Going LeMons racing in a 6GC! |
Going LeMons racing in a 6GC! |
Jun 25, 2017 - 11:06 PM |
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Enthusiast Joined May 2, '15 From NY Currently Offline Reputation: 3 (100%) |
Hey ya'all!
A series of questionable decisions have led me to getting accepted to my first LeMons race coming up at Thompson, CT in August. Not much time left, lots to do. If anybody is seriously interested, I'm still looking for the 4th driver. Hit me up. The car came from 6gc community - I picked up Rymaster's 96 GT (his FS thread) Car has an issue with the gearbox - makes really funny noises. I suspect something off with the diff. Drivetrain is already out of the car, gearbox separated, waiting for me to get wrenching on. Cage installation is lined up for a week from now. Need to completely redo the brakes - rebuild rears, replace fronts with dual-piston calipers, new rotors and pads. Replace wheel bearings as a precaution. Figure out what tires I'll use. Finally, all the safety bs - kill switch is a must, and I'd like to plumb fire extinguisher and cool suit in if funds and time allows. If not, hand held extinguisher and sweaty balls will have to do. Tons more crap I'm sure will come up. Interior is getting completely gutted, so feel free to inquire if you need parts (I'll be posting a FS thread, will put the link in here). Any money I make back on selling parts I can use towards "performance mods", and I'm looking to get some decent lowering springs (no thanks to noname crap). If you have a set of such springs collecting dust - talk to me. If you've done LeMons before and have suggestions, fire away. |
Aug 14, 2017 - 10:34 AM |
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Enthusiast Joined May 2, '15 From NY Currently Offline Reputation: 3 (100%) |
Alright, got back home last night. The build ran into a ton of problems, but I'm very proud to say that we did get the car on the track, albeit for only few hours.
Got to the track late Friday night, got up early with a short list of things to finish. But, failed tech - roll cage spreader plates did not meet the spec, as their rules require 24 sq. in. plates (this is necessary when mounting to sheet metal to spread the force). I had the cage professionally built and the builder mounted a smaller spreader plate to the frame rail (much stronger than sheet metal), but LeMons did not want to take that into consideration. This required welding, and took us a few hours to sort. After that, went to put in rear EBC Yellow pads, could not retract the piston into caliper for the new pads, had to take the calipers apart and hone the bore, clean up the piston. Fortunately I had brought my case of "SSTs" and had the hone and some sand paper scraps. Got the car on track shortly after 1pm. Our second driver almost immediately got black flagged for going off track. This would not be a big deal if he actually noticed the black flag rather than continuing blowing by repeated black flags for 20min, and additionally spinning the car in that time. The spotter (me at that time) also failed to notice the flag as the black flags are only shown at two of the flag stations, which we didn't know. By the time he pitted, LeMons officials had some pent up anger to unleash upon us and grilled us for about half an hour. Even though a first black flag is usually not a problem at LeMons, blowing said flag for extended period of time is high up on the list of worst offenses, right behind speeding past corner workers and causing a massive wreck. Not attending the Friday rookie meeting because we arrived at 11:30pm did not help our cause. We lost time at every pit stop/driver change as small things kept creeping up - belts needed to be adjusted for our skinniest driver, we did not have fuel ready and had to wait at the pump, more belt adjustments, fluid top-offs. In the end, all 4 drivers got at least 30 min of track time before the engine blew the head gasket and stalled/seized literally 100 yards after the checkered flag on day 1. Everybody was exhausted from the endless sprint to get the car ready for the track, and there was no energy left to tear into the motor Saturday night. It cooled off and started later in the night, ran with no problems, so we hoped for the best. Of course, the next day on track the car started overheating and lost all coolant within few minutes. We topped it off a few times to get another 10 laps out of it, but by this point it overheated so severely that the spark plug wires melted to the plugs and the distributor cap started melting away from the cylinder head, and we called it in. With about 4 hours to go in the race, we made an attempt to tear the thing apart and throw a new HG on it, but about 2 hr into it, and seeing how much overheating went on, we realized we were not making it back on track that day and threw in the towel. The main goal of this whole endeavor was to get as much seat time as possible. We walked away with a massive amount of racing experience instead. The car ran like a champ. Brakes were fantastic, car held a line in the corner despite the blown shocks and all-season tires. Gearbox worked great, and everyone was impressed with the build. Everybody went home unharmed, wiser, and holding memories they'll never forget of their first real race. The car is not wrecked or damaged, and will be back on track in a month or two once I address the engine situation. Thank you all for tagging along! More to come. |
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: March 29th, 2024 - 2:01 AM |