From timd@winsurfer.net Tue Aug 6 21:27:29 2002 Return-Path: Received: from relay.pair.com (relay1.pair.com [209.68.1.20]) by red4est.red4est.com (8.11.6/8.9.0) with SMTP id g774RRs28362 for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 21:27:28 -0700 Received: (qmail 80867 invoked from network); 7 Aug 2002 04:00:17 -0000 Received: from bnh-6-16.mv.com (HELO timd) (199.125.98.80) by relay1.pair.com with SMTP; 7 Aug 2002 04:00:17 -0000 X-pair-Authenticated: 199.125.98.80 Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.20020807000749.00752cf0@pop3.norton.antivirus> X-Sender: timd/mail.winsurfer.net@pop3.norton.antivirus X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.3 (32) Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 00:07:49 -0400 To: Larry Colen From: Tim Dziechowski Subject: Re: Old archives: 1989 - 1994 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=====================_1028707669==_" Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 54307 Lines: 1124 --=====================_1028707669==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Larry - Here's everything I could cull from the digests I have, which start with Digest #1 in February 1991 up until the death of Foocar and a little beyond. I also threw in some Dick Nyquist posts which may or may not be your Foocar. I looked at the scans you posted URLs for and they predate all of this so I think that was when Jim Muller ran the list. I recall that Mark used to have some digest compendiums on ftp.team.net which were organized by month rather than as groups of 50 digests but I don't have any of those. Your earlier posts might be in there and Mark might have that stuff on that old now-too-small SCSI disk we bought him way-back-when. HTH, timd@winsurfer.net (Tim Dziechowski - '79 Midget) --=====================_1028707669==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="foocar.txt" ------------------------------ Date: Fri Mar 22 01:41:28 1991 From: lrc%red4est%ucscc.UCSC.EDU%mit-eddie%linus%harvard@bulldog.cs.yale.edu (Larry Colen - Nerd in a black leather jacket) Subject: Spot Welds Hving just removed the fenders off of one Cortina to put them on another, I will share my secret of un spot welding. 1) Remove paint from over spot welds, so you can see them. I found that the spray on Tal-strip did an admirable job. Spray it on, let it sit, then scrape off with wire brush. Use a GARDEN hose to clean off the residue. 2) drill out the spot welds. You will probably need a 1/4 inch drill. 3 Use a hammer and chisel to separate the bits of metal. You will not have drilled thing out perfectly. I used an old ugly wood chisel because it was thinner and sharper than metal chisels. Also, because that is what I had. Alternatively, if you do not care about the bodywork that you are removeing, just cut it off, leaving the old seam intact. This gives me twice as thick metal to BOLT my new fender to. (hey, this is an IT race car. You don't think the new fender is going to STAY pretty do you?). as an aside. Ix and I figured out a way to pound out one of the fenders on Foocar sufficiently that we won't have to replace it. It turns out that the reason that I couldn't beat it back into shape was that the body dolly was too light, and when I hit the fender, everything would just flop around. We found that with Ix banging on the inside of the fender, while I held up my 100 pound anvil on the outside as a body dolly, it worked just fine :)/ lrc ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu Apr 25 23:42:27 1991 From: lrc%red4est%ucscc.UCSC.EDU%mit-eddie%linus%harvard@bulldog.cs.yale.edu (Larry Colen - Nerd in a black leather jacket) Subject: GGLC reception The Golden Gate Lotus Club will be having a reception for the Lotusports Team after the race on Saturday May 4th. At the Holiday Inn in Marin Hwy 101 and Freitas Pkwy 8PM-Midnight. The drivers will be there (Bundy,Caradine, Brockman and Newman) On heel and toe ing, Something that really helped in Foocar (if it is an option) was braided steel brake lines, and readjusting the pedals. Even if the pedals aren't adjustable, you might be able to adjust them. lrc ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed May 15 03:06:00 1991 From: lrc%red4est%ucscc.UCSC.EDU%mit-eddie%linus%harvard@bulldog.cs.yale.edu (Larry Colen - Nerd in a black leather jacket) Subject: 50 PSI!!!!! I cranked the cortina's new motor over. 50 PSI on the starter. Had some trouble till I primed the oil pump with moly grease. Tomorrow I finish putting the ancillaries on and fire it up. Then all I have to do is finish the body work, put the interior back together, finish the air dam, put the rear window back in *(again), take it to Rockwell and tune it on the dyno, fix the brakes, repack the front wheel bearings, clean the contact paper goo off of the sides... And then on thursday.... ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed Jun 24 09:22:08 PDT 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: The Curse O Charlie Rockwell This has not proven to be one of my better evenings. It is Tuesday evening and I am planning on leaving on a 3-week roadtrip, roadracing through the pacific northwest in 24 to 48 hours. I have made arrangements with Charlie Rockwell (who owns the local chasis dyno), that we will meet at his shop at 5, set my car up on the dyno, go to the Alfa club meeting (a prior commitment of his) and then return to his shop and tune my car up. It is not running quite right, and I know that the timing is a bit retarded. Due to that standard series of snafu's I am running about 1/2 hour behind schedule. I start over hwy 17 to San Jose and the Tow Vehicle that I am borrowing starts threatening to overheat. Adding a radiator overflow obviously did not fix the problem, it looks like I will have to replace the water pump, and/or the radiator. Of absolutely no relevance to the story, at the alfa club meeting I look at the pictures of one of the members cars and comment that I had a friend that had an Alfa that looked very similar to his. Further discussion determined that it was indeed the same car. Back at Charlie's shop, he adjusts the timing. Dials it in. As expected it was about 8 degrees retarded. Since it was a new motor, and I don't have access to a good timing light, I had intended to run it retarded until I could have Charlie dial it in on the dyno anyways. Problem is, even with the best tuning, the car is still running a little rough, and is making the same power as my old tired motor. During the process of tuning, Charlie is watching my oil temp guage, thinking it is the water guage (just because it says water on it, sheesh!) he over heats the car. Get back in the car, no clutch. The nylon clutch hydraulic hose melted on the exhaust pipe. Get my spare from the ambulance. It doesn't fit. The size of the fittings must have changed. Continue testing, but the Cortina is down on power. This is disturbing, my old motor had 60,000 street miles on it's last rebuild, before I took it racing. Add 20+ hours of track time to that, and you have a motor that is a bit down on power. So here is a new motor, balanced, new rings ( I didn't rebore the cylinders because they were the max legal overbore, and I was broke anyways), new valves, portmatched head. The new motor should be at least a few hp better than the old one. We do a compression check. The first 3 cylinders are all 150 psi, then Charlie starts making comments about serious trouble and checking his compression guage. He gets another to double check. 0 psi. No compression, not good. Pull the valve cover. Looks ok, eyeball valve gap on #4, looks fine. Do a leakdown test. Serious leakdown. Do a wet compression test. Compression comes up to about 60. Charlie and I are puzzled though. The car is running a bit rough, and is down on power, but it sure doesn't seem like it is running on 3 cylinders. All of the plugs look like textbook examples. There is no way of recognizing #4 sparkplug. Checking on his engine analyzer, everything looks good. The O2 is zero, there are no outrageous levels of HC or CO. The car looks good. So what can cause 0 compression, with no side effects except a slight loss of power (5-10 hp?) and a little roughness? Can this be easily fixed? Have I forgotten anything? Larry ============================== p.s. Do not construe this curse as having anything bad to say about rockwell motorsports. I would much rather find out about problems on the dyno, than at the track 600 miles from home. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu Jul 23 11:01:02 PDT 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: keys I wouldn't be surprised if the hardware store has key blanks. If you have the standard lucas keys (pre about '74), they were used on almost all british cars and pretty much interchangable. Interchangable with other makes, other cars, other years, just get in, put your key in J. Random Ignition and go. The Dreaded Previous Owner (TM) of the Foocar, had a habit of losing his keys, this was not a major problem because he could start the car with his house key, or most any other key as well. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu Aug 06 09:46:09 PDT 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: misc. stuff I will assume that the Ford Consul Cortina is basically the same as a Mk 1 cortina here in the states. For the rear, Take your leaf springs apart, turn the largest leaf that doesn't have "eyes" on it upside down. For the front, either cut a coil out of the front spring, or buy one of the trick front strut setups from Leda. What I did is bought the strut caps from the rear of a 280Z, replaced the old konis with new tokickos and made a camber plate to dial in a couple of degrees of negative camber and positive caster. I also clamped a second anti sway bar to the original (good for about 4 seconds a lap at sears point). For the spridget throw out bearing, sorry but the graphite ones seem to be about the best. The roller bearing ones are made of plastic, which melts. Just get out of the habit of sitting with your foot on the clutch at stop signs, put the car into neutral if you will be stopped. On MG brake fluid, a friend had a problem with the fluid from his brakes disappearing. It wasn't leaking anyplace, the whole system was dry, but it kept disappearing. He finally found it when he rebuilt his brake booster, there was a small hole in the diaphragm that sucked it in. lrc ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri Sep 11 07:53:09 PDT 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: Palo Alto Show If anybody makes it to the Palo Alto show, that doesn't make it to my Birthday Party at Dicks the night before, I expect to be wearing black baggie pants with pink skulls and crossbones on them and, of course, the mandatory fizzball racing t-shirt. Stop by and say hi. Foocar should be pretty obvious, white and pink Cortina GT with full rollcage, says Fizzball racing on it. lrc ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 29 00:33:21 PDT 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: tech questions >From lrc Tue Sep 29 00:29:01 1992 remote from red4est To: w2w Subject: A couple of tech questions Date: Tue Sep 29 00:29:00 PDT 1992 First one: My ITC cortina race car seems to eat differentials. This has happened with both open and welded up rear ends. The initial symptom is howling under deceleration. The howling gets progressively worse, eventually the rear end is unusable. What could cause this? the differentials are of the type that go in as a unit from the front, so I have been assuming that no adjustment is necessary, as I don't take the unit apart to remove it. Second question: The new motor for my tow vehicle came out of a wrecked Highway Patrol car. The water hoses were made of a real trick light blue material. It almost seemed like silicone rubber. The walls seemed a little thicker than the standard gates hoses as well. there seemed to be a trademark on it that seemed like a Capital A. Is there some way trick reliability secret here, or does one company just use a different dye in their rubber? Larry "Inquiring minds want to know" Colen lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue Oct 27 08:00:25 PST 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: MGB saga Bob, It doesn't sound like you checked your block for straightness. Yes it is possible for the block to warp, or maybe some important metal got rusted away. One very cheap test that is very usefull is the compression test. workable compression meters only cost $30 (or less) and it can tell you loads about what is going on. I would have saved myself a couple hundred dollars this summer had I done a compression test on the cortina before I took it in to get it tuned up on the dyno. It had a very slight miss, I never would have guessed that I had no compression on cylinder #4. lrc ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri Nov 13 07:29:32 PST 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: Foocars last race This was not one of my better weekends. For those of you tuning in late I will fill in some of the background. The Drivers: Larry Colen, that's me. I just spent my summer racing on 4 tracks in 3 states. It was a lot of fun, it would have been darn near impossible to do, but I was unemployed most of the time. This summer has a lot to do with my current dismal financial state. The week after my last race I started my new job, and started working at the Renaissance Faire on weekends. I did the Ren Faire at least in part to keep me from spending money that I didn't have on racing. The problem was that not only does it take up massive amounts of time, but my commute had just gotten longer by almost an hour each way. Just about a month before the enduro, the Faire finally ended. It was at about this time that Sam offered to underwrite a lot of the costs of driving Foocar in the Enduro. Sam Sjogren, my teammate and co-driver. It's been said that he is so competitive that he'd come in first *and* third in, well another type of speed contest anyways. Sam's job has him doing a lot of travelling, their industries largest trade show was also the weekend before the enduro. The Car: Foocar, a 1968 English Ford Cortina GT. Just over 3 years ago I decided to turn it into a race car, or some sort of approximation thereof. At the last race I ran it in, it turned a 2:13.8 lap time at sears point, over 7 seconds a lap faster than it had done last year. It also almost rolled in turn 2 when the abilities of the tires exceeded the abilities of the suspension. The Race: The Illgen Enduro, is a 4 hour endurance race open to all fendered race cars except showroom stock. It is the last race of the season in the San Francisco Region. The premise of the race being, "We have all winter to fix the cars, so let's have a fun race where we just run the cars until they break". The Preparation: Due to a multitude of factors, including the ones mentioned above, as well as needing to finish the engine transplant in my van so I could move it and have a place to work on the race car, we couldn't even start the prep until less than a month before the race. In this time period we had to: 1) Make a headrest that would satisfy tech 2) Fix the differential that was starting to go out 3) Upgrade the suspension so that it would keep at least 3 wheels on the ground when the car was cornering at the limits. Despite the usual assortment of crises, and just general screw ups we almost got it together. Unfortunately very late friday night, when we were putting everything back together, we ran into difficulty bleeding the brakes. We put that project on hold and came back to it later. By about 3 AM, it became apparent that the master cylinder had chosen that moment to start sucking air. We decided to have Sam drive up to the track then, while I stayed at home to look for a new master cylinder saturday morning. I'd miss the regional, and (at least) most of the Enduro practice, but should get there in time for the race. Putney and Perry came through in the pinch (as they have in the 15 years that I've been buying british car parts from them) and had a rebuild kit for the Cortina. By the time we were done fighting all of the minor problems as well as cleaning the car an packing, it was after 5PM before we left. We got to the track about 8, in time for dinner. After eating a bit, it was time to get back to work on the car and install my new sway bar which was waiting for me at the track. It turns out that the new bar was about an inch longer than the old one. This caused the lower control arms on the suspension to be bent back at an "uncomfortable" angle. About 10pm, we had done all we could and crawled into bed for the night. The next day, we had one practice session before the race. We got the car teched, just as the session was going out on track. I hopped in and asked Ancilla if anyone had checked the tire pressures. Nope, noone had gotten around to it. I drive down to the hot pits, snag Jack and he checks the tire pressure while I strap back in. Fire up the car and make it almost out of the pits before the car starts in with a very nasty vibration. Back the car back up and into the paddock. Turns out that the U-Joint in my driveshaft had become an Un-Joint. Fortunately, I had a spare in my Oh-Shit-Kit and we were able to get everything together in time for the race. The Race: The strategy was that I would go out for an hour. Come in for the first 5 minute pitstop and change drivers and fuel up. We would use that fuel stop to guage how much fuel the car was burning per hour. After 2 hours, Sam would come in, we would put in enough fuel for another hour and I would go back out to finish the race. If all went well, we would each get two hours of seat time with an equitable split of risk of not driving if something went wrong. My first session was fairly uneventfull. We had a pretty good 3-way dice going between me, Rochelle and a Fiesta. Rochelle and the Fiesta (the only other English Ford out there) never quite caught up to me, but I never quite got away (until she pitted). Fairly early on, I found out that the net effect of all the Trick Racing Shit that I had bought for the suspension, made the car handle worse, rather than better. Fortunately it was the front end that would suddenly "go away" rather than the rear end. This made the car a lot more frustrating to drive than scary. The fact that the car was still taking turns 2 and 4 on two wheels made it scary. At one point, I was going into turn 7 and saw a couple of faster cars coming up. Rather than taking a defensive line, I took the "school" line, allowing them room on the inside to pass. As John came flying past me in his Orange 510, I noticed the smoke coming off his front wheels, which were doing just about everything but turning the car. He drove straight past me, off the track and into the dirt. He got it reasonably back under control and came back onto the track behind me. The driver change uneventfull. Fuel got put in, as did Sam. I gave him a couple of pointers on what gears to use and told him that the handling was evil. You'll have fun, it'll scare you. About 40 minutes into the session, Sam pulled into the pits for a quick drink of water. At this point he commented that Foocar was the worst handling car that he had ever driven. Unfortunately, noone had taken exact note of when I came in for fuel, or how much fuel had been used. We knew that it was more than 5 gallons, but we didn't know how much. Since the Cortina only has a 12 gallon tank, we pulled Sam in after an hour and 40 minutes for gas. We asked him if he wanted to go out for the last 20 minutes, or just do the driver change then. He asked about his laptimes, which were within a second of what I had turned in the first session. He said "That's good enough, this car scares me". When I went back out, I was reasonably warmed up from my first session, rested up from the hour and a half break and was psyched up to go out, kick some but and turn some hot lap times. The first thing that I noticed, was that the car seemed to be handling better. I guessed that it had just gotten warmed up and back into the rhythm of things as well. A few laps into the race, I noticed that I went through turn 4 sliding two wheels. Interestingly enough it was the left two wheels as the right wheels were several inches off of the ground at the time. As the race wore on, I could feel myself improving. By my shifting points, I could tell that I was driving faster as well. As shitty as some of my lines were, I think that during the next 40 minutes I did some of the best driving of my racing career. I was pushing new limits in the envelope of what I could make a car do, I didn't spin, and the only time I put a wheel off course was while I was being passed while taking the esses flat out. After a while I even started to dice with two cars. A datsun 1200 (ITD) and an Rx7 (World Challenge). They caught up to me a lot slower than anyone else had, and I realized that all I had to do was put together a few perfect laps and I could pass them back. It is at these times, when I am out to catch a faster car that racing becomes almost a trancendental experience. You can call it "hunt and kill mode" or "the red mist" but a perfect focused calm decends. You are not aware of fear, you become one with the car and you drive faster and better than ever before. Then the pacecar came out, right behind the datsun. For the next two laps, he was able to drive at full chat while the leader, the Rx7 and I dawdled along behind the pace car. When the pace car went back in, I *had* to catch the Rx7. He, unfortunately, was just a little bit faster than I. After a couple of laps, he had gained about 5-10 car lengths on me. I crested the hill in turn 2 to see him spinning off to the left. I steered to the right, exulting in my chance to pass him. Unfortunately, just as I caught up to him his rear end came the rest of the way around, squarely slamming the front of my car (doing about 40) with his drivers door. The next thing I know, I am sitting on the course, drivers right facing counter course. I try restarting the car. It doesn't start. I try again. The mazda drives off. I try again. I notice the flagger watching me. I give him the driver ok signal and try to start the car. Eventually it becomes obvious to me that the car is not going to start. I sit there thinking about the situation. I know that there is something I should do, but I'll be damned if I can remember what it is. Oh yes, maybe I should get out of the car. Getting home: The trip home could be described as a dozen monkeys trying to fuck a greased football. Just getting to Vallejo for dinner was a minor epic in itself. When we finally got to Felton, chris followed me up to Sam's. Unfortunately he didn't know the subtleties of Sam's (15+% grade) driveway and stalled the van just below the hairpin. We eventually ended up, backing Crisco down the driveway, tying the vans together with a tiedown and used both vans to tow the car up the driveway. Epilogue: Foocar is most probably history. The left front frame rail is fairly seriously buckled. It's first race was the '89 enduro, It's last race was the '92. I figure that it racked up about 20 hours of track time in the past 12 months alone, probably a total of over 60. Not bad for a car with 225,000 street miles on it. It has seen 3 drivers through drivers school, never broke down during a race, has performed aerobatics on camera and did it all for less money than a lot of the cars in the class cost for a single season. My racing career will be on hold for some indefinate period of time. I have neither the money, nor the time to build another race car right now. When I do build my next car, I don't know whether I will move the cage and TRS into my spare Cortina, buy a formula ford or something else entirely. I have been planning on putting a Mk II sprite on the road for my commute to work, and was going to make it "vintage legal", but it would be no more effort (other than smog) to put a round arch midget on the road and make it "IT legal". I would like to thank Sharon and Chris for all of their help getting the car ready for this race. I'd also like to thank all of the people that have helped out with Foocar over the years: Ix, Don, Chris, Judith, Sam, Andy, Jeffie, Dave, Geoff et. al. A toast to automotive Valhalla, for surely that is where Foocar is now. It came home on it's trailer, not with it. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 11:17:04 PST From: Dick Nyquist Subject: Re: Illgen enduro, '92 This is a long file so I will send it in parts on different days - ---------------------------------------------------------------- My perspective as a driver is very narrow focus I'm sure I missed a lot of what was happening elsewhere in the race as well as what was happening in the pits and paddock. If Andy, Jack, Jeffie or Eric want to add any observations from the perspective of hot pit or paddock or as fellow race drivers, I for one would be very interested to read it. - ---------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Nov 1992 SCCA Enduro, Sears Point Message sent on Nov 10: | | | Well, it has gotten very busy here so it may be quite a while befor | | anyone will here any details of the enduro from me. However: | | | | I couldn't let another day pass without saying something. | | WE HAD A GREAT TIME .....and wrecked both cars........ | | | | it was fun to pit with Larry and Sam. And what a stellar crew we had. | | Thankyou every one who gave good wishes and made lunch and dinner. | | Special thanks go to Jeffie, Eric, Jack and Rosie each of whom contributed | | mightily til all hours on the car. And Most of all to Andy for his invaluable experiance | | and skill in organizing every one and knowing what needed to happen next and | | to Chris Blanchfield who has put in weeks of late nights helping get the car | | together, running and to the track with all the tools. | | | | I'm told that every one had a great time in the pits. I almost wish I had | | been there more to join in. It was impressive to see how smoothly everyone | | worked together. | | | | regards to all/dick | | New Nov 18: Well I guess I had better write it up while I still can remember any of it. Last spring Larry who had been Rochelle's instructor in some CapriClub events convinced Rochelle and I to get our SCCA novice permits. I drove Victor's MGB for some of the classes and Larry loaned me FooCar for the others. Rochelle drove FooCar in all her classes. After drivers school we started looking for a car. The Car: an old Triumph GT6 which had been raced in the 1970s as D-Production car. Since then it had been used in drivers school once and spent the rest of the time in various peoples garages. We wanted to get going this season and save major repairs for next winter. We did the minimum needed to make the car legal, safe and driveable. The car had been grandfathered into GT3 when D-Production was killed. Our first outings was a Solo1 event at LagunaSeca. We learned that old slicks were bad slicks. We also blew the rearend and replaced various other bits that were just too old to stay together. Our next Solo1 event was at SearsPt. We were running a new set of used slicks in the front and a new pair of new slicks in the rear. (OK so we are slow learners) Rochelle who had no experiance on slicks got a little hot in a 180 degree hairpin (turn11) befor the tires had warmed up. She made it into a 179 degree turn. In the process she reshaped the hood and front suspension. Chris Blanchfield and I worked on the car for several weeks to get it back together. While it was apart we decided to make a few of the improvements that we had been puting off 'til winter. We slapped on a grungy old set of Webbers. Since we were going to enter a 4 hour race we also added an alternator and some guages. Early in the week of the race we got the wheels aligned. Then we took it down to Charlie Rockwell's and put it on the dyno to see how bad the jetting was. We had slapped on the 3 old webbers without much thought. Charlie thought the jetting wasn't bad but he pointed out some ignition point float problems we were having just below 6K rpm. He had a set of TRS points that he was kind enough to give us at a very low price. They gave us an extra 700 or 800 rpm, but it still looked a bit ragged on the scope., and didn't run well in the midrange. We decided to sort out the rest on the track. Because we had made changes in swaybars, springs and shocks as well as carbs, we decided to go up to the track a day early and take advantage of the open track sesion on Friday. By the time we got the car on the trailer Thursday night it was midnight and the list of things to sort out at the track had gotten a lot longer. Friday: Chris B and I got to SearsPoint about 9:00. The first of the four track sessions was already underway. We unloaded and I signed up for the remaining 3 sessions. I changed and Chris staked out some space for Larry, Sam, FooCar as well as all the folks who were coming up to help us( Andy, Jeffie, Jack, Rosie, Chris and more) The car was running fairly poorly and Joe Huffacker said he would take a look at our plugs if we came of the track with a "clean shut off". While I was at Huffacker Racing I picked up a big new fuel pump as a spare. I got back to our paddock area in plenty of time for the second track session. The car wouldn't start and the battery seemed to be going down. Chris Blanchfield pushed the car all over the paddock in a vain attempt to bump start it. Then we pulled it around with a rope from the back of my bus. It acted like the ignition timing was way wrong. I popped the distibutor cap and low and behold the inside of the rotor had stripped and the rotor now pointed anywhere it wanted. By now the second session was well under way... After trying several shops around the track for a new rotor I gave up and drove 10 miles to the nearest auto supply. While I was there I picked up a spare set of points and some other small spares that we should have had. They had been in a couple of tool boxes which had been stolen from my house earlier and I had forgotten to replace them. Back at the track with a new rotor the car started right up and I made it out on track for the third session. The car ran strongly at 6k rpm but unpredictably at midrange. Stepping on the gas in the middle of a corner was a sporting proposition. Half way around the track on my third lap I was moving fast on the straight going from the Carrousel to turn 7. The car just stopped running. I pulled off track at turn 7. A quick check showed no spark but not the reason why. After being towed in at the end of the session I checked the new TRS point only to find that the contact was now missing. Every cloud has a silver lining; we has a very clean shutoff at the end of a hot straight. I pulled the plugs and took them over to Joe Huffacker. Then I put a spare set of stock points in and drove the car over to his shop. He said they didn't look bad but he made some suggestions. I got back on track in time for the fourth and final session of the day. The car was running significantly better though the stock points had me limited to ~6K rpm. The final session was cut short by a black flag after a couple of laps. We knew we were there to shake out bugs and we were. On a scale of 1 to 10 the car had gone from a 2 to a 7. I now began to think we had a car that might participate in the race. We reported back to Joe H he had a few more suggestions. We bought a few more parts from him and settled up. Then I went looking in some of the other shops around the track for some jets he had recomended but didn't stock. One of the other shops offered to let me drill mine out in the morning. Back at the paddock Andy and Jeffie and others had arrived and set up cooking gear and a small but effective space heater. The evening was spent watching Andy cook up an excellent spagetti, telling lies, and drinking. Predictably Rochelle arrived in time to participate in these pastimes. It was a fine evening. That night Chris B, Rochelle and I stayed at our daughter's house in SanRafael and left Andy the bed in the bus. to be continued........ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 11:10:14 PST From: Dick Nyquist Subject: Re: Illgen enduro, '92 | third and final segment:| | | THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF MY WRITEUP OF THE SCCA ENDURO@SearsPt | | --------------------------------------------------------------- | Friday was:| | | the first part of this write-up described Chris Blanchfield and I | | trying to get the biggest bugs out of the car at the Friday open track | | session. | | | Saturday ended:| | | By the time we were done it was too late to start the engine that night. | | There is a "noise" rule against starting race engines after 6:00 pm or before | | 8:00 am. That night found us once again full of spagetti and beer and | | wondering if the car would startup in the morning. | | Sunday started: The final practice was 8:30 am Sunday. It was our last chance to get it right before the enduro which started at noon. Andy said be on pregrid by 8:15 or risk not getting on track. The field was a full 65 cars, and there were lots of standby cars and drivers. 8:01 I hit the switch and the car fired right up. We had a last check of the ignition timing which Andy and I had set by a combination of good luck and good management the night before. Down to pregrid and out on the track. The car was running GREAT. After a couple of laps I stopped thinking about the car and made a consious decision to start thinking about my driving and line. It went well for a few more laps then I saw the temp had droped to zero and the oil pressure was down a little. I was afraid I had dropped all my coolant. I pulled off track and found that the spade connector had fallen of the temp sender. I slipped the connector back in and the car ran fine the rest of the session. Our efforts were finally coming together. Back in the paddock we fired up the generator and Chris drilled and pinned all the connectors under the hood. Bob Crawford the guy who had originally built the car 15 or 20 years ago was padocked accross from us. I asked him what oil pressure he remembered the car having. He agreed that a bit more pressure would be ideal. We beef up the oil pressure bypass valve with a small shim. At this point we all kicked back for a couple hours. The Race: Rochelle was going to start and drive the first 45 or 50 min. Her plan was to be steady and smooth, and to stay out of peoples way at the start and for the first couple laps while the tires warm up. We had heard that there are offen wrecks as drivers try to win the race on the first lap or two. The previous day I hadn't completed a clean timed lap but they had an unofficial time from Rochelle's morning run that was good enough to place us a bit ahead of the back of the pack. As the enduro is 4 hours and well over 100 laps it is not usually won as a result of starting position... And as novice drivers driving a 2000cc car in the Unlimited class, we didn't expect to win anyway. Our hope was to finish or at least to complete more then half the laps of the winner so we would get credit. Our plan was to drive concervativly until we were at least that far, after that we could pick it up a bit. The race started smoothly and the first few laps were without any significant incidents. Rochelle, was in a group tward the back of the pack with FooCar and a brown Fiesta driven by Bob Crawford. Rochelle's lap times were coming down consistantly. These long races are great for gaining experiance and improving your times. I leaned against the paddock fence and talked to my daughter Lisa and her husband Todd. I think Todd has ridden motorcycles at SearsPt. Now he was photographing. (good pictures too) Many of the turns at Sear are blind and-or off camber. Midway through Rochelle's first driving session number 23, a very big, very fast, very white, very wide, GT1 car rocketed past Rochelle on the down hill leading to turn 4 and disapeared from view, Only to reappear a second later as Rochelle came to the apex of the turn. >From there the road falls much more steeply. She said it looked like a wall of refrigerators accross the road a couple of car lenghts in front of her. It was still spinning so she aimed for where it was and sure enough by the time she got there it had spin off her line. After about a dozen laps Rochelle took advantage of a full course yellow (pace car on track) to come into the pits. The crew fueled up the car. Rochelle's driving glove were stuck to her hands. When she got them off she found that the palms of both of her hands were COVERED with blisters. She had never had any problem with her hands before. A week or so before she had retiled the bathroom. Out best guess is that she had worn off the top layers of skin and that the chemicals had made her hands more sensitive. We changed drivers and I went out on track. The car was in the pits 3min36sec. Jack had been keeping lap times. Rochelles time were steady and showed a nice downward trend except where she was interupted by yellow flags etc. The car and the tires were well warmed up by now so I just went on from there. About my second lap I was going fast and braking very late coming into turn 11, the hard 180 in front of the pits. As I went to hit the brakes I caught the gas and ended up going VERY DEEP. I was afraid I was going to join the throngs who have hit the tire wall there. With some good luck and a little graceless sliding, I managed to save it, but I resolved after that not to late brake so much and to work instead on driveing a little better line. Shortly thereafter I heard some funny noises and pulled into the pits. The crew didn't see any problems under the hood. Later I realized that the tires had gotten hot enough and gummy enough to pick up much bigger pebbles and rocks then I was used to; they were hitting under the hood and in the fenders causing the noise. I made a mental note to thank Rosie and Chris again for the air cleaners they had made. The car was running great and I was starting to drive a bit more smoothly. I started to wonder where FooCar was. About lap 25 I saw glimpse of it way up ahead. About a lap later I caught it and laped it. I lapped it again 10 laps later. On lap 39 Jeffie called me into the pits. They fueled the car and Rochelle went out again. She had covered her hands with racer's tape under her gloves. Rochelle drove the next 16 laps consistantly; passing and being passed and eventually lapping the Cortina again. The biggest excitement being a D-sport-racer that went spectacularly off the Carrousel shortly after blasting by her. I saw the car later it was lodged head first halfway up the tire wall, several feet above the ground. It looked like an arrow shot into a target. On lap 60 we changed drivers again on a full course yellow. I didn't know it but this was to be our last driver change. The rules said no driver is could drive more then 2 hours 30 min in the same car. Andy and Jack had figured that I could run rest of the race without exceeding that. By now Rochelle's hands had taken about all they could. I didn't see them until later but they were pretty bad. Our times were still improving. The car kept running better. The other reason why this was to be our last driver change was that I ended up out of the race in lap 67. As best I can remember this is what happened: I was in the middle of a large group of cars coming through the Carosel. Some very fast ones in back and some slow in the front. I was trying to take the standard line. The Carosel is a large, long, sweeping, downhill, left hand turn that dumps into a long straight. Sometimes it seems to go on for ever. I entered it to the right of center intending to progresivly tighten it up moving to left and eventually reaching the left side of the track briefly at the apex before coming out on the straight and level. The apex is so late you think it will never come. I was close on the back bumper of a slowish 510, there was a big car on my tail; a Camero maybe. we were being overtaken by a pack of sport-racers. The sport racers can take a line more to the left of the track. ( the inside of the turn) I waved the first racer by to my left thinking that they would all pass me early in the turn and be out of the way by the time I crossed left. As the first one passed me and started to pass the 510 the driver of the 510 seemed to loose it and started a spin. I looked over my left shoulder and saw that the car that had been behind me was filling the only remaining space in the solid line of cars passing on the left. I could not get in without hitting someone. In front the 510 was spinning down the center of the track. My only hope seemed to be to try to pass on the outside. I went for it but the 510 started to go to the outside too forcing me further and further out and finally off track. This is where a pedestian bridge crosses the track and the track is down in a cut. The grass bank is probably 30 feet high and very steep. I ended up using it for a banked turn. Suddenly I was 3 car widths up it running parallel to the track. The 510 climbed part it backwards then coasted back forward onto the flat next to the track. The bank was steep enough that I was afraid the car would role over if I stopped as I was sideways to the hill, so I gave it just enough gas to keep it going and cranked the wheels hard left to bring it down off the hill side. Back on the flat grass I waved to the flagman and drove the car down to the drag strip. I could tell it had problems but in the enduro the drivers are permitted to fix cars on track if they are safely clear of traffic. I hoped just maybe... I climbed out and found that there was no body damage but the right front suspension had broken. When ever something like this happens I try to look back and decide if another action on my part would have resulted in a better outcome. Looking at this is as I remember it, I think I made the right choices. I wish I had had a video camera mounted so I could see it all over again and decide for sure. About then Lisa and Todd showed up and took some pictures from up on the hill. I was a long walk from the pits and started heading back to let people know. Later Rochelle and I got a few tools and removed the air dam so the truck could tow us at the end of the race. It was almost 3 hours into the race and we had made enough laps that we were considered finishers. Rochelle stayed with the car and I went back to the paddock to help every one load up, and to re install the pieces we had canabalized off one of our other Triumphs so Rochelle could drive it home. By then both FooCar and the gt6 were towed back to the paddock. The tow truck crew helped us put the car on the trailer. By that time it was dark and we all went to dinner. On the way home the bus (tow vehical) caught fire and we ended up with a $200 towing bill... But that's another story. Thank god it didn't rain. Wow did we have fun!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu Dec 03 08:35:42 PST 1992 From: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us Subject: The end of an era As most of you know, my Cortina racecar suffered mortal injury in the last race. I will have my "body man" check it out to see if it can be repaired, but I doubt it. As there are some other major changes coming up in my life (like hopefully, buying a house) I do not expect to have the time or money to transfer all of the TRS (Trick Racing Stuff) from the mangled body to the straight one. I also need the space and money more than I need a kit to put together another cortina race car. I would like to just sell the entire huge pile of parts to someone. I will consider selling bits and pieces, but would prefer to sell it all at once. The list of goodies include: On the racecar: 1 relatively fresh motor, runs strong, has Weber 32/36 DGV. New radiator (survived the incident) SCCA Legal, 6-point welded in rollcage (it will take a little bit of work to transfer the rollcage) SCCA logbook for the rollcage Some trick suspension widgets (that need some dialing in) 1 1/8 inch front sway bar Adjustable collar spring mounts 200 lb/inch front springs addco rear sway bar Tokico shocks Welded up rear diff low restriction exhaust system I have 2 sets of mags (one very nice set of minilite replicas) A Spare roller car, body is straight (white with a green "lotus stripe") The person who gave it to me pulled the engine, tranny and guages. 2 (?) sets of spare steel wheel, with at least one set of rim-protectoor tires. About another body and a halfs worth of spare body parts. A brand new interior (the interior was redone just before I got the car) Another running motor (the anvil, this engine is down on power but just will *NOT* die) Several spare blocks, cranks etc. About a truckload of other spare cortina stuff from under my house, plus I have lines on some more free stuff that I never got around to picking up. I had the car down to a 2:13.8 at sears point and think that the car could be made to do better than a 2:07 (well into mid pack) with a bit more time and effort. It is currently registered and I have the pinkslip for the spare roller (which is in Lodi). I would be overjoyed to get $2000 for the whole package, but will listen to any reasonable offer. Hell, I'll listen to any offer. I am not planning on quitting racing, if I'm lucky I'll come back in a couple of years with a Formula Ford but it was getting time for me to move on anyways. Larry Colen h:(408) 335-7505 w:(408) 752-8015 e-mail: lrc@red4est.felton.ca.us I would prefer to be called at home. I am usually up till after 11PM (left coast time) and have been getting up about 7:30 am and leaving for work about 8:15. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 16:37:20 -0500 (CDT) From: phile@pwcs.stpaul.gov (Philip J Ethier) Subject: SOL visitor and Europa progress Vacation again Wednesday and Thursday. Took Sue to work Wednesday morning so I could have the Mighty K-wagon, went out to Lake Elmo to get the trick plywood inserts so I can put bolts into the dash to hold on the steering column bracket without going through the Koa. Drilled the 9-ply and installed them. On Wednesday afternoon, Steve Valin arrived. He and Kelly are taking six weeks to drive around the USA. They left the Europa and the rest back in California, though, and rented a Taurus for the trip. We schmoozed about my project for a bit, took a quick tour of my part of Saint Paul and picked Sue up at work. Steve was amused by the Mighty K-wagon. It may join Foocar in the net hall of fame. Then spaghetti courtesy of Elizabeth, my 15-year-old, and a trip to a Twin Cities landmark. No, not the new history center or the Capitol dome. The Science museum is probably not that different from the one in San Francisco. We ventured out of Saint Paul to Bloomington to see the megamall. For those of you far enough away to escape the hype we have around here, the Mall of America is the largest mall in the world, now surpassing the one in Honolulu (sorry, Adam), and ours is of course completely enclosed. Since the shopping mall was invented in Minnesota (like water skiing and Rollerblades) it seems only fitting that we have the biggest. Complete with rides at Knott's Camp Snoopy. Where else can you ride a roller coaster when it is -20 degrees F.? Elizabeth bought some tights that look like fruit salad. Steve made a phone connection with a Matra owner in Vermont, so they will add that area to their itinerary. Thursday morning, we sent them off to cross the wilds of northern Wisconsin to the U. P., promising them one good sports car drive up the Saint Croix before leaving Minnesota. I told them they would wish the had the Lotus. Of course, they also have more luggage... Nice Folks. Too bad we are unlikely to make it out their way. Thursday I managed to get the radiator in and its hoses connected and install the front closing plate. Now I don't have to be quite so persnickety about leaning on the nose. Then I took the big step. I entered the wonderfull world of fiberglass for the first time. I had to repair the crack in the cockpit where the footbox floor meets the tunnel. I should have had someone film it for a bloopers show. The result looks very good for the laughable skill of the operator. Time will tell. I cleaned up and got Sue at work, and we got the dashboard pieces over to my former neighbor's cabinet shop so he can glue the Koa wood to the 9-ply Baltic Birch. After supper I hit the glass fiber trail again. The small crack inside the front of the front deck opening came out well. The outside of the cockpit crack under the car was another clumsiness seminar. Today the voltmeter arrived from Bean. Black rim instead of chrome. Damn. Gonna use it anyway. The instrument guy called to say the tach is ready. I can get over there next Tuesday. This is going to be close, but I think I can take off to Wheels and Wings tomorrow and still get the car ready for the 26th. I have tried to get to the car and plane show for it's Britcar content for four years now. It is sponsored by Classic Motorbooks, which is quite a presence in its small Wisconsin border town. Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans St, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676 h (612) 224-3105 w (612) 298-5324 phile@stpaul.gov "There is nothing like a complete money-is-no-object restoration. And this is going to be nothing like one." - Phil Ethier ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 09:35:12 -0800 (PST) From: Larry Colen Subject: Re: How did your LBC get its name? The title is misleading, it implies only one named british car per family. How many of us only have one? I almost never name a car until I have driven it, but some of my brit cars names: '69 austin america, my first car, The Limey Lemon '68 sprite, Fay: fey=having to do with sprites, fae= my sisters middle name when I transformed her to a MkII, she became Donna, because when I got the new car on the road, she was such a primmadonna. When the front end got crunched and replaced with the Mk IV body work it became Donna Fay. '68 Cortina GT: Foocar, was named before I got it. The daughter of some friends would always mispronounce the previous owners name as Mattfoo, and Mathew became known as Mr. Foo, or just Foo, so his car became the Foo car. Blue '69 Cortina: Fin, We doften referred to cortinas as Tunas, so it was a Blue Fin Tuna. Note that this is the only Cortina that I ever actually bought. I then sold it to a friend for what I paid for it. When he wrecked it, he gave me the remains (engine, driveline etc) for rental of Foocar for drivers school. '68 Cortina Roller, parts car, KC: Kent's cortina. Yes, we even named the parts cars. It was easier to say KC rather than the white '68 with the faux lotus stripe, or the Blue GT that we got from Bob, or the '71 we got from the guy who lived across the street from the boardwalk. Speaking of Cortina Dealings, my friend John Blakemore (the photographer) just traded a Cortina for an Oyster Sloop that was built in 1887. The guy who now has it, Ernie, built himself a lotus seven, from scratch. My '69 MGBGT is named Jasmine. I was driving up to sears point one morning, contemplating that I still hadn't named her and the name Jasmine popped into my head. I thought about it for a second and new that it was right. The previous owner had called her Mugs, but after a complete mechanical restoration, the name no longer fit the personality. Larry lrc@netcom.com ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 09:35:12 -0800 (PST) From: Larry Colen Subject: Re: How did your LBC get its name? The title is misleading, it implies only one named british car per family. How many of us only have one? I almost never name a car until I have driven it, but some of my brit cars names: '69 austin america, my first car, The Limey Lemon '68 sprite, Fay: fey=having to do with sprites, fae= my sisters middle name when I transformed her to a MkII, she became Donna, because when I got the new car on the road, she was such a primmadonna. When the front end got crunched and replaced with the Mk IV body work it became Donna Fay. '68 Cortina GT: Foocar, was named before I got it. The daughter of some friends would always mispronounce the previous owners name as Mattfoo, and Mathew became known as Mr. Foo, or just Foo, so his car became the Foo car. Blue '69 Cortina: Fin, We doften referred to cortinas as Tunas, so it was a Blue Fin Tuna. Note that this is the only Cortina that I ever actually bought. I then sold it to a friend for what I paid for it. When he wrecked it, he gave me the remains (engine, driveline etc) for rental of Foocar for drivers school. '68 Cortina Roller, parts car, KC: Kent's cortina. Yes, we even named the parts cars. It was easier to say KC rather than the white '68 with the faux lotus stripe, or the Blue GT that we got from Bob, or the '71 we got from the guy who lived across the street from the boardwalk. Speaking of Cortina Dealings, my friend John Blakemore (the photographer) just traded a Cortina for an Oyster Sloop that was built in 1887. The guy who now has it, Ernie, built himself a lotus seven, from scratch. My '69 MGBGT is named Jasmine. I was driving up to sears point one morning, contemplating that I still hadn't named her and the name Jasmine popped into my head. I thought about it for a second and new that it was right. The previous owner had called her Mugs, but after a complete mechanical restoration, the name no longer fit the personality. Larry lrc@netcom.com ------------------------------ --=====================_1028707669==_--