Building our Lemons/Chumpcar (Page 14/29) DonP FEB 20, 09:51 PM Since I was not at the track for Sunday, I asked the guys to comment on their experience. It's taken awhile, but here is their story; RICH Saturday night I finished up the Off Road Show and headed to Sonoma. On the way over I called Don to see how the day went. The cell reception over Hwy 80 can be sketchy at times and this was one of those times. After a couple dropped calls I was able to get 20 seconds of good reception where all I heard was “IT RAINED. LOST 3 HOURS BECAUSE OF TOO MANY SPINS” and then Don was gone again. When I got to the motel Doug was still up and he updated me on the “Day in the Rain”. No visibility, standing water, fogged up windshield, lost 3 hours of track time, it didn’t sound fun to me. I did mention to Doug that Robert had put Rain-X on the outside of the windshield and the anti fogging Rain-X on the inside of the windshield. We concluded that was the reason Don got 1 ½ hours of fog free driving before even the Rain-X succumbed to the wet conditions. Sunday morning we awoke to cloudy skies, but it was not raining. When we got to the track everything was wet, wet, wet, but there was no standing water which was a big plus. We rolled the car out of the trailer and got Robert ready to hit the track first and then headed to the drivers meeting. The “Lemons Lecture” covered all the usual stuff with added comments about Saturday’s rain and the decision to eliminate the 3 penalty rule. We were also advised to take it easy as the track was still wet and the 3 penalty rule was back in affect. Robert did his driving stint and then it was my turn. When I went out on track it was under a full course Yellow. By the time I got around to the track exit I was following a safety vehicle towing a car with another race car behind him. Both peeled off and went to the pits leaving no one to follow. NASA uses the entire track going down to turn 11 while Lemons moves turn 11 up closer to the Drag Race Tower. I passed the tower and saw 3 cones close together so I turned right. As soon as I turned I realized it was the next set of cones that marked the turn and I had already screwed up. I immediately got Black Flagged and I hadn’t even completed a lap in under Yellow. When I got to the penalty box I faced a couple young judges working to make a name for themselves so I got yelled at about the Fiero being in the penalty box many times on Saturday and what the hell was I doing cutting the course??? I explained I was not here on Saturday and the last time I drove the track was at a NASA Track Day and turn 11 was all the way down. I knew that Lemons shortened up the course and I confessed to screwing up and turning too early. After my explanation, it was like the judge that was yelling at me flipped a switch and became human. He laughed and said he had done the same thing, gave me a warning and sent me on my way. Robert, Doug, and I all drove twice on Sunday. I drove the last segment and with 15 minutes left in the day, the traffic had thinned out and there was no one in front of me. In an endurance race a driver rarely goes 100%, but with 15 minutes left and a clear track I had to bust off a couple hard laps which turned out to be the most fun part of the day for me. With 3 hours lost on Saturday, we didn’t have a good finish but we had achieved our goal of being on track at the checkers. We loaded up and headed back home thinking about the next changes to the Fiero including putting the 3800 Supercharged engine in. DOUG Sunday was a ton better than Saturday. Saturday had been all about surviving in the rain. I had been hit in the side, immediately behind the driver's door. The car looked untouched. But when the guys opened the door, they commented that the door jamb, just above the striker post had been bent and now had a crease in it. The door still closed, but had to be given a little extra push. So Saturday was a little less than we had hoped for. I had actually spun a couple times on Saturday. I didn't know that there was any penalty for having to many spins. So my goal on Sunday was to keep it clean and straight. Robert had missed the opportunity to drive on Saturday, and I wanted to make sure I didn't contribute to another situation. Besides, this was the second time I had drove the car and the second time actually on the track. It was all much better. And I had a $100 bill in my driver's suit to erase a penalty. The Lemons guys let you buy your way out of a minor offense with a $100 donation to the Speedway Children's charity. I wasn't going to get us set out again. Robert got ran over by a Jeep. (this jeep. - DON) The most interesting part of the day, other than getting in a much better race, was watching Rich during his final run. He was naturally stuck in a group of cars all of whom seemed to be running close times. After maybe 6-7 laps in the pack, he worked his way to the front coming around turn 7 way at the far end of the track. What was interesting is that he entered the series of S's as he had for the last several laps, he was in the front but with several guys hot on this tail. And even from the far end of the track you could see that he realized the position he was in. He absolutely buried everyone. In one of those weird way that thing happen, he suddenly got very fast and yet seemed to slow down at the same time. In reality, with an open and unobstructed track he got a lot faster but also very smooth. The smoothness made him actually appear slower. But by the end of the S's, he had opened up over 100 feet on a group that had been sticking with him. The next lap was also fairly open and he just came flying through the section. Rich has been racing since the early to mid-seventies. And he has been a track champion based in part on his smoothness. He showed some ability on Sunday. We didn't have any problems and were running when the checkered flag flew. ROBERT I didn't have a chance to drive in the rain on Saturday. But as the first driver on Sunday, I can say that Rich is full of it when he said there was no standing water. At the start of the day, there was definitely standing water and as it dried, more was dragged back on by cars going off track. It was still fun, but very stressful. My day was mostly uneventful. I did swap ends going through the esses early on. A car in front of me had gone off and back on and dragged a mess back with him. I was caught by surprised and did swap ends. I suffered the abuse of the judges in silence and headed back onto the track. The worst part of the day was getting ran over by a Jeep. There's a Jeep painted up in Petty blue that has been to several Lemons races. He seems to actually finish pretty good. I was sharing the track with him through turn 2 of the track. We went side by side into turn 3A and I waved him by. The most polite thing I can say is that he might have a depth perception problem. He had not come even close to clearing my car when he turned into me. I had Petty Blue paint across the top of the passenger door extending onto the top of the right fender. He flat ran over the top of me! Damage wise, the car came through pretty good. We were scrapped up and had the paint scars. The worst part was he got away with it. I don't think he even got called in. I guess my lesson was to not give way or cooperate. Even with the hit and run Sunday was much better. I actually got some track time and the track was much better than Saturday. DON Okay, the final story of the weekend is that with 171 cars entered in the race, we finished 137th. Remember, we lost 3 hours on Saturday. So I cannot feel that's too bad. The Fiero Libre boys finished in 156th place. I don't yet know their story. At the close of Saturday's racing, I believe they were 5th or 6th within their class. and 95th overall. If you want a better picture of the day, check out the wrap-up video posted by the LeMons organization itself! Lemons in a nutshell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHOiNrpqpik Fierofreak00 MAR 10, 08:12 AM Cmon' Uncle Don! Where's the rest of the story? I'm still on the edge of my seat waiting for the continuation! -Jason DonP MAR 11, 07:11 PM Thanks for the encouragement. As much as I'm enjoying the writing, "Real Life" is kind of getting in the way. That and going to the Las Vegas NASCAR races last weekend. I'll make an effort to continue this story by the end of the week, if I can find time. We have our next race in less than two weeks and the engine and entire cradle are not mated to each other, much less to the car. .... Again, glad someone is interested. Don Fierofreak00 MAR 11, 07:28 PM Your are truly welcome, I do honestly enjoy your story telling ability. And I ravenously look forward to each installment, like a parched man roaming the desert looking for a drink of water. -Jason ManMadeChickens APR 06, 01:50 AM You guys rock! I'm a week out from our next race at Portland, and it's really getting me "in the mood" by reading through your thread. Keep up the good work! Oh, and don't fear the wet stuff falling from the sky, we race almost exclusively in it! DonP APR 20, 01:24 PM So how did the Portland weekend go? I love that track, though most of my experience there was pre-front chicane. So what tire pressures are you guys running? I know you are running street tires as per the rules. DonP APR 20, 04:33 PM So what was our take-away from the March race? We had finished in the top 80% and lost three hours of on-track time. Most (short-sighted) folks would probably get caught up on the three hours of lost track time and say that we needed to reign in some of the driver "exuberance." To that we collectively give a loud raspberry. All of the racers out there instantly recognize, as did we, that the real answer is more horsepower! And torque! (insert that Tim Allen testosterone laden grunting noise here.) It was always our intent to do an engine swap into the Fiero. Within two weeks of purchasing the Fieros to race, we found a '94 Buick Park Avenue Ultra with a 3800 Supercharged engine. The car had something in the neighborhood of 130K on it. It drove out well and we figured we were good to go. The owner was asking $900, we explained that we were constrained on how much we could spend on a $500 Lemons car and offered $450. His rather slow response was " uh, that would be half." Yup. Once he talked with his mom who wanted the car out of her garage, we drove the car onto the trailer and headed home. I can hear the comments now. But we didn't know anything about series 1 or series 2 engines. We had just read that the 3800 SC was a great swap. Our next race was set for September at Thunderhill Raceway http://www.thunderhill.com/ in Willows Ca. Rich and I had checked out the Lemons race at Thunderhill as spectators the previous year. We were both of the opinion that Thunderhill was a faster track than Sears Point. It looked to have much more sustained high speed portions. If we were going to up the horsepower, this is where it would have the highest payoff. So we had about 6 months to accomplish the swap. Cool, that means we should be done with plenty of spare time. Some photos of our trip to Thunderhill can be found here. http://s1222.photobucket.co...w/Thunderhill%202011 But what could we do in the mean time? That right, let's harass the local SCCA boys and go auto-crossing! They now call them SOLO events. The last time I had done an autocross was in maybe 1990? I was driving a 1969 428 Cobra-jet powered Mustang Mach I, probably one of the most feared cars on the auto-cross circuit. Feared because it was sliding sideways out of control, not feared because it was competitive. A couple weeks after we got back from Sonoma/Sears/Infineon, the Reno-SCCA (http://www.renoscca.org/ ) held an "annual tech" session where one can get your car inspected for the year. So we reinstalled the passenger seat and headed down to Summit Racing, the tech site. It was a little bit confusing because we didn't really fit any of the 412 established classes. But of course we weren't aware of any of these 412 classes as spelled out in their 820-page General Competition Rules and Specifications rule book and hadn't built the car to any of their specs anyway and why would you build a car with a full-on cage and run those silly mud and snow tires and are you sure you're in the right place? We eventually got it sorted out. Better yet, we learned that there was an open track day the next weekend at the Reno-Fernley raceway. Cool! Let's do that as well as auto-crossing. Reno-Fernley Raceway http://www.renofernleyracetrack.com/ is our home track by virtue of the fact that it's only 1/2 hour from home. It's also a track that Rich and I were trying to promote a few races at. I've raced at the track once during a 24 hours of Lemons race in '11. Rich has only been on the track with my Ford Explorer while discussing our race promotions. So actually participating in the Reno-SCCA PDX (Performance Driving Experience) with an instructor was a good idea. Rich and I both participated. He was in one run group and I was in another. Because of the difficulty in getting in and out of our car ( a recurring theme with instructors) we kept the same instructor strapped into the car for the duration. Because of a shortage of instructors, and the fact that we had encouraged them to find someone on the short side, we ended up with the rather nervous gentleman sitting in the left seat. We learned his normal role was as a mechanic on a "race team." Still, he kept us heading in the right direction with some helpful input. To his credit, never once did he attempt to grab the steering wheel as the NASA instructor had. An even better outcome of having our designated instructor was more important to us. Another instructor ended up signaling his driver to the left side of the track. He then opened the door and proceeded to vomit. Outside the car. Inside the closed face helmet. We hear this isn't an unusual occurrence with the instructors. Our instructor was a bit concerned when he watched the gauges in front of his position. The oil pressure gauge has a tendency to drop precipitously in hard corners. And the red idiot light comes on to make sure the driver is aware. He got to pointing excitedly at the gauge and we had to reassure him it was alright. No, the gauge was accurate, the pressure was indeed dropping. We were just in the process of blowing up. Don't concern yourself. We're working on a replacement engine. A few freeze frames from our GoPro camera can be found here. http://s1222.photobucket.co...lideshow/RFR_4-21-12 DonP APR 24, 03:25 PM The following weekend, at the end of April, Robert got his chance to try auto-crossing. In addition to classroom instruction, The SCCA has an instructor ride along with the driver. In this case, we pulled Rich McSwiggen, one of my co-drivers in the '77 Mustang during the 24 hour race at Reno-Fernley. Rich also took top honors in his Solo run group the previous year in his MR2 Spyder. I think that the solo events really brought out the fact that the Fiero needs a quicker steering rack. A month earlier, at Sonoma, Doug had griped about the slow steering in the chicane. He expressed the comment that we needed faster steering. But we all recognized the fact that to do this, we would need to adapt in some sort of power steering. A year later, as I'm typing this, we are in the process of investigating adding power steering with the intent of including a steering quickener. We used the older, harder Direzza DZ101 tires. Because of the rain at Sonoma the previous month, we still have not actually run the newer, softer Star Specs. We decided to keep those tires fresh for the September race at Thunderhill. And in one case, Robert definitely "over-rotated" the car. He sstarted this pointing in the other direction. I have also posted a video on Youtube. A little long, but we managed to capture the spin at about 2:43. http://www.youtube.com/watc...HqE&feature=youtu.be Some random shots of the afternoon are found here. http://s1222.photobucket.co...lideshow/Solo%204-29 Of particular interest (to me) was this Corvair running a small block in the back [IMG]http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd483/DonP87/Build%20Lemons%20Car/5586570c-b477-46a9-b04b-2a92319149e0_zps2d31af50.j pg[/IMG] Paula, Roberts wife and an official team entrant, though not an actual driver, to our first races rode along with Robert on her first and possibly last ride in the car. The video shows her looking down at the floor the whole time. DonP MAY 14, 07:00 PM quote Originally posted by katatak: Nomex Kilts - LMAO! Did you consider using a "Quickener"? Something like this: Thanks in advance! Pat Well, it looks as though I have prevailed on this point. We are indeed going to be adding a steering quickener much like that shown above. It's part of a complete rebuild of the front cradle. Power steering and and tubular control arms will accompany the steering quickener. Rich has been doing the design/math stuff the last couple weeks and I'll do a complete write-up as it progresses. And I just ordered a pair of Rodney Dickmans new-design front '88 hubs. http://rodneydickman.com/ca....php?products_id=318 I'll be very excited to see how they work out under race conditions. Fierofreak00 MAY 14, 08:06 PM That does look like a cool unit, I hope it works like you want it too. -Jason