I'll Be Slow, I'll Be Slow, I'll Be Slow

Oh the weather outside is delightful, 

but what we found was so frightful, 

and since both cars can't go, 

I'll be slow, I'll be slow, I'll be slow. 

The repairs don't show signs of stopping

and I've brought some part for swapping,

but since the shop lights are low

I'll be slow, I'll be slow, I'll be slow.  

If we kiss the car goodnight

How I'll hate going out in a race

But if wrenching can go all night 

All will be good in the morn

The cars always show signs of dying

and, my dear, we're so denying 

but as long as I love driving so

I'll be slow, I'll be slow, I'll be slow.

D's Damage Review and Work Ahead

As for the D's troubles, the biggest issue was known going into the day, a terminal engine issue that prevented the car from getting into Arse-Freeze. After doing as much as we could with the Z for now, all three of us, (Blueberry, Torch, and I) focused on the D. Like everything else with the MiaDa the systems are far less complicated then the Z. In fact, the work went so fast, we were able to disconnect all the systems and pull the engine in about two hours. (Note for future work:  It might be easier to pull the motor, then fight with hard to get to places.)

So, now we just need the replacement parts for both cars and time to address these issues.

In the meantime, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and we will see you in the Shop in the New Year.

Z's Damage Review and Work Ahead

This weekend, Blueberry, Torch, and I looked at the carnage that the last two races reaped on the equipment.  We first reviewed the Z and first performed are standard engine look over and compression test.  The result of the test indicated no change in reading from last test.

1-170, 2-180, 3-180, 4-170, 5- 180, 6-180.

Unfortunately, that is the last of the good news.

As we looked over the car, every corner, from front to rear and from side to side something detrimental has happened.  Looking at these problems, individually they do not seem terminal.  However, the list is extensive and is likely the direct result of three known collision that occurred in the Arse-freeze race.  

Here is the list of Z items found from the Arse-Freeze (demolition debris) that today have found:

Area of the Car	Damage Observed	Notes:
Front Bumper	Bent	Several dings on both the right and left side of the front bumper found. The metal portion was bent, but with a little finessing and paint, we should be good.
Radiator	Hole	We were able to pull the radiator and look closely at it and confirm our thought when on the track. A hole in one of the vain lines was found. Being the radiator is aluminum repair will take time, but do able.
Front Frame	Separated	Since we pulled the radiator out we were able to examine the front frame. On both sides of the front frame, the metal plates have separated from the rail. To fix these problems, we will need to bend and then need to weld the seams back together.
Right Front Fender	Dented	Contact appears to have pushed the lower part of the fender in. Some pushing out and realigning of the outer and inner fender is needed.
Right Front wheel suspension	Bent	This one is troublesome. It is quite clear that something is bent in this mess and has two results.  First, the caster is off, and we have visible amount of negative caster. Also, the rim to chassis off-set has changed to the point that we no longer any off-set. This all means we need to measure the alignment, then pull everything apart to find the culprit.  Leading guess is the car’s strut structure is bent, but it could also be the strut tube, the lower control arm or all of the above.
Right Front Wheel Bearing	Loose	Reviewing the front hub there appears to be some new play in the wheel bearing.  It will need to be pull with the bearings, hub and spindle checked.
Right Front Wheel Rim	Cracked	As a result of the contact, the outside of the rim has some new marks and scraps. However, when we look on the inside the damage is much more troubling. It appears there is a crack in the rim. Also, this damage seems to be the result of the rim off-set that no longer exists and there is rubbing on the strut tube.
Left Front Fender	Dented with Penetration	The Alfa Damage is clear here.  The dark blue paint is a good indication of the perpetrator.  To repair this damage the sheet metal guy needs some time.
Diver's Door	Dented	Here we have more Alfa contact damage and more sheet metal guy time. On the good side, the door latches again.
Rear cross member	Bent and sheared off	This was the first obvious damage, and we work on track.  The positive caster on this wheel means we have some work to do here.  The thought was to measure the alignment and see if anything else is bent.
Left Rear Lower suspension arm	Bent	In the Alfa hit the lower arm was bent. On the track, we patched it, but we need to measure it to see how far off we are. Then we should take it down and perform a deeper inspection.
Left Rear Shock	Blown	When the car was jacked up, an interesting gargling occurred. With all the other fluid dripping out of the car this was normal sound for the day. However, the location was weird until we saw the oil leak. The rear shock is blown.
Left and Right Rear Quarter Panel	Dented and penetrated	There are a few dents on the left side that should quickly be handled. The right side is a little different. The dent is so large and deep it has breached the seam, and a creative repair is needed.
Diffuser	Ripped	This took a few hits and needs to be brought down and several patches done.
Rear Bumper	Dangling	On the right side, the bumper cover has split and ripped open. Some creative work needs here too.

And just for fun here is some pictures.

Many fun work days ahead.

Race done for us, no checker

Tow was out running and tangled with a couple of cars. While queen took out the driver side, this took out the passenger side of the car.

The fender damage looks easy enough to deal with, but the radiator leak is a problem that is terminal for us. We have a spare radiator but it is at least 2 hours to get the front off the car and swap it out and we have just over an hour of race to go. 

With much sadness, we are packing up and putting the car on the trailer. 

Driver change

Muddy came in after setting fast lap on the weekend. Says the car is 'darty' and we are showing a bit of wear on the tires.  

Switched from Muddy to Tow and and we are still running. We are hoping for a checker at this point so focused primarily on turning clean laps. 

Running again

After we cleared safety tech, we did one more alignment on the front end and sent Muddy out for a shakedown lap.

After a quick pitstop to debrief, everything seems to be working. The car has some new noises, but ran. Sending Muddy out for real and hoping for the best.  Happy to be on the track again!  

Alignment issues

All 4 wheels are back on the car and Muddy has taken it around the paddock to see how we did. The rear is still pointed in the wrong direction, so we have it back on the stands to give it another attempt at straightening.

We have a multitude of minor issues from the crash that we are just going to ignore. 

Once it drives straight, we have to head back to the penalty box to clear safety again, then we will try a lap on the track. 

Getting closer

Trying to put is all back together

Most of the parts have been test fit back in the car. The trailing arm took some strategic cutting, pounding and welding to reach straight enough status. Then a good deal of hammering to push the brackets into place and we can now bolt it all together.

Torch is welding the brackets a final time (hopefully).  It was a good sign when he asked for a water bottle in case of fires.

Once the back end is back together, we'll put the car on the ground and see how the other three wheels look in respect to the left rear. It we can point them in about the same direction as the first, we'll declare it race ready.

Trailing arm is shot

After putting all the brackets back together, none of the parts go together.

We pulled the trailing arm and it is bent. So now we are performing surgery to figure out if we can make the connection points straight and at least get things back together. 

The guys in the next pit loaned us a "real" hammer. Muddy has a welding project before the next race because we definitely need one of these. 

First bracket done

The first bracket has been recreated, but the parts don't fit together. Looks like the inboard bracket is bent to far out of shape, so we are taking it all apart and see whether it is a trailing arm issue or a bracket issue. General feeling is it will run again.

Oops

We are going to need some Torch custom fab work if we are to get running again.

First up, Queen is shaken but fine. 

The green flag came out quickly this morning, with warnings of ice on the track.  Queen was having a great run, until she tangled badly with some other cars in the S curves on the back of the track. When the bumping was done and the spinning had stopped she reports that she was facing the wrong way and that the car wasn't moving well under its own power. 

She limped the car into penalty box where the judges looked at the strange angle of the driver side wheels and declared that was enough of a penalty for us, that go start wrenching. 

Quick assessment is the driver's rear trailing arm is ripped off and we have a cracked rim on the passenger front side. The car is up on jacks and we are taking the suspension apart to figure out what torch will have to fab with steel and the welder to get us going again. 

Start off Day 2

Well good morning and it is cold. Frost is everywhere at 6:30 in the morning and us coastal Californians are not use to that. The race start has been delayed a few minutes to warm everything up. We just got a report of ice in turn 7.

Coffee and Hot chocolate are now on board and we are starting to get going. Driver order set. Kiki Queen is first in and we will go from there. With driver stints longer we might see some interting times.

Day 1 Checker

Torch gets us through his stint without incident. And yes that is a Checker for us. At the end of the day the butcher bill was not too bad. Front ties have massing flat spots, so were exchanged. We also purge the master clutch cylinder and see how we go.

We are now off to venison and pork loin.

Last driver in

It has been a hectic day with the drivers getting about 40 min stints. 

The track is VERY cold so there are a lot of cars that have left the track, so there is a high degree of cautions. 

With all the driver changes, we aren't in the best position, but we have had zero black flags and other than some flat spots on the tires everything has been running smooth. 

Green flag

And the green flag is out and muddy is passing cars. Good start to the day.

Time to go racing

Given the logistics, today's race was scheduled to start at 12:30. While we have a clutch issue we are worried about, we don't have the parts, so Muddy is in the car while the warm up laps are going on.

The driver's door popped open, so we made a quick stop to adjust the door and add some duct tape. He is back on the track and we are waiting for a green flag. 

Through tech

This was one of the easiest trips through tech we have ever done. Jay was in a good mood still and a quick pass over the car for safety (scored good enough) and we moved on to BS inspection.

That too went quick. The prime questions were what have you done to the suspension and is this a turbo. With both of those questions answered we moved on to what kind of engine would get us the most love from the judges in the miata. They were not big on the RX-7 idea, but a slant six would get us class C and a potential shot at IOE. I'm sure we'll be discussing this more all weekend. 

Doug is adding the transponder to the car and the sun is rising over the paddock. 

So far so good. 

Pit setup

We have land and staked out our claim. First row near the grand stands, and now off to tech.

Basecamp 1 setup

We finally got lunched after everything was loaded. When loading we did run into one nasty problem. The master clutch cylinder is found to be in more difficult then we thought. We did plan to make the exchange today, but Torch brought a replacement, that happened to be the wrong model year or something. We tried just to purge the existing one, but the darken milky color hints of progressively worsening seal trouble. So, a second attempt will be tried tomorrow, when the part hit the track around noonish. This gives us maybe a half an hour to make the change before the race starts. Not great, but all part of Lemons.

There is not much we can do for now, so Sparky and I will camped out in lot #2 till the morning. All is quiet with beer and Grand Turismo 4 on the playstation practicing laps around Infineon. We hope this is not the only track time we get this weekend.

Request for Residual Value (Arse Freeze Alapooza 2013 )

Judge Phil,

We last ran our two jalopies in the September Vodden the Hell race. In past events, we have found the September race tough on our equipment. So, sure enough, this was no exception. The Z we ran preformed well, but had a little to much noise out of the tail pipe, so it rightly fully was side lined until we straighten that out.




Then, just when we though we had things "under control" we had the unthinkable occur. Complete motor meltdown for the MiaDa. A simple $5 belt failed, and we lost the water pump.  This resulted in the quick cook down of the motor and was lost for the race. We are actively looking for replacement parts, but because of 2 weddings and Funeral in the group, replacement work could not occur to resurrect the MiaDa in time for this race.

So, we are left with the old " reliable " our Z to brave this cold weekend.

As for Residual request our needs are light. Only small amount of damage appears to have occurred from Vodden. To get us running the normal amount of work of wheeling bearing packing, motor oils exchanging, gear oil flushing, brake pad replacement, break bleeding, battery charging, radiator flushing, fender straightening, bumpers taped, touchup painting and other safety checks are needed.

There are few special things we are we need to attend to get us up and running.

1) New exhaust system.

2) Idiot light car safety system.

3) Lug nuts

Many of the items on the repair list are safety items, except the Gear oil, lug nut, motor oil, and paint. So, if I could be so bold, to ask a fair market value for our fine stead set at $450.

Z Menu for Arse Freeze

I have several fun talks with Z Chef on this one. If you do not like this menu, your ire should be sent in my direction (as always). I did ask her to go a little wild, and she did not disappoint.

	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	Banana Bread Fruit Coffee Juice	Egg and sausage sandwiches on english muffins Fruit Coffee Juice
Lunch	Pulled pork sandwiches Coleslaw Chips	Meatball Sandwiches Green salad
Dinner	Grilled Venison tenderloin with wild blueberry sauce Grilled pork tenderloin with spicy cranberry chutney Grilled asparagus Scalloped potatoes Green salad
Dessert	Cranberry cheesecake
Beverages	Kona  Brewing Company Pipeline Porter New Belgium Brewing Bluemoon Hot Chocolate	Hot Chocolate
Snack	Driver Cookies	Driver Cookies

Weather and Schedule For Arse Freeze

Here is the weather reports for next weekend.  Cold, but much better than the reports a week ago which indicated weekend long rain.

• Thu

  Dec 5

  Cold with periods of sun51°Lo 30°

  more

• Fri

  Dec 6

  Times of Clouds and Sun53°Lo 38°

  more

• Sat

  Dec 7

  Cool with Clouds and Sun50°Lo 30°

• Sun

  Dec 8

  Chilly with periods of sun49°Lo 42°

  more

• Mon

  Dec 9

  Rain and drizzle53° Lo 46°
  

  more
























Reviewing the schedule, I think it is prudent that we take advantage of the early opening of the tracks upper Parking Lot#2. So, on Friday, we will launch out an advanced team to spending the night and brave the masses of lot 2.  This will hopefully allow us to move to the padlock and setup as the sunrises.

The parking area we will target is in the areas that we have been before (behind the Grandstand). We will blog the view in the morning and look to tech soon after.

As for the schedule, it will be tight and here is what I can put together:








Day 1
6:00 am	-	6:15 am	Find Parking Spot
6:15 am	-	6:45 am	Basic Pits Setup
6:45 am	-	7:00 am	Prep Car for Tech and BS
7:00 am	-	8:00 am	Run car through Tech and BS Inspection
8:00 am	-	8:30 am	Breakfast Break
8:30 am	-	11:00 am	Pit Setup / Inspection Fixes
11:30 am	-	12:00 pm	Drivers Meeting
12:30 pm	-	Dusk (4:30ish)	Race Day I Starts
1:00 pm			Lunch
		Dusk (4:30ish)	Day I  Checker
5:30 pm	-		Dinner






Day 2
7:00 am	-	7:45 am	Breakfast
7:45 am	-	8:15 am	Car Prep for Race
8:15 am	-		Race Day II Starts
1:00 pm			Lunch
		Dusk (4:30ish)	Day II  Checker
20 minutes after race			Awards
5:30 pm		6:30	Transport to Dublin