... almost. The tie rod was fixed firmly in place and no amount of profanity or beating it with a Buick's brake rotor would free it. And I being a very stable genius, had neglected to bring a pickle fork.

"Just undo the tie rod end!" you shout.

Ah, I too thought of this simple solution only to be thwarted by whatever the heck this is.

No jam nut, it appeared to be crimpped in place. No amount of vice grips nor channel locks could persuade it.

I sat for a moment, thinking back to my junkyard days, going through my inventory to see if I had anything. The truth was anything I rigged up might not work, and I'd be exactly where I was now, just an hour in the future.

There was an auto parts store 10 minutes away. I sprinted  there and back and freed the tie rod in literally 2 seconds. There is something to be said for having the correct tool for the job.

I switched sides, if we had this much trouble getting one It'd be a good idea to have a spare. I froze.

SWIMBO, take a look at this part, then look inside the car, in the trunk, and around on the ground. See if you can find another one.

This car had coil-overs. We had coilovers too, but you don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately we did not find the driver's side, someone had indeed purchased only 1. And only one did us no good. I decided to waste no more time and hurried to check out. Green flag would be any minute and I was still 40 minutes away.

So I have been credited several times with saving the weekend to which I have faecesiously replied:

but the fact is, we were a team. We did it together. I was just the guy that didn't have to be at the driver's meeting.

Here is the first video I've got uploaded. Pretty sure this is Henry's stint. I have Jeremy's and I think Ian's coming soon but, we'll, I've been very sick this week and haven't felt like doing much of anything.

The camera situation in the car is a bit odd. The plan was to set the camera up over the driver's shoulder and leave it running all day. The car didn't have an auxiliary 12v supply and the cage was so closely fitted to the roof that the Go-Pro mount won't clear it.

In a better than nothing, attempt at capturing our personal history I slapped the camera up behind the mirror and just ran off internal battery power until it died.

So... meh.

Driven5 said:

dr_strangeland said:

Lucky Dog drivers seem to think the racing line belongs to the faster car, which is exactly the opposite of all the pro endurance racing I've seen. Pretty weird. Basically if someone pushes you off the line, you just have to hold whatever line you can until they are past you. There's no lifting by the faster cars and then shooting by at the next straight or even around the outside. Nope, none of that, just barging by on the inside. Pretty weak.

The more I've reflected on it, the more it seems that there is a significant component of perception here too.

I just fundamentally disagree, but that's okay! I think we had pretty different experiences in the car. That's also okay. 

The more I watch in car videos of lucky dog racing, the more I see that confirms my perspective. I mean, take the in car footage of the Zonda before we got it. Cringeworthy.

I don't think I want to criticise anyone too harshly though. For one thing I don't think anyone will listen, and for another, if people start realizing they can be better drivers they might also realize they can go faster, and I definitely don't want that. 

Also, yay, video! Thank you, Jay.

dr_strangeland said:

Yes, Jeremy absolutely needs more time in the car. I want to do timed stints next time.

I feel weird posting the video, but the video Jay uploaded shows exactly what you're talking about. Lucky Dog drivers seem to think the racing line belongs to the faster car, which is exactly the opposite of all the pro endurance racing I've seen. Pretty weird. Basically if someone pushes you off the line, you just have to hold whatever line you can until they are past you. There's no lifting by the faster cars and then shooting by at the next straight or even around the outside. Nope, none of that, just barging by on the inside. Pretty weak.

I loved everything else about it. I felt safer on track than driving home in the street miata, with no cage and huge pickup trucks and SUVs driven very poorly and aggressively. I think a two hour stint would be just fine. I'll get used to people pushing by me and then crashing at the next corner, it's kind of funny if you think about it. I feel like I didn't lose too much time by having to go off the line, but sometimes it's hard to stay on track once you've been pushed wide.

I've done a BUNCH of cheap car endurance races.

If you leave a gap on the inside, expect the person behind to take it.  Especially if that car is 5 seconds a lap faster (or more).  

I know I'm not waiting til the straight to go past.

I think driving a slow(er) car in a race is WAY harder than driving a fast one.  You basically need to look behind 2x as much as looking ahead.

I would also suggest (I know yall didn't have time) to move the camera so you can see what your driver is doing in the car AND so you can see the mirrors in the video.

This adds a lot of perspective and can greatly help coaching.

I'm not sure if yall have a panoramic mirror in the center.  If you don't, get one.  You barely need side mirrors with one big central curved mirror.

Expect every driver in every other car to treat the race like a sprint race.  This is because with driver changes, it is!  Each driver wants to move the car up the field.  It's tough to be in the car and handle everything that is going on around you, AND keep in mind that you need to preserve the car.  Most drivers don't.  They just go as fast as their comfort level and ability.

I'm thinking that once yall have more "faith" and comfort in your car, AND more seat time, the passing and perceived aggressiveness will be normalized.

wvumtnbkr said:

I would also suggest (I know yall didn't have time) to move the camera so you can see what your driver is doing in the car AND so you can see the mirrors in the video.

This adds a lot of perspective and can greatly help coaching.

I'm not sure if yall have a panoramic mirror in the center.  If you don't, get one.  You barely need side mirrors with one big central curved mirror.

Expect every driver in every other car to treat the race like a sprint race.  This is because with driver changes, it is!  Each driver wants to move the car up the field.  It's tough to be in the car and handle everything that is going on around you, AND keep in mind that you need to preserve the car.  Most drivers don't.  They just go as fast as their comfort level and ability.

 

I'm thinking that once yall have more "faith" and comfort in your car, AND more seat time, the passing and perceived aggressiveness will be normalized.

Thanks for ths suggestions. Any thoughts by the more experienced are appreciated.

And I think the faith comment will ring true. Being my absolute first time behind the wheel of a racecar (aside from a single day corvette driving school 15 years ago) this was an absolutely terrifying, insanely exhilerating event. I'm an incredibly uncoordinated guy and it will just take me time to get used to combining all the motions I need to do this safely.

But I'm putting in a shift light.

In reply to iansane :

Make the shift light 300 to 500 rpm before where you want the driver to shift.  With all of the inputs coming in, drivers don't always react as quick as they should to the tach or shift light.  A lot of times they need to finish corner exit or finish a pass and their attention is elsewhere.

That being said, once yall are more familiar with the car, you don't even need a tach.  You will hear, feel, and have familiarity of the track and it just becomes second nature where and when to shift.

wvumtnbkr said:

In reply to iansane :

That being said, once yall are more familiar with the car, you don't even need a tach.  You will hear, feel, and have familiarity of the track and it just becomes second nature where and when to shift.

Sounds like we need to ditch the stock replacement muffler. The car is basically silent on track!

wvumtnbkr said:

I think driving a slow(er) car in a race is WAY harder than driving a fast one.  You basically need to look behind 2x as much as looking ahead.

This was a recurring thought I had during my reflection on the experience... Thank you for validating it.

wvumtnbkr said:

I'm not sure if yall have a panoramic mirror in the center.  If you don't, get one.  You barely need side mirrors with one big central curved mirror.

The car came with a one of those full-width wink mirrors, but replaced it with a panoramic. I think my problem is that I'm used to a wide of view that no car can hide in, and between the limited head movement from the FNR, the wings on the halo seat, and the window net webbing, that field of view felt inadequate for knowing when and where I was actually being overtaken. It felt like I couldn't tell if they had dropped out of my field of view because they're taking a tighter line, or if they had inserted their nose into the 'vortex of danger'. Multiple times I was surprised to find out they were next to me, not because I could see them, but only because I could hear them. I don't know yet how much of that is perception due to lack of experience vs an actual area for improving the car. Perhaps a bit of both. I'm not going to lie, the fine mesh window nets and large convex side mirrors I saw on numerous cars are looking pretty enticing after that, but perhaps the rear view camera we've not yet installed may cover the need even better.

wvumtnbkr said:

In reply to iansane :

That being said, once yall are more familiar with the car, you don't even need a tach.  You will hear, feel, and have familiarity of the track and it just becomes second nature where and when to shift.

Our tach is strangely buried in the dash, with only 4k-6k sweep peeking out of the top of the dash. The engine revs to like 7k, you just can't see the needle getting there. I *think* the idea is that if you can't see the needle, you either need to up or down shift. I'm not sure if it's that low because the engine doesn't make power above that, or if it's for engine longevity. Either way we'll need a little louder muffler to get to driving by ear. I'll admit that without being able to actually know where the revs actually go on a downshift, due to lack of experience in the car, on more than one occasion I played it safe and am sure I was in a higher gear than I should have been for lap times.

Thanks for your feedback!!

Keep in mind that just because your engine *can* rev to 7000 doesn't mean you *should* rev it to 7000. Keeping revs down is one of the best ways to improve engine longevity in endurance racing. Honda guys are notorious for churning through motors because they treat the redline like the shift point.

Here's video 2 of 3.

Video 3 of 3.

Ian finally gets a chance to drive the Scirocco and wastes no time breaking it.

The shock of the weekend is wearing off, and so is the shock to the wallet so I guess it's time to give you another little update.

The past week has been spent mostly trying to find a new transmission and seeing if there were any performance upgrades that could be done at the same time.

Today I received word that we have procured a Passat trans which, supposedly, is stronger but still has pretty similar ratios.

The old drive train is out of the car and ready for the swap. When we bought the car it came with 2 spare engines, one of them "built" but the seller didn't know what that meant, as he had apparently bought the car from an estate sale and the previous owner wasn't telling.

Ian made the trek to pick up the spare engines today.

Both 16v, one of them has an aluminum oil pan, an adjustable timing gear, and what appears to be a rebuilt head, at least. is the report.

I'm thinking we should use that one.

I made a trip to a local yard to pick up a set of arms.

These ones still appear to have splines in them so they should work better.

Seems like such a minor thing, but it did take us off the track for 10 minutes, which was 5 laps we didn't do, and we were only 2 laps behind the next C-class car. That wiper failure cost us a position. I guess in endurance racing everything is important.

I've also found a MK1 VW guy who makes upgraded shift linkages, so once payday rolls around I'll grab a set of those. Hopefully that will beef up the linkages and put an end to those issues.

That's all for now. 

78 days to go.

With the power train out of the car I had access to the radiator shroud which was just covered in rust. That hurts my soul.

Ian gave it a pass with the sandblaster and I grabbed it to give it a fresh coat of paint.

Black would have worked fine but... booooooring.

What else have we got?

Green, on the inside...

Blue on the outside. Stick with me. I'm going somewhere with this.

Little tape...

More Green. Sure it's a bit silly and the greens aren't a perfect match, but it's way more fun than plain ol black.

Reassembled and ready for installation.

A few people have told us, anytime we find spare parts, we should buy em up. So I grabbed another set of hubs and spindles and a set of LCAs from a local yard this morning.

The LCAs are a bit crusty but I'm thinking once they get blasted they will be pretty solid. Ian has a full set of bushings and ball joints so they'll get rebuilt and installed with the new engine.

Saturday arrived and Ian and Jeremy were working on the car. The driveline had been split and they were wrapping up replacing the timing belt. The use the race engine option got voted down in favour of the we know this engine works option so the same 16v that saw the last race is getting new seals and gaskets and getting reinstalled. 

All the lousy old rubber hoses are getting updated with silicone. In blue! I had nothing to do with this choice, but I approve.

With the addition of a new clutch, pressure plate and fly...drum? (Volkswagons are weird) The engine and transmissions were joined. We called it a day at this point as there were a few axle seals that hadn't arrived yet. The engine will likely go back into the car next weekend and with any luck we hope to bring it to Bremerton for an autocross shakedown the following week.

Stay tuned.

68 days.

Another minor update. Over the weekend, with the assistance of an airbag shim, I was able to get the roof pushed up enough to get the Go-Pro mount behind the driver where it belongs.

I've also picked up a 12v powerport kit, so hopefully by the next event we should be able to set up the camera and just leave it running for the whole event. 

I've got a muffler and some pipe that I'd happy donate to your team when you're in Portland. It came off my Samurai and I know basically nothing more than that. It seemed loud there but it's hard to tell if that was the muffler, the fact that it was hard mounted to the body, or both.

I can take some measurements if y'all are interested.

Anothere weekend, another day in the garage. Nothing huge to report, the engine is in the car and most of the day was spent hooking up all the little stuff, trying to get ready for a possible autocross next weekend.

Not glamorous work, but it is important work.

Justin expressed concern about limited visibility on the driver's side during the last race, so he spent the time fitting An additional spot mirror. looks silly, but it works, so... not silly.

I tested the rear view camera in my daily and discovered that it didn't even work. I wasn't sure what I expected from some $40 amazon special. Then later discovered that my 12v power port didn't work... so maybe the camera did work after all. Some quick testing today determined that it did, so the camera is back on the menu.

I spent the day trying to mount the body kit more securely. there were a total of about 6 screws holding the whole thing on, and one piece actually tore off during the last event, prompting me to trudge around in the rain trying to find it.

Nutserts.

Lot's of nutserts.

Like I said, nothing glamorous, just steady progress with an eye towards reliability.

If we get the work done early, it will give us some time to Actually test and tune the car before portland.

62 days to go.

Here's a late update, about 2 weeks ago we had another wrench day. We'd been doing real good about at least three people hitting it every weekend.

The engine is in the car, most everything is hooked up. The clutch is a switch. Pedal goes to the floor and stays there. Clutch doesn't reengage. Fun.

We start going through adjustments trying to figure it out but nothing seems to work. VWs being designed and driven exclusively  absolutely insane people have an unusual clutch mechanism that is actuaded through the centreline of the whole trans.  A small puck shaped spring operated the return.

This spring was missing inside our sealed transmission.

A minor setback as the new clutch came with one, but... why wasn't it there? Very weird.

That solved the issue. Yay.

During the race the guys expressed the concern that they weren't getting feedback from the car revs wise. The tach was weirdly mounted and the exhaust was silent. We were running a fully stock exhaust after all.

we inspected the systemand decided on a fix.

The stock muffler was removed .

While Jeremy and I went on a hardware run Ian wouldput together a new 'muffler'.  He asked me not to post photos because he didn't want people to see his "terrible welding job".

I promised I would not.

Anyway, here it is.

That should help with the "we can't hear our own engine" issue.