A team with no name goes racing.

While the others were off doing important work, I got to do what I do best. Cosmetic work.

I get greif for this frequently but the fact is. At some point I'd like to race on other people's money. And you aren't going to get OPM if your car looks like a wad of used toilet tissue.

We have a possibly homemade strut tower bar that came with the car but wasn't installed for the first event. Not sure why. It was pretty rough, with paint chips and spots of rust. Ian sandblasted it along with the suspension components and I gave it a coat of blue.

simple things but they make a difference.

Compare this to where we started just 2 short months ago.

I'd much rather a potential sponsor see the car now.

During the race we lost one of our fender flares. I was forced to trudge around in the rain and try to recover it. Fortunately I did recover it and the part was undamaged.

Subsequent inspections showed that the whole kit was held on with around 5 self tapping screws and about a mile of double sided foam tape. Clearly that was insufficient. 

Because the fender lips have been rolled and the inner lips of the flares have been trimmed, the original mounting points weren't really an option. After trying a few other methods it became clear that the Liberty-Bunny method was the only way, regardless of how trash it looks.

I set to work bolting the fenders in place.

Clamping the flare in place, drilling 1 pilot hole through the flare and fender, removing the flare, enlarging the fender hole, installing the nutsert, the reinstalling the flare to start the process again.

Incredibly time consuming, but it's the only way to guarantee proper alignment of all holes.

I only got the passenger side done so far. I'm thinking once all the parts are bolted on a bead of RTV or similar seam sealer on the inner lip could bond them to the fender.

Fun fun.

39 days to go.

Nice work. Looking fancy.

https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events/2005758-track-night-2024-portland-international-raceway-july-5

Thoughts?

Another wrench day. The weather canceled by Viking re-enactment so I was able to show up and finished attaching the ground effects.

While I was finishing up the passenger side Jeremy took a shot at straightening out the driver's fender.

It may not look impressive to you, but he did that with a claw hammer...

While I was futzing around with the ground effects Ian and Jeremy wrapped up the engine.

The coolant system was bled, the cutoff switch was rewired to the coil, just a list of pretty basic but important stuff.

Ian added a secondary rear tow hook in the centre to make loading the car on the ramp easier. This uses genuine Ferrari parts.

I also got the rear-view camera installed.

oh yeah... and we fired it up...

 

we got the car back on it's wheels and ready for an alignment.

See ya in two weeks... 

Welp, She's "ready"

Swung by the Broke-N world headquarters for a wrench day to find everything pretty much done. Alignment was good, everything was ready. We slapped a PCV hose on and got the car ready for a test drive. We have not tested the new transmission so we don't know if it even works.

I tossed a go pro up in the mount to test it's location as well.

It ran, reverse and 1-4 work, we didn't get going fast enough to hit 5.

It's loud. 

That camera position is not going to work. I'm currently shopping for another mount. If I can get it lower, like right over the driver's shoulder, just poking around the edge of the seat it would have an amazing view, but not block the driver's view.

In other news:

The rear view camera is installed and functional. This and the additional mirrors should really improve out situational awareness on track.

I did a bit of research into this car and found that 20 years ago this car did a 1:36.799 at PIR. So that is our benchmark.

At least one of our drivers will be at PIR this Friday for a track night. Hopefully a few more will tag along.

Another of our drivers will be attending a wedding out of state during the next race, so will miss Saturday, then be hauling arse back to the track to take the green flag on Sunday. So kudos to him.

19 days to go.

Omg it sounds like butt now lol

I will happily order a cheap muffler. 2.25"?

In reply to dr_strangeland :

Free muffler and pipe offer still stands. I'll even deliver to PIR. It's like ten mins from my house. It's the one that is neither new nor shiny below:

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

Thanks, I think that might be a bit big to fit under the back of the car.

In reply to iansane :

That tracks. It took up a lot of room under the samurai.

Well, we're here again. Four days out. Ian and I got together on Saturday for some last minute stuff. Going through the spares, figuring out what we need and what we don't. putting together a checklist so we don't get there and realize nobody brought a jack.

Could you imagine that? That would be silly.

the car itself is ready, save for the new camera mount I have to install.

the ramp truck got some brackets for the race ramps.

So... that's that.

She's ready to load. we're doing it again.

Portland, prepare to be Broke-N.

That's another one, or uh two in the books. Just as last time it might take a couple days to process before we can each tell our individual versions here.

Stay tuned.

It was catastrophically awesome.

I guess I'll get us started.  The day was fast approaching. Portland would present different challenges than the ridge. For one I knew the pit layout was more 'race track' than the overflow pit we had at the Ridge or the 'warm pit' at Pacific. I would actually be going over the wall.

So I needed a lollipop.

Managed to get this one put together for around $45. I'll tell you, that hideous colour scheme is starting to grow on us.

I took Thursday off to try and get on a normal schedule, which didn't work, then loaded the C30 full of provisions.

The plan was for me to lag behind the team by about 4-5 hours. If we forgot anything I'd be able to bring it. Then I realized that I had all the fire extinguishers. Like... all of them.

So I hopped on the road and made it to PIR at around 7:30 ish. Justin arrived minutes before me.

We had some trouble finding our assigned pit as we were stall 40 of 43, but the wall only contained 39 spots. The officials told us that's because the stalls get repainted frequently for the different series that come through. Nascar needs longer stalls than formula E.

Ian arrived shortly after with the car and we got set up. 

A few last minute tweaks on the car including installing a better camera mount and a pair of digital timers and the car was ready to go.

Family duties kept henry from leaving before noon so we got ready to go with just two drivers.

Justin went out first and ran for about 25 minutes of the 50 minute session ticking off a new PB with every lap, peaking at 1:40. The fastest Time I'd seen from this car on this track was a 1:37 so we were feeling pretty good. Then Justin had an off. There is video but it is going to take me some time to get it prepped. He pulled into the pits and we noticed some fluid spots in front of the rear wheel. We pulled him around back as a precaution.

We spent the day bouncing sessions back and forth between our two drivers until Henry arrived in time to run the last session. He left in the car and brought it back in just a couple laps stating it felt like he was driving on baloons. We checked the pressures and they were... elevated.

A full day of lapping and the elevated temps had gotten them into the 50psi range. We lowered the pressures and sent him back out.

The track session came to an end, and the car was on 4 wheels still. We drove to tech, got our sticker and final pit assignment. We were in good shape. Excited that we would be taking the green flag for the first time we headed back to our hotels to get a good night's sleep.

If I had the choice, I would have preferred PIR as our first track. It was MUCH easier to learn and drive at a reasonable level, and with more room for passing (being passed), than Ridge. And actually getting a practice day in to  get comfortable with how, when, and where other drivers would be passing us (we were in the slowest car at the event) was a huge confidence booster. I did quickly realize that the rear view camera we installed has too wide of a viewing angle to be useful, as you couldn't really see the other car until it was right on you. It's a great idea in concept, but we'll have to find the right one, or just find the right way to use it. Part of the problem may have been that we were generally being passes so decisively, that they weren't in viewing range for long enough. If it were a battle with a similar speed car (ha) it might still help for knowing where they are relative to the rear bumper when trying to start a pass. The extra convex mirror we added on the drivers side A-pillar was extremely helpful and confidence inducing in traffic though. 

I did have two off's during the practice day, at least one captured on the video from my first session. Both were from the same cause, which dawned on me later when another racer came to talk to us about the car and mentioned loving watching how much ours lifts the inside rear around corners. When there are two corners that are both the same direction, and you can't let up on the cornering when tracking out of the first corner, tracking a little wider than intended and getting on to the outside rumble strips at high lateral load upsets the car of course... But when the rear tire tags the rumble strip, and it's your only rear tire in contact with the ground, then not anticipating the extent of it means you'll be going for a ride like I did at the end of my first session... Turn down your sound down

With that lightbulb moment out of the way, and the car still in one piece, I was feeling pretty good going into Saturday.

The other concern was that our new not-a-muffler (effectively a catless, straight piped exhaust) might not pass the 103dB sound limit at PIR.  Ian stayed up late one night adding a cheap glass pack into the midpipe, and another modifying the original too-quiet muffler to mate to the new flange as a backup. While it sounded bad, and were were probably the loudest car out there, it didn't seem by a large margin. Thankfully, nobody approached us during the Friday practice, so we figured we were all good there too.

As a preview for Saturday, the LDR photographer has put out the photos coming out of the isn't-straight into turn 10, and got a few good ones of our car.

I like the NASCAR car (?) appearing around all the other "normal" cars. I bet that thing was fast. 

thatsnowinnebago said:

I like the NASCAR car (?) appearing around all the other "normal" cars. I bet that thing was fast. 

Which one are you referring to?

I just see miatas, e30, rx7, fiero, civics, and a jetta.

Saturday arrived and it was time for qualifying. We all agreed that Henry would do the honours as he is both our most experienced driver and the guy who got the fewest sessions on track during practice.

Our primary concern was noise violations. We were pretty sure we could eek in under the 102db limit with the centre mounted muffler we had installed. The 93db limit announced during the driver's meeting however... 

The only choice was to try.

Well. That went pretty much exactly as expected. Within a lap or two we had blown way past the sound limits and the officials were looking for us.

I spotted a pit Marshall headed towards our stall with that face. You know the one. The "We 'bout to have an argument and imma win it" face. I turned to Justin... "go get the other muffler."

He arrived and before he could say anything I disarmed him with a "we will fix it." We let him know that we didn't have a radio so we would either need to call him in with the pit board or he would need to be black flagged.

The flag went out, the car came on and we bodged the original muffler back under the car.

Qualifying came to a close and we were, to nobody's surprise, C Class. 

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Lol the white one. I didn't see that it was a fiero. The hood decal makes way more sense now...

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

The livery is a nod to the famous Dingman Brothers IMSA Fiero

Saturday. Race day. 7 hours. Coming off yesterday's successful practice day we felt pretty good going into the race. We had spares, we had experience, we had 3 out of four drivers.

Henry was still suited up from qualifying and it was decided he would take us to the green flag.

The green flag. If seems weird but even thought his was not our first event this was the first time we were going to take the green flag. Being the slowest car we lollygagged a bit in the puts to ensure we won be starting at the absolute back of the pack. No sense in starting mid field and then getting run over. This would give us a handful of clean clear laps before the leaders caught up.

With three drivers we were looking at 1 hour stints minimum. The rules allow for up to 2 hours, but require a 2 hour rest period before a driver gets back into the car. 1 hour stints would be the minimum we could get away with without running out of drivers.

Henry would run a short 30 minute to get us started and keep us off sequencewith the other team we were sharing a box with.

He went out, ran his laps and brought the car back. Justin was up next and jumped in the car, ready to start his hour behind the wheel.

things were going well. Then the yellow flag came out. We made the customary joke. Yellow is good, it's less stress on the car. Unless it's for him.

The field came by. Justin wasn't in it. maybe we missed him. another lap. No Justin, No Shelly, No word 

I found a pit Marshall and asked what the yellow was for.

"Multiple disabled vehicles."

Crash? Injuries?

"don't think so."

I went back to the stall to share the news.

A few cars came back on tow ropes, but we were not among them. Then, working it's way through the paddock came our warrior and his intrepid steed.

Justin was not injured, but the car was. The Driver's side wheel was sitting at an unusual angle. So we Assumed the position.

We've been here before. No worries. We have spares. We'll slap her back together and head right back out.

I want to take a second and point out that it was hot. Very hot, approaching triple digits hot. Very little shade. I was hurling water bottles at the guys and forcing them to drink like they were frat pledges. 

Ian analyzed the failure. Axle nut backed off, hub broke.

No sweat, we've got those.

Closer inspection revealed that the spinning axle had welded itself to the wheel bearings.

We couldn't get the old spindle off the axle. We would need a new axle. We started making phone calls.

First place could get one on Monday, no good.

Second place could have one by tomorrow, but only if we paid for it now. Better but not ideal.

Ian found a place a half hour south that could have one by 2. Still a ways off but best we were going to get.

We pulled the offending axle and spindle and threw it on the table.

Shelly was letting that all too familiar position.

When the wheel separated it was held on only by the brake caliper. the pads were twisted, the caliper had some grinding on it, the rotor had aluminum imbedded in it. 

Then the tow truck lifted the car by the wheels to bring it back. It was ugly.

But this is endurance racing.Always forward is the only way.

I left the team to hit a local home depot to pick up some bolts, some files and a rotary tool. Plan A was in effect,but instead of waiting we would implement plan B.

I was going to respline the axle we had by hand. A fairly stupid idea, I'm aware, but what other choice was there?

As I was leaving the Home depot I got a call that our axle was early, I diverted south to pick it up and raced back to the track.

Justin set to work straightening out the bent caliper retaining clips.

Ian got to work trying to clean up the caliper. I started grinding on the Axle.

Henry was not feeling well, so we sent him back to the hotel to soak up some air conditioning. He's no good to us dead.

We now had the axle, and the new spindle and hub. The caliper would work, the pads would go back together. That's when we found our that all our spare rotors were the wrong size.

Yay!

Justin set off to a parts store to find the correct rotors and we watched the final minutes of the race tick away.

We would not rejoin the race this day. Another DNF would stain our record.

We would finish 59th of 63. 30th of 32 in C Class.

After finding the proper rotor, replacing the tie rod end and some various hardware, the car was back together. The sun was disappearing below the horizon. 

I stopped to grab a sub which I realized as I was eating it was my breakfast.

At 8:30 My head hit the pillow and for the first time in years I was asleep instantly.

Tomorrow had to be better, right?

Sunday. Bloody Sunday.

After yesterday's ordeal I wasn't feeling optimistic. Jeremy was on his way from Bend, a 160 mile drive. I went to a grocery store to pick up Ice, drinks and some kind of breakfast. 

We would have all four drivers today so stint length would be so much less crucial, so that was one less stress. And the car was 'together' and ready to take the green.

Henry was nowhere to be seen. I'd gotten a message from his partner that he had been ill the night before, he wasn't slated until the third stint so I wasn't too worried. Ian had missed out on driving yesterday so He was going to take us to the flag.

That's when Ian let me know he wasn't feeling 100%. I hurled a bottle of pink stuff at him and told Justin to suit up.

We had 8 hours and 1 driver. We would do our best and if we had to park the car we would. 

I will take this moment to say the minute by minute of the weekend's events are a blur to me, I eagerly await the other members telling their stories here. I still haven't gotten around to watching and editing all of the video yet.

[Edit]

The following account of the morning is not accurate. Upon reviewing the video footage I realized that I got a lot of details very wrong. I'm going to leave this story untouched as an illustration of how chaotic that morning actually was.

[/edit]

Justin took the flag and ran a full hour stint.

5 gallons in the car, Jeremy arrived and immediately started off for his own 1 hour stint.

Then we caught a break. Of sorts. Lightning struck and the field went full course red. The cars were brought into the pits and parked. They would remain that way until 30 minutes after the last strike within 7 miles.

It wasn't exciting racing by any means but it was official race time. The car was resting, Jeremy and Ian were resting. Things were looking OK.

We weren't allowed to work on the car during the red flag. One team was penalized for opening their hood.

We took this opportunity to get some team shots with the car.

Ian

Jay (your humble narrator)

Jeremy

And Justin

Regretfully Henry did not arrive before the end of the red flag and I was not able to get a shot if him with the car. We will need to remedy this at the next event.

The weather cleared and the scramble began. Jeremy got back in the car for a parade lap. Because the 2 hour mark had passed the cars were all overdue for a mandatory 5 minute stop. Every car hit pit lane at the same time.

Because it was a mandatory 5 anyway, we threw another can in the car and sent Ian who was in good health by this point out to do a stint.

This is where it gets fuzzy for me, dear reader. Nothing happened. We just ran laps. Cycled through drivers, and knocked off time.

At around the 6 hour mark we decided to bring the car behind the wall for a checkup.

Check the axle nuts, check the jury rigged brake pads and rotor, see how we were holding together.

We were off track for no more than 10 minutes when she was cleared to return to racing with a clean bill of health.

Ian took her out to run at least an hour with the instruction to stay out as long as he wanted. We had the fuel and had completed the mandatory 5 minute stop. Ian could, if he was up for it, take us to the checker.

In fact the only thing that was giving us trouble was my go-pro. Corrupting files, shutting off. I told Justin that if the camera wasn't working when Ian came in I would take it out and use it to film the finish from outside the car.

Ian brought the car in unexpectedly. He told us the engine was misbehaving. It seemed to develop a miss above 5500 rpm.

"So shift at 5000. Get back out there."

So he did. There wasn't much we could do about it now, just nurse it to the finish.

The timer beeped, Ian's scheduled stop was 5 minutes away. Justin and I suited up. A splash of fuel and a driver change and we were good to cruise to the finish.

We were in a battle with a much faster car that was having differential issues. They were much faster, but they were behind the wall frequently. We had 9 laps on them.

I did the math. They couldn't catch us.

Ian stayed out. knocking off laps. We thought he might take us home. Then he came in.

we did a picture perfect stop. Justin headed out with less than 40 minutes to go.

I'll tell you, dear reader, we've never been in this position before. I couldn't hide my grin. the laps counted down. Grey Cloud was out there but they were still 6 laps down. there were 15 minutes left before the checker.

I left the pit and made my way towards the finish line. I would capture our victory.

9 minutes.

The car didn't come by.

Maybe I missed it. I waited.

The car didn't come by.

I glanced down the pits, all the way down at the other end was Shelly, in our stall, hood up.

The passenger side upper strut mount had come apart.

We were scrambling to fix it, looking for any hardware that would get us back on track for one final lap. Eventually in desperation a vice grip and zip tie was employed, but the Marshall told us the final lap had begun and we would not be allowed to reenter the race.

9 minutes from the end of an 8 hour race, this is where Shelly would finish. Alone on pit lane.

Grey Cloud racing would overtake us.

We would place 37th out of 65. 22nd ot of 35 in C class.

As stated in the previous post I got a lot wrong. I was editing the video this morning and realized that Justin got sent out to to a half hour stint, came back in expecting a driver change and was met with my ugly mug telling him that nobody else was ready to go in the car, and to either get back out there or park it.

He chose to get back out there for a second half hour stint.

I do not remember this conversation happening and if it wasn't on video I would have denied it.

Justin then went out accidentally did a pass through for someone else's Black flag before finally being relieved by the red flag for weather.

Video will be posted... someday. Tonight maybe.

As stated in the previous post I got a lot wrong. I was editing the video this morning and realized that Justin got sent out to to a half hour stint, came back in expecting a driver change and was met with my ugly mug telling him that nobody else was ready to go in the car, and to either get back out there or park it.

He chose to get back out there for a second half hour stint.

I do not remember this conversation happening and if it wasn't on video I would have denied it.

Justin then went out accidentally did a pass through for someone else's Black flag before finally being relieved by the red flag for weather.

Video will be posted... someday. Tonight maybe.

What do you do when you're working on suspension? You see what stupid flares and 2" of wheel spacers would look like on the car!

iansane said:

What do you do when you're working on suspension? You see what stupid flares and 2" of extra wheel width would look like on the car!

Ftfy.