<VV> Autocross test

levair at aol.com levair at aol.com
Mon Mar 26 09:53:44 EST 2007


After several day in wading boots digging holes for sump pumps due to the Indiana floods. the weathers cleared enough for racing.
  My Corvair Roadster was put into the trailer in mid Feb. after engine rebuilding. The trailer home was because of flooding in the shop and much more flooding due soon. I and the car desparately needed to escape. The Performance Workshop certainly was no escape from the weather.
  So obviously, no testing had been done. The Eaton Blower was installed late last fall on a tired, at least 8 seasons old, engine. It ran fine until the cam gear disintegrated from the inside out blowing off all of the intake pressure tubes
   Now the engine is newly rebuilt with the best cam gear available.
  It was 78 deg. at the Walesboro airport--absolutely perfect--- and the course looked like fun. Michael was there in his newly acquired Fiero.
  The Roadster ran better then ever; starting and running the entire course in 2nd gear--3.27 axle, 22" tires._
  The newly installed smaller rear anti roll bar even seemed to work well.
Since I'm used to driving the huge Stinger, I turned too soon and too much and was collecting inside cones. 
  On the 2nd run all of the pressure intakes tubes blew off and I had to be towed in. I prayed that it wasn't another cam gear, which requires a total engine dissamembly.
  After replacing the tubes with a wrench instead of a screwdriver , I made 1 1/2 runs before they all blew off again. This time I just waited for the event to be over, replaced the tubes and drove in.
   I'm not dissapointed, the tubes blowing off must mean that I have much more boost than on the old tired engine. Now I just have to find some volunteer to ride with me and watch the boost guage. Ladies first. 
   I'm  off to town now to double up on the gear clamps, as soon as I restart the sump pumps.. 
 
   On another subject; driving at Walesbore airport which has a somewhat slippery surface and witnessing the street tire shod cars whipping the slick shod cars, reminded me of the recent discussion on the DMod/EMod group.
   The SCCA Solo Nationals was held on a slipperly, sandy, cold . much smaller asphalt surface. The results were quite skewed. One D mod competitor added 300 # ballast and ran his 2 liter car in E mod against 5 and 6 liter cars. He came in 2nd overall. 
   Something similar happened at Corsa on the black ice asphalt at Lexington. 
   The talk now is about volunteerily adding more weight, raising the Cg, , softening suspension, and running narrower treaded tires.
I did something similar a few years agos at Walesboro by mounting some old treaded rain tires and picked up almost 3 seconds over slicks---much too expensive to do regularily.
 I'm  way to old to be worrying about an "I" class or collecting any trophies. Just wondering about the state of things. 
   The AWD Rally cars seem to be  capable of winning any class for the above reasons. Need their own classes?
   Any discussion?
 
Warren
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